"Nightmare at Ground Zero" is a

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

that was broadcast by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

on May 15, 1958, as part of the television series, ''

Playhouse 90 ''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology series, anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology dr ...

''. It was written by

Rod Serling Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ' ...

and

Paul Monash Paul Monash (June 14, 1917 – January 14, 2003) was an American television and film producer and screenwriter. Life and career Paul Monash was born in Harlem, New York, in 1917, and grew up in The Bronx. His mother, Rhoda Melrose, acted in si ...

based on the book by

John C. Clark John Chamberlain Clark (January 14, 1793 – October 25, 1852) was an American lawyer and politician who served four terms as a United States representative from New York from 1827 to 1829 and from 1837 to 1843. Biography Clark was born in Pi ...

and

Robert Cahn Robert Wolfgang Cahn Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (9 September 1924 – 9 April 2007) was a British metallurgy, metallurgist whose contributions to physical metallurgy centred on the properties of dislocations. Cahn developed a successful mo ...

Plot

Based on a true story, an advance party of five scientists is stationed in a bunker on

Enewetak Atoll Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

20 miles from the detonation of the first hydrogen bomb test. They are trapped for 11 hours in a "hot" bunker due to miscalculations as to the size of the blast and the direction of the atomic fallout.

Cast

The cast included the following: *

Barry Sullivan Barry Sullivan may refer to: *Barry Sullivan (American actor) (1912–1994), US film and Broadway actor *Barry Sullivan (stage actor) (1821–1891), Irish born stage actor active in Britain and Australia *Barry Sullivan (lawyer), Chicago lawyer and ...

as Daniel Joyce *

Jack Warden Jack Warden (born John Warden Lebzelter Jr.; September 18, 1920July 19, 2006) was an American character actor of film and television. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Shampoo'' (1975) and '' Heaven Can Wait ...

as Long *

Carl Benton Reid Carl Benton Reid (August 14, 1893 – March 16, 1973) was an American actor. Early years Reid was born in Lansing, Michigan. He used his full name professionally because when he worked in radio, four other people in the business were named Ca ...

as Gen. Tyler *

Ainslie Pryor James Ainslie Pryor (February 21, 1921 – May 27, 1958) was an American actor. Early years Pryor was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of William E. Prior. He graduated from Christian Brothers University, Christian Brothers College and att ...

as Beloit *

Edmon Ryan Edmon Ryan Mossbarger (June 5, 1905 — August 4, 1984), known professionally as Edmon Ryan, was an American theater, film, and television actor. A native of Cecilia, Kentucky, he was the son of Isham Edward Mossbarger (1864–1936) and Pearl Sh ...

Production

The program was produced as part of the second season of the television series, ''

''.

Franklin Schaffner Franklin James Schaffner (May 30, 1920July 2, 1989) was an American film, television, and stage director. He won an Academy Award for Best Director for ''Patton'' (1970), and is known for the films ''Planet of the Apes'' (1968), ''Nicholas and Al ...

was the director. The teleplay was written by

and

and adapted from the book, ''Nightmare at Ground Zero'', by John C. Clark and

. It was aired on May 15, 1958.

Reception

United Press television critic William Ewald gave the production a mixed review. He praised the direction and sets and found the production to be "a gripper" when it stuck to telling the story. However, he wrote that it "stumbled" when it turned to conflict between two of the scientists over the morality of the bomb. Ewald found the latter scenes, with scientists exchanging quotes from Browning and Horace, to be clumsy, dramatically unbelievable, and embarrassing.

References

{{Playhouse 90 1958 television plays 1958 American television episodes Playhouse 90 (season 2) episodes