| From the Earth to the Moon | |
|---|---|
 Title caption | |
| Genre | Docudrama |
| Based on | A Man on the Moon byAndrew Chaikin |
| Theme music composer | Michael Kamen |
| Composers | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Tom Hanks |
| Producers |
|
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production companies |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | HBO |
| Release | April 5 (1998-04-05) – May 10, 1998 (1998-05-10) |
From the Earth to the Moon is a 1998 American twelve-parttelevision miniseries co-produced byRon Howard,Brian Grazer,Tom Hanks and Michael Bostick. The series aired onHBO from April 5 to May 10, 1998. Indocudrama format, it tells the story of theApollo program during the 1960s and early 1970s. Largely based onAndrew Chaikin's 1994 book,A Man on the Moon, the series is known for its accurate telling of the story of Apollo and thespecial effects under visual director Ernest D. Farino. The series takes its title from, but is not based upon,Jules Verne's 1865science fiction novelFrom the Earth to the Moon.
Hanks appears in every episode, introducing each of the first eleven.[1] The twelfth and final episode, represented in pseudo-documentary format, is narrated byBlythe Danner, interspersed with a reenactment of the production ofGeorges Méliès' 1902 filmLe Voyage dans la Lune, also in part inspired by Verne's novel. Hanks narrates and appears in these scenes as Méliès' assistant, withTchéky Karyo as Méliès.
The miniseries has a fairly large cast. It portrays 30 of the32 astronauts who flew, or were preparing to fly, the 12 missions of theApollo program. (The only two Apollo astronauts not portrayed by credited actors areApollo 13Command Module pilotJack Swigert, who is heard but not seen in Episode 8, andApollo 17 Command Module pilotRonald Evans, who has a brief appearance in the liftoff scene ofApollo 17 in the final episode.) Members of many of the astronauts' families, and otherNASA 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.
AstronautDavid Scott, fromApollo 15, was the chief technological consultant.[2]
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.
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Can We Do This?" | Tom Hanks[3] | Steven Katz | April 5, 1998 (1998-04-05)[3] | |
Covers the early years of the United States' "Space Race" with theSoviet Union, including the creation ofNASA and the decision to send men to the Moon. Provides an overview of theMercury andGemini programs, concentrating on reconstructions ofAlan Shepard's pioneeringFreedom 7 Mercury flight;Ed White's first US spacewalk onGemini 4, the near-disastrous in-flight failure duringNeil Armstrong's andDavid Scott'sGemini 8 mission; and the successful completion of Gemini withBuzz Aldrin's perfection ofextravehicular activity onGemini 12. | |||||
| 2 | "Apollo One" | David Frankel | Graham Yost | April 5, 1998 (1998-04-05) | |
Portrays the tragedy of theApollo 1 fire from the perspective of its subsequent investigation by NASA and the US Congress. Its effects on key individuals are shown, includingHarrison Storms ofNorth American Aviation,Joseph Shea of NASA, astronautFrank Borman charged with supporting NASA's investigation, and the widows ofGus Grissom,Ed White andRoger Chaffee. | |||||
| 3 | "We Have Cleared the Tower" | Lili Fini Zanuck | Remi Aubuchon | April 12, 1998 (1998-04-12) | |
Portrays the Apollo program's recovery to crewed flight after the Apollo 1 tragedy, from the perspective of a fictional documentary team covering the flight ofApollo 7. This flight is commanded by strong-willed Mercury veteranWally Schirra, who is focused on safety after the death of his colleague Grissom. Pad LeaderGuenter Wendt, another zealous guardian of astronaut safety, is featured by the documentary team. | |||||
| 4 | "1968" | David Frankel | Al Reinert | April 12, 1998 (1998-04-12) | |
