Warheads

Series
WBAI And NPR Playhouse
Original Broadcast Date
04/12/1983
Cast
Lester Nafzger, Paul Mantell, Arthur Miller, Mark Hammer, (Irene Wagner or Avery Hart), Joe Frank
Format
28 minutes
Preceded by:	The Queen Of Puerto Rico
Followed by:	The End
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"I'd like to talk a little bit and get your opinions on some of the new systems that we've come up with at the Institute"

"Warheads" is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series WBAI And NPR Playhouse. It was originally broadcast in 1983.

Synopsis

A teleconference discusses weapons. The first is 'hair gas', which makes hair grow on exposed skin. (Mark Hammer is the colonel, Arthur Miller and Paul Mantell weapons experts.)

1:30: Steiner (Lester Nafzger) complains that he never gets any of these great inventions, has to make do with practicing sadism on neighbors and family.

3:30: Joe tells of arriving in Katmandu, ends up at a cheap hotel where he sees a bizarre fight between an Englishman and Malay.

9:30: The panel is back: nuclear weapons in mannequins; electrifying a whole country; a sterility bomb.

12:10: Sounds of a fight and a solo violin.

13:10: Panel discusses boomerang missile, planning to give it to the Russians. Steiner complains again.

14:30: Joe tells of hitchhiking to the East coast, getting picked up by a hippie in a Land Rover who gets into an argument with a truck-driver who later tries to run them off the road.

20:30: Panel talks about new uniforms: designer uniforms, mufti.

21:40: Steiner tells of planting a speaker under his son's bed, whispers that his mother is dead, his father hates him, drives him to sobbing immobility. He thinks we can apply this on a national scale. He complains that they don't respect him. A woman (Avery Hart) breaks into the conversation, apparently accidentally connected, trying to call 202 989 4304. She's been listening, calls them lunatics.

Legacy Synopsis

Weapons dealers and a low level terrorist in a conference call: Hair gas, petty revenge via cab driver, electric and electromagnetic warfare, sterility warfare and unborn casualties, boomerang missiles, uniforms that look like civilian clothing, psychological warfare by placing speakers under children's pillows, getting recognition for killing people; a strange woman get mixed up in the phone call. Monologue: description of Kathmandu: animals are allowed to do whatever they want, finding a cheap hotel, an English and a Malay drug dealer get into a fight in the lobby. Monologue: Joe is picked up by a hippie while hitchhiking across the country, argues with truck drivers, gets into a chase.

Music

• "Raga Gara" - Ravi Shankar (from Ragas Hameer & Gara, 1979) | YouTube [3:32]
• "Rejoicing" - Oregon (from Moon And Mind, 1979) | YouTube [14:54]

Additional credits

The original broadcast credits state: "[W]ritten by Joe Frank and Larry Massett. The performers were Lester Nafzger, Paul Mantell, Arthur Miller, Mark Hammer, Irene Wagner, and Joe Frank."

Miscellanea

• Some broadcasts paired Questions with this program

External links

• Warheads - edited version (YouTube)