From the Earth to the Moon (TV miniseries)

From the Earth to the Moon
Title caption of From the Earth to the Moon
Format	Drama, History
Theme music composer	Michael Kamen
Composer(s)	Michael Kamen Mark Mancina Mark Isham Mason Daring James Newton Howard Brad Fiedel Jeff Beal Marc Shaiman
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producer(s)	Tom Hanks
Producer(s)	Brian Grazer Ron Howard Michael Bostick
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Home Box Office
Original run	April 5, 1998 – May 10, 1998

From the Earth to the Moon is a twelve-part HBO television miniseries (1998) co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, and Michael Bostick detailing the landmark Apollo expeditions to the Moon during the 1960s and early 1970s. Largely based on Andrew Chaikin's book, A Man on the Moon, the series is known for its accurate telling of the story of Apollo and the outstanding special effects under visual director Ernest D. Farino.

The series takes its title from, but is not based upon, the famous Jules Verne science fiction novel From the Earth to the Moon. The last episode of the series (narrated by Blythe Danner—this is the only episode which Hanks does not introduce, although he does appear in it) begins with a look at the making of Georges Méliès' film based upon the book.

Integration with existing films

The miniseries, concentrating on the Apollo space program, was produced with an intent not to repeat other dramatic portrayals of events of the space race.

Project Mercury, which was portrayed in the film The Right Stuff, was briefly summarized in the first episode. Miniseries producers Hanks, Howard and Grazer, who had previously produced Apollo 13, deliberately shot the episode We Interrupt This Program from the perspective of the media covering that flight, as the film had already covered the story from the point of view of the crew and the mission control team.

Episodes

1. Can We Do This? — Covers the early years of the "space race" from the perspective of the United States, including the creation of NASA and the decision to send men to the Moon. Provides an overview of the Mercury and Gemini programs, concentrating on reconstructions of Alan Shepard's pioneering Freedom 7 Mercury flight; Ed White's first US spacewalk on Gemini 4, the near-disasterous in-flight failure on Gemini 8; and the successful completion of Gemini with Buzz Aldrin's perfection of extravehicular activity on Gemini 12.
2. Apollo One — Portrays the tragedy of the Apollo 1 fire from the perspective of its subsequent investigation. Its effects on key individuals are shown, including Harrison Storms of North American Aviation, Joseph Shea of NASA, astronaut Frank Borman charged with supporting the investigation, and the widows of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.
3. We Have Cleared the Tower — Portrays the program recovery to manned flight after the tragedy, from the perspective of a fictional documentary team covering the flight of Apollo 7. The flight is commanded by strong-willed Mercury veteran Wally Schirra (portrayed by Mark Harmon), who is focused on safety after the death of his colleague Grissom. Pad Leader Guenter Wendt (portrayed by Max Wright), another zealous guardian of astronaut safety, is featured by the documentary team.
4. 1968 — Depicts the historic first manned lunar flight of Apollo 8, from the perspective of this being the redemption of an otherwise violent, strife-torn year filled with political assassinatons, war and unrest. Documentary footage of political events are interspersed with the drama, which is mostly filmed in black and white except for scenes aboard the spacecraft and some newsreel footage. The fears of mission commander Frank Borman's wife Susan (portrayed by Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson) for her husband dying in a spacecraft trapped in lunar orbit are highlighted. Includes the Apollo 8 Genesis reading.
5. Spider — Returns to 1961, and an engineer's lonely fight to convince NASA management that the easiest way to land men on the Moon is to use a separate landing craft. It then traces the design and development of the Lunar Module by a team headed by Grumman engineer Tom Kelly. Covers the selection and training of the first crew selected to fly it, Jim McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart (along with Command Module pilot David Scott), and culminates with their first flight of Spider in Earth orbit on Apollo 9. The Apollo 10 lunar "dress rehearsal" is briefly mentioned.
6. Mare Tranquilitatis — A dramatization of the first moon landing (Apollo 11), with flashback sequences to a television interview between the Apollo 11 crew and fictional broadcaster Emmett Seaborn. The title Mare Tranquilitatis refers to the actual landing site of the mission.
7. That's All There Is — The story of Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean and his experiences on the Apollo 12 mission. The episode is a lighthearted depiction of the most tight-knit crew to serve on an Apollo mission, told from Bean's perspective. The episode also recognizes NASA Astronaut Group 3, from which Bean entered NASA.
8. We Interrupt This Program — Depicts the television media's point of view concerning the 'successful failure' of Apollo 13. The episode avoids comparison with the movie Apollo 13 by focusing entirely on Earthbound events, and adds a fictional subplot about the rivalry between a veteran TV news reporter who appears throughout the whole mini-series, and a young upstart.
9. For Miles and Miles — Tells the story of the return to flight status of Alan Shepard and his mission to the moon on Apollo 14. The title refers to Alan Shepard's famous golf swing on the lunar surface.
10. Galileo Was Right — Focuses on the training the Apollo astronauts undertook to become geologists on the Moon's surface, specifically the Apollo 15 astronauts. The contributions of scientists Lee Silver, Harrison "Jack" Schmitt and Farouk El-Baz are highlighted. The title refers to Galileo Galilei and his hypothesis that gravity would cause bodies of differing masses to fall at the same rate in a vacuum. This idea was demonstrated by Dave Scott in an experiment recreated for the episode.
11. The Original Wives Club — The story of Apollo from the point of view of the wives who had to endure the pressures of the media and the dangers of spaceflight at home, framed by the Apollo 16 mission.
12. Le Voyage dans la Lune — Intercuts the story of the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, with French film maker Georges Méliès's vision of a trip to the moon from his early 20th century film also entitled Le Voyage dans la Lune. This episode was narrated by Blythe Danner, who had previously worked on location at the Johnson Space Center for the 1976 movie Futureworld, filmed in the same buildings that Apollo moonwalkers had recently trained at.

