From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

Cast

Main article: List of From the Earth to the Moon cast members

The miniseries has a fairly large cast. It portrays 30 of the 32 astronauts who flew, or were preparing to fly, the 12 missions of the Apollo program. (The only two Apollo astronauts not portrayed by credited actors are Apollo 13 Command Module pilot Jack Swigert, who is heard but not seen in Episode 8, and Apollo 17 Command Module pilot Ronald Evans, who has a brief appearance in the liftoff scene of Apollo 17 in the final episode.) Members of many of the astronauts' families, and other NASA and non-NASA personnel, are also portrayed.

Several fictional (or fictionalized) characters are also included, notably television newscaster Emmett Seaborn (Lane Smith) who appears in nine of the 12 episodes.

Astronaut David Scott, from Apollo 15, was the chief technological consultant.

Episodes

The 12 episodes, each directed by a different person, use a variety of viewpoints and themes, while sequentially covering the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Lane Smith portrays Emmett Seaborn, a seasoned reporter for a fictional television network who covers the U.S. space program from its earliest days, providing continuity for most of the episodes.

Graham Yost Tom Hanks Erik Bork Tom Hanks Amy Brooke Baker

A running gag in the episode about a proposed flight to Neptune was a reference to the Voyager 2 mission, one of NASA’s greatest triumphs. Remi Aubuchon Tom Hanks Erik Bork

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 1983 film The Right Stuff, was briefly summarized in the first episode. Miniseries producers Hanks, Howard and Grazer, who had previously produced the 1995 film Apollo 13, 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.

Production

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 Super 35, intended to be viewed on standard television sets of the time in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. With the proliferation of widescreen flat-panel TV sets the series was remastered in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio and re-released in 2005 as a 5-disc DVD box set. As is the case with most material shot in this format, the widescreen framing causes the loss (in some shots) of the top and bottom parts of the frames from the original broadcast, but reveals additional information on the left and right. This is not always noticeable because of careful transfer process, but in some scenes important details are lost. For example, in the first episode, when the Gemini 8 / Agena assembly is tumbling around in space 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.

Parts of the miniseries were filmed at the Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) in Orlando, Florida. Scenes of the moonwalks were shot inside the blimp hangars on a former Marine base in Tustin, California. Approximately half the area inside was converted to the Moon's surface, with the remainder used to hold production trailers. To simulate lunar surface gravity, weather balloons filled with helium were attached to the backs of the actors playing the astronauts in the lunar extravehicular activity scenes, effectively reducing their weights to one-sixth.

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 Apollo Lunar Module (LM-13), which had been built for the Apollo 18 mission but was never used due to budget cuts.

Awards and nominations

References

References

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2. (September 6, 1998). "Television; From Earth to the Moon and Back, for More Bows". The New York Times.
3. (April 5, 1998). "Fly Him to the Moon". The Los Angeles Times.
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8. "From the Earth to the Moon". [[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences]].
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10. "Nominees/Winners". [[IMDb]].
11. "3rd Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards".
12. "Nominees/Winners". [[IMDb]].
13. "The 1st Costume Designers Guild Awards (1999)".
14. Clinton, Paul. (January 26, 1999). "Broadcast Film critics name 'Saving Private Ryan' best film". [[CNN]].
15. "51st DGA Awards".
16. "From the Earth to the Moon – Golden Globes".
17. (March 3, 1999). "Producers tap 'Ryan'; Kelly, Hanks TV winners". Variety.
18. "International Press Academy website – 1999 3rd Annual SATELLITE Awards".
19. Madigan, Nick. (January 13, 1999). "Cable pix please WGA".
20. "The 20th Annual Youth in Film Awards". Young Artist Awards.
21. "Nominees & Winners – Satellite™ Awards 2005 (10th Annual Satellite™ Awards)". [[International Press Academy]]. [[Satellite Awards]].