‘China Beach’ Puts Star on New Paths

TV or not TV. . . .

BEACHED: “China Beach,” the ABC Vietnam War drama that was canceled last week, turned out to be more than just a TV series for its star, Dana Delany.

“It’s amazing how it’s changed my life,” says Delany, who played nurse Colleen McMurphy in the honored program, which returns next Tuesday to run out its final seven episodes.

“When I got the role, I thought I had no right to play the part because I knew nothing about the war,” says Delany, 35, whose vivid performance brought her an Emmy for best leading actress in a drama series. She adds, “I started feeling that the job was giving so much to me career-wise that I had to get involved.” And she did, taking up such controversial issues in real life as Agent Orange, a chemical that some believe caused cancer among troops in Vietnam.

Delany finds it “very ironic” that ABC, after canceling “China Beach,” will present a new war-related drama series this fall, “Homefront,” about GIs returning in 1945 from World War II and having to face readjustment. “It’s very much safer to have a show set in 1945 than 1972,” she says.

While noting that both World War II and the Gulf War represented “victory” for the United States, she adds: “It’s absurd to think that the Gulf War has erased the failure of Vietnam. I just laugh when I read people saying that. Now that we’ve won the Gulf War, people are eager to brush aside Vietnam.

“The main thing is that there are people still alive who were in the Vietnam War who have problems dealing with it, like Agent Orange or the MIA issue or relations with Vietnam.”

Last month, “China Beach” co-creator John Sacret Young issued a blistering statement, saying, “Limb by limb, along with words of praise, ABC has shot the life out of the show,” which was bounced around the schedule.

Delany says frankly that “it was time for me that (the series) was over. You don’t become an actor to play the same character for the rest of your life.” She’ll soon start a motion picture, “Light Sleeper,” with Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon: “It’s about a drug dealer, and I’m his ex-girlfriend.”

Nonetheless, the effect of “China Beach” on her life continues. She “just got back” from vacationing in Vietnam with Young, whom she says she is dating.

“We met with the government about making a film there,” she says. “I’d love to. I was amazed to see how things have changed in three years. You never know because there are lots of layers to the culture, but it seems more open. The women have changed a lot. When I was there three years ago, there were a lot of black pajamas and nobody wore makeup. Now the girls are wearing tons of makeup. There are videos. They’ve seen ‘Pretty Woman.’ ”

Delany is grateful for “China Beach”: “It helped me find my center in terms of acting. It made me trust myself. As an actor, you have to try to please, and in the show I just started to say, ‘Screw everybody else. I’m going to do this for myself.’ I think an actor has to feel that way.

“I think the show did heal some wounds from Vietnam, having it on TV every week. I’m mostly pleased about the vets who came up and said it allowed them to cry and talk about what it meant to be there. I think the series took a lot of chances, and I’m proud of it.”

STRATEGY: Intriguing Sunday matchup this fall when CBS’ Angela Lansbury, in “Murder, She Wrote,” is counterprogrammed by two other old pros--James Garner and Robert Guillaume--in new NBC sitcoms.

Garner is an former con man in “Man of the People,” and Guillaume plays a Venice-based detective in “Pacific Station.”

CLIFFHANGER: A CBS spokeswoman has this explanation for “Murphy Brown” viewers who want to know just how things stand after that season finale:

“Yes,” says the spokeswoman, Murphy (Candice Bergen) “is pregnant.” And, adds the spokeswoman, the questions to be resolved when the fall season begins are: “Will she keep the baby? Will she marry the father? Who is the father?”

Hmmm. Didn’t we just see this on Lifetime cable’s “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,” with Blair Brown?

The CBS spokeswoman says Murphy’s condition “will not become the focus of the show” (it was on “Molly Dodd”)--and that there will be “no radical change” in the series.

“Trust us,” says the spokeswoman.

WHAT’S UP, DOC?: “C. Everett Koop, MD,” a series of five one-hour summer specials, debuts on NBC next Tuesday, featuring the former U.S. surgeon general. Shrewd, folksy title for the series--kind of conjuring up images of “Marcus Welby, MD.” But nope, Coop will stick strictly to business, focusing on real-life, “modern-day health concerns.”

NO COMMENT: CBS will present the latest Claymation special, “Comedy of Horrors,” on Wednesday. Well, uh, you see, it’s the same day that deeply troubled CBS opens its annual affiliates convention in New York.

WIRED: It’s a festival of sorts--”Celebrating Cable’s Best”--and it airs Thursday through June 16 in prime time on more than 30 local systems, offering cable programs nominated for this year’s Emmy Awards. The entries range from CNN’s Gulf War coverage to the notable comedies “Molly Dodd” and “Dream On.” Check your cable company or just zap around to find out if your system is plugged in.

NO JOKE: If you can’t find CTV: The Comedy Network after Saturday, no wonder. The 24-hour cable channel is changing its name to Comedy Central.

GOODFELLA: ABC press release we never finished reading: “Robert Conrad is a gangster with a warm heart. . . .”

ON HOLD: CBS says Carrie Fisher’s sitcom starring her mother, Debbie Reynolds, is still in the works even though it didn’t make the fall lineup. It’s about time someone found a first-rate TV project for Reynolds, one of the great, underrated stars in Hollywood history.

BEING THERE: All right, couch potatoes, who played investigator Paul Drake in the old “Perry Mason” series (1957-1966)? Answer: William Hopper, son of columnist Hedda Hopper.

Say good night, Gracie. . . .