There was a popular TV movie broadcast in 1983, depicting life in America after a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union left the United States devastated and the survivors wandering around in a daze.
The Day After was a cultural phenomenon – it’s still the highest rated TV movie ever broadcast. It drew 62 percent of the nation’s TV viewing audience.
But all I remember about it is the confusion and pain of the survivors. It was a small screen representation of Nikita Khrushchev’s famous quote about nuclear war: “The living will envy the dead.”
I have to admit, that’s how I felt Monday morning, waking up in a world where Duke’s basketball season was prematurely ended at the hands of South Carolina.