I was just out of high school and just into the USAF when this series aired, and I was totally blown away.
Being an airplane fanatic, I can't describe what it was like to see a series about an officer that flies U-2 spy planes, then moves to California, and begins flying SR-71's! It was something that you just didn't find on television then, and you won't find it now.
The chain of events taking place in the era in which the series took place (the early 1960's), and the Sarnac family's involvement in them, the actual newsreel footage added in to partially tell the story, the music, this was amazing stuff. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Civil Rights Movement, to our entry into Vietnam, it was all there, as was the characters' involvement/reactions to those events.
Unfortunately, with most great television shows, the cost of production often outweighs the profit - and that was the case with this one. U-2's, and especially SR-71's are ungodly expensive aircraft to feed (one of the reasons SR-71's were finally retired - a SR-71 usually took on fuel at least 6 times just doing a routine training flight, they used so much fuel!), and being able to shoot on the flight line only when the USAF says you can, never mind transforming a modern town into a 1960's town during production, adds up to a series that was dead before it could take off.
Keep in mind, this was in the era when television shows didn't have mega-budgets the likes of The X-Files.
If you happen upon this series somewhere, watch it!
Being an airplane fanatic, I can't describe what it was like to see a series about an officer that flies U-2 spy planes, then moves to California, and begins flying SR-71's! It was something that you just didn't find on television then, and you won't find it now.
The chain of events taking place in the era in which the series took place (the early 1960's), and the Sarnac family's involvement in them, the actual newsreel footage added in to partially tell the story, the music, this was amazing stuff. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Civil Rights Movement, to our entry into Vietnam, it was all there, as was the characters' involvement/reactions to those events.
Unfortunately, with most great television shows, the cost of production often outweighs the profit - and that was the case with this one. U-2's, and especially SR-71's are ungodly expensive aircraft to feed (one of the reasons SR-71's were finally retired - a SR-71 usually took on fuel at least 6 times just doing a routine training flight, they used so much fuel!), and being able to shoot on the flight line only when the USAF says you can, never mind transforming a modern town into a 1960's town during production, adds up to a series that was dead before it could take off.
Keep in mind, this was in the era when television shows didn't have mega-budgets the likes of The X-Files.
If you happen upon this series somewhere, watch it!