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China Beach

television series

China Beach (1988–1991) was an American television series, airing on ABC, about a group of nurses serving at an evacuation hospital during the Vietnam War.

Season 1

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China Beach (1) [1.1]

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Dodger: I used to talk.
Cherry: When was that?
Dodger: When I was a kid.
Cherry: Well, how old are you now?
Dodger: 19.
Cherry: You couldn't be…
Dodger: What's your name?
Cherry: Cherry.
Dodger: What's your real name?
Cherry: That's it.
Dodger: Cherry?
Cherry: Yeah.
Dodger: Cherry… how old are you Cherry?
Cherry: 19.
Dodger: How'd you get to be such a kid?
Laurette: Woah, competition number one.
McMurphy: I'm just one of the guys.
Laurette: Right, hair like silk, body like Monroe and a heart probably as big as all America. Check. Double check.
McMurphy: I'm just one of the guys.
McMurphy: Don't you ever quit? I am not getting involved with a pilot! Again…
Natch: Forget involvement. Forget him.
McMurphy: I'm trying!
Natch: I'll help!
McMurphy: But will you still love me tomorrow?
Natch: Who says there is a tomorrow?
Georgia-Lee: This is a great opportunity for us.
Laurette: To get discovered
Georgia-Lee: To serve our country.
Laurette: To meet some hunks…
Georgia-Lee: Did you come willingly or did you get kicked out of the country?
Laurette: I would have gone to jail to get out of the Holiday Inn at Paoli P.A. George Washington didn't become a star there. George Washington froze there at Valley Forge… and nobody thawed out since. Come to think of it, prison is not a bad idea. Where else can you get such a large captive audience? Except Vietnam!
Dr. Richard: What are you doing here?
McMurphy: I love my work.
Dr. Richard: You ok?
McMurphy: Never been better.
Dr. Richard: You couldn’t stay away from me, admit it. [pinches her butt]
McMurphy: [startled] Don't you think that once you could pinch the left one?

China Beach (2) [1.2]

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Laurette: Just one night. You'll love it – men everywhere! You won't believe what a huge dose of unadulterated male lust can do for your outlook on life.
McMurphy: Ok. I'll do it.
Laurette: Alright!
McMurphy: On one condition.
Laurette: What?
McMurphy: I give you one night, you give me one night. I get up on the stage and help you - you come and help me on my last night.
Laurette: Great, no problem! Piece of cake! Deal!
McMurphy: Deal. Oh, and I'm not wearing one of those short dresses…
Laurette: Sorry a deal's a deal! Boots too… [pauses] What do you do?
McMurphy: You'll love it – men everywhere…
Boonie: What else do you need?
Laurette: How about too eggs easy over… a couple of Bloody Mary's.
Boonie: That's affirm...
McMurphy: How about a bath with bubbles?
Boonie: Ahh, that's affirm!
Laurette: And a king size water bed with sheets... real sheets.
McMurphy: Real cotton. How about... how about just a little cease fire?
Boonie: First three requests will take twenty minutes. The last will take a little longer.
[McMurphy and Laurette sit in the ruins of McMurphy's bombarded quarters]
Laurette: Time to go back to the world. Then what?
McMurphy: I'll stay...
Laurette: What?! But you just said... you got those five brothers! A family that's larger than most cities in Kansas! Go home...
McMurphy: I have an even bigger family here. I am home.
Laurette: That's affirm.
Laurette: I could never do what you do.
McMurphy: I saw you last night. You know in your heart that you made a difference. That's a good feeling. There is the loss and the guilt that comes from feeling good… but still there's the fact – you were there. He had a mother and a sister, girlfriend… and you were there. You gave him a home before he died so far away from it.
Becket: [to the corpses] You guys don't care about color do you? Black, white, brown… don't make no difference, does it? Yeah, 'ole grim old reaper. The first equal opportunity employer!

Home [1.3]

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Laurette: [to McMurphy] Your hair looks great. What's under it – not so great.
Dr. Richard: Uh oh, say ah.
McMurphy: What are you doing?
Dr. Richard: Say ah.
McMurphy: Ahhhh!
Dr. Richard: [checking her throat] Yeah, I was afraid of this.
McMurphy: What?!
Dr. Richard: War addict. Hooked on adrenalin. Can't be cured.
McMurphy: Careful, it's contagious.
Dr. Richard: Should have gone home, but you couldn't stay away from me, admit it.

Hot Spell [1.4]

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Natch: What are you doing tonight?
McMurphy: Washing my hair.
Natch: What about tomorrow night?
McMurphy: Doing my nails!
Natch: Night after?
McMurphy: Waxing my legs!
Natch: What are you looking for?
McMurphy: A little patch of peace. Do you know where I can find it?
K.C.: I never forget the religious side of fashion.
Laurette: Hemm?
McMurphy: K.C.'s right. Never and I mean NEVER underestimate the power of prayer.
Laurette: Prayer?
K.C. & McMurphy: Dear god, let it fit!
McMurphy: [entering bunker] It's a vendetta now. It's personal. Even Charlie doesn't want me to GET ANY SLEEP!
Laurette: [entering bunker] Oh God! Oh my god, I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die naked in a hole in the ground [notices Cherry and Lila] with Sandra Dee and Eva Gabor.
Natch: Ahh, McMurphy it's too hot to work so hard.
McMurphy: What?
Natch: Not liking me. You're working way too hard at it.
McMurphy: It's not hard, it's a labor of love.

