''From the Earth to the Moon'' is a 12-part 1998

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

television miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

co-produced by

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. He ...

Brian Grazer Brian Thomas Grazer (born July 12, 1951) is an American film and television producer and writer. He founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 with Ron Howard. The films they produced have grossed over $15 billion. Grazer was personally nominated f ...

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

, and Michael Bostick telling the story of the Apollo program during the 1960s and early 1970s in

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

format. Largely based on

Andrew Chaikin Andrew L. Chaikin (born June 24, 1956) is an American author, speaker and science journalist. He lives in Vermont. He is the author of ''A Man on the Moon'', a detailed description of the Apollo program, Apollo missions to the Moon. This book ...

's 1994 book, ''

A Man on the Moon ''A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts'' is a 1994 book by Andrew Chaikin. It describes the 1968-1972 voyages of the Apollo program astronauts in detail, from Apollo 8 to 17. :"A decade in the making, this book is based o ...

'', the series is known for its accurate telling of the story of Apollo and the

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

s under visual director Ernest D. Farino. The series takes its title from, but is not based upon, the 1865

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel ''

From the Earth to the Moon ''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' (french: De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil W ...

''. Hanks appears in every episode, introducing each of the first eleven. The last episode is represented in a pseudo- documentary format narrated by Blythe Danner, interspersed with a reenactment of the making of

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

' 1902 film ''

Le Voyage dans la Lune ''A Trip to the Moon'' (french: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French adventure film, adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel ''From the Earth to the Moon' ...

'', which was in part inspired by Verne's novel. Hanks narrates and appears in these scenes as Méliès' assistant.

Cast

The miniseries has a fairly large cast, driven in part by the fact that it portrays 30 of the 32 astronauts who flew, or were preparing to fly, the twelve missions of the Apollo program. (The only two Apollo astronauts not portrayed by credited actors are

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted aft ...

Command Module pilot

Jack Swigert John Leonard Swigert Jr. (August 30, 1931 – December 27, 1982) was an American NASA astronaut, test pilot, mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and politician. In April 1970, as command module pilot of Apollo ...

, who is heard but not seen in Episode 8, and

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on ...

Command Module pilot Ronald Evans, who has a brief appearance in the liftoff scene of

in the final episode.) Members of many of the astronauts' families, and other

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

and non-NASA personnel, are also portrayed. Several fictional (or fictionalized) characters are also included, notably television newscaster Emmett Seaborn (

Lane Smith Walter Lane Smith III (April 29, 1936 – June 13, 2005) was an American actor. His well-known roles included newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'', Walter Warner in '' Son in Law'', co ...

) who appears in nine of the twelve episodes. Astronaut

David Scott David Randolph Scott (born June 6, 1932) is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the seventh person to walk on the Moon. Selected as part of the third group of astronauts in 1963, Scott flew to space three times and c ...

, from

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program and the fourth to Moon landing, land on the Moon. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a ...

, was the chief technological consultant.

Episodes

The twelve episodes, each directed by different individuals, use a variety of viewpoints and themes, while sequentially covering the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

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.

Integration with existing films

The miniseries, concentrating on the

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

space program, was produced with an intent not to repeat other dramatic portrayals of events of the space race.

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

, 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 ''

'', 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 Peter Brett Cullen (born August 26, 1956) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Dan Fixx in ''Falcon Crest'' (1986-1988), Sam Cain in ''The Young Riders'' (1989-1990), Governor Ray Sullivan in ''The West Wing'' (2005-2006), Goo ...

, who played

Apollo 9 Apollo 9 (March 313, 1969) was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apollo program. Flown in low Earth orbit, it was the second crewed Apollo mission that the United States launched via a Saturn V rocket, and was the first flight of the ful ...

Command Module pilot and

commander

, 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 ''

'' 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 Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by Ma ...

) 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 The surface gravity, ''g'', of an astronomical object is the gravitational acceleration experienced at its surface at the equator, including the effects of rotation. The surface gravity may be thought of as the acceleration due to gravity experien ...

, weather balloons filled with helium were attached to the backs of the actors playing the astronauts in the lunar

extravehicular activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA in ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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 The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed ...

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

Awards and nominations

The series was nominated for seventeen Emmy awards and won three: Outstanding Miniseries, Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or a Movie and Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special. In addition, the series won a 1999

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, 1990s, Television, United States 1998 American television series debuts 1998 American television series endings 1998 in American television 1990s American television miniseries American biographical series Best Miniseries or Television Movie Golden Globe winners HBO original programming Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries winners Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series Science docudramas Television shows based on books Television series about the Apollo program Television series based on actual events Television series by Imagine Entertainment Television series by Home Box Office Television series by Playtone Cultural depictions of Georges Méliès Films scored by Mason Daring Cultural depictions of Buzz Aldrin Cultural depictions of Neil Armstrong Cultural depictions of Michael Collins (astronaut) Gus Grissom Wally Schirra Alan Shepard Deke Slayton Frank Borman Pete Conrad Jim Lovell James McDivitt Thomas P. Stafford Ed White (astronaut) John Young (astronaut) William Anders Alan Bean Gene Cernan Charles Duke Ronald Evans (astronaut) Richard F. Gordon Jr. James Irwin Ken Mattingly Edgar Mitchell Stuart Roosa David Scott Alfred Worden Harrison Schmitt Television series about astronauts