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Aug 26, 2015 · Even the relatively goofy post-apocalyptic thrillers of the '80s hinged on the devastation of nuclear war. In 1979, Mad Max roamed a desert wasteland in a world destroyed by nukes.
Feb 11, 2016 · On the evening of November 20 1983, 100 million Americans settled down to watch Nicholas Meyer's made-for-TV film The Day After. The film’s focus was a familiarly normal community in rural Eastern Kansas in the lead up to, and aftermath of, nuclear war.
May 16, 1982 · Through the efforts of three fledgling producers, Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty and his brother, Pierce, the films employed to shape America's earliest thoughts and attitudes about the atomic...
- The Water Cooler Event of The Decade
- Political Television
- A Trigger For Serious Reflection
- That Was Then, This Is Now
At my junior high school in Southern California, “The Day After” was what everyone was talking about leading up to (and following) the night it aired on ABC on Nov. 20, 1983. By all measures, it was a major media event. An estimated 100 million viewers tuned in. The White House phone lines were jammed and ABC headquarters in New York receivedmore t...
“The Day After” was controversial even before it aired, with critics like Tom Shales of The Washington Post deeming it“the most politicized entertainment program ever seen on television.” Reverend Jerry Falwell organized a boycott against the show’s advertisers, and Paul Newman and Meryl Streep both tried (unsuccessfully) to run anti-nuclear prolif...
Outside of partisan lobbying, “The Day After” opened the door for public debate about nuclear weapons. Immediately after the movie’s broadcast, Ted Koppel moderated a riveting discussion that featured a formidable group of pundits, including Henry Kissinger, Elie Wiesel, William F. Buckley, Carl Sagan and Robert McNamara. During this special editio...
In the early 1980s, of course, it was the Soviet Union that posed the nuclear threat to America. Today’s adversaries are more diffuse. The world’s nuclear situation is also much more volatile, with greater destructive potential than “The Day After” imagined. A modern-day remake of “The Day After” would have to reckon with this bleaker scenario: a w...
- Marsha Gordon
Apr 28, 2015 · A bomber containing a nuclear payload has been given unauthorized instructions to bomb the Soviet Union. The United States military scrambles to find a solution before nuclear war erupts.
Jul 22, 2023 · In the 1970s, the British government went big into nuclear war contingency planning. A public information campaign called Protect and Survive was developed which consisted of short...
May 23, 2017 · Written and directed by Steve de Jarnatt, Miracle Mile tells the story of two star-crossed lovers in the final hours before a nuclear apocalypse destroys Los Angeles (and presumably the rest of...
