The Night the Bridge Fell Down

The Night the Bridge Fell Down (1980)

Runtime: This is a TV miniseries that is 194 minutes long

Directed by: Georg Fenady

Starring: This disaster film has some familiar faces

From: Irwin Allen Productions/Warner Bros. Television

For the sake of variety, I discuss an Irwin Allen production that was made for television and I “acquired” for viewing, nevermind how. 

I’ve seen his highly-regarded theatrical films in the disaster genre, so why not experience an example made for the smaller screen? Well, one that is over 3 hours in length without the commercials is a little odd and… note that while this was made in 1979, it only has a 1980 date because it played on BBC One and wasn’t shown on NBC until 1983! Yes, that’s how good it was. At the end, I will mention how the network literally scheduled it to air all in one night, and what played against it for 2 ½ hours which caused it to die an obvious death in the ratings.

James MacArthur is a bridge inspector who DEMANDS that the Madison Bridge be closed, due to a few credible reasons. However, Phillip Baker Hall is (unsurprisingly) the bureaucrat who refuses to do so. Naturally, the lives of several people are followed before they are stuck on the bridge when the inevitable happens—the title of the film does give it away. There are flashbacks which serve as padding… er, I mean they expand the lives of the characters shown.

For a production made for television, I was fine that this was filled with character actors, some more famous than others. The biggest names not already mentioned were Barbara Rush-she just passed away a little less than a year ago-Desi Arnaz, Jr., Eve Plumb (her character’s about to become a nun!) and the beloved Leslie Nielsen. It’s always nice seeing him in even a dramatic role, and even as someone who commits fraud at his business. Oh, and there’s also a bank robber. The bridge causes a crash which left him and several others stuck on the one section that doesn’t collapse after a giant earthquake. So yes, a hostage situation also. As an aside, that robber’s girl is made to be a dunce—thicker than the concrete pillars on that structure.

Many won’t even want to bother with this oddity, and reading my review will be enough for most. There are signs this was filmed in ’79… if it wasn’t seeing an orphanage’s Plymouth station wagon w/ a CB radio, it’d be the score that occasionally had its DISCO moments. Even funnier, at times it was blatant that they ripped off the theme to… Vertigo! 

It was a riot that the majority of the “disaster” seen was in flashbacks to individuals connected to the main characters—someone was hit by a car, another dies of carbon monoxide poisoning, etc. A shame then that the robber character portrayed by Arnaz, Jr. was so insufferable, a real drag that unfortunately sucks the fun and life out of this. What a miscalculation that was. He honestly ruined the entire LONG slog that this was. As I don’t recommend you ever watch this—his death happens near the end and it is not even shown on camera!!! I kid you not. My anger was high at this decision; if someone ever needed a gruesome death…

Despite being filmed in 1979 for later viewing on NBC, the network never showed it until February 28, 1983, all in one night. They knew it didn’t matter what they showed that night, so might as well finally end an obligation they had for years. You see, that night on CBS was—the 2 ½ hour series finale of the famed TV show M*A*S*H. Until 2010, that finale was the most-watched program on television in the history of television in the United States! Even in 2025, only games of the Super Bowl have ever had higher ratings. I did not look up the specific ratings but the other shows that night must have lost in a bloodbath. I’m sure that finale was much better in quality; for certain, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure are much better disaster pictures.