''The Tunnel'' was a 90-minute

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

that chronicled how three

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

university students organized the escape of 26 friends and family members by digging a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

underneath the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

from a former factory in West Berlin into the Communist East. Produced by

Reuven Frank Reuven Frank (7 December 1920 – 5 February 2006) was an American broadcast news executive. Life and career Born Israel Reuven Frank (he later dropped his first name) to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, he earned a bachelor's degree in soci ...

and narrated by Piers Anderton, it was an

NBC White Paper ''NBC White Paper'' is a documentary television series on the NBC television network lasting from 1960 to 1989. Producer Arthur Zegart was nominated for an Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic ...

installment that was broadcast on December 10, 1962, and sponsored by the

Gulf Oil Corporation Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger ...

. ''The Tunnel'' earned three

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s in 1963. It was the only documentary to receive the award as The Program of the Year. It was also honored for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Documentary (awarded to Frank) and Outstanding Achievement in International Reporting (awarded to Anderton).Piers Barron Anderton (death notice), ''San Francisco Chronicle'', Thursday, September 23, 2004.
/ref> ''The Tunnel'' was the basis for a pair of similarly named

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

projects (''Der Tunnel'') which were released just under four decades after the original. One was the 1999 documentary directed by Marcus Vetter, which featured the NBC

footage In filmmaking and video production, footage is raw, unedited material as originally filmed by a movie camera or recorded by a ( often special) video camera, which typically must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or ...

accompanied by

firsthand Firsthand (sometimes first hand or first-hand) means obtained directly from the primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, ...

accounts from the actual participants. The other was the 2001 television movie production directed by Roland Suso Richter, which was loosely based on the events recorded in the original. Later, in 2019, the BBC released a ten-part radio documentary about the escape, based on original interviews with the survivors, documents from the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

archives, and the NBC recordings.

Production

NBC, who were in competition with CBS to be first to film a tunnel escape for their news programs, financed the excavation project, giving the students (the 2016 equivalent of) about $150,000 for exclusive rights to film them digging. An

internal memo A memorandum ( : memoranda; abbr: memo; from the Latin ''memorandum'', "(that) which is to be remembered") is a written message that is typically used in a professional setting. Commonly abbreviated "memo," these messages are usually brief and ...

issued by Frank to the crew working on the documentary included the following outline of the goals of

television news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...

production:

Broadcast postponement

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) officially announced on 11 October 1962 that it was going to televise the documentary on 31 October from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. ( EST).Adams, Val. "N.B.C.-TV Plans Documentary On Berlin Tunnel It Helped Build," ''The New York Times'', Friday, 12 October 1962. Reluctant to add to global tensions in light of the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...

, the

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...

decided on 23 October to indefinitely postpone the broadcast.Shepard, Richard F. "N.B.C. Postpones Tunnel Telecast," ''The New York Times'', Wednesday, 24 October 1962. The Kennedy administration had opposed airing the documentary, worried that NBC was increasing tensions between the United States and Russia at the height of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...

, the president's brother and attorney general, was reported to have commented "That was a terrible thing you people did, buying that tunnel." Concerns about the ethics of NBC's involvement and the safety of the students were also expressed.

References

External links

''The Tunnel'' (documentary film) – NBC Learn.

''The Tunnel'' (film transcript) – NBC Learn.

* ttp://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/07/local/me-frank7 Collins, Scott. "Reuven Frank, 85; NBC Producer Helped Launch 'Huntley-Brinkley' Show, ''Los Angeles Times'', Tuesday, February 7, 2006. * https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse?cuecard=62526 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tunnel, The American documentary television films NBC News NBC original programming 1962 television specials Films about the Berlin Wall Emmy Award-winning programs 1962 documentary films 1962 films 1960s American television specials 1960s American films

Production

Broadcast postponement

See also

References

External links