* * * * * * * * * * JOSHUA MAURER
* * * * * * * * * *
Erika: What an absolute treat it was to meet Joshua! For
starters I think we're all blown away by how accommodating he was to us.
He was so very considerate of us, such a sincere and really sweet guy.
He was also very well-versed about the show, and very articulate and
passionate about Tour of Duty and the Vietnam War. If you wanted to get
serious and deep about ToD, Joshua was the man. And if a few riffs on
the blues harp was your thing, he was the man for that, too!
When he talked with you, he always looked you right in the eye and
listened closely to what you had to say. He also said a lot, but he did
not waste a word! I enjoyed talking with him.
Josh said to us this was the first time they'd ever done anything
like this, in terms of meeting fans. He was very enthusiastic about
being there and seemed to think it was a great idea.
He mentioned he'd heard about a ToD convention in Washington DC, and
asked if that ever happened. I could only recall reading about "The
Hill 2001 Tour of Duty Convention" on Craig's main site, and
remembered reading that the 2002 gathering was cancelled. I told him as
much and he seemed to think that the cancelled trip was disappointing.
But I added that we would definitely love to do a fan convention.
Then he said he would love to go to Vietnam, and that he loved
Vietnamese food. He said he liked cha gio (Vietnamese egg rolls) and pho
(noodle soup). I helped a little in the pronunciation of "pho"
but I was impressed by his Vietnamese! He also said he liked "the
sauce" and for a split second I thought about that horrid
"Mama-san special sauce" that the VC woman spat into LT's rice
in "The Luck."
LOL But instead I said, "The fish sauce?" (which is as
fundamental to Vietnamese cuisine as salt and pepper are to American
cuisine) and Joshua said, "Yeah!"
Hey, maybe the next fan convention could be in Vietnam, huh?
Convention and goodwill tour?
Sheila: Joshua was drop-dead gorgeous.
He and the other guys seemed to think we all just wanted to talk to
Terry and were genuinely surprised when we wanted to talk to them. When
I told (Josh and Steve, I think) that I always had a soft spot for Ruiz,
Josh sort of laughed and smiled, and said, "Yeah, we all did."
Erika: Josh and Steve considered it to be a privilege to have
people such as Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly,
and producer Ronald L. Schwary involved with Tour of Duty. They said it
was an honour to have that kind of talent working on a television series.
Sheila: At the auditions, Joshua originally read for the role
of LT. Think how differently things would have turned out.
Erika: He talked about how long the audition process was, too.
He said he really enjoyed Horn's character, and that Stephen Caffrey did
a great job as LT. Sheila: Regarding Joshua's line in "The Hill:"
"I don't believe in this war--I never did , I never will.
But I do believe in helping my friends. I guess that's worth
fighting for." I actually told Josh that this was my favourite line
of his, and then he told me that he wrote that. He also said he wrote
quite a lot of his lines in that episode. He looked really chuffed that
I liked it.
Erika: I asked if he did his own harmonica-playing in the
show, and he said that in the pilot episode, it really was his own
playing and that he had had lessons. But that in another episode, the
playing was dubbed in.
Sheila: I told Josh that I'd never known another show,
English, Australian, American or anything, that was so perfectly cast
and well acted. He seemed really touched.
He has already written an outline of a reunion script. This was
something to do with the reunion movies talks last year when they were
talking about the idea of a tragedy bringing them all back together.
Mel: I remember Joshua talking about pitching some mini-series
projects to CBS. One in particular was based on Stephen Ambrose's book
on D-Day. He said if it was picked up he had promised parts to the other
guys.
Sheila: When we were talking about lines and scripts, Josh
said something like, "except Terry, all he said/had to learn was
move-move-move-move-move."
I asked Josh if he thought the cast brought their own personalities
to the characters and he thought they did.
Erika: He said he related to Horn's character about the war,
and that he brought that into his portrayal of Horn. He said although he
tries to get into any character he plays--whether or not he's like
them--with Horn, it resonated with him personally.
Sheila: Josh also said he knew his character was being written
out. I think someone else asked whether or not it was his choice, and I
don't think it was.
Josh and Steve agreed that the series went downhill after Season 1.
In other words, after they had left! LOL I gather Josh thought the
introduction of women in Season 2 was all wrong as well, but I can't
remember all the conversation.
Sheila: Josh told us about the biscuit incident in Sitting
Ducks, and the fact Terry thought Josh was going to kill him with his
driving.
Erika: That sounded like a very eventful episode for Josh and
Terry to shoot. LOL Josh said it had been a while since he'd driven a
stick, and Terry was sitting in the jeep all sprawled out, arms hanging
out the sides, and they passed through this gate. And Terry missed the
gate "by this much."
With the biscuit incident, it was the scene of him and Terry staked
out by the Buddhist temple, where his character Horn is devouring a
bunch of crackers, driving the Sarge batty with all that crunching. He said this was the longest shoot. They had to do about 25, or 40,
or 50 takes. (Terry and Josh couldn't agree on a number.) He said it
wasn't just his character who was hungry--he himself hadn't had anything
to eat. So he really was hungry when they filmed this scene. When the
writers had written this, they hadn't anticipated how the biscuit-eating
would affect the shoot. So Josh would say his lines while chewing, and
it just kind of came out like [mumble mumble mumble], and nobody could
understand what he was saying. All it did was get food sprayed on Terry.
So they kept filming that part over and over, and it was just more and
more biscuits on Terry. Eventually they just started cracking up and it
got to where they couldn't even look at each other any more. He said he
probably went through 100 crackers.
He said you just don't do that with television. With movies, yeah,
but you really don't see people doing 40 takes for a TV show.
I guess the crew thought it was worth the laughs, huh? LOL Does this
have anything to do with the "biscuit man" thing with Terry?
Sheila: I didn't speak directly to Josh's wife but she seemed
very nice.
Erika: I told her how wonderful it was that this event was put
together, after all these years and that maybe now people have had more
time to think back on the war and on ToD, too, and that the interest and
dedication to the show was still strong. She agreed it was fantastic and
it was clear she was proud of the show, and Josh's part in it. Mel: And Joshua's daughter - how lively she was, and
struggling to get out of Dad's grasp and take off running (and the way
she was kicking made me fear that Joshua was going to get hurt - LOL)
Sheila: Josh mentioned Craig, I remember saying he doesn't
live that far from me. He asked us if we knew him and said something
about what a nice guy he is.
Erika: When he was talking about Craig, he paused and asked
something like, "Do you guys know him?" And we all nodded our
heads and said, "Yeah!" in unison. He seemed pleasantly
surprised, and he asked if we've ever talked to Craig or met him, and I
said, "Oh yeah, we talk with him all the time." And Josh,
knowing we were from all over the world, looked at us like,
"Really? How?" and I added, "On the boards."
Sheila: I asked Josh if he thought the rest of the cast knew
that there was still such a strong following of the show all these years
later. He said he really didn't think they did.
Erika: And I think they themselves were surprised. On Friday
when Joshua offered to bring his personal CBS photos, he said he hadn't
brought them initially because they didn't know if anyone would even be
interested! Can you imagine? But seeing our enthusiasm, he said he would
definitely bring them the next day for us. And he did.
Sheila: I did ask Josh if he thought that now that the other
cast knew there was such an interest in the show, would they be more
likely to show up at a future convention? And he said he did think so.
Erika: As Joshua left on Saturday, he turned back around to us
and said if there was another ToD convention he would be there.
Mel: Joshua's wife mentioned that she'd been involved with ToD
from the beginning, that while she was still in school, she'd flown over
to Hawaii several times to visit him during first season.
