Alas, Babylon

I was all of thirteen when I saw this Playhouse 90 presentation. The details escape me now, though I recall that it was chilling and scary. It still leaves an impression over a half a century later. Not sure if in this era it was presented live or whether it was done on video tape, which would have been fairly new then. It was done at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, so it might have been on tape. I recall it had the same ominous feeling as the motion picture "Fail Safe," a theatrical release about the Cold War done just a few years later in 1964, and filmed at a studio in New York City, paradoxically. My ranking compares this show to TV of that era, and it would likely stand up dramatically today, even though dated technically. Shows like this are why TV's Golden Era is called the Golden Era. In retrospect, there were only a handful of this caliber.

It is worth noting the majority of reviewers were living and viewing in Florida at the time of the Playhouse 90 broadcast. I am one of them, we had moved to Miami in 1959 from New Hampshire, and I was 11 when this program aired in 1960. To think we had been cooked for entertainment purposes was one thing, but, two years later when we were living in Satellite Beach during the Cuban Missle Crisis was another. It was real time - there were Davy Crockett missle emplacements right outside my school window. Patrick AFB had always been open, but then it was shut down, and attack aircraft taking off every 20 minutes. I walked to school (8th grade) one morning wondering if I would be alive that afternoon. The story Pat Frank wrote had currency. Those of you not around in those days, well, we have hopes you won't experience similar feelings.

I too was a student in N Florida - Pensacola - when this aired. In fact Pensacola was specifically mentioned as one of the targets - ".. there goes Pensacola". The hair on the back of my neck stood up. My dad was in the navy which is why we lived there and it was a target. Later in Jr.High school drama almost became reality during the 1962 Cuban Missle crisis - all our desks were turned away from the window - air raid drills, etc. I even had neighbors with fallout shelters in their back yards - we would use them during sleep overs!! Wow In later years while stationed in Germany and facing the East Block for real every time we had NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) training I remembered that episode of Playhouse 90 and the scary feeling because we lived at ground zero.

April 1960... I was about to turn 13 and looking forward to high school. The black and white world view my Catholic education offered was dissolving into shades of grey. It was a year of personal renaissance-an explosion of diverse interests from zen, Tchaikovsky, architecture and TV shows like The Twilight Zone and Playhouse 90, which aired the haunting "Alas Babylon". Despite the optimistic prospects of an energetic young President, the looming complexities of the real world hit home. Nuclear annihilation was not just a very real possibility, it seemed hell bent toward probability with each evenings newscast. Alas Babylon. The details have seriously faded but I recall the title was a coded message between characters confirming the collapse of civilization. Alas Babylon might as well have been the prequel to Mad Max. My last recollection was hordes of strung out junkies destroying anything that stood between them and the nearest pharmaceuticals. It may not have had the biting wit of Dr. Strangelove or the graphic gore of The War Game but I was riveted nonetheless. I haven't a clue how it ended but I'd love to see it again if only to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

I was 9, living at Patrick AFB when this was on TV. To say it made an impression would be an understatement. Soon after that we, the family, were issued several boxes of survival rations. Once the Cuban missile crisis had passed we ate those rations. I don't recall them as very palatable, especially the canned bread. Years later I read the book, which I still have and re-read occasionally. The book points up some racial topics that were somewhat controversial at the time, however my memory fails me with regards to how it was treated in the telecast.

On The Beach, another post-nuclear novel made into film, is probably better known. Shute's character development in the novel gives it a greater depth and feel than the movie of course.