Before the 1970s, countdowns were generally associated with bad things.
"In the 1950s, there were atomic bomb tests," McCrossen said. "And the countdown to the dropping of the bomb and then to its detonation was televised and people could hear it. And so this was a kind of apocalyptic countdown."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4QVXcPDgjI
The Countdown.
And the history underlying it.