DepictsApollo 8's historic first crewed lunar flight, as the redemption of an otherwise strife-torn year filled with political assassinations, war, and unrest. Documentary footage of the turbulent political events are interspersed with the drama, which is mostly filmed in black and white except for scenes aboard the spacecraft and some color newsreel footage. The fears of mission commanderFrank Borman's wife Susan of the possibility of her husband dying in a spacecraft trapped in lunar orbit are highlighted. Includes theApollo 8 Genesis reading. | |||||
| 5 | "Spider" | Graham Yost[4] | Andy Wolk[4] | April 19, 1998 (1998-04-19) | |
Returns to 1961, and NASA engineerJohn Houbolt's lonely fight to convince management that the easiest way to land men on the Moon will be to use a separate landing craft employinglunar orbit rendezvous. It then traces the design and development of theLunar Module by a team led byGrumman engineerTom Kelly. Covers the selection and training of the first crew to fly it,James McDivitt andRusty Schweickart (along withCommand Module pilotDavid Scott), and culminates with their first flight ofSpider in Earth orbit onApollo 9 andApollo 10's lunar "dress rehearsal". | |||||
| 6 | "Mare Tranquilitatis" | Frank Marshall | Al Reinert Graham Yost Tom Hanks | April 19, 1998 (1998-04-19) | |
A dramatization of theApollo 11 first Moon landing atTranquility Base inMare Tranquillitatis ("Sea of Tranquility") is interspersed with flashback sequences of Emmett Seaborn's television interview with the crew of Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin, and Command Module pilotMichael Collins. | |||||
| 7 | "That's All There Is" | Jon Turteltaub | Paul McCudden Erik Bork Tom Hanks | April 26, 1998 (1998-04-26) | |
The story of theApollo 12 second lunar landing mission is told by Lunar Module PilotAlan Bean. Bean, the last member ofNASA Astronaut Group 3 to fly in space, narrates his experience with the tightly-knit, all-Navy crew commanded by Gemini veteranPete Conrad, and accepts with humor and grace his responsibility for the failure of the first color TV camera on the lunar surface, and for almost fracturing his own skull by failing to properly secure the Command Module's TV camera before splashdown. | |||||
| 8 | "We Interrupt This Program" | David Frankel | Peter Osterlund Amy Brooke Baker | April 26, 1998 (1998-04-26) | |
This episode covers the perilous flight ofApollo 13 entirely from the ground point of view; the astronauts are only heard on radio. VeteranTV spaceflight reporter Emmett Seaborn (Lane Smith) is summoned to broadcast the breaking news of the in-flight failure, as young reporter Brett Hutchings (Jay Mohr) is pulled off of sports to help with the coverage. As the crisis unfolds, Seaborn finds himself at odds with Hutchings' style of sensationalizing its impact on the astronauts' families, and criticizing NASA. Seaborn starts to feel he is being marginalized when the network decides to leave Hutchings on location in Houston, while sending him back to headquarters to provide only background coverage. The last straw falls when, after the successful recovery of the astronauts, Hutchings horns in on his traditional post-flight interview with flight controllerGene Kranz. Seaborn leaves dejectedly, not to be seen again until the episode on Apollo 17. A running gag in the episode about a proposed flight to Neptune was a reference to theVoyager 2 mission, one of NASA’s greatest triumphs. | |||||
| 9 | "For Miles and Miles" | Gary Fleder | Erik Bork | May 3, 1998 (1998-05-03) | |
In 1964, while riding high on his fame as America's first man in space and his expected command of the first Gemini mission,Alan Shepard is suddenly struck withMénière's disease, characterized by vertigo and nausea. Flight operations directorDeke Slayton must ground him, but offers him the job of chief astronaut, effectively making Shepard Slayton's assistant as supervisor of all the astronauts. A few years later, a surgeon tries an experimental surgery which cures Shepard's symptoms, and he is returned to the flight rotation, commandingApollo 14 in early 1971, which accomplishes Apollo 13's failed Fra Mauro landing. Shepard brings asix-iron golf club head on board, which he fastens to a soil-collecting tool handle and uses to hit a ball "for miles and miles". | |||||
