From the Earth to the Moon was a twelve part HBOtelevisionminiseries (1998) co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, and Michael Bostick detailing the landmark Apollo expeditions to the Moon during the 1960s and early 1970s. Largely based on Andrew Chaikin 's book, A Man on the Moon , the series is known for its superbly accurate telling of the story of Apollo and outstanding special effects.
The series has only one small segment on the Mercury program and does not recap any of the material shown in The Right Stuff. Hanks, Howard and Grazer had produced Apollo 13 only recently and did not reproduce any of that movie's scenes in this series, concentrating instead on the media reaction to Apollo 13.
The episodes of the series are:
Can We Do This? tells the story of the decision to go to the moon and covers the Mercury and Gemini programs.
Apollo 1 is the story of the fire and subsequent investigation of the Apollo 1 accident.
We Have Cleared the Tower tells the story of the recovery and preparation for the flight of Apollo 7.
1968 reminds us of the events of the year 1968 which culminated in Man's first flight to the Moon during Apollo 8.
Spider tells the story of the development of the Lunar Module and of its first manned flight during Apollo 9.
That's All There Is tells the story of a flight to the Moon from the point of view of Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean on Apollo 12.
We Interrupt This Program shows the reporters' view of the 'successful failure' of Apollo 13.
For Miles and Miles details the return to flight of Alan Shepard and his mission to the moon on Apollo 14.
Galileo Was Right shows the scientific side of the Apollo program and the training the Apollo astronauts went through to become geologists on the Moon's surface, culminating in the Apollo 15 mission.
The Original Wives Club tells the story of Apollo from the point of view of the wives who had to endure the dangers of spaceflight at home, framed by the Apollo 16 mission.
Susan Borman 's party guest (Episode 11) (uncredited)
A number of actors who appeared in the movies Apollo 13 (Tom Hanks, Chris Ellis, Brett Cullen, Clint Howard) and The Right Stuff (David Clennon) appear in this series, but as different characters. None of the characters from either movie were reprised by the same actors for this series. Because of the large cast of characters this can lead to some confusion in terms of who is who.
