Alas, Babylon

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.

I am rereading "Alas, Babylon" because the last time I read it was in 1970. This will be the third time I read it. The book is great and should be considered a classic. While reading it now, I realized that I had seen it and sure enough, I found it on IMDb. One of the other reviews I read confused it with "The Stand" which is similar, but I still find that Pat Frank's novel to be superior. I would be a good movie for today. Hollywood seems to be rehashing old ideas. "Alas, Babylon" should be considered for that honor. It is time for Hollywood to wake up and do some original stuff. I was born in Pensacola, Fl when I returned there for my last year of High School, this book was required reading. Since I read it before, I did not mind. Read the book. I don't know if you can find on DVD or not.

A live teleplay based on the novel by Pat Frank about the ultimate horror coming to your neighborhood. Don Murray is a lawyer in a small town in rural Florida. Life is simple; slow and idyllic, until the unthinkable happens one afternoon. Done at a time when most people had black and white TV's and the Cold War was very real and very, very close,it had a stark documentary style and feel to it that terrified people. A truly remarkable event in TV history, that probably should be in the Smithsonian and/or on the AFI's preservation list if it isn't there already.

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 was a high school student in North Florida when my family watched this episode of Playhouse 90. It really struck home since the location was in my state and the different bombs were exploding in locations that I had family and friends living at the time.

With the Cuban Missle Crisis and the football players of my high school being taught how to drive the school buses in case of an alert the story line took on new meaning. It was required reading in our history class.

Our Explorer Scout post was also taught a two week class by the Civil Defense leader in our town in the event we should come under such an attack. We all felt that we would survive since we were a small town and not be a target of the Russians, very much as in the Playhouse 90 episode "Alas Babylon"