Amerika (miniseries)

Genesis

Amerika has an indirect connection to another notable ABC program, the 1983 television film The Day After, which some critics felt was too pacifist for portraying the doctrine of nuclear deterrence as pointless. Stoddard cited a column in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner by Nixon speechwriter (and later, television personality) Ben Stein that appeared a few weeks before The Day After aired. Stein wrote, in part:

...since my dear friends at ABC-TV have made a TV movie very rightly describing the terror of an atomic attack on America, perhaps they might consider something else. 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.

Stoddard acknowledged that Stein's remarks provided the inspiration for the series. Stein received a quitclaim fee for the idea and otherwise was not involved in the production of "Amerika". Originally envisioned as a four-hour made-for-TV movie entitled "Topeka, Kansas, U.S.S.R.", the project soon was expanded into a miniseries.

Major characters

The storyline of Amerika primarily follows three political leaders:

Major female characters, in addition to Ballard, include Peter Bradford's wife, Amanda (played by Cindy Pickett), Devin Milford's ex-wife, Marion (played by Wendy Hughes), and most notably, Devin's sister Alethea (played by Christine Lahti), who at the outset is prostituting herself to the local occupation leader. "Alethea is the center," noted Donald Wrye. "She is a metaphor for America – not just phonically – and it is she who discovers her moral core through(out) the course of the series." Lara Flynn Boyle played Bradford's teenage daughter, Jackie.

The human drama of these characters intersects with the political intrigue of the Soviet plans for the breakup of America. Bradford, the pragmatist, clashes with Milford, the idealist; Bradford's wife is Milford's ex-girlfriend, who finds she still has feelings for Milford upon his release from the prison camp; Denisov appoints Milford's ex-wife, a powerful magistrate (and General Samanov's mistress), to serve as Bradford's deputy and assistant in Heartland; and Kimberly's renewed sense of American pride ultimately affects her relationship with Denisov.

Backstory

Towards the end of the 1980s, as the decline of the Soviet Union puts it in danger of losing the Cold War, the Soviet leadership makes a desperate gamble to rearrange the global balance of power. Four large thermonuclear weapons are detonated in the ionosphere over the United States. The resulting electromagnetic pulse (or EMP) destroys the nation's communications and computer systems, cripples the American electrical grid, and affects any equipment that relies on computer technology, such as most late-model automobiles. With its ICBMs inoperative—and the National Command Authority unable to contact U.S. military forces abroad or their foreign allies in western Europe to launch a counterattack—America 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, and the U.S. President and U.S. Congress become mere figureheads for their Soviet overseers.

The above events are implied in the miniseries, although never directly explained. The description is taken from the novelization of the miniseries, Amerika: The Triumph of the American Spirit by Brauna E. Pouns and Donald Wrye (Pocket Books, 1987), based on Wrye's screenplay. Communications between the administrative areas have been cut off, and the damage to the electrical grid caused by the EMP attack has never been fully repaired.

Geopolitical situation

A decade after its defeat, the contiguous United States is occupied by a United Nations peacekeeping force, the United Nations Special Service Unit (UNSSU), composed primarily of Communist state forces. The UNSSU in Milford is under a command of an officer from East Germany, Major Helmut Gurtman (played by Reiner Schöne). UNSSU troops periodically engage in destructive combined arms training exercises which are deliberately intimidating to the local population.

Those Americans who engage in dissent are stripped of their privileges and sent to exile camps, where they are anathema to the Soviets and their fellow citizens. Association and communication with the exiles is prohibited and forbidden, although some risk their own remaining freedoms by offering humanitarian aid. Production quotas have been imposed, and foodstuffs rationed, with the surplus being shipped to the Soviet Union.

Against this background, Bradford ascends to the leadership as Governor General of Heartland. He acts a collaborator, hoping to reform the Soviet occupation from within with ideals of the old America. Milford is released from the prison camp, hoping to be reunited with his children and fight to end the occupation and restore America. Denisov hopes to "salvage as much as possible" of the old America, while realizing that the U.S. essentially must cease to exist as a nation in order to appease the Soviet leadership.

Climax and resolution

The Soviet leaders of the occupation are faced with the dual problem of keeping America pacified and convincing the Politburo that their fears of a revitalized America are unfounded because the country can no longer pose a threat. The Politburo is not convinced, and considers exploding nuclear weapons over four or five unnamed American cities as a warning to the American people and to the world. Samanov and Denisov, both of whom want Soviet control of the United States to be relatively humane, are horrified by this idea.

