The Day After is an American television film that first aired on November 20, 1983 on the ABC television network. More than 100 million people, in nearly 39 million households, watched the film during its initial broadcast. With a 46 rating and a 62% share of the viewing audience during the initial broadcast, the film was the seventh-highest-rated non-sports show until then, and it set a record as the highest-rated television film in history, which it held as of 2009. The film postulates a fictional war between NATO forces and the Warsaw Pact over Germany that rapidly escalates into a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. The action itself focuses on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas; of Kansas City, Missouri; and of several family farms near nuclear missile silos. The cast includes JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum, Jason Robards, and John Lithgow. The film was written by Edward Hume, produced by Robert Papazian, and directed by Nicholas Meyer. It was released on DVD on May 18, 2004 by MGM. The film was broadcast on Soviet state television in 1987, during the negotiations on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The producers demanded for the Russian translation to conform to the original script and for the broadcast not to be interrupted by commentary. Plot Dr. Russell Oakes (Jason Robards) works at a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, and spends time with his family over his daughter Marilyn's decision to move away. In Harrisonville, Missouri, 40 miles southeast of Kansas City, farmer Jim Dahlberg (John Cullum) and family hold a wedding dress rehearsal for their eldest daughter, Denise (Lori Lethin), and Bruce, a student at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. The young couple is more interested in sex, with family drama when Denise's younger sister steals her birth control, and when Jim catches Denise sneaking home the following morning. Airman First Class Billy McCoy (William Allen Young) mans a Minuteman launch site in Sweetsage, Missouri, 20 miles east of Kansas City. Next to the site, the Hendrys farm, do chores, and mind the children. Throughout these scenes of heartland life is a current of tension: the television, radio, and newspapers chatter about a Warsaw Pact build-up on the East German border and the dispatch of nuclear weapons in Europe. Toward the night, East Germany blockades West Berlin. The US issues an ultimatum calling for the Soviets