Maybe tonight is the night for me to tweet about my long history with nuclear fiction ... https://twitter.com/franklinleonard/status/1246928206159986688

So I guess I'm doing this. It'll be in no particular order, and according to my own criteria. Background: I've had a somewhat-strong obsession with nuclear war and nuclear weapons in fiction since ... late grade school?

I sort of attempted to define my own criteria tonight. My preference goes toward the real-world presentation of fictional scenarios around nuclear weapons and nuclear war. Yeah, I know, it's weird. I'll get to it with my therapist at some point.

For the record, "back then (late grade school)" for me was "the mid-80s or so," though I definitely didn't consume much of this in any chronological order. Some movies on videotape through my local store, some through the Internet.

Since we're going in no particular order, we'll go with tonight's selection, "By Dawn's Early Light," an HBO original movie with a strong cast, led by Powers Boothe and Rebecca DeMornay w Martin Landau, James Earl Jones, Rip Torn, Jeffrey DeMunn & more)

Darren MacGavin from "A Christmas Story" as the hotheaded Secretary of the Interior, pressed into the presidency after a Russian coup attempt starts a limited war. DeMunn is great as the moral voice fighting for a stop to widespread death, JEJ as the courageous sword by his side.

This one is not currently streaming anywhere, according to Justwatch. A full version can be found on a large streaming site.

Next, because I rewatched it most recently: 1983's "Special Bulletin," a made-for TV movie starring Ed Flanders and Kathryn Walker as TV news anchors at the fictional RBS network.

This one hits a personal spot for me, with the dramatization of a news report on fictional events. More on that later. "Special Bulletin" was a uniquely 80s story of a group of activists/terrorists who had constructed their own bomb in an attempt to force unilateral disarmament.

It actually aired on NBC, with disclaimers at the commercial breaks about the fictional nature of the program.