At great personal risk, Samanov convinces the Soviet leadership to accept a compromise plan. The United States will be divided into "client states", such as Heartland. Additionally, members of the United States Congress will be executed if they refuse to dissolve the nation's government and disperse in peace. After Samanov asks the assembled Congress to disband the legislative body and dissolve the United States government, the members angrily refuse to do so. Samanov walks out of the House of Representatives chamber and his men begin firing into the crowd of legislators. All the members of Congress are killed in the attack, along with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Vice President. The United States Capitol building and the artwork in its rotunda are destroyed in a terrorist-style attack. After the act is carried out, Samanov surveys the damage and the dead bodies of the members of Congress. He then sits in the United States House of Representatives chamber and commits suicide.

In the final episode of the miniseries, Heartland is about to secede from the United States, with other regions to follow within the next few weeks. Instead, Heartland soldiers and local militia attack the local UNSSU compound. There is talk of a Second American Revolution that could undermine the Soviet Union's plans to break up the United States. The miniseries ends on a downbeat note, however, when Devin Milford is shot and killed as he is about to make a nationwide broadcast calling on Americans to resist the breakup of the United States. With Milford gone, the hopes to restore the United States through the resistance is muted. Although there is hope that the spirit of America lives on in the hearts and minds of some people, in the end it appears that the Soviet plan to dissolve the United States will come into being.

Some sources have claimed that the finale of the miniseries was deliberately left unresolved to allow for the possibility of a weekly television series sequel; but such plans never materialized.

The divided United States

In this fictional timeline, the U.S. Congress divided the United States into multiple "administrative areas" in 1988, one year after the Communist takeover. These areas are intended to become polities modelled on the Soviet republics, joined together in a new North American Union. A map shown on screen reveals these administrative areas to be:

In addition to these areas, Washington, D.C. comprises its own National Administrative District, South Florida is described by a character as the "Space Zone," and there is a passing reference to three "International Cities," one of which is San Francisco. Michigan is separated into two administrative regions, with the Lower Peninsula belonging to Ameritech, and the Upper Peninsula belonging to the North Central region. Alaska is described as never having been pacified, requiring continued engagement by Soviet troops, and there are pockets of armed resistance in the Rocky Mountains and in West Virginia. There is no mention of what has happened to Hawaii, or to U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa.

The Rust Belt (presumably "Ameritech") faces its own special problems. Most of its advanced factory equipment was removed at the start of the occupation and taken to the Soviet Union. The region suffers 50% unemployment as a result, and its residents are not permitted to leave, except to volunteer for factory work in the Soviet Union, from which no one has yet returned.

Travel and communications between the various zones is heavily restricted, part of the "divide and conquer" plan of the Soviet occupation.

Communist occupation elsewhere

Both the novel and miniseries imply that the Soviet Union has conquered other countries after the U.S. coup (it can be surmised, for example, that the EMP which disabled American technology also would have crippled Canada and Mexico, a minor character says that he and his wife fled East Germany for the United States and remarked that "the promised land [had] become worse than what [they] left", and Denisov says at one point that "we control most of the world").

In this new world, Fidel Castro heads what is now called "Greater Cuba", embracing most of the Caribbean and Latin America, and Taiwan has been absorbed into China. North Korea has conquered and occupied South Korea and Korea is united under Communist rule. A politician named "Mbele" heads the "Socialist Republic of Southern Africa" which also includes South Africa, "Barghout" is the leader of "Iraqistan" which includes present day Israel and all of the Arab World in both the Middle East and North Africa. Eastern Europe is in a state of unrest, echoing the turmoil in the former United States.

National symbols

The flag of the occupation is the pale blue U.N. flag, with crossed American and Soviet flags superimposed on the sides. The American flag is shown without its stars, and this flag is displayed during the "Lincoln Week" ceremonies. The standard American flag is outlawed, although one scene shows a group of war veterans marching with the old American flag upside down, this being a distress signal. America's national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," also is outlawed, but this does not stop a group of citizens from singing it (haltingly at first) after the "Lincoln Week" parade.

Abraham Lincoln is included with Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin in propaganda. One of the signature scenes in the film is a twenty-minute, dialogue-free depiction of the celebration of "Lincoln Week" (a holiday replacing the Fourth of July), with both Lincoln and Lenin displayed on red banners that were most likely intended to be striking and startling to television audiences of the time.

