Oppenheimer
Barry Davis
- Sam Waterston
- Jana Shelden
- Christopher Muncke
- Edward Hardwicke
- David Suchet
- United Kingdom
- United States
English
7
Rodney Taylor
57–68 minutes[1]
$1.5 million[2]
29 October –
10 December 1980
Plot synopsis[edit]
The series depicts Oppenheimer's wartime role as head of the weapons laboratory of the Manhattan Project, during which he was under constant surveillance by the US federal government because of his association with communists. It culminates in a U.S. Atomic Energy Commission hearing in 1954, in which Oppenheimer is stripped of his security clearance.
Production[edit]
Oppenheimer is a co-production between the BBC and Boston's WGBH, which contributed 15 percent of the project's $1.5 million costs.[2][3] The series was executive produced by the BBC's Peter Goodchild, who conceived the idea in 1975.[3] After producing a series on physicist and chemist Marie Curie, he set his sights on Oppenheimer.[2]
Release[edit]
Oppenheimer was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two from 29 October to 10 December 1980, and in the United States on PBS from 11 May to 22 June 1982, as episodes of the first season of American Playhouse.[4][5] More than 40 years after its release, the series became available on BBC iPlayer following the success of Christopher Nolan's 2023 film of the same name, which also chronicles the career of Oppenheimer.[6][7][8]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
John J. O'Connor of The New York Times wrote that J. Robert Oppenheimer was "persuasively" played by Sam Waterston and the series "is primarily interested in telling, quite absorbingly, one of the more puzzling and indeed astonishing stories of contemporary American history".[9] Bill Carter of The Baltimore Sun called it "never less than a fascinating portrait of a truly fascinating man" while criticizing a "choppy production technique that makes much of the film seem rather raw".[10]
Major General Kenneth Nichols disputed his portrayal in the series, saying that it "portrayed me serving as a personal aide to Groves on frequent visits to Los Alamos", when he did so only once.[11]