Tag Archives: from the earth to the moon

Jul 20

For all mankind

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While sorting through some things here in the apartment, I watched my three favorite episodes of the terrific, Tom Hanks-produced HBO miniseries, “From the Earth to the Moon,” which I have in a DVD box set.

  • “Can We Do This?” The first episode, a whirlwind tour of Alan Shepherd’s Mercury mission, JFK’s call for a moon landing, and the Gemini program, is almost too busy, but I don’t mind. It sets the stage for the rest of the miniseries and shows the genesis of the Apollo program. It also introduces the three characters who tie together all of the episodes: Deke Slayton (Nick Searcy, in an incredibly likeable performance), Chris Kraft (the always wonderful Stephen Root), and the fictional but Cronkite-inspired Emmett Seaborn (Lane Smith).
  • “Spider” The story of the Lunar Module, from concept to design to its first flight as part of Apollo 9. Grumman Aircraft executives Tom Kelly (Matt Craven) and Bob Carbee (Grant Shaud, best known for “Murphy Brown”) are portrayed wonderfully.
  • “Is That All There Is?” Alternately touching and hysterically funny, this is the story of Apollo 12, “the ultimate anticlimax,” as it is called at one point by central character and narrator Alan Bean (Dave Foley). It’s about the unusually close friendship among the crew members and about Bean’s highs (saving the day during a lightning strike just after launch) and lows (breaking the video camera and thus preventing most TV coverage of the mission).

Of course, you would think I would watch “Mare Tranquilatis” on this particular day. And it is a great episode. But I only had time for three, and the three I listed are my favorites.
“Mare Tranquilatis” is, let me repeat, a great achievement. But it’s also strangely distant. “Buzz” Aldrin (Bryan Cranston) is portrayed in a slightly unflattering way, as vainly fixated on being the first out of the LEM hatch. Neil Armstrong (Tony Goldwyn) is portrayed as honorable, but somewhat distant and aloof. Michael Collins (Cary Elwes) is somewhat more likable.

The whole miniseries, of course, is a remarkable achievement. If you can find a good deal on a box set (as I did last year), grab it.

Mar 18

To the moon!

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Today, in the course of editing a story, I had to explain to an under-30 co-worker that I grew up as a NASA geek. I was just at the right age to be transfixed by the space program. I remember my parents telling the babysitter to let me stay up past my bedtime (I was all of 7, although advanced for my age) so that I could watch Neil and Buzz make their famous moon walk.

So I’m fortunate that Tom Hanks’ brilliant “From The Earth To The Moon” aired during one of the brief interludes in my life when I actually subscribed to HBO. I was transfixed. I taped every episode, but since that time one of the tapes — the one which happened to include my two favorite episodes, “Spider” and “That’s All There Is.”

A really nice boxed DVD set was released a few weeks ago, but I never had the money and the inclination at the right time.

To take a little detour, you may have noticed that I have a lot of Amazon Associates links on this site. I signed up for the program years ago. I’ve made very, very little on it; I’ll go two years or more before accumulating enough of a commission for Amazon to credit it to my account. I’ve thought about just dropping it, and I may.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you that in this instance, I’m not including an Amazon link because I found a much better deal on this particular item. Half what you would pay at Amazon. I do not benefit in any way from telling you that; I just want you to watch this incredible miniseries.

My boxed set arrived today, and it’s loverly, as Eliza Doolittle would say. I have seen some complaints that this particular collection — which was re-mastered for widescreen — crops the image awkwardly in one or two places. But I don’t care. It looks a million times better than my off-air video tape, and it has special features and I just love it.

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