The program originally aired on November 20, 1983. It remains the most-watched TV movie in U.S. history. Estimates put the viewership at over 100 million Americans, with a Nielsen share of 62 percent.
Before the film even aired, controversy arose over who attacked first: the U.S.S.R. or the United States. Nicholas Meyer wanted the answer to remain ambiguous, to focus on the horrors of nuclear destruction. He wanted the evil to be nuclear weapons in general, not government.
The premiere of this television movie was a major media event. No sponsors bought commercial time after the nuclear war broke out, so the last half was aired without commercials.
Immediately after the film's original broadcast, a special news program featured a live discussion between Dr. Carl Sagan, who opposed the use of nuclear weapons, and conservative writer William F. Buckley, who supported the concept of "nuclear deterrence." During this heated discussion, aired live, Dr. Sagan introduced the concept of "nuclear winter" and made his famous analogy, "Imagine a room awash in gasoline, and there are two implacable enemies in that room. One of them has 9,000 matches, the other 7,000 matches. Each of them is concerned about who's ahead, who's stronger."
The producers were able to get stock footage of Minuteman III ICBM test launches. The Department of Defense would not allow them to use stock footage of mushroom clouds, so the producers were forced to re-create mushroom clouds using visual effects.
Arthur Ashe: A television newsreader during the scene in which the University of Kansas students are discussing the developing crisis during enrollment. Ashe died of AIDS complications in 1993. He contracted the disease from a blood transfusion during open heart surgery he had around the time of this film.