While life may often imitate art, we’re deeply relieved such wasn’t the case for 1983’s terrifying — and controversial — nuclear war flick, ‘The Day After.’

‘The Day After’ started as the brainchild of ABC executive Brandon Stoddard. Inspired by ‘The China Syndrome,’ Stoddard tapped fellow ABC higher-up Stu Samuels to write the script. He named his work’ The Day After,’ a tribute to the film’s themes of ongoing disaster following a nuclear strike.

From its inception, ‘The Day After’ proved controversial, with several expressing concerns about realistically portraying nuclear war onscreen. With a team of expert SFX artists, producers asked Nicholas Meyer to direct — the third potential director they approached. Despite his worries about potential network censorship of the film’s gruesome subject matter, Meyer signed onto the project.

As Meyer began delving into the gory details of what a nuclear war would look like stateside — a venture that allegedly made him sick every evening after clocking out — he often found himself at odds with not only ABC censors, but also with the Department of Defense. The government agency insisted the filmmakers have the Soviets strike first, a creative direction Meyer and the movie’s team wanted to avoid.

The Department of Defense was only the beginning. During his research, Meyer reached out to FEMA to inquire about their nuclear preparedness plans. Upon learning the agency had only considered putting nuclear evacuation information in regional phone books, he allegedly called FEMA a “complete joke.”

The film’s release was pushed back by six months as a result of censor-mandated edits. One edit, which Meyer said struck him “as ludicrous,” involved the removal of a scene in which a child woke up screaming from a nightmare about a nuclear holocaust. The edit, he said, was particularly egregious “when contrasted with the huge doses of violence to be found on any average evening of TV viewing."

Prior to ‘The Day After’s’ release, Meyer leaked the movie to a pair of anti-nuclear activists, who then sent copies to other activists and peace organizations. Nicknamed ‘The Day Before’ project, the frenzy sparked screenings and discussions among media outlets and civilians alike. Several politicians and even the Pope allegedly wanted to watch the film. This political tie-in, per Variety, was considered “the greatest PR campaign in history.”

After months of promotion and warnings to viewers about both the film’s sensitive subject matter and the dangers of nuclear war as a whole, ‘The Day After’ premiered on ABC on November 20, 1983.

More than 100 million viewers tuned into the premiere, making ‘The Day After’ one of the most successful TV movies in history. Alongside an initial warning about the movie’s disturbing scenes — and a hotline viewers could call to speak to counselors — the film was followed with a discussion including several famous faces, including  Carl Sagan, Henry Kissinger and Elie Wiese.

Beyond landing 12 Emmy Award nominations — two of which the film won — ‘The Day After’ struck a chord with American policymakers, including then-President Ronald Reagan, who wrote that the movie was ‘very effective and left me greatly depressed.’ Word of the film’s impact among American officials ultimately made its way back to Meyer. “If you wanted to draw blood, you did it. Those guys sat there like they were turned to stone,” a friend of Meyer’s who worked for the government said of a screening they had attended.