1980s TV Shows: A Trip Down Memory Lane with… Terence Knox (Sergeant Zeke Anderson in “Tour of Duty”)

Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen

“Tour of Duty” was a is military drama television series which was aired on CBS from 1987 to 1990. It ran for three seasons. The series followed a platoon of soldiers on duty during the Vietnam War. It was the first series on TV about the war. Terence Knox played Sergeant Zeke Anderson for all its 58 episodes.

KB: “Tour of Duty”: What was the show about?

“Tour of Duty” was about a platoon of soldiers during the Vietnam era. I played Sergeant Zeke Anderson, and I would characterize myself as a no-nonsense leader. A pretty good guy, but not a saint.

KB: Did you and the other actors got military training to make it look believable on screen?

We would have a military tech advisor for each episode. We tried to stay pretty strict about technique and things like that.

KB: How did a week on the set look like from getting the script to filming?

We would film one episode every 7 working days. We would get the scripts and sit down around a table and have an initial read through for each episode. Generally we’d have to report to the set the next morning and begin filming.

KB: Where was the show filmed?

Hawaii and LA.

KB: Are you still in touch with actors from the show?

We all got along pretty well, but not always. Three seasons is a long time, the days were long, so of course there were some squabbles. But most of us are still friends today, and many of us are still in contact with one another. I still correspond or exchange phone calls with Tony Becker (Danny Purcell), and Steve Caffrey (Lt. Goldman), and of course Miguel Nunez who played Corporal Marcus Taylor.

KB: What does “Tour of Duty” mean to you?

It was a wonderful time in all of our lives, and we all wish we could go back and do it all over again. But we can’t, of course.

KB: Why do you think the show is still beloved after 40+ years?

We all were and remain proud of the fact that we did the show the way we did it.

You may not remember, but at that time there were no shows about Vietnam on the air. Ours was the first, following the success of “Platoon” in theaters the prior year.

So we were pioneers. And we were beneficial, in a way, because we were the first program or movie to portray the veterans of that war as human beings. In our own way, we provided a service to those men.

Thank you for asking these questions, Karen, and thank you anyone, who is reading this, for your interest in this show after all these years.

Terence Knox / Zeke

Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By “Bad” Brad Berkwitt