The TV movie that destroyed Lawrence but may have saved the world examined 40 years later
On November 20, 1983, ABC-TV aired “The Day After,” a film that depicted the devastating effects of a nuclear exchange near Kansas City.
A documentary by Jeff Daniels called “Television Event” chronicles the many challenges that director Nicholas Meyer and his crew faced while filming the “unthinkable” in and around Lawrence, Kansas, and the Cold War-era skirmishes required to keep it on a network TV schedule.
Even the Reagan White House chimed in regularly.
On Monday, December 4, forty years and two weeks after the film drew an astonishing 100,000,000 viewers, Daniels will screen his documentary at Liberty Hall in Lawrence. Meyer and other members of the production are scheduled to take part in a Q&A that also includes former mayor David Longhurst and longtime Kansas University Theater professor Jack Wright.
A visit this week to the University of Kansas’ Spencer Research Library found a number of artifacts and memorabilia from the 1982 production, like an elaborate poster, reels of film and still photos. Including scenes from inside Allen Fieldhouse and a “tent city” built along the Kansas River, a movie creation that Wright still marvels at.
Working for the first time as a casting director in film, Wright says he learned “by the seat of his pants” how to wrangle the massive numbers of “extras” willing to be turned into blast victims and dazed survivors.
Another Lawrence resident, Bob Swan, Jr. embodies a different aspect of the movie’s legacy. Inspired by a scene of downtown devastation just a block from his insurance office, Swan embarked on a mission of citizen diplomacy. What began by inviting a group of Russian athletes to the Kansas Relays evolved into a series of events and exchanges that took him to the Soviet Union thirty five times.
Watch the video to see scenes from the documentary and hear from the people who were there when “The Day After” was made.
