Introduction

Amerika is an American television miniseries that was broadcast in 1987 on ABC.

Amerika starred Kris Kristofferson, Mariel Hemingway, Sam Neill, Robert Urich, Christine Lahti, and a 17-year-old Lara Flynn Boyle in her first major role. Amerika was about life in the United States (US) after a bloodless takeover engineered by the Soviet Union. Not wanting to depict the actual takeover, ABC Entertainment president, Brandon Stoddard, set the miniseries ten years after the event, focusing on the demoralised US people a decade after the Soviet conquest. The intent, he later explained, was to explore the US spirit under such conditions, not to portray the conflict of the Soviet coup.

Background

As the Police in Chicago, which is the Capital City of the Central Administrative District, are about to raid an unauthorised stage-play, KGB Colonel Andrei Desinov steps in and discovers his American girlfriend Kimberly Ballard is starring in it. The raid gets called off and he confronts her. In Milford , Nebraska, the citizenry which includes the Milford Family and the County Administrator, Peter Bradford, is trying to adjust to the Soviet occupation. Devon Milford, a 1988 Presidential candidate who fought against the Soviet occupation, gets released from a Texas Detention Centre to home exile in Milford. During a trip to the Washington National Administrative area, Andrei is told by his commander, General Paetya Samanov, of the plan to break the United States up into several separate countries in order to destroy any patriotism its citizens still have for the US. During a Party celebration in Omaha, Andrei announces the five men who have been nominated to the post of Governor-General of the Central Administrative Area, one of which is Peter. After arriving in Milford, Devon starts making his adjustment living in a town under occupation after spending six years in his prison camp. He finds some animosity towards him for spending more of his efforts prior to being imprisoned to save American society than he spent trying to save his families land which is being overtaken by squatters as the Soviets do not recognise his families right to own land.

Amerika Series

You can find a full index and overview of Amerika here.

Production & Filming Details

• Release Date: 15 February 1987.
• Running time: 870 minutes (total running time).
• Rating: 15.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.

Video Clip(s)