Production information

• Many of the actors had opportunity to interact and form friendships with the real life astronauts they were portraying. Brett Cullen, who played Apollo 9 Command Module pilot and Apollo 15 commander David Scott, was invited to the Scott family home each time an episode he appeared in was first televised.

• Two short clips from the final scenes of Apollo 13 were used in "That's All There Is"; a splashdown sequence, and a view of the recovery ship USS Iwo Jima (portrayed by USS New Orleans).

• The original series was shot in 1.33:1 aspect ratio, intended to be viewed on standard television sets. The series was released on DVD as a 4-disc set. With the proliferation of widescreen flat-panel TV sets the series was remastered in 1.78:1 aspect ratio and rereleased in 2005 as a 5-disc DVD box set. New framing causes loss of top and bottom parts of the frames from the original movie. This is not always noticeable because of careful transfer process, but in some scenes important details are lost. For example, in Disc 1, when the Gemini 8 / Agena assembly is tumbling around the sky with a stuck thruster, the thruster is not visible in the new widescreen version as it is cut off by the top of the frame. Some captions have also been compromised.

• To simulate Moon gravity, weather balloons filled with helium were attached to the backs of the actors playing the astronauts in the Lunar Extra-vehicular activity scenes, effectively reducing their Earth-bound weights to that of on the Moon.

• The score of "Spider" prominently features an imitation of the main title theme from the 1963 World War II movie The Great Escape, and Tom Kelly jokes about having a crew digging a tunnel out of the Grumman plant. The episode also featured a real Lunar Module (LM-13), which had been built for the Apollo 19 mission but was never used due to budget cuts.

• Parts of the mini-series were filmed at the Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) in Orlando, Florida.

Awards

The series won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for best miniseries in 1998 and 1999.

External links

• From the Earth to the Moon at the Internet Movie Database
• From the Earth to the Moon at TV.com