 Based on the novel "Red Alert" by Peter George (III) (qv), and  originally conceived as a tense thriller about the possibility of  accidental nuclear war. Stanley Kubrick (qv) was working on the  script when he realized that many scenes he had written were  actually quite funny. He then brought in Terry Southern (qv) to  turn the story into a satire. Among the changes were the addition of  the title character and the renaming of other characters using  satirical names such as Turgidson, Kissoff, Guano, DeSadesky, and  Merkin Muffley.