REVIEW: ‘Television Event’ takes us 40 years past ‘The Day After’ | Arts & Culture

The 1983 nuclear disaster movie “The Day After” has an uncanny familiarity. While time has progressed and the nuclear arms race has come to a crawl, the fear of the end itself being instigated by chest-thumping world leaders never indeed dissipated.

“Television Event” is a documentary about the creation and cultural impact of “The Day After.” The documentary was released in November 2020 and was directed by Jeff Daniels, but not the one of “Dumb and Dumber” fame.

“Television Event” was brought to Liberty Hall on Dec. 4 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original film which was set and filmed in Lawrence.

“The Day After” follows several groups of everyday Kansans before and after nuclear bombs are dropped on Kansas City and various other cities in the country as radiation, lack of food and general panic take over the masses.

“Television Event” has an entire array of archival footage. Rough cuts, behind-the-scenes footage, images, news coverage and interviews make the film alive and engaging.

Everyone you want to be interviewed gets interviewed. The documentary features interviews with director Nicholas Meyer, writer Edward Hume, producers Stephanie Austin and Robert Papazian, ABC executive Stu Samuels, actress Ellen Anthony and more. This group has a wealth of information and can share the creation of “The Day After” from every level.

From the start, “The Day After,” which follows a group of people during nuclear armageddon, was an odd fit amongst ABC’s movies of the week. Most of the film’s peers were family-friendly comedies and melodramas, not the embodiments of existential dread.

Disagreement on the film’s title which was initially named “Silence in Heaven” by Hume, marks the first of many common miscommunications in the film’s production. There were constant arguments between the network and Meyer on how graphic the depictions of burns and the initial blast would be, with Meyer stating he’d prefer to be fired than reshoot anything.

Once the film was finished and being advertised, Ronald Reagan became concerned about “The Day After.” At the time, Reagan was promoting peace through strength, relentlessly pursuing more and more nuclear weapons to deter the Soviet Union from ever launching their own weapons. 

While “The Day After” was not explicitly written to be political, it challenges this strategy, with a hypothetical nuclear war not leading to an American victory but the end of life itself. 

The Reagan administration pressured ABC to scrap “The Day After,” calling the depiction of nuclear fallout “one-sided.” The administration appealed directly to advertisers, many of whom did not buy ads during the film’s time slot. 

The result was that what was initially meant to be a four-hour miniseries broadcast over two nights was edited down to be a single movie broadcast for one night. With anti-media protests and increased fear over the film’s psychological impact on the youth growing, ABC’s dedication to releasing the film could have spelled disaster for the network. 

“The Day After” was broadcast on Nov. 20, 1983, to an audience of over 100 million people. Immediately following the broadcast was a debate on ABC’s “Viewpoint.” 

“Television Event” talks about the lack of vocabulary for the constant anxiety of the ’80s. The constant barrage of terrible news and government-funded nuclear evacuation drills created a sense of normality. 

For many, “The Day After” was the ever-constant fear made real. If we ever were bombed, the only people who would be okay would be the people who instigated it. No amount of blissful optimism can save you. 

After the experts on “Viewpoint” finished their initial debate, the live audience could ask questions. These questions are intercut with a variety of clips of news footage. Every day, people are engaging with the threat of nuclear annihilation and what can be done to stop it. 

Reagan had seen “The Day After” a month before its official release, and according to his official biographer, Edmund Morris, the film left him “greatly depressed.” Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty four years later. 

I believe the lasting impact of “The Day After” is fear. Fear of the end times, fear of pain, fear of being exposed as a hack fraud world leader who ran exclusively on tough guy politics and racism. The final text scroll acknowledges the film’s inaccuracies that an actual nuclear strike would be more devastating than a movie could ever depict. 

The fear of “The Day After” is not a paralyzing static fear. Instead, it’s a mobilizing, righteous fear that directs the anger of the powerless at the powerful. “The Day After” was the worst-case scenario that never came to be. 

Beyond the fear is hope. The bombs never fell. The world didn’t come to an end. We can prevent the worst because we have before. For now, there will be a day after. There is more time. We’re not doomed to die as long as we can picture a future with us in it. 

You can rent “Television Event” anywhere you rent movies.