When Havoc Struck

I was in law school in 1978 and watched this episode which was televised on Wednesdays at 8:00 P.M. Each episode dealt with disasters of a particular type. One dealt with zeppelins (culminating with the Hindenburg). One with great ship disasters (the scene of the Titanic hitting the iceberg and sinking was clearly labeled a dramatization) but included the Andrea Doria footage from 1956. One about bridge disasters showed the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge ("Galluping Gertie"), but also talked about the Tay Bridge, and a bridge in Niagara Falls. There were episodes about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, airplane disasters. Glenn Ford could be a little stiff at times, but his usual voice was quite natural and actually made the disasters seem inevitable due to errors by man or acts of nature and science. It was certainly a good series, but probably had gone about as far as it could go in doing one season of them. Hopefully it may be revived someday.

I only saw a handful of the "When Havok Struck" series, but it left quite an impression on me. The first episode I saw was the one about airplane disasters. I remember the show featuring the Canary Islands disaster when a jet crashed into another jet on the runway with still pictures of the carnage. The episode aired while I was sick as a dog with the flu for a full week in early 1978. The creepy soundtrack music and downright morbid content of the show was enhanced by my "altered" mental status due to the influenza at the time. I did manage to watch 2 or 3 more episodes, but they weren't quite as powerful as the air disaster episode. The chances of these shows being released on video one day are probably slim to none, but I sure would enjoy seeing them again.

I am surprised by how much I remember about this short-lived TV show. It was a half-hour series that dissected several different disasters, and not just the really famous ones (Titanic, Hindenburg). There were some bridge disasters examined as well, and I believe an entire episode on the Johnstown, PA flood. With the current reality TV craze, that features people eating bull testicles to win money, a show like this could not compete on the airwaves (how our tastes have plummeted since the '70s!) But I for one would like to see this on DVD-a sure fire purchase for me.

This aired in Australia in many forms. In its complete episodic form it featured regularly on "The World Around Us" in the late 1970s. Later it was chopped to pieces to fit 30-minute slots of "Great Mysteries Of The World". Both shows were on the Australian Seven Network.

A series devoted to documentary coverage of spectacular disasters, mainly from the 20th century, the episodes were arranged along a common theme such as "Disasters At Sea" (the Andrea Doria, Titanic, Queen Mary and more), "Air Disasters" and so on.

It was occasionally a little dry and a little pompous, and the presentation in general wasn't always that convincing (Glenn Ford sometimes got a little stilted), but my single clearest memory of the entire series is composer Harry Robinson's chilling "disaster sting", a ten-second theme of Hammond organ (?) and choir (sounding very much like a lost fragment of the music to "Picnic at Hanging Rock") which entered at the moment in the narrative where disaster struck and frequently left younger viewers (like me) with the hair on the backs of our necks standing on end. Fellow viewers of the series can surely hear it in their heads right now...!

A strong candidate for video release to the 70s TV nostalgia brigade. Bring it on!

wonderful nostalgic thoughts are rekindled when I think of this series and the "World at War" Series. I was about ten when I Saw this show during the seventies. I particularly remember the one about blimp disasters and the crew who were whisked away trying to dock a U.S Navy blimp during a gust. I think I saw it on a channel after the news and before prime time. I remember it had a kind of European flair and seemed to have some heavy orchestral music in the introduction with the Mobil fuel presentation. I thought David Niven narrated it but I see that it was Glenn Ford. Anyway, I really enjoyed this show and would love to see it again. does anyone know where it plays?