Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9408030009
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Observing the silver-as-moonglow anniversary of that ``one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,'' broadcast and cable networks have more than a dozen space specials on the pad.
The countdown starts tonight, as the first of five flight-related ``Biography'' editions remembers Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire social studies teacher who was picked for a space shuttle mission - and died with six fellow astronauts in the 1986 Challenger explosion. (``Biography'' airs on A&E weeknights at 8 p.m.)
Meanwhile, beginning at 8:05 p.m., TBS presents the first half of a bold, four-hour quest, ``Moon Shot'' (part two airs at the same time Wednesday).
The space race was fueled by a rich mix of courage, passion and fear of the Russians. On ``Moon Shot,'' two of the original ``Mercury 7'' astronauts, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, team up again. It's a very personal, yet wonderfully comprehensive survey of the U.S. space program from its inauspicious start in the late 1950s, up through Apollo-Soyuz in 1975, when American and Soviet crews left their differences behind to rendezvous in space.
In the nights to come, check the networks' flight plan for more specials on CNN, the Disney Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel, PBS and the Sci-Fi Channel.
It's a grand opportunity to savor, again and again, the transforming moment when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon - and to recall what went before.
But nearly every program, one way or another, also grapples with the nation's failure of will in the subsequent quarter-century.
That is the particular mission of ``Space: Last Frontier or Lost Frontier?'' (airing 10 p.m. Thursday), which examines the uncertain future of the U.S. space program. Hosted by Connie Chung, this ``CBS Reports'' charts the public's faded interest after July 20, 1969. By then the race had been won, and, for many people, space travel as a spectator sport became, by turns, prohibitively humdrum and calamitous.
``Now, 25 years later, as I look at the moon, it seems much further away,'' says Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean, another of the lucky ones who got there.
``It's kinda drifted away,'' he says longingly, ``and maybe that's the way dreams do.''
Be warned: Revisiting space is a bittersweet ride.
But it's fitting that, on this anniversary, TV wants to take us back. While the first moon landing may not have capped the world's greatest week ``since the Creation'' (in President Nixon's overheated words), it did occasion TV's finest hour.
With the sort of single-mindedness now reserved for O.J. Simpson, the three U.S. networks each surrounded the moon-walk ``show'' with some 30 hours of nonstop coverage.
One-fifth of the world's population gathered to watch the ghostly gray images of Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 voyagers bouncing with ethereal fuzziness in a dream come true. The sight wasn't just eye-popping but, in the lingo of the day, mind-blowing.
``To have that experience in one's own home was hard to grasp,'' wrote the New York Times' Jack Gould that week, ``and virtually defied description.''
Even today, words still come up short, although Walter Cronkite's candid take continues to serve as well as any: ``Hot diggity dog!'' Uncle Walter erupted for millions to hear.
For a reminder of what life - and television - was like when we still had the capacity to be so amazed, TV's return to outer space is a precious thing.
And it is a privilege, as well, to reconnect with some of those pioneers from Apollo, Gemini and, earliest of all, Project Mercury.
The passage of time is most strikingly gauged by their faces. For instance: Can Alan Shepard - that magnificent man who took his Mercury flying machine for a 15-minute, suborbital hop, and then, a mere decade later, whacked a golf ball on the moon - REALLY be 70 years old?
Never mind. The rest of us, who may never get to go, are so much older.
Elsewhere in television ...
JUST A KISS?: Lock up the kids and hide your eyes. That episode of ``Roseanne'' airs again this week. Gulp. You know. THAT episode. When Roseanne is kissed by Nancy's lesbian lover (played by Mariel Hemingway). You know. The controversial episode that had ABC in a tizzy and star Roseanne Arnold screaming ``censorship.'' And then aired in March and drew a huge audience. That episode will be repeated Tuesday at 9 p.m. Like ``Roseanne'' most every week, it's both funny and telling.
by CNB