Originally called 'Combat High' when it premiered on the NBC network in 1986. Due to Neal Israel's connection with Police Academy (1984), this tele-movie was renamed 'Combat Academy' when the film went into syndication.
Reputedly, the debut feature film of actor George Clooney, though some cast lists have him included in 'And They're Off' (1982).
Movie star George Clooney was an unknown actor when he appeared in this comedy tele-movie.
This film's dedicatee was George Gipe. The movie's closing credits dedication title card reads: ''Dedicated to George Gipe''. Gipe had passed away about a couple months before this movie was first broadcast. Gipe has been a collaborator of Carl Reiner and Steve Martin. Gipe had been the co-screenwriter with Reiner and Martin co-writing both the cinema movie comedies 'The Man with Two Brains' (1983) and 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' (1982).
A number of the 'special appearance' cast were known from popular American television series. These were 'M*A*S*H' (Jamie Farr), ''The Jeffersons'' (Sherman Hemsley), 'Cheers' (John Ratzenberger), ''Night Court'' (Richard Moll) and ''The Love Boat'' (Bernie Kopell).