A new Pledge of Allegiance is given by "rehabilitated" political prisoners upon release from the American gulags. The oath states: "I pledge my allegiance to the flag of the community of American, Soviet, and United Nations of the World, and to the principle for which it stands – a nation, indivisible with others of the Earth, joined in peace, and justice for all." While the prisoners are told that they are free to refuse to make this pledge, the circumstances under which the oath is administered suggest otherwise.

Social criticism

Amerika criticized American society in the 1980s, implying that apathy and an unwillingness to defend freedom on the part of many citizens made the Soviet takeover rather easy. At one point, a key Soviet official observes that their plans for conquering the United States succeeded far beyond their wildest dreams, because once the nation had been defeated, Americans turned inward, not caring about national issues, seeking only to retain a piece of the prosperity that had once been theirs. "[The Soviet coup] worked because you lost your country before we ever got here," says the Soviet leader. "You had political freedom, but you lost your passion [...] How could we not win?"

This theme is echoed by Devin Milford later in the film:

Further dialogue, by politician Peter Bradford, lashes out at apathetic American attitudes:

A speech delivered by one child (Devin Milford's son) demonstrates the extent of Soviet indoctrination in the new America:

Ihe most poignant message of Amerika—a line of dialogue that summarizes its theme about the ultimate truth of the futility of the hypothetical Soviet domination it describes—is spoken by General Samanov:

Ratings

The first two nights of Amerika garnered big ratings, but audience numbers dropped thereafter, and the overall miniseries averaged a 19 rating and a 29 share of American television households, compared to a 46 rating/62 share for The Day After. "It wasn't as big a hit as its supporters had hoped," said Ted Koppel, "but it wasn't a disaster, either." Amerika was the second-highest rated miniseries of the 1986–87 US television season.

Although a 35 share reportedly had been promised to advertisers, Stoddard was happy with the performance of Amerika, claiming that all or part of the miniseries had been watched by 100 million people – a ratings bonanza for ABC, then in third place among the three major networks.

Critical reception

Amerika received mixed reviews; the series created controversy with some. Certain critics and viewers felt it was too long and unrealistic, others argued that it would be damaging to Soviet-American relations, and a spokesperson for the United Nations objected to the U.N. being portrayed as an occupying force under Soviet control. Some conservatives felt that Soviet brutality was greatly underplayed; conversely, a number of liberals dismissed the entire miniseries as right-wing paranoia. At various points, the program was scrapped, delayed, and rewritten.

For its part, the Soviet Union threatened to shut down the ABC News Moscow bureau, although this threat was not carried out and indeed seemed to strengthen ABC's resolve regarding the miniseries. "We’re going to run that program come rain, blood, or horse manure," said ABC president John B. Sias, after the yet-to-be-aired Amerika had generated more controversy and viewer response than any other ABC program in history, including The Day After.

Amerika was preceded by an ABC special addressing the considerable controversy prior to its airing (The Storm Over Amerika), and was followed by an "ABC News Viewpoint" panel discussion moderated by Ted Koppel, with Brandon Stoddard, Donald Wrye, and others addressing the issues along with questions and comments from a live studio audience in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In its summary of the 1986–87 US television season, TV Guide called the miniseries "arguably the most boring miniseries in a decade," adding that "ABC's Amerika tried to hold America hostage for seven tedious nights (and a stupefyingly dull 14½ hours) by conjuring up a fuzzy vision of a Communist occupation of the U.S."

Availability

Amerika has been unseen on American television since its original telecast on ABC. A VHS box set of the miniseries was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 1995, but no official DVD release is available. Portions of the soundtrack by Basil Poledouris were released on CD by Prometheus Records in 2004 (in a limited edition of 3,000 copies). The novelization is widely available from used-book sellers and online auction sites. The miniseries itself can be found on YouTube.

Parodies

In February 1987, the miniseries was parodied on the NBC show Saturday Night Live as "Amerida," in which a debt-ridden United States is mortgaged to Canada and subsequently repossessed. It posited Wayne Gretzky as the Prime Minister of Amerida. The American protagonist (played by Canadian actor Phil Hartman) longs for a country "where you don't have money that's all the colours of the rainbow" and "you can spell words like colour and flavour without a 'u'." The flag of "Amerida" was the U.S. flag with the stars replaced by a white maple leaf.

The satirical Canadian radio program Double Exposure parodied the series in a sketch called Kanada with a K, in which "Joe Klark with a K" rescues the nation from "Comrade Ed".