The Day After is not an ABC movie.., it is a television event•--Robert Ferrante, executive producer, CBS morning news, quoted in Collins, 1983, p. 5 Controversy raged over whether ABC's film, The Day After (TDA;Papazian & Meyer, 1983), was defeatist propaganda or scrupulously apolitical, as well as over whether it was "the most emotionally involving show ever to appear on TV" (Kitman, 1983, p. 21) or "a very close competitor to The Night of the Living Dead for entertainment value" (Grenier, 1983(Grenier, , p. 1553• However, there was little disagreement over two fundamental issues• First, the film had a galvanizing effect on a wide variety of people well before it was aired. Second, and in perhaps surprising contrast, public reaction to the film itself was far less than anticipated. This article discusses the extent and nature of public reaction to the film, exploring both why initial reactions to the plans for airing the movie were so intense and why later reactions to the event itself were not as substantial as had been expected.
542May 1985 • American Psychologist