Trivia / From the Earth to the Moon

The book:

• Common Knowledge: the cover of the first edition has been considered by many to show a Multi-stage rocket ship flying to the moon, however if one looks closely◊ the “rocket” In question is actually a space train with little embossed “first class”, “second class”, and “third class“ seating.
• Defictionalization: Not Apollo 11. In the books they only orbited, which was done by Apollo 8, and the free-return trajectory followed by the projectile is most similar to the path of Apollo 13.
• Referenced by...: Prelude to Space, where it's subject to some Future Imperfect interpretation. Namely, that travel to Luna was developed in the late 1800's. And the Downer Ending was lost along the way.
• Science Marches On: Some of the facts in the book are wrong, but you can’t blame Verne for not knowing something that nobody else knew. Around the Moon in particular suffers from this, considering the book is mostly about three people discussing the moon and the space around them. Also, Verne personally knew that the moon couldn't be conquered by a projectile fired from a cannon, but he did it anyway, as rockets at the time were quite weak and not very impressive, to be honest.
• Write Who You Know: Michel Ardan is based on Verne's close friend Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, a famous photographer, journalist and aeronautics enthusiast, better known as Nadar. Gaspard appreciated it.
  • Ironically, in the sequel Ardan mentions Nadar as a model that the moonmen may have had a copy of.

The miniseries:

• Acting for Two: Billy West as Woody Woodpecker and the Capsule.
• Actor-Shared Background: Like his character Pete Conrad, Paul McCrane hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Directed by Cast Member: Besides directing "The Original Wives Club", Sally Field played Trudy Cooper.
• Fake American:
  • Toronto-born Dave Foley portrays the Texan Alan Bean.
  • Winchester native Cary Elwes also plays Michael Collins using a Washington, D.C. accent.
  • Ljubljana-born Slovenian actor Željko Ivanek plays Chicago native Ken Mattingly.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The series was unavailable for years on any of HBO's services, likely due to some of the effects aging. For the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11, the entire series was remastered.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Peter Scolari played Pete Conrad early in the series. In the actual Apollo 12 episode, the role was recast with Paul McCrane due to Scolari's scheduling conflicts with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
  • Jan Armstrong, Neil Armstrong's wife, was also depicted by two different actresses: Betsy Brantley, and Ann Cusack.
• Produced by Cast Member: Tom Hanks, in addition to introducing the first 11 parts, was the executive producer.
• Prop Recycling: With the exceptions of the first episode (which covered Mercury and Gemini) and the last three episodes (which covered the J-series missions which used an upgraded lunar module and introduced the lunar rover), a lot of sets and props from Apollo 13 were reused to make this miniseries.
• Self-Adaptation: Andrew Chaikin, whose book A Man on the Moon served as the basis for this series, was heavily involved as a consultant.
• Uncredited Role: Billy West as the animated capsule.
• You Look Familiar: Tom Hanks serves as the opening narrator for the first eleven parts. In "Les Voyages dans le Lune", Hanks portrays Jean-Luc Despont, who serves as Georges Méliès's assistant.

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