September 13, 2001: Writer/Producer Originally Scheduled to Meet TV Channel Executives to Propose Series Featuring Terrorist Attack in the US

Bryce Zabel, a longtime television writer and producer, was set to meet executives at the cable channel USA Network on this day, to present to them details of a miniseries he has been working on about an act of terrorism in the United States and how it leads to a global conflict, but the meeting and the miniseries are canceled as a result of the 9/11 attacks. [Dallas Observer, 9/20/2001; New York Times, 9/24/2001; NPR, 9/6/2002] Zabel, who was recently elected as chairman of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, previously created television shows such as Dark Skies and The Crow: Stairway to Heaven. [Deseret News, 8/12/2001; Dallas Observer, 9/20/2001] He is scheduled to meet with USA Network executives today, to present his plans for a miniseries called World War III for consideration. The miniseries, according to the Dallas Observer, would be “about how an act of terrorism on United States soil expanded into global conflict.”
Show’s Creator Considered 9/11-Like Scenarios – Zabel has been working with members of the US military to help him decide what kind of terrorist attack to incorporate into the storyline of World War III. “My partner and I had worked carefully with the Air Force and some Pentagon war planners to figure out the possible scenarios by which such a conflict could come into being,” he will later recall. Zabel and the military officials apparently considered scenarios resembling the 9/11 attacks: “The irony is that we had sort of rejected something as radical as what just happened [on September 11] as being a little too much,” Zabel will say. Therefore, according to Zabel, the 9/11 attacks meant that “the cautionary tale we hoped to tell in fiction ended up becoming a cautionary tale told on the evening news, and there almost is no need for the wake-up call, because America has been woken up.”
Show Canceled due to 9/11 – It is unclear how long Zabel has been working on World War III, but according to the Dallas Observer, his scheduled meeting with USA Network executives to discuss the miniseries has been “on his calendar for weeks.” [Dallas Observer, 9/20/2001] The meeting and the miniseries are both canceled as a result of what happened on September 11. [NPR, 9/6/2002] “Obviously this show died when the victims died,” Zabel will say. [New York Times, 9/24/2001] Zabel will also note, two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, that his miniseries would have “reflected exactly what’s going on in the world right now.” [Media Life, 9/25/2001] World War III is one of a number of television dramas and movies featuring storylines about terrorism that are canceled or rewritten following 9/11 (see (January 1998-2001); February 1999-September 11, 2001; June-September 11, 2001; Before Before September 11, 2001; September 27, 2001; November 17, 2001). [Denver Post, 9/17/2001; Newsweek, 10/7/2001]