There are two things, historically speaking, that really grab my attention and for which I cannot get enough of: war and space. From the Earth to the Moon is the story of the latter and specifically the Apollo program that led mankind to make its first steps on the surface of another world. The story of the space race in the 1960's has always fascinated me and as I write this I can think of no single achievement in human history that rivals the moon landing. This mini-series, released on HBO in 1998, captures the grandeur of the trip we made to our sister world nearly 50 years ago. From the Earth to the Moon is an anthology series that tells many different stories in different ways. There are straight forward episodes like Mare Tranquilitatis about the famous Apollo 11 landing alongside other stories like "Spider" about the construction of the Lunar Module or "The Original Wives Club" about the wives of the brave astronauts and while there's some good stuff contained in the off stories, the real bread and butter of this tale are the episodes directly involving the moon landings. While it's ok to visit some other tales what you really want is to see Alan Shepard or Pete Conrad treking through the lunar dust. The mini-series is great and probably, along with the film Apollo 13, is the best story of the thousands of people who participated in the greatest journey of mankind's history, but the show never really reaches the highs that it could (I'm looking at you "The Original Wives Club"), but thankfully never reaches the lows either. If you are fascinated with manned space flight like myself then check out "From the Earth to the Moon" and you won't be disappointed.

Site rules make me say "Spoilers" but Good Grief, who doesn't know this story? Episodes 1-6 follow a linear storyline, more or less. From the 1st manned Mercury to Apollo 11 which traveled " from the Earth to the moon" in Episode 6. I rank those episodes 10 of 10 but there's 6 hours of TV to follow. 6 hours of Truly Boring side stories, back stories and such, or maybe they're boringly told. Do yourself a favor and stop after Episode 6. The first 6 Episodes/Hours are among the best TV I've watched. You'll laugh, you'll cry and save yourself 6 hours. Skip episodes 7-12, it's like being grounded. On a side note and coincidentally(?) Episodes 1-6 are each 56-59 minutes long while Episodes 7-12 are 49 minutes long! I don't know what this means but..... Enjoy the first 6!

As someone born in 1959, I grew up with the space program. I was a bit too young for Mercury but I a handful of truly vivid memories from my lifetime. One of those was Apollo 1 and another, of course, was sitting in my living room with my parents on a hot July evening in New York watching, as man first landed and then walked on the moon.As the parent of a teenager, who has had the good fortune to be fairly well traveled, I have had the opportunity to visit a number of NASA facilities over the years with my son. We've even been to the Cape for a number of shuttle launches and landings. So I have naturally discussed what the this time period was like and the impact the Moon landings had on the US and the world. However I don't think he really had a grasp of what I was talking about until he watched this series when it originally aired on HBO.Of course, we added the DVD Set to our collection the day it was released and it has had a workout ever since. I consider this a must for anyone with children. Not only does it do an outstanding job of giving a fairly factual account of the of the events surrounding mans voyage from the Earth to the Moon, but it also gives those who were not alive to witness it first hand a sense of the excitement, wonder, awe and worry a great portion of the world experienced in the 4 years between December 1968 and December 1972.Unfortunately, events such as those depicted in this series are not ones we are not likely to see again in our lifetimes. Hopefully our children will. They will experience it when man finally sets foot on Mars. Perhaps this series will inspire tomorrow's engineers and astronauts to see to it that we do!

This is one hell of a production! It starts out with the Mercury missions, but not just the glossy scenes we know and have seen already, it goes beyond the norm. This 12 part series explains the absolute minutia of the space effort and the lives of the people behind it. It progresses through the Gemini and finally the Apollo missions all the way to the last Apollo 17 lunar landing.I learned quite a few things about the space race that I never knew before, such as: The surly nature of Alan Shepard, the fate of the astronauts wives, the fun nature of the Apollo 12 crew and the internal politics within the ranks of the astronauts themselves. I was also surprised on how much a bastard that Walter Mondale was in his attempts on derailing the space program. (I'm glad his bid for the White House was a failed one... Ignorance favors all political parties.)A lot of familiar faces starred in this production, the one that knocked me for a loop was Malcolm in the Middle's father as Buzz Aldrin. The acting is great and shows the versatility of the actors in both comedic and serious roles. I knew that Pete Conrad was cocky, but it shows more of his personality here. Armstrong has been known to be rather sullen and quiet, and is clearly demonstrated here as well. To this day, he doesn't talk much about his adventure. The decision determining who will be the first man on the moon is blunt and anti-climatic, but it tells it as it is. It tells of the astronauts secret activities and agendas, as well as particular small moments that they experienced.In the Apollo 13 segment, the production did not go into the details of the incident like we all seen before, but rather focused on the reporters angle on the event. And I rather enjoyed the insight sweat details on the building of the L.E.M. I wish they did a segment on the rover. I thought that they labored too long over the Apollo 16 mission - training much...learning geology with a trained eye, but I appreciate the effort that they went through. The Apollo 1 tragedy was produced well, with the political aftermath fallout. I hope that all what was filmed is true, and I do understand creative license, but I would feel better if I knew they kept it faithful to actual events. I need to view this again to catch more, but I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the space program. JoeChicago Astronomer http://astronomer.proboards23.com