On my Substack I wrote about three television events which aired in the jittery world of 1983-84, all of which depict the aftermath of a nuclear bomb: the BBC’s Threads, aired only twice, scarring a generation, the American version, The Day After, and the less well-known (but much better) Special Bulletin.
Sticks and Stones: Nuclear winter chic in the early ’80s: Threads, The Day After, Special Bulletin
I can’t remember the exact number of times it happened, but on at least a couple of dozen occasions after the airing of The Day After I woke up in a cold sweat from a nuclear holocaust nightmare. It got to the point where it almost didn’t bother me anymore – it was just another thing that was going to happen. But fortunately it did stop, eventually.
Jeff – // it was just another thing that was going to happen. //
I know. It’s hard to describe this feeling to people even just 6, 7 years younger – they didn’t get the brunt of this at all. it’s such a specific kind of horror – and thankfully we had all these television movie events – which we were allowed to watch – so the terror had a lot of room to blossom!