February 15, 1987: Amerika premieres on ABC. It imagined a Soviet takeover that year, and showed the occupation 10 years in.
It is not a sequel to The Day After, but was based on the reaction to it of former Nixon speechwriter turned actor Ben Stein, who said we have nuclear weapons because of what would happen if the Soviets took over:
Perhaps they might make a TV movie about why the people of the United States face such a dreadful risk. They might make a movie about what life in the United States would be like if we lived under Soviet domination. Here is the idea: Let's have a movie called "In Red America." It would be about a few days or weeks in the life of several American families after the Soviet Union had taken over America.
The miniseries was described as "the most ambitious American miniseries ever created," running 14 1/2 hours over 7 nights. ABC Entertainment President Brandon Stoddard explained that the intent was to explore the U.S. spirit under such conditions, not to portray the conflict of the Soviet coup.
So the backstory is almost an aside: Four atomic bombs, detonated at a particular height, acted as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), destroying the U.S. electrical grid, including computer systems and communications systems, cutting the U.S. off from its NATO allies; but without killing people or destroying buildings or other infrastructure, thus giving the Soviets something to take over.
The U.S. is forced to accept Soviet terms for surrender: Unilateral disarmament, the end of the dollar as a reserve currency, and integration into the Soviet military/economic bloc. The United States quickly falls under Soviet military occupation under the command of Russian General Petya Samanov (played by German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl), with the President and the Congress becoming mere figureheads for their Soviet overseers.
Singer-songwriter-actor Kris Kristofferson starred as Devin Milford, who had been a maverick politician before the Soviet occupation, running for President in 1988, after the Soviet takeover began. He was placed in a prison camp for daring to speak the truth about the Soviet conquest.
At the beginning of the miniseries, he is declared "rehabilitated," and released back into society into the custody of his father, who lives in the Nebraska county run by Peter Bradford. Played by Robert Urich. Bradford cooperates with the Soviets to create a better life for his community. He attracts the attention of the Soviet leadership because, while cooperative, he is independent and respected by his constituents.
New Zealand-based actor Sam Neill plays KGB Colonel Andrei Denisov, the Soviet administrator for the American Central Administrative Area. He is romantically involved with actress Kimberly Ballard (Mariel Hemingway).
The miniseries ends on a downbeat note: With some semblance of national communications restored, Milford is shown about to make a nationwide speech, telling Americans to revolt against the Soviet occupation, but is assassinated. It is unclear if he managed to make a nationwide broadcast calling on Americans to resist the breakup of the United States, but, based on the ending, it appears that the United States of America will cease to exist forever as a nation, and will be broken up into several independent countries within North America, at least for the time being.
If Ben Stein's intent was to create a surge of enthusiasm for Reagan, or for American nuclear power, or for hatred of the Soviet Union or Communism in general, he failed: The Iran-Contra scandal was raging, and Reagan's prestige had been dented, if not permanently ruined; nuclear power was still seen as dangerous by most Americans; and pretty much everybody except a few college students and old leftists now accepted that Communism was bad.
Of course, the Russians couldn't actually take over America. Could they? Not in 1987...
In July 1987, Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana, traveled to Moscow at the invitation of Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin, to explore building a luxury hotel near the Kremlin. During the visit, he was treated to high-level hospitality by Soviet officials, with some reports suggesting KGB involvement. Shortly after, he began expressing interest in politics, and criticized NATO. The rest is not yet history, since the American media has never truly investigated this trip, because they like the profits that Trump gives them.
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February 15, 1987 was a Sunday, the date on which networks usually started a miniseries in the format's glory years.
Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA:
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 120-104 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 106-103 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Magic Johnson scored 39 points.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 98-93 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
And there were 4 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-4 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* And the Washington Capitals beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
