FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON: 1968 {PART 4 OF 12} (TV)
Summary
Continued from T:53238. Part four of this twelve-part docudrama series about the development of the U.S. space program as the country prepares to send men to the moon. Part four, entitled "1968," dramatizes the harrowing events of that year and the mission of Apollo 8. The program begins in January with the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War, and moves into February with the construction of the capsule that will send men to the moon. In March, the anti-war movement and the cost of the space program are controversial issues. In April, the biggest rocket ever built blasts off for an unmanned test, but on the same day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is tragically assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. In June, Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in California, sending shock waves through the households of U.S. astronauts. In August, the CIA learns that the Soviets may send a man to the moon before the U.S. Deke Slayton asks astronaut Frank Borman whether he would be willing to take his crew -- Jim Lovell and Bill Anders -- into lunar orbit earlier then expected. As the summer closes, social and civil unrest erupts at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and on the streets of European cities. In October, the Soviet Union sends an unmanned capsule into lunar orbit and NASA recognizes that the U.S. must respond quickly to stay ahead in the space race. By late December, Apollo 8 prepares to blast off for their lunar orbit mission as the Borman family watches on television, fearful of what might happen considering the tragic events of the year. As the craft heads toward the moon, Borman becomes ill and he is hesitant to inform NASA, but his health improves. Meanwhile, Susan Borman worries about her husband and composes a letter about the astronauts who died. While orbiting the moon during a communications blackout, Anders sees the Earth rising above the moon's horizon. On Christmas Eve, once communications have resumed, Borman describes the surface of the moon to everyone on Earth. Tension mounts during the most untested part of the mission, when the astronauts must fire the engine. As Apollo 8 flies back to Earth, another communication blackout ensues until Houston receives the astronauts' message that "there really is a Santa Claus." Mission control then reads some of the hundreds of telegrams they've received. Continues with T:53265.
This selection from the Alan Gerry Cable Collection has been made available by the Gerry Foundation, Inc.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: April 12, 1998 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:53:57
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:53239
- GENRE: Docudrama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, historical; Apollo 8; Space exploration; Space flight to the moon; Astronauts; Assassinations
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV series, 1998
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Tom Hanks … Executive Producer
- Tony To … Co-Executive Producer
- Graham Yost … Supervising Producer
- John Melfi … Supervising Producer
- Brian Grazer … Producer
- Ron Howard … Producer
- Michael Bostick … Producer
- Erik Bork … Co-Producer
- Bruce Richmond … Co-Producer
- Janace Tashjian … Co-Producer
- Terry Odem … Associate Producer
- David Frankel … Director
- Al Reinert … Writer
- Andrew Chaikin … Based in part on the book "A Man on the Moon" by
- Michael Kamen … Music by, Theme Music by
- Brandon Ambrose … Cast, Edwin Borman
- Sam Anderson … Cast, Thomas Paine
- David Andrews … Cast, Frank Borman
- Robert John Burke … Cast, Bill Anders
- Maury Covington … Cast, CIA #2
- Tim Daly … Cast, Jim Lovell
- Keith Dickerson … Cast, the Engineer
- Steve DuMouchel … Cast, the NASA Representative
- Cary Elwes … Cast, Michael Collins
- Tracy Frenkel … Cast, Rocco Petrone
- David Drew Gallagher … Cast, Retro
- Andrew Heller … Cast, CIA #1
- Jim Howard … Cast, William Schneider
- Steve Howard … Cast, Capcom
- John Carroll Lynch … Cast, Bob Gilruth
- Andy Milder … Cast, Guido
- Holmes Osborne … Cast, George Low
- Eric Paisley … Cast, the BBC News Anchor
- Mike Pniewski … Cast, the Surgeon
- Robert Quinn … Cast, Eecom
- Michael Roddy … Cast, Fido
- Stephen Root … Cast, Chris Kraft
- Nick Searcy … Cast, Deke Slayton
- Brian Shields … Cast, Fred Borman
- Kurt Smildsin … Cast, Flight Director #1
- Lane Smith … Cast, Emmett Seaborn
- Graham Timbes … Cast, Flight Director #2
- Kristian Truelson … Cast, Kurt Debus
- Robert Walker … Cast, GNC
- Rick Warner … Cast, Julian Borman
- Norbert Weisser … Cast, Wernher Von Braun
- John Wickersham … Cast, Fido #2
- Rita Wilson … Cast, Susan Borman
- Steve Zurk … Cast, George Hage
- Robert Kennedy
- Martin Luther King, Jr.