# Need titles for 2 TV movies - 70s or 80s era **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423 "2010-07-29T04:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/1 "2010-07-29T04:58:39Z")
I’m looking for the titles for two TV movies, from the late 70s or 80s. The first was shown on either ABC, CBS, or NBC. It was about a small boat anchored in the harbor of a southeastern U.S. state. There were some nutjobs aboard, and they had a homemade nuclear device. The movie was presented as a TV news show. The bomb blows up at the end. The second was shown on PBS in the states. It showed a family and how they dealt with living after a nuclear war. I think each person died, one by one. Anyone have any ideas? –SMM ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/2 "2010-07-29T05:10:14Z")
Th first one was called [Special Bulletin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin). I remember it. It was made to look like a news telecast and hyped as kind of a knockoff of Orson Wells’ _War of the Worlds_ broadcast. The second one you’re thinking of might be [Threads](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads), which was a BBC production, but which was shown on PBS in the States. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/3 "2010-07-29T05:31:18Z")
> [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](#): > > …The second was shown on PBS in the states. It showed a family and how they dealt with living after a nuclear war. I think each person died, one by one… Sounds like [Testament](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_(film)). Very low budget, but a very powerful film. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/4 "2010-07-29T05:39:14Z")
Could also be _The Day After_. It was a big ratings winner when it came out. BTW, _Special Bulletin_ was the first thing I ever videotaped when we got our first VCR. One of the anchormen was Ed Flanders, later of St. Elsewhere, and we got to see Charlestown, SC blow up. It was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/5 "2010-07-29T05:45:54Z")
I remember they kept running these disclaimers between breaks advising the audience that they were watching a dramatization and that it wasn’t a real newscast. I don’t think anyone could have possibly been fooled anyway since they weren’t even using real network call letters. They did one of those made up network things, like calling themselves “WBS” or “NBS” or something. I forget what, but it never really looked at all real. I remember being disappointed at the time, and thinking it was boring after a lot of promotional hype, but I was also a teenager. I think I was expecting more of an action/sci-fi type thing. I think all the commentary and meta-commentary on network news and the media in general was lost on me. I just wanted to see shit blow up. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/6 "2010-07-29T14:11:20Z")
I saw \*\*Special Bulletin \*\*when it was first broadcast (1983) and I thought it was totally believable and incredibly gripping. I was stunned at the ending. _The Day After_ almost caused an international incident before it was even broadcast. The USSR said that it would damage USSR-USA relations if it were broadcast because the film suggested that the USSR would start a nuclear war and the USSR would never do such a thing. The US government said this was a free country and the network could broadcast what it wanted. It was broadcast and there were no repercussions. (The scene where the people are standing in the field watching the US missiles take-off from their underground silos made me forget I was watching a movie.) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/7 "2010-07-29T14:27:11Z")
_Testament_ upset my wife so much she got up and left the room, saying “I can’t watch this anymore.” The only movie EVER that hit her that hard. ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/8 "2010-07-29T15:35:43Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Th first one was called [Special Bulletin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin). I remember it. It was made to look like a news telecast and hyped as kind of a knockoff of Orson Wells’ _War of the Worlds_ broadcast. > > The second one you’re thinking of might be [Threads](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads), which was a BBC production, but which was shown on PBS in the States. Definately not Threads. I’ve seen that, and I think that’s the best of all the nuclear war TV movies. It’s much better than Day After. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/9 "2010-07-29T16:24:21Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I remember they kept running these disclaimers between breaks advising the audience that they were watching a dramatization and that it wasn’t a real newscast. I don’t think anyone could have possibly been fooled anyway since they weren’t even using real network call letters. They did one of those made up network things, like calling themselves “WBS” or “NBS” or something. I forget what, but it never really looked at all real. Most people with sense would realize it was a TV show. But I knew a gal at the place I worked who got a hysterical phone call from a cousin(both were originally from the Charleston area, it turned out), who told here about the awful news broadcast she was watching. Geez, if she’d just turned the channel and seen something like that wasn’t on all the networks. I thought Special Bulletin was a great film. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/10 "2010-07-29T16:48:04Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I remember being disappointed at the time, and thinking it was boring after a lot of promotional hype, but I was also a teenager. I think I was expecting more of an action/sci-fi type thing. I think all the commentary and meta-commentary on network news and the media in general was lost on me. I just wanted to see shit blow up. There was a similar but less known movie in the 90s that was about meteor strikes that ended up being aliens. That seems like more what you were expecting from SB. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-titles-for-2-tv-movies-70s-or-80s-era/548423/11 "2010-07-29T23:15:26Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > _Testament_ upset my wife so much she got up and left the room, saying “I can’t watch this anymore.” > > The only movie EVER that hit her that hard. I saw it as a kid and it ruined me. So simple and sad. I still remember how the mother announces (in voiceover?) how one of the kids just dies, like they couldn’t hold on anymore.