Sid and Marty Krofft's Magical Space Trip
From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.
Sid and Marty Krofft's Magical Space Trip was the first show produced for television by the ingenious team of Sid and Marty Krofft. A prime-time miniseries shown simultaneously on ABC, NBC and CBS, Magical Space Trip was the fictional story of man's first flight to the Moon.
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Show Origins
In 1961, movie director Oliver Stone and then-President JFK came up with a secret scheme to discredit the Soviet space program. Nicknamed Project Apollo, the idea was to land an American on the Moon, thus showing the world the evils of communism and possibly putting an end to the Cold War. With help from a team of noted rocket scientists led by Werner Von Braun, Stone and JFK began a series of test launches in the New Mexico desert. However, a tragedy minor incident in 1967 almost meant the end of the project. Knowing that televising a "successful" Moon landing was critical for national pride and America's international prestige, Stone turned to the Kroffts for help.
Production
It isn't an understatement to say that, without the Krofft brothers' unique vision, the "first flight to the Moon" never would have happened. Gigantic sets and sound stages were built deep in the desert. Great care was taken to make everything look just like outer space, and to make it look like the laws of physics were being obeyed at all times. Casting took months but, eventually, the crew for the mock spaceflight was chosen.
- Murphy Brown, as the young and eager astronaut Neil Armstrong,
- H. R. Pufnstuf, as the big-headed and big-hearted Buzz Aldrin, and
- Peter Scolari, as the guy they left up in the capsule.
The Lunar Landing
After several delays in production, mainly due to Pufnstuf's increasing substance abuse problems, the show finally hit the airwaves on July 16, 1969. Unlike most miniseries which air over the course of weeks, months or even years, Magical Space Trip aired almost continuously for eight days. On July 20th,1969, Brown (as Armstrong) stepped out of the Krofft's brightly colored lunar lander, stepped onto the vaugely purplish lunar landscape and said those famous words, "Whoa, this is really far out there, man!". Magical Space Trip's finale, "Splashdown", was aired worldwide on July 24th, 1969. It received rave reviews and fantastic ratings.
Sequels and Remakes
Magical Space Trip captured the hearts and stirred the imaginations of people not just in America but across the Earth as well. Because of this, the story has been retold many times. Among the many extensions and revisions of the story are:
- Sid and Marty