| 10 | "Galileo Was Right" | David Carson | Jeffrey Fiskin Remi Aubuchon | May 3, 1998 (1998-05-03) | |
Scientist astronautHarrison "Jack" Schmitt, a geologist, persuades his mentor, professorLee Silver, to train the Apollo astronauts in selecting appropriate rock samples to collect through field experience, rather than the boring classroom lectures NASA has been using. Silver takes the fourApollo 15 prime and backup landing crew members (David Scott,James Irwin,Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Schmitt) to the southwestern desert, while lunar geologistFarouk El-Baz trains the Command Module pilots (Alfred Worden andVance D. Brand) in high-altitude recognition of geological features using airplane flights over Hawaii. Schmitt is disappointed to learn his own Apollo 18 flight will be cancelled, but he still believes the training of the other astronauts is vital. It pays off when Scott and Irwin find the "Genesis Rock", originally believed to come from the Moon's primordial crust. The title refers to Scott's reproduction of an experiment provingGalileo's hypothesis thatgravity will cause bodies of differing masses to fall at the same rate in a vacuum, by dropping a hammer and a feather. | |||||
| 11 | "The Original Wives Club" | Sally Field | Karen Janszen Tom Hanks Erik Bork | May 10, 1998 (1998-05-10) | |
Shows the Apollo program from the point of view of thenine wives ofNASA's second group of astronauts, from 1962 beyond the end of the program. The burdens placed on them include maintaining a home while presenting a positive image to the news media, shielding their husbands from any family concerns which could affect their position in the flight rotation or ability to return to Earth safely, and comforting each other in the face of tragedies which killElliot See and Ed White. The episode is anchored by theApollo 16 mission, during which recently marriedKen Mattingly loses his wedding ring in the Command Module, and Lunar Module pilotCharles Duke finds it while Mattingly is performing a walk in deep space. | |||||
| 12 | "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" | Jonathan Mostow | Tom Hanks | May 10, 1998 (1998-05-10) | |
The story of the final lunar mission,Apollo 17, is told as apseudo-documentary set several decades after the fact. Simulated interviews of various characters such as Emmett Seaborn and flight directorChristopher C. Kraft Jr., in old-age makeup, are included. The documentary is interspersed with the story of early French film makerGeorges Méliès' creation of his vision of a trip to the Moon, the 1902 filmLe Voyage dans la Lune. Scenes from the original film are merged with the recreation of its filming. | |||||
The miniseries, concentrating on theApollo 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 filmThe Right Stuff, was briefly summarized in the first episode. Miniseries producers Hanks, Howard and Grazer, who had previously produced the 1995 filmApollo 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.
Many of the actors had opportunity to interact and form friendships with the real life astronauts they were portraying.Brett Cullen, who playedApollo 9Command Module pilot andApollo 15 commanderDavid 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 ofApollo 13 were used in "That's All There Is"; a splashdown sequence, and a view of the recovery shipUSSIwo Jima (portrayed byUSSNew Orleans).
The original series was shot inSuper 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.[5][better source needed]
Parts of the miniseries were filmed at the Disney-MGM Studios (nowDisney'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 lunarsurface gravity, weather balloons filled with helium were attached to the backs of the actors playing the astronauts in the lunarextravehicular activity scenes, effectively reducing their weights to one-sixth.
