# What apocalyptic shows would you watch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 15, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570 "2006-10-15T22:22:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/1 "2006-10-15T22:22:24Z")
Given that Jericho doesn’t seem to score well here but there IS an interest in a Doomsday TV show, I was curious what a show created by Dopers about the end of the world would be like? Me, I’d like to see a series or at least mini-series based on Stephen King’s The Mist, but that might collapse under all the CGI. Any other suggestions, real or self-created? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/2 "2006-10-15T22:27:15Z")
An updated **Alas, Babylon** would be nice. I had hoped that **Jericho** would fit this description, but no such luck. Better yet, how about a **Footfall** miniseries? Or **Lucifer’s Hammer**? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/3 "2006-10-15T22:38:26Z")
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett – technology has been outlawed after an unexplained disaster. The TV series would be like a combination of Little House on the Prairie and, oh, I don’t know what – something anti-science and technology, where having a radio is punishable by [Jon Lovitz voice] death! Or The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The last shot of the final episode could be of a blade of grass. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/4 "2006-10-15T22:48:53Z")
Well there’s always a chance Romero might make a Living Dead TV series (or at least a miniseries) on HBO or Showtime. 🙂🙂🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/5 "2006-10-16T00:36:58Z")
I second “The Mist” - I think it’s one of the best things King has ever written. Deeply, viscerally scary stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/6 "2006-10-16T00:42:39Z")
I’d love to see a version of **The Chrysalids** , by John Wyndham. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/7 "2006-10-16T00:51:59Z")
**Dies The Fire** by S M Stirling would be fantastic… all technology just stops working, 98% of people die of hunger within 6 months, then the survivors start to build a new society, and work around the mysterious limitations they are faced with. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/8 "2006-10-16T00:56:35Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Excellent] I second “The Mist” - I think it’s one of the best things King has ever written. Deeply, viscerally scary stuff. [/QUOTE] How long a series do you think we could squeeze out of it? A mini, most likely? ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/9 "2006-10-16T01:33:28Z")
I like Jericho so far. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/10 "2006-10-16T05:59:10Z")
Well, I’d love to see a version of Stephen King’s THE STAND which did the Harold Lauder & Nadine Cross characters justice (the only MAJOR shortcoming of the mini-series). Also, a mini-series of James BeauSeigneur’s THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY or Brian Caldwell’s much-admired and despised WE ALL FALL DOWN. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/11 "2006-10-24T08:49:22Z")
Not a specific show, but I’d like to see a show tackle a minimalist post-apocalyptic setting that more or less kept it gritty. For example, Lost had a really cool deserted island premise, but it just seems to be turning into Island Alias with all sorts of illogical devices and people thrown in just to add to the mystery and keep us from getting bored. No grittiness at all, everyone and their clothes are sparkling, they’re all so comfortable, there’s even a shower, washing machine, record player, etc. I’d want a post-apocalyptic show to keep it down and dirty; yes, of course, there have to be interesting mysteries left to discover, but I’d hate it if they suddenly discover some hidden alien command center and start playing around in holodecks all the time (a post-apocalyptic version of the Hatch ;)). ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/12 "2006-10-24T10:35:42Z")
I’ve had an idea for awhile… You know all those kids movies—Toy Story, Secret of NIMH, The Mouse and His Child, etc.—that show the “secret” world that goes on when people aren’t looking? Think one of those, meets _Mad Max._ Or _The Postman._ John Milius meets Don Bluth. Adventures of woodland critters who [“profess Jeffersonian ideals while punching their enemies and arguing with their friends and drinking to excess”](http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=14028) I know there’s a market for this one—I’ve got the web addresses of enough furry freaks on the internet to prove it—I just don’t know if it’s large enough to be profitable. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/13 "2006-10-24T11:01:55Z")
[QUOTE=Love Rhombus] Me, I’d like to see a series or at least mini-series based on Stephen King’s The Mist, but that might collapse under all the CGI. ? [/QUOTE] Frank Darabont (Shawshank, Green Mile) is apparently working on a movie, [here](http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2006/10/20/stephen_king_s_the_mist_coming_to_the_bi) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/14 "2006-10-24T11:17:58Z")
I’d love a series based on [The Taking](http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Dean-Koontz/dp/055380250X/sr=8-1/qid=1161688549/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2557312-9335914?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Dean Koontz. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/15 "2006-10-24T11:47:39Z")
_ **A Canticle For Leibowitz** _ really needs to be made into a movie or TV series, along with both of the main _ **Fallout** _ PC games. Otherwise, I’d like to see a Post-Apocalyptic Movie in which people _don’t_ drive around the Outback in souped-up V8s or journey through ruined American cities… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/16 "2006-10-24T12:13:57Z")
I’d watch a series based on **After the Fall** – it’s an anthology of _upbeat_ end-of-the-world stories adited by Robert Sheckley. Yes, Upbeat End of the World Stories. That’s what makes the whole thing worthwhile. You could do it as an anthology. As I’ve remarked before , my favorite is the one by Philip Jose Farmer, where God hires Cecil; B. deMille to produce and direct the Apocalypse. deMille gets Harlan Ellison to script it, because he’s the only one who isn’t afraid to argue with God over creative differences. By the way – all o’ youse who are calling for a film version of King’s **The Mist** should check out a 1950s British movie called The Strange World of Planet X, but which ran in the U.S. under the ookier title of **The Cosmic Monsters**. Government project goes wrong and opens a crack into a parallel dimension, letting giant bugs get through. This showed on the indie stations _a lot_ when I was a kid, prob’ly 'cause it was cheap to rent. > **[The Strange World of Planet X (1958) ⭐ 4.8 | Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051020/)** > > 1h 15m | Approved I’ll bet any money King saw it and either unconsciously or consciously used it as the basis for his story (there are a lot of cases of such borrowing in King’s ouevre). A pre-F-Troop Forrest Tucker, as so often in Brit. 1950s sf, stars as the Tough Americanm Hero. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/17 "2006-10-24T12:20:51Z")
I am watching _Jericho._ I would second **Lucifer’s Hammer** but it has already been done and ruined with **Armageddon** and **Deep Impact**. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/18 "2006-10-24T12:40:37Z")
**Davy** ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/19 "2006-10-24T17:34:26Z")
Y The Last Man ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570/20 "2006-10-24T18:01:38Z")
I’d love to see a mini-series based on George Stewart’s [Earth Abides](http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abides-George-R-Stewart/dp/0345487133/sr=1-1/qid=1161712539/ref=sr_1_1/104-8502124-5879932?ie=UTF8&s=books). The technology described would have to be updated; the book was written in the 1940s. It starts with the premise of most of the human population killed by a virus. Similar in a few ways to The Stand, but without the mysticism. Not a good-vs-evil plot. I must have read it a hundred times. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-apocalyptic-shows-would-you-watch/376570.md?page=2)