AS THE WORLD TURNS/CBS/1956+
**(Ming-Na Wen) Lien Truong, a 17-year-old offspring of Tom Scott who lived in
the fictional town of Oakdale, U.S.A. Lien was the product of a romantic
interlude while her father was stationed in Vietnam years earlier. His
daughter's teenage adventures and adjustments to American society were a popular
addition to this daytime soap opera starting in the 1988 season. In real-life,
this attractive dark-eyed oriental beauty was actually a native of Macao. See
alsoCHINESE - "ER"
CHINA BEACH/ABC/1988-91
**(Kieu Chinh) Trieu Au, a Vietnamese woman who was hired to care for the baby
girl of an American prostitute and heroine addict named Karen Charlene Koloski
("K. C.") who lived in Vietnam during the 1960s. After the Fall of Saigon, Trieu
Au escaped to America and found work at a beauty salon. She had given the baby
in her charge back to her mother before she left for the United States. Also
featured was Page Leong as Cam Noi, a lost Vietnamese girl befriended by an
American combat soldier named Evan "Dodger" Winslow.
DOWN HOME/NBC/1990-91
**(Gedde Watanabe) Tran Van Din, a Vietnamese immigrant working as a short order
cook at McCrorey's Landing, a cafe/bait shop located in Hadley Cove, Texas. He
came to the U.S.A. by misrepresenting the fact that he was an oriental
mail-order-bride. He had sent a picture of Connie Chung to his love-starved
suitor (who paid for his air-fare to the states).
GHOSTWRITER/PBS/1992
**(Tram-Ahn Tran) Tina Nuen, Vietnamese youngster who along with a group of
multi-ethnic kids solved mysteries with the help of a spiritual entity who typed
messages to them via a computer owned by Jamal Jenkins. Tina attended Washington
Elementary where she was a reporter/videographer for the school newspaper.
THE MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS/FOX/1993-96
*(Thuy Trang/costar) Trini, a beautiful Vietnamese teenage girl who is given the
power to morph into a superhero (she wore a yellow body costume) so that she can
battle aliens bent on Earth's destruction. Trini is part of a multi-ethnic group
of superheroes called the Power Rangers. Thuy Trang was later replaced by Karen
Ashley as Aisha, the Yellow Ranger.
MULLIGAN'S STEW/NBC/1977
**(Sunshine Lee) Kimmy Friedman. a five-year old Vietnamese orphan first adopted
by Michael Mulligan's sister and later re-adopted by him when she and her
husband were killed.
NIGHT COURT/NBC/1984-93
**(Denice Kumagai) Quon Le Dac Robinson, the Vietnamese wife of black New York
City court clerk Mac Robinson (Charles Robinson). Quon Le fell in love with Mac
while he was stationed in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Later, when she
came to America, they married. During the 1987 season, they had a child.
ST. ELSEWHERE/NBC/1982-88
**(France Nuyen) Dr. Paulette Kiem, a female Vietnamese heart surgeon introduced
in the Fall of 1986 who replaced Dr. Craig when he injured his hand in a fit of
anger. In real life, Nuyen earned a masters degree in clinical psychology.
THE SIX O'CLOCK FOLLIES/NBC/1980
**(George Kee Cheung) Ho, Vietnamese janitor who worked at the Armed Forces
Vietnam Network that produced “The AFVN News and Sports” for American service
personnel stationed in Vietnam in Saigon during 1967.
TOGETHER WE STAND(NOTHING IS EASY)/CBS/1986-87
**(Ke Huy Quan) Sam, an outgoing 13-year-od Vietnamese orphan adopted by David
Randall, an ex-basketball star turned sporting goods merchant and his wife Lori.
Sam's parents, an Asian woman and an unknown U.S. serviceman were both killed in
the Mekong Delta. CBS later revised this series under the title NOTHING IS
EASY/CBS/1987.
21 JUMP STREET/FOX/1987-90
*(Dustin Nguyen/costar) Harry Truman "H.T." Ioki, a young Japanese-American
police officer (with erratic driving skills) who was assigned to an elite squad
of baby-faced cops posing as high school students to battle juvenile crime. (A
sort of MOD SQUAD of the 1980's.) His parents moved to the U.S.A. after World
War II. Once Ioki commented he was "named after the guy who dropped an atom bomb
on my house". He learned to speak English by watching old DRAGNET reruns and
once thought a "Stake-out" was what you did to get a "Sirloin-to-go." Later in
the series (12/20/87 episode) it was revealed that Ioki was actually a
Vietnamese refugee. In real life, Nguyen was born in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh
City) in 1962. He later had escaped Saigon in 1975 by boat to Guam and later
arrived in the U.S.A. His character was in many ways, autobiographical.
TWO MARRIAGES/ABC/1983-84
**(Tiffany Toyoshima) Kim Daley, an 11-year-old Vietnamese-American daughter who
moved into a new home when her father Jim Daley remarried.
