See Peter Graves wrestle a small but very unhappy cat! Witness Peter Graves fight a rabid Lassie with his bare hands (and, uh, a tire iron)! Revel in the sight of Peter Graves kicking it old school with a genuine horse and carriage! Try to figure out why the title screen displays no question mark following the title when it oh so obviously needs one!

All of this and more is just waiting for you in Where Have All the People Gone, a subdued but effective end-of-the-world made-for-TV from 1974. It's the end of the world as Peter Graves knows it -- and nobody feels all that fine. It's one thing to suddenly find yourself seemingly alone in the world, but it's even worse when you have no idea what the heck happened. One minute you're running out of a cave during an earthquake, and the next thing you know everyone has been reduced to a mere pile of salt crystals. I don't mean to poke too much fun at this movie, though, because it actually holds up pretty well all these years later.

Thanks to Steven Anders' (Peter Graves) unusual idea for a family vacation, he and his two teenage children are exploring a cave when the hand of apocalypse touches the Earth. They run out, thinking it was just an earthquake -- until their friend back at camp tells them there was a huge flash of light before the ground started moving. All too soon, this fellow takes ill, so Anders and his kids try to get him to a hospital -- but they have no transportation available and have to carry him.

The closer they get to "civilization," the more serious their situation becomes. The nearest town is a ghost town, and there are no means for communication or transportation. Anders and his kids can only speculate about what happened -- perhaps some type of nuclear disaster or radiological event, although nothing would seem to adequately explain what they are witnessing. Determined to get home to Anders' wife -- holding out hope that she, like them, somehow survived the disaster -- they set off on a somewhat epic journey. Along the way, they do encounter other survivors, albeit a precious few of them -- and not all of them are friendly.

Take out a couple of overly melodramatic moments by Anders' kids and you've got a pretty decent movie, especially when viewed in the context of its origins. Obviously, it lacks the pizzazz and special effects of modern-day thrillers, but this story- and character-driven film retains the viewer's interest throughout. It seems to have left a lasting impression on a number of viewers who first saw it on TV during their childhood years, and that gives the movie an added nostalgic value.

The youth of today will probably find the film rather boring (since it lacks a lot of the action they have come to expect in apocalyptic thrillers), but those of us with a little gray creeping in up top should really appreciate this made-for-TV movie on its own terms.