Television: Actuals

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"I've got a way to blow up Detroit." With this intriguing line, a man in U.S. Air Force uniform introduced to his American and Canadian associates a plan that might conceivably occur some day to some strategist in the Kremlin. All the Russians would have to do, he explained, would be to start an intercontinental missile on its way to Michigan, then call up President Kennedy babbling apologies, saying that a terrible mistake had been made, the wrong button had been pushed, please excuse the noise. What should the NORAD command advise the President to do? What could be done?

Moon Phantoms. That scene, televised on the most recent installment of CBS's Armstrong Circle Theater., illustrated how the officers who man the nation's vital air defenses keep their wits honed on hypothetical problems. But the most chilling moment in the hour came when the program re-created the actual events of the night of Oct. 5, 1960, when more than a hundred unknown objects appeared on NORAD's radar screens, moving across the pole toward the U.S. A missile barrage was apparently coming from the U.S.S.R., and the boys in the back room were actually thinking of using the "hot line" telephone to advise Washington to retaliate.

But there was something odd. The computers showed no point of origin for the objects and predicted no impact points. As the minutes ticked away, the NORAD commander made his decision: it was not a missile attack. Later investigation showed that the apparent missile tracks were being caused by new and unexpectedly powerful radar installations, bouncing signals off the moon.

It was an absorbing and graphically instructive show, mixing dramatic elements with documentary narrative to explain the complex radar and command system that is ready to alert the U.S. and Canada if the Soviet Union should attack. By using this technique, the fortnightly Armstrong Circle Theater has established itself as one of television's better programs. Armstrong calls its shows "actuals," that is, semi-documentary dramatizations of real situations or events. This week, the show's attention focuses on the surprisingly widespread practice of counterfeiting phonograph records and albums: counterfeiters cost U.S. record companies some $20 million a year in lost sales, foisting onto the record-buying public hundreds of thousands of low-quality imitations that resemble the real thing.

Babies to Swindlers. After starting as a straight dramatic show in TV's infancy, Armstrong Circle Theater developed its semi-documentary format six years ago, has since covered every sort of theme. from Lizzie Borden to Hurricane Diane. Sometimes hinged to news events—the sinking of the Andrea Doria, the 1959 discovery of the B-24 that was lost in the Libyan desert during World War II—the program has also treated myriad sociopsychological problems, from parole to suicide, gambling, divorce, and legal and illegal adoption of babies. But most of all, it fingers every sort of crook—stock market swindlers, antique swindlers, smugglers, moonshiners, forgers—and tells how they operate, in fascinating documented detail.