Glad I got to meet Sid Krofft a couple of years ago — he was charming and loved talking about his TV shows. He'll be missed.

Sid Krofft, Producer and Creator of ‘H.R. Pufnstuf,’ ‘Land of the Lost,’ Dies at 96 Sid Krofft, the producer of 'H.R. Pufnstuf' and 'Land of the Lost,' died Friday in Los Angeles.

Very sorry to read of the passing of Sid Krofft — his and his brother's TV shows were part of most every Generation X kid's childhood. variety.com/2026/film/ne...

a woman is talking on a cell phone and says nine times ? ALT: a woman is talking on a cell phone and says nine times ?

I had to retype it nine times!

Correction: $99,999,999.99. (As if that would fit in the box!)

They keep finding new ways to make tax time inconvenient.

The sequel starts in a library, so read it there for added atmosphere!

One thing I discovered during Artemis is that Kerbal Space Program, abandoned by its manufacturer, still works on my computer. I’d left those crews hanging around in space for years!

I just rewatched the end — still hits hard. The remarkable thing is how good a sendup of 24-hour news it is. The “…and in other news” line sounds like every post-disaster newscast. “That’s it for the hurricane news. Meanwhile, in Hollywood…”

I can‘t imagine anyone was fooled by Special Bulletin, though it was reported the Charleston station got calls. The turn at the end was what I wasn’t expecting. It’s very abrupt, and I didn’t think they’d go there.

I did not! Seems like a rough day at the office.

I was consulted during that translation, but I don't remember the specific topics. Once translators understand the dynamics they usually find a solution.

I'm sure similar experiences during that era caused countless people to find their way to science — or diplomacy, or science fiction, as in my case. I didn't realize it at the time, but it's all connected. ("I see it all so clearly now," as Dave Bowman said.)
bsky.app/profile/fara...

What got me out of that funk? Science fiction. The book and film for 2010 (which I rewatched last week; it still holds up) turned me around on the future. It's why I went into college as an engineering student learning Russian. I stuck with both just long enough to get some writing fodder of my own!

It was the surprise that got me; I didn't think they would go there. Well-played, Ed Zwick.

My folks weren't watching with me, as I had my own TV by then. And they had no clue what was bothering me after that. It was sometime after I bought the paperback "Nuclear War: What's In It For You?" that they clued in.

Understood. SPECIAL BULLETIN, the first of this wave, merely suggested the violence for the most part; they didn't have the budget. It didn't matter, as my imagination went into overdrive on the rest. I had a REALLY bad week after that.

And we saw it in class, junior year; the science teacher said, "You might as well know."

(I do not think he returned to teaching after that year. He never fit the system.)

I don't regret seeing the ones whose aim was educating (which ended up including DAY AFTER, since as Meyer says in the podcast, all the advertisers dropped out). But I would never warm to INDEPENDENCE DAY-style on-screen destruction after that.

I always figured it was the Raytown in MAMA'S FAMILY!

The free-thinking science teacher Mr. Jones, during a month on nuclear reactions.

VCRs were also new and he, like many teachers, was willing to hit play and check out. During a pay dispute he even let us kids program the class for weeks: I showed "2001" for its lessons about centripetal motion!

Just prepaid for my bags on my upcoming American flights, as I suspect they won't want to be left out. Now's the time...

Thanks for this! I liked hearing about Brandon Stoddard's role — his daughter, political analyst A.B. Stoddard, wrote about the movie on the anniversary a few years ago.

(The after-show was branded VIEWPOINT, which I think was just the umbrella for any panel with Ted Koppel and a live audience.)

My nuclear-war freakout phase started with SPECIAL BULLETIN (still jarring!) and led through those other movies; WARGAMES, in that stretch, was positively upbeat by comparison. My own fiction from sophomore year is thusly apocalyptic, dark, and unreadable — more than usual from someone that age!

The after-movie broadcast hosted by Ted Koppel that Meyer mentions was just as important; thanks to Carl Sagan, it was the first place many people heard about nuclear winter.

We watched THREADS and TESTAMENT in school, but not THE DAY AFTER. We didn't need to — everyone had already seen it at home!

Interesting hearing @nicholasmeyer.bsky.social talk about the movie's contrast with darker programs like THREADS — and the need to keep people from changing the channel as the scenes got rougher. NBC had counter-programmed with the start of Martin Sheen's KENNEDY miniseries; they likely bet on that.

A fascinating new podcast about THE DAY AFTER with director @nicholasmeyer.bsky.social, which touches on both the production side and its impact. The TV movie — which Meyer reveals was once a two-parter! — was one of several programs that made me such a sunny kid to be around in high school.

Here's Robert Petkoff, performer of seven of my Star Trek audiobooks, talking about the franchise and voiceover work in general!

Power finally restored as we headed into the fourth day post ice-storm. Not as long an outage as the windstorm of 2019, thankfully. Hopefully the rest of the area will be back up soon.

The rare television experience I never saw coming — and the reason Riker was at the center of my first Trek works.

Definitely a thing not to do. (Ours is well outside!)