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Remembering the day "The Day After" aired
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"The Day After" DVD Cover
But it was on this day in 1983 that ABC premiered the TV movie, "The Day After." Billed as a "starkly realistic drama of nuclear confrontation and its devastating effect on a group of average American citizens," it was viewed by 100-million people, half the adult population of the United States and the largest audience for a made-for-TV movie up to that time.
There was controversy --major advertisers fled in such droves the network decided that no commercials would be shown after the bombs dropped on screen.
There was buzz. Filmed in Lawrence, KS, of the 80 cast members with speaking roles, only 15 were from Hollywood. The rest were town folk --farmers, university professors, local businessmen. Hundreds of other residents participated as extras.
Right before the movie aired it was screened for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who reportedly thought they were going to snicker or pick it apart. Instead they sat there like they were turned to stone.
The majority of Americans responded in similar fashion as ABC set up 1-800 lines and distributed half a million "viewer's guides" as a way to help the Cold War-paranoid audience psychologically deal with the subject matter.
But here's the most interesting tidbit, and perhaps a sign of how much we've changed as a culture: Immediately after the broadcast, Ted Koppel hosted a live panel discussion to help viewers cope with what they'd witnessed. Dr Carl Sagan, Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara, William F Buckley and George Schultz were among those who participated. It was during this gathering where Sagan first introduced the phrase "nuclear winter" into the lexicon (an event actually depicted in the film). And he presented the vivid analogy that the arms race between the U-S and Soviet Union was akin to "two men standing waist deep in gasoline --one with three matches, the other with five."
Can you imagine how cable news would handle such a discussion today? It would be juvenile, partisan, petulant and completely unproductive. This film generated differences of opinion, to be sure. In the panel discussion, Buckley argued for deterrence; Sagan called that futile and argued for disarmament. Today we wouldn't define it that way; cable news, with its simple-minded hosts, would turn it into a cage match, as if that were the best way to deal with an issue like nuclear proliferation.
There are indeed some things to be said for the good old days.
Incidentally, after the movie aired, President Reagan actually changed his mind about the idea of a winnable nuclear war. His administration came in thinking about "acceptable numbers" of nuclear casualties (as revealed in his memoirs), but when he signed the Intermediate Range Weapons Agreement at Reykjavik (in 1986) with Mikhail Gorbachev, he actually sent a telegram to the film's director Nicholas Meyer. It read, in part, "Don't think your movie didn't have any part of this, because it did."
What a flip-flopper.
ABC News Viewpoint - "The Day After" (Part I)
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