Somewhere Over the Radio [1.5]

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Dr. Richard: Can't be heaven, you're here.
McMurphy: Now I know you'll be alright.
Dr. Richard: Ow, I thought nurses were supposed to make you feel better.
McMurphy: Except doctors. Doctors we make miserable here.
Dr. Richard: Now I'm miserable.
Dr. Richard: Let's get into suits and helmets. You'll have to dress me.
McMurphy: You love saying that.
Dr. Richard: True. I do.
Lila: When I'm frightened I say a name over and over. It calms me.
Cherry: Any name?
Lila: No, that's the beauty of it. Something personalized just for you.
Laurette: Oh, god.
Lila: Good, you've got the idea Laurette. I rub my forehead and intone the name: Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt…
Laurette: Ahh, God!
Lila: Now you got it, but many times.
Laurette: Janis Joplin, Janis Joplin…
McMurphy: I'm not leaving.
Dr. Richard: Look, this is a live mortar, it could go. Two dead's enough.
McMurphy: What if it doesn't, huh?
Dr. Richard: Well, then I'm a hero!
McMurphy: Without me?
D.J.: From? From… well, there's an interesting concept. Like, we're here and there's this other place, so if you're in – you're out, or by, or of, or to for, with, at about around. Keep the faith girls.
Lila: There is something definitely wrong with that young man.
Laurette: What was your first clue?

Waiting For Beckett [1.6]

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C.I.D.: I read eyes.
K.C.: Oh, well, I guess I should have worn my dark glasses.
Lila: See that guy over there? He's a C.I.D. Looking for deserters.
Boonie: He freaked Beckett. Told him black guys never desert.
McMurphy: Is that true? How come?
Kim: They get killed first.
McMurphy: What's going on? Hey c'mon you know sometimes when things are rough it helps to just talk.
Beckett: It does?
McMurphy: Sure.
Beckett: How?
McMurphy: Well, for instance: today hasn't been that great of a day for me, right? And if I just carried it around not get it off my shoulders than tomorrow I'll wake up and it'll be worse. You know, like, Natch will still be gone… and I'll wonder for how long… I... I'll worry about him all day… wonder why I put him off for so long… and that day will go by, all the wounded men, men I don't know… so young so damaged, so much pain… away from people who care about them or even know them. And there was this one man I…. did care about or could've maybe even…. Love… and didn't.
Beckett: [looking more depressed] Thanks for coming by Mc. M. it really helped.
Cherry: I need to buy a passport.
K.C.: It's not that simple.
Cherry: Nothing's simple here, is it?
K.C.: You're learning. Too fast.
Laurette: What's the matter with these guys anyway?
C.I.D.: They all crossed a line. They broke a bond. Now they can't be trusted. You see, now they'd do anything. They'd drag anybody down who tries to help them. Drag them straight to hell.
Beckett: I thought that's where we were.

Brothers [1.7]

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McMurphy: Come on.
Dr. Richard: What?
McMurphy: A drink
Dr. Richard: Is that your solution for everything?
McMurphy: Yes.
Rick: I didn't ask her to come here.
McMurphy: She loves you. She thinks you're wonderful.
Rick: She loves me…
McMurphy: Yeah, she's getting over it.
Rick: She loves me. She doesn't even know me.
McMurphy: I'd say she figured that last night.
Cherry: Is your brother really nasty?
McMurphy: You got a brother. You know what that's like.
Cherry: Not really. I was 9 when Rick joined the Corps.
K.C.: How old is he now?
Cherry: 28… ah, 29 in two months.
McMurphy: He's a man….
Cherry: Of course he's a man. What did you think?
McMurphy: I don't know I guess I thought he was a kid, like you.
McMurphy: [recording a message for her brother] Yo there! Daniel Patrick McMurphy. Well, it had to happen. Even my brother, mother McMurphy's baby boy, finally had to grow up. Although I'm sure she was hoping for a parish priest instead of a hippie degenerate freak. In commemoration of your 21st birthday I am sending you an example of Vietnam's finest cultural attractions. I trust that you and your commune's aesthetic consciences will be properly raised. Love, peace and the American way, Colleen.
Beckett: Welcome to the G.I.U. man. You'll get used to it.
Omar: That's what my momma said about the army.
Beckett: That's what MY momma said about the army.
Omar: That's what my momma said about everything I'd ever do for the last 19 years.

Chao Ong [1.8]

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Laurette: I can't leave! What am I talking about?
McMurphy: Don't be ridiculous. Regulation, new regulation: Section 24, paragraph 3 – Laurette gets her chance, Laurette says goodbye.
Laurette: I wanna go… I just don't wanna leave.
McMurphy: What?
Dr. Richard: A Little mix up, paper work problem, irregulations.
Beckett: We lost one.
McMurphy: What?
Dr. Richard: A body. We lost a body.
Natch: Did you look under the bed?
McMurphy: On my shift?
Beckett: I never got it.
Dr. Richard: And if he left the hospital where did he go? Surfing?
McMurphy: You notice I'm not laughing.
Dr. Richard: I did not lose that body.
McMurphy: Who did?
Dr. Richard: Well, you sent it to the check out counter.
McMurphy: Oh no, you're not gonna pin this one on me. You're the doctor, you signed the death certificate.
Dr. Richard: Doctors are forgiven minor mistakes. Amputating the wrong legs, putting an appendix in instead of taking one out, diagnosing gun shot wound as the measles… we leave that sort of thing for records. But, losing a body that's something different… Bad for the resume, bad for the house payments.
McMurphy: I'm a Catholic, I'm not supposed to be happy.
Cherry: I really feel for them
McMurphy: We all do; that's why we're here.
Laurette: Yeah, I never thought there'd be too many men for me.
K.C.: It's just simple economics ladies – supply and demand. When men are scarce, their value goes up. When they're plentiful like they are here, the market gets flooded.
Laurette: There's no place for us to hide.
Cherry: You know I hate myself for it but you know I've even thought - if one more guy comes up to me I'll just scream.
Dr. Richard: Ladies…
[The four scream]

Cast

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