The Motorola Television Hour: Atomic Attack

Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published or registered between 1928 and 1963 required a formal renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during their 28th year of protection to remain under copyright. 'Atomic Attack' was a teleplay broadcast as an episode of 'The Motorola Television Hour' on May 18, 1954. To maintain protection, a renewal would have needed to be filed in 1981 or 1982. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal registration for this specific broadcast or the series. While the underlying source material—the novel 'Shadow on the Hearth' by Judith Merril (1950)—had its own copyright and renewal history, the specific 1954 television production entered the public domain due to non-renewal. This is a common status for early 'Golden Age' anthology television episodes, which were rarely renewed by the networks or sponsors. The film is widely available in public domain collections and on the Internet Archive without challenge, further confirming its status.