The score of "Spider" prominently features an imitation of the main title theme from the 1963World War II movieThe Great Escape, and Tom Kelly jokes about having a crew digging a tunnel out of the Grumman plant. The episode also featured a realApollo Lunar Module (LM-13), which had been built for the Apollo 18 mission but was never used due to budget cuts.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | Artios Awards | Best Casting for Mini-Series | Meg Liberman, Marc Hirschfeld, and Deborah Brown | Nominated | [6] |
| Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Miniseries | Nominated | [7] | ||
| Best Direction of a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Best Writing of a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Won | ||||
| Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Best Costume Design in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Best Editing in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Won | ||||
| Best Lighting in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Won | ||||
| Best Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Best New Titles Sequence in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Best New Theme Song in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Best Production Design in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Best Sound in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Best Visual Effects in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nominated | ||||
| Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Miniseries | Tom Hanks,Tony To,John Melfi, Graham Yost, Michael Bostick, Brian Grazer,Ron Howard, Erik Bork, Bruce Richmond, and Janace Tashjian | Won | [8] | |
| Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Movie | Tom Hanks(for "Can We Do This?") | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie | Graham Yost(for "Apollo One") | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or a Movie | Richard Toyon, Kitty Doris-Bates, Seth Reed, Amy Wells, and Michele Poulik (for "Le Voyage Dans La Lune") | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or a Movie | Craig Fincannon, Mark Fincannon, Marc Hirschfeld, Sharon Klein, Meg Liberman, Lisa Mae Wells Fincannon, and Deborah Brown | Won | |||
| Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Movie | Gale Tattersall(for "Can We Do This?") | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries or a Movie | Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko (for "Le Voyage Dans La Lune") | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special | Vicky Phillips and Lynda Gurasich | Won | |||
| Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special | Gina Lamendola,Greg Cannom, and Ve Neill | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Movie (Dramatic Underscore) | Michael Kamen(for "1968") | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie | Laurie Grotstein(for "Can We Do This?") | Nominated | |||
| Richard Pearson(for "1968") | Nominated | ||||
| Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special | Richard Taylor, Barbara Issak, Brian Thomas Nist, Joe Earle, Christopher Brooks, Jerry Edemann, David Melhase, James A. Williams, Benjamin Beardwood, Dennis Gray, Alyson Dee Moore, and Patricia Nedd (for "Can We Do This?") | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Miniseries or a Movie | Joe Foglia, Scott Millan, and Brad Sherman (for "1968") | Nominated | |||
| Joe Foglia, Rick Ash, and Adam Sawelson (for "That's All There Is") | Nominated | ||||
| Joe Foglia, Kevin Patrick Burns, and Todd Orr(for "La Voyage Dans La Lune") | Nominated | ||||
| Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special | David Altenau, Tony Cutrono,Burt Dalton, Ernest Farino, Matthew Gratzner, John Hoffman,Evan Jacobs, Adam Lovell, Eroc Moralls, James Roberts, and Ariel Velasco-Shaw(for "1968") | Nominated | |||
| Television Critics Association Awards | Program of the Year | Won | [9] | ||
| Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials | Won | ||||
1999 | American Cinema Editors Awards | Best Edited Two-Hour Movie for Non-Commercial Television | Richard Pearson(for "1968") | Nominated | [10] |
| Art Directors Guild Awards | Excellence in Production Design Award – Television Movie or Mini-Series | Richard Toyon, Kitty Doris-Bates, and Seth Reed | Won | [11] | |
| Cinema Audio Society Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television – Movie of the Week, Mini-Series or Specials | Joe Foglia, Kevin Patrick Burns, and Todd Orr(for "Le Voyage Dans La Lune") | Won | [12] | |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards | Excellence in Costume Design for Television | Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko | Nominated | [13] | |
| Critics' Choice Awards | Best Picture Made for Television | Won | [14] | ||
| Directors Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television or Miniseries | Jon Turteltaub(for "That's All There Is") | Nominated | [15] | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television | Won | [16] | ||
| Producers Guild of America Awards | Best Long-Form Television | Tom Hanks, Tony To, John P. Melfi, Graham Yost, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Michael Bostick, Erik Bork, Bruce Richmond, and Janace Tashjian | Won | [17] | |
| Visionary Award | Tom Hanks | Won | |||
| Satellite Awards | Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television | Won | [18] | ||
| Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television | Kevin Pollak | Nominated | |||
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television | David Clennon | Won | |||
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television | Rita Wilson | Won | |||
| Writers Guild of America Awards | Television: Episodic Drama | Graham Yost(for "Apollo One") | Nominated | [19] | |
| Young Artist Awards | Best Educational TV Show or Series | Won | [20] | ||
2005 | Satellite Awards | Outstanding Overall DVD | Won | [21] | |
