Season 1 • Episode 3
LatestIke, also known as Ike: The War Years, is a 1979 television miniseries about the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The screenplay by Melville Shavelson is based on Kay Summersby's 1948 memoir Eisenhower Was My Boss and her 1975 autobiography, Past Forgetting: My Love Affair. The series aired from May 3–6, 1979 on ABC. During World War II, General Dwight D. 'Ike' Eisenhower serves as supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Western Europe. On a personal level, he has an extramarital affair with his driver Kay Summersby.
Acting
Robert Duvall's Eisenhower is weirdly magnetic, like a tired dad who runs Europe.
Production
ABC spent BIG for 1979 — it's basically their Game of Thrones moment.
Creator
Melville Shavelson
Lowell Thomas
Narrator (voice)
Robert Duvall
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Lee Remick
Kay Summersby
Dana Andrews
Gen. George C. Marshall
J.D. Cannon
Gen. Walter Bedell Smith
Darren McGavin
Gen. George S. Patton
Wensley Pithey
Winston Churchill
Paul Gleason
Capt. Ernest 'Tex' Lee
Ian Richardson
FM Sir Bernard Montgomery
William Schallert
Gen. Mark Clark
Vincent Marzello
Mickey McKeogh
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This aired ONE YEAR after Kay's death, making it essentially posthumous gossip with a budget.
The real Kay Summersby became a Republican campaign aide later in life — the irony of dramatizing her as Ike's potential downfall is absolutely delicious.
US
