Series Description:

Once An Eagle was a nine hour dramatic miniseries that aired on NBC about two career Army Officers' military and personal lives over a thirty year time period covering both World Wars. Sam Damon was a dedicated and honorable officer while Courtney Massengale was a scheming rat with no ehtics or morals whatsoever. It's a classice battle of good vs. evil involving men with the power of life and death. Evil often wins in the short run ... but will it win in the end?

Once An Eagle Miniseries Cast:

Once An Eagle Miniseries Trivia:

The ficticious Sam Damon was based on the real-life "Major General William C. Chase" who had been the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division.

Once An Eagle was one of four novel adaptations that NBC collectively called "Best Sellers". The first in the series was the "Captains and the Kings Miniseries", the second was Once an Eagle, the third was the "Seventh Avenue Miniseries", and the last one was "The Rhineman Exchange Miniseries". Miniseries were extremely popular from the mid-1970s and continued into the early 1980s. They afforded the opportunity to bring novels to television that were just too complex to depict in a two hour movie format.

Sam Elliot played the role of another character that worked for the government during the fifth season of the original Mission Impossible TV Series. His character was Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent Doug Robert and he assisted the regular characters on twelve missions that season and on the second mission of the sixth season.

In a historical goof, the German soldiers in the World War I scenes set in 1918 were wearing spiked helmets. That type of helmet was actually replaced in 1916.

Once an Eagle received an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Cinematography in Entertainment Programming for a Series" for part 1 of the series. "Captains and the Kings" won the award. Once an Eagle also received a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actress - Television" for Darleen Carr's performance. The winner of that award was Josette Banzet for her part on an ABC miniseries titled "Rich Man, Poor Man".

Sam Elliot also starred as a military General in the 1993 film, "Gettysburg" which was based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara. Interestingly, Once an Eagle and The Killer Angels are the only two novels on the United States Army's recommended reading list for their Officer Professional Development program! Gettysburg was originally conceived as a TV miniseries that would air on TNT but station owner Ted Turner felt it was too good to waste on TV and released it as one of the longest films ever. At four hours and 14 minutes, most viewers refused to sit that long in a movie theater seat and the film flopped.

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

1. Part 1 (2 Hours) (12/2/1976)
2. Part 2 (1 Hour) (12/9/1976)
3. Part 3 (1 Hour) (12/16/1976)
4. Part 4 (1 Hour) (12/23/1976)
5. Part 5 (1 Hour) (12/30/1976)
6. Part 6 (1 Hour) (1/6/1977)
7. Part 7 (2 Hours) (1/13/1977)