Atomic Attack (1954)

★★★★ · Early Look at Nuclear War and Walter Matthau in an early role · OrionPozo · 2010-05-02

This show was sponsored by Motorola for ABC in 1950 when less than 20% of American households had TVs. As an early TV show it was more of a play than a movie, all taking place in one suburban home in the days following an H-Bomb attack. The 1st actual H-Bomb wasn't tested until 1952, and Russian didn't test one until 1953, so this qualifies the show as SciFi. The play was based on the SciFi novel Shadow on the Hearth by Judith Merril published in 1950. While simplistic in its treatment, it does provide a glimpse into public thinking about nuclear war and television production values of the…

★★★ · Let's Fix the Date · Dodsworth the Cat · 2023-01-01

First, this show aired on Tuesday, May 18, 1954, though several stations on the ABC network delayed the broadcast for several weeks (eg., KOOL-TV in Phoenix broadcast the show on June 1). The network thought highly enough of the episode to take out box ads in a number of newspapers. John Crosby of the Herald Tribune syndicate wasn't altogether enthusiastic about this depiction of the effect on one home after a nuke attack in NYC. He thought some of the kids' lines were too casual about the subject. But Fred Remington of the Pittsburgh Press opined the following day "Television…