Call to Glory

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Call to Glory was an American television series that aired 23 episodes during the 1984/1985 TV seasons on the ABC-TV network. Starring Craig T. Nelson as USAF pilot Col. Raynor Sarnac, in the course of its production run it drifted away from its original reasonably authentic setting and storyline which was centered at Edwards Air Force Base in the early 1960s time period.

Somewhat inspired by the test pilot accounts in the Tom Wolfe book The Right Stuff, it was the first post Vietnam War television show to portray the military in a favorable light.

Its pilot episode, which aired August 13, 1984, related to the U-2 flights over Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The pilot episode was filmed at Laughlin Air Force Base, near Del Rio, TX, which was where the U-2 aircraft during the Cuban Missile Crisis were actually based. Much of the show's early episodes related to the loneliness experienced by wife Vanessa Sarnac (Cindy Pickett) while stationed on base and what she would do to spend time in productive pursuits while enduring the Antelope Valley's then more noticeable isolation from civilization. One of Mrs. Sarnac's acquired desert pursuits was painting - one of several realistic touches seen in the show.

It also helped start the career of actors Elisabeth Shue who starred as the Sarnacs' daughter, Tom O'Brien as neighbor Patrick Thomas, as well as younger co-star Gabriel Damon, but also marked the last series for former child star David Hollander.

The series, produced by Paramount Television (now CBS Paramount Television), aired from August 1984 to February 1985.