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Nuclear Energy - Ever since the
dropping of atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
(8/6/45) and Nagasaki (8/9/45), the existence of nuclear power
and its capabilities have been ever present on the minds of
society especially events that mirror the tremendous
destructive power of the atom.
The first "telecast" of an atomic explosion was made by
KTLA, Los Angeles on February 1, 1951 when a camera positioned
atop Mount Wilson telecast the results of Operation Ranger an
atomic blast at Frenchman Flats, Nevada some 300 miles away.
KTLA, a division of Paramount television also broadcast the
first "network" coast-to-coast atomic bomb explosion telecast
from News Nob, Nevada on April 22 and later May 1, 1952.
Marine helicopters and tractors built (in 6 days) a 314
mile microwave relay from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, the
nearest point of the transcontinental hook up.
The microwave equipment was placed atop three mountains,
Charleston Peak, Mount San Antonio, and finally Mount Wilson.
The event was known as Operation Tumbler Snapper.
The potential abuse of the atomic bomb has been a favorite
topic of script writers. Programs like THE ATOM SQUAD/NBC/1953
hyped the exploits of the Atom Squad, a secret organization
established to safeguard America's top secret nuclear
plans/weapons from falling into the hands of the Communist
Menace.
The program was produced the same year that electrical
engineer, Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel were found
guilty of providing top-secret atomic information to the
Russians.
The espionage series I LED THREE LIVES/SYN/1953-57 about an
FBI mole working with Communists also helped fan the flames of
the Red Scare and the fear of nuclear annihilation...a fear
which spawned such rituals as Civil Defense drills and
underground concrete bunkers to house survivors of an atomic
holocaust.
The spy series THE MAN CALLED X/SYN/1955-56 starred Barry
Sullivan as Agent Ken Thurston (code name "X") who outwitted
enemy agents trying to kidnap brilliant scientists possessing
the secrets of the "Bomb."
In 1962, a major Cold War confrontation (and media event)
between the USA and the U.S.S.R. began when the Americans
discovered the Russians were secretly building missile
launching sites in Cuba.
When President John F. Kennedy demanded the withdrawal of
the missiles, the world was teetering on the edge of nuclear
war. The words of Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev
(1894-1971) "We will bury you" took on ominous overtones.
Thankfully, on October 28, the Soviets agreed to dismantle the
missile sites.
In the aftermath of near atomic annihilation, the Cold War
theme was alive an well. In 1964, negative political TV
advertising is born with the "Daisy" spot produced for Lyndon
Johnson's presidential candidacy, in which an exploding
mushroom cloud (imposed over the image a little girl holding a
daisy) suggests GOP candidate Barry Goldwater would not
hesitate to use nuclear warfare.
Hollywood, too, jumped on the nuclear bandwagon with a series
of successful "James Bond" films starring Sean Connery as
agent 007. Bond's fourth film Thunderball (1965)
featured an evil worldwide organization known as S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
that captured nuclear bombs and threatened the world with
destruction.
Television copied the success of these films with THE MAN
FROM U.N.C.L.E/NBC/1964-68 about two superagents, Napoleon
Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Russian Illya Kuryakin (David
McCallum) fighting a similar group called T.H.R.U.S.H. who
also threatened the world with nuclear annihilation.
The espionage series MISSION IMPOSSIBLE/CBS/1966-73 extolled
the exploits of an elite group of operatives that thwarted
various foreign powers out to create problems for America,
among them stealing plutonium to be used in terrorist
activities.
A variation on the atomic energy theme occurred with the
comic-book inspired adventure THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN/1978
offered a web-faced superhero named Spider-Man (Nicholas
Hammond) who obtained super powers a radioactive spider bite.
Gamma-radiation was the culprit in THE INCREDIBLE
HULK/CBS/1978-1982 when a blast of gamma radiation transformed
research scientist Dr. David Bruce Banner (Bill Bixby) into a
huge rampaging green monster.
The movie World War III (1982) was the first full-out
made-for-TV film spectacular dedicated to the nuclear
destruction of the planet Earth. It starred Rock Hudson as a
newly elected US President who ordered a grain embargo on the
USSR.
This scenario caused the starving Russians to send a group
of commandos to blow-up the Alaskan pipeline, which in turn
forced the Russians to send Backfire Bombers equipped with
nuclear bombs to the US which in turn forced the President to
destroy the Russians with our own nuclear arsenal.
The PBS network aired Testament in 1983 on AMERICAN
PLAYHOUSE about a small town family who contended with the
nuclear holocaust.
A follow up to this holocaust was the 1983 made-for-TV
movie The Day After which concluded there could be life
after a nuclear war. (Noted scientist Carl Sagan, said nuclear
war was similar to two men each holding a match in a
gasoline-soaked room with no exits.)
On April 12, 1985 a roundtable discussion on CNN entitled
Avoiding Nuclear War featured Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford,
Robert MacFarlane, and Anatoly Dobrynin.
On the lighter side of atomic holocaust there was the sitcom
WOOPS!/FOX/1992, a post-apocalyptic tale of nuclear war
survivors who took shelter in Midwestern farmhouse. They
included a feminist (Meagen Fay); a homeless man (Fred
Applegate); a teacher (Evan Handler); a stock analyst (Lane
Davies); a pathologist (Cleavant Derricks); and a manicurist (Marita
Geraghty). The show was sort of a GILLIGAN'S ISLAND for the
radiation set.
In 2006, the apocalyptic series JERICHO/CBS/2006-2008
followed the small town residents of Jericho, Kansas as they
struggled amidst the aftermath of a nuclear attack on 23 major
US cities.
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