From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries) explained

Genre:	Docudrama
Runtime:	60 minutes
Producer:	Brian Grazer Ron Howard Michael Bostick
Executive Producer:	Tom Hanks
Theme Music Composer:	Michael Kamen
Composer:	Michael Kamen Mark Mancina Mark Isham Mason Daring James Newton Howard Brad Fiedel Jeff Beal Marc Shaiman
Country:	United States
Company:	Imagine Television HBO Original Programming
Language:	English
Network:	HBO
Num Episodes:	12

From the Earth to the Moon is a twelve-part 1998 HBO television miniseries co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks and Michael Bostick. In docudrama format, it tells the story of the Apollo program during the 1960s and early 1970s. Largely based on Andrew Chaikin's 1994 book, A Man on the Moon, the series is known for its accurate telling of the story of Apollo and the special effects under visual director Ernest D. Farino. The series takes its title from, but is not based upon, Jules Verne's 1865 science fiction novel From 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 by Blythe Danner, interspersed with a reenactment of the production of Georges Méliès' 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune, also in part inspired by Verne's novel. Hanks narrates and appears in these scenes as Méliès' assistant, with Tchéky Karyo as Méliès.

Cast

See main article: List of From the Earth to the Moon cast members.

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 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 twelve episodes.

Astronaut David Scott, from Apollo 15, was the chief technological consultant.^[2]

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. 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.

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.^[3]

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

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
	Artios Awards	Best Casting for Mini-Series	Meg Liberman, Marc Hirschfeld, and Deborah Brown		^[4]
	Online Film & Television Association Awards	Best Miniseries			^[5]
		Best Direction of a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Writing of a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Costume Design in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Editing in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Lighting in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best New Titles Sequence in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best New Theme Song in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Production Design in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Sound in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
		Best Visual Effects in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
	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		^[6]
		Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Movie	Tom Hanks
		Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie	Graham Yost
		Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or a Movie	Richard Toyon, Kitty Doris-Bates, Seth Reed, Amy Wells, and Michele Poulik
		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
		Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Movie
		Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries or a Movie	Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko
		Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special	Vicky Phillips and Lynda Gurasich
		Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special	Gina Lamendola, Greg Cannom, and Ve Neill
		Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Movie (Dramatic Underscore)
		Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie	Laurie Grotstein
		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
		Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Miniseries or a Movie	Joe Foglia, Scott Millan, and Brad Sherman
			Joe Foglia, Rick Ash, and Adam Sawelson
			Joe Foglia, Kevin Patrick Burns, and Todd Orr
		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
	Television Critics Association Awards	Program of the Year			^[7]
		Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials
	American Cinema Editors Awards	Best Edited Two-Hour Movie for Non-Commercial Television	Richard Pearson		^[8]
	Art Directors Guild Awards	Excellence in Production Design Award – Television Movie or Mini-Series	Richard Toyon, Kitty Doris-Bates, and Seth Reed		^[9]
	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		^[10]
	Costume Designers Guild Awards	Excellence in Costume Design for Television	Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko		^[11]
	Critics' Choice Awards	Best Picture Made for Television			^[12]
	Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television or Miniseries			^[13]
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television			^[14]
	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		^[15]
		Visionary Award	Tom Hanks
	Satellite Awards	Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television			^[16]
		Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television	Kevin Pollak
		Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television	David Clennon
		Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television	Rita Wilson
	Writers Guild of America Awards	Television: Episodic Drama	Graham Yost		^[17]
	Young Artist Awards	Best Educational TV Show or Series			^[18]
	Satellite Awards	Outstanding Overall DVD			^[19]

See also

• Apollo 11 in popular culture

Notes and References

1. News: Hanks' "Earth to Moon' a real blast. Goodman. Tim. SF Gate. April 3, 1998.
2. News: Television; From Earth to the Moon and Back, for More Bows. Nichols. Peter M.. The New York Times. September 6, 1998.
3. Web site: From the Earth to the Moon: 2005 Signature Series DVD Box set, user's comments. Amazon .
4. Web site: 1998 Artios Awards. November 4, 1998 . July 6, 2023 . www.castingsociety.com . en.
5. Web site: 2nd Annual TV Awards (1997-98) . Online Film & Television Association . July 2, 2023.
6. Web site: From the Earth to the Moon . Emmys.com . . March 27, 2022.
7. Web site: TV critics honor Hanks and 'Earth to the Moon'. July 23, 1998 . . June 18, 2013.
8. Web site: Nominees/Winners . . April 3, 2019.
9. Web site: 3rd Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards . January 18, 2017 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160326011832/http://www.adg.org/?art=1998_award . March 26, 2016.
10. Web site: Nominees/Winners . . May 6, 2019.
11. Web site: The 1st Costume Designers Guild Awards (1999) . . July 2, 2023.
12. Web site: Broadcast Film critics name 'Saving Private Ryan' best film . Clinton . Paul . . January 26, 1999 . September 11, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170305021108/http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9901/26/broadcast.film.awards/ . live . March 5, 2017.
13. Web site: 51st DGA Awards . . July 5, 2021.
14. Web site: From the Earth to the Moon – Golden Globes . . July 7, 2023 . .
15. News: Madigan. Nick. Producers tap 'Ryan'; Kelly, Hanks TV winners. September 22, 2017. Variety. March 3, 1999. https://web.archive.org/web/20170923124450/http://variety.com/1999/film/news/pvt-1st-class-1117491899/. September 23, 2017. live.
16. Web site: International Press Academy website – 1999 3rd Annual SATELLITE Awards . https://web.archive.org/web/20080201175700/http://www.pressacademy.com/satawards/awards1999.shtml . 1 February 2008.
17. Web site: Cable pix please WGA . Madigan, Nick . January 13, 1999 . . December 7, 2021.
18. Web site: The 20th Annual Youth in Film Awards . Young Artist Awards . 2017-03-24 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20161128203408/http://www.youngartistawards.org/pastnoms20.htm . 2016-11-28.
19. Web site: Nominees & Winners – Satellite™ Awards 2005 (10th Annual Satellite™ Awards) . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080202163316/http://www.pressacademy.com/satawards/awards2005b.shtml . February 2, 2008 . April 7, 2019.