Appearing as Cal Miller

Broadcast 28 February 1983 on the NBC television network.

Synopsis by curator@jmdigitalscrapbook.com:

After the third fatal accident in less than a month in the same area of a bridge for which he's responsible, City Engineer Cal Miller (James MacArthur) is convinced that activity along a fault line in the riverbed beneath the bridge has caused an expansion joint in the bridge to become faulty. He suspects this has caused the accidents and might lead to even further damage, perhaps even the complete collapse of the bridge itself. He wants the bridge closed for at least a week in order to conduct a thorough investigation and effect repairs.

Naturally, Miller's boss Mr. Meach (Philip Baker Hall) balks, citing the huge inconvenience to residents, the cost, and the potential of unnecessarily alarming the public. After much argument, Meach finally makes an agreement with Miller that if he can provide definitive proof of his suspicions, then Meach will agree to closing the bridge.

Returning to the bridge and going back over seismic readings in the equipment beneath the bridge, Cal quickly discovers that just before each fatal accident, there was a seismic shift deep under the riverbed. Now he's convinced that the bridge is unsafe and must be closed immediately, and that he can prove it.

Running into a wall of red tape back at the office, however, Cal decides to take matters into his own hands. He'll close the bridge himself, hopefully attracting lots of media attention, and then his pig-headed superiors will have no choice but to act.

Meanwhile, Johnny Pyle (Desi Arnaz, Jr.) has just robbed the local bank. His innocent and naive young wife (Char Fontane) believes they're going off for a romantic honeymoon. She begins to realize something isn't quite kosher, though, when Johnny refuses to pull over for police officer Harvey Lewis (Richard M. Gilliland). Racing onto the bridge just as another minor seismic event occurs, Johnny loses control of the car and collides with a broken down pick-up truck belonging to painter Diego Ramirez (Gregory Sierra). The accident causes a chain reaction with three other vehicles: one driven by Harvey's former fiancé, Terry (Eve Plumb), now a novice nun working at the St. Bonaventure Orphanage and on her way to deliver a young girl to her new parents; a second contains Elaine (Barbara Rush), heading off to complete the last step in a complicated bond scheme concocted by her co-worker and lover Paul Warren (Leslie Nielson); and the third is driven by Warren himself, who is rushing his desperately ill infant son to the hospital.

In the confusion after the accident, another seismic shift rumbles along, causing both ends of the already damaged bridge to collapse and break away, falling hundreds of feet into the waters below. All that's left is the unstable center section, teetering precariously on a single support.

All the required ingredients now in place, this formulaic melodrama, one of the last produced by "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen, proceeds to its all-too-predictable conclusion. Bad guys get their just desserts; seemingly brave men panic and get themselves killed; meek women exhibit extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice, but not without lots of blood-curdling screams and terrified looks along the way; innocent children apparently destined for undeserved and ghastly deaths are miraculously saved; estranged lovers discover they still care for one another; and good guy Cal gets to be the biggest hero of all, at the same time garnering the love of a pretty lady and well-deserved vindication.

Filmed at least two years prior to its broadcast, but unscreened because of its substandard quality, this nearly four-hour exercise in tension and suspense which is anything but is still fun to watch for fans of the genre. Filled with cheesy special effects and a bridge that looks as if it were constructed from a bargain basement model kit, it even includes the ubiquitous "bosun's chair" so often used to better effect in some of Allen's other disaster flicks.