Television Event 

PBS WESTERN RESERVE (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):

Monday, April 22, at 9 PM
Tuesday, April 23, at 2 AM
Sunday, April 28, at 5 PM

Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):

Friday, April 26, at 8 PM 
Saturday, April 27, at 4 PM

Experience 1980s Cold War tensions and the threat of a global nuclear apocalypse through the lens of a commercial television network as it narrowly succeeds in producing the most-watched, most-controversial TV movie ever made, “The Day After.” This documentary shows how the movie captured the public imagination and forced an urgent conversation with President Ronald Reagan on how to collectively confront and resolve the most pressing issue of the time — nuclear proliferation.

In 1983, ABC began production on “The Day After,” a made-for-TV movie starring Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams and John Lithgow and directed by Nicholas Meyer. A dramatization of the effects of a nuclear bomb on ordinary American people, the film’s producers had no idea of the obstacles and opposition they would face, or of the enduring impact it would have once broadcast — both in the United States and in Russia.

With irreverent humor and sobering apocalyptic vision, TELEVISION EVENT reveals how a commercial broadcaster seized a moment of unprecedented television viewership. More than 100 million people in nearly 39 million households watched the film during its initial broadcast and set a record as the highest-rated television film in history at the time.