Call to Glory

1984

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1

7.9| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

Call to Glory is an American television series that aired 23 episodes during the 1984-1985 TV season on the ABC-TV network. The show focused on USAF pilot Colonel Raynor Sarnac and his family, living near Edwards Air Force Base during the early 1960s. Heavily promoted during ABC's broadcast of the 1984 Summer Olympics, the pilot episode aired August 13, 1984. The first episode related to the U-2 flights over Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. During its production run, the show came to focus more on the loneliness experienced by wife Vanessa Sarnac while stationed on base and what she and the family would do to spend time in productive pursuits while enduring the Antelope Valley's then more noticeable isolation from civilization. The series was an early appearance of in the career of actor Elisabeth Shue, who starred as the Sarnacs' daughter.

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Reviews

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.
BlazeLime Strong and Moving!
Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
john My memory of this show is vague, but I know I liked it a lot. I especially enjoyed Craig T. Nelson's dramatic acting, something I can't say for his comedic acting. I'd love to watch the series again if it were ever run. Sorry that's all I got for now.
Joseph Harder About a year ago Professor Paul Cantor of the University of Virginia, who wrote that interesting book Gilligan Unbound, wrote an article for the Claremont Review of Books arguing that this was the true "Golden Age of TV", citing wonderful shows such as Deadwood,Lost, Rome, and Mad Men( I'm surprised he didn't mention "Friday Night Lights.) One of the reasons for the huge number of excellent TV programs nowadays is the existence of Cable networks which provide outlets for shows that appeal to "niche" audiences. As recently as the late eighties, a show had to succeed on the "big three " networks, or, as Timothy Leary once called them in one of his lucid moments, ABCBS. The annals of TV history are littered with very fine shows that were "brilliant but canceled": The Westerner,The Rogues, My World and Welcome To it, East Side West Side, Slattery's People- and the list goes on and on.Any of those shows would have found a "niche audience" nowadays on a cable channel. I know of most of those shows by reputation alone, as none of them is available on DVD. Here is yet another instance. This, In contrast, is a show I remember fairly well, since it aired in 1984( Which incidentally was perhaps the strangest year in my life-but thats another story.) The Call To Glory was set on an Airforce base in the early nineteen sixties, and was apparently originally intended as a "historical drama' akin to British historical soap Operas like the maginificent Upstairs Downstairs. ( Which incidentally inspired an American ripoff called Beacon Hill which may have been one of the worst, most stilted, TV shows ever made.)It would have followed the Sarnac family and its friends through the glory years of Camelot and the years of upheaval that followed. Sadly, the show never got around to the Vietnam war years( though at least one episode foreshadowed Vietnam.) This was a well acted, well written and stirring series. I would compare it to other "brilliant but canceled " shows from the eighties, All Fly Away and Home Front.
sstet We loved this series! It gave us such a sense of patriotism and nostalgia. We remember events depicted happening. We lived the history shown here. Characters were real and believable. It was so much better than most of the shows today. It was probably too real and honest for the time. Today a show like this would have a chance. People are more receptive to reality and truth. People are looking for a reason to feel good about our past and our country. Craig T Nelson was great and we love that he went on to so many great parts. Cindy was wonderful in this and we enjoyed her later in "Pickett Fences." First look at Elizabeth Shue. We'd love to see reruns brought back. Is this available in DVD?
dana-27 This tv show was so far ahead of it's time, not even the Open Records Law could protect it.There is one episode that tells the depth of how much the writers knew and what they should not be telling.Raynor makes his first trip to Viet Nam, at the request of RFK, to report back the fitness of the goverment there to receive aid from the USA to the president.What he learns there summarizes the whole Viet Nam war. And explains the astonishment of 99% of the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who served in that theater.But, I will not name the episode, because the series can only be really savored if you see them all.A 10, really, a 10.