--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: The Day After image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72aca69c66dd15e8/69869f141eebf782d737232c/t100_tv_day-after1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 11, 2014 # _The Day After_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett Set in an around Lawrence, Kansas, this 1983 ABC movie showed the aftermath of a full-scale nuclear war between the US and the USSR. The movie had its share of melodrama, but its depiction of the war’s result was stark: millions die instantly, millions more die slowly, society collapses and the happiest ending is a painless death. Did _The Day After_ change anything? On the one hand, the policy of mutually assured destruction continued; on the other, President Reagan reportedly sent one of the producers a note after the Reykjavik disarmament summit crediting the movie’s influence. Either way, for one night a medium of escapism got 100 million Americans to look at something it spent generations trying not to think about, and that was special enough. [Get This TV Show](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0001WTVUW/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101529/the-day-after-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101529/the-day-after-2/"},"headline":"The Day After","datePublished":"2014-08-11T20:46:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:11.494Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101529/the-day-after-2/","keywords":["abc"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72aca69c66dd15e8/69869f141eebf782d737232c/t100_tv_day-after1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72aca69c66dd15e8/69869f141eebf782d737232c/t100_tv_day-after1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101529/the-day-after-2/","name":"The Day After"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Day After","description":"Set in an around Lawrence, Kansas, this 1983 ABC movie showed the aftermath of a full-scale nuclear war between the US and the USSR.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/toL66HO3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T17:55:33.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/toL66HO3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101529/the-day-after-2/","duration":"PT30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101529/the-day-after-2/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```