20 Years Ago: ABC Airs Amerika

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 4/09/2007 01:26:00 AM
I am not sure if most of you are old enough to remember the ABC miniseries Amerika starring Kris Kristofferson which depicted the United States in the aftermath of a Soviet takeover accomplished through the Trojan Horse of UN peacekeeping forces (!?--no John Bolton was not the executive producer). Though many of you are probably guffawing at the very thought right about now, a Soviet invasion seemed like a more plausible scenario back in 1987. While it would only be a few years until the collapse of the Soviet Union, very few among us figured that was about to happen at the time. The USSR with its numerous conventional and nuclear weapons as well as its plentiful soldiers still had a capacity to intimidate. However, it turned out that the economic force necessary to back such a military buildup simply wasn't there--at least not anymore. Chalk one up for Paul "Rise and Fall of Great Powers" Kennedy's thesis of economic accompanying military overstretch. Apparently, this miniseries is not remembered too fondly; while almost every B-movie ever made is available on DVD, Amerika is currently out of circulation. Chalk this title up for 80s completists like your truly. Ultimately, the miniseries raised a temporary stir but failed to change American attitudes about the Soviet Union:
At the time, Amerika was the most controversial television event ever broadcast by ABC. The network received more mail and phone calls about Amerika before it was on the air than the total pre- and post-broadcast viewer reaction of any other program in the history of ABC, including the end of the world story, The Day After.

The critics of Amerika came from all sides of the political spectrum. The liberals feared the program would antagonize the Kremlin, jeopardize arms control and détente. The right thought the miniseries inadequately portrayed the brutality of the U.S.S.R. The United Nations thought the movie would erode its image...

While almost half the country watched The Day After (46.0 rating), Amerika was seen in 19% of all TV households. Despite lots of publicity, controversy and viewers, research conducted by Professor William Adams at George Washington University showed that attitudes about the things most critics thought would be influenced by Amerika, did not change. What American's thought about the Soviet Union, The United Nations, or U.S. Soviet relations did not change in before and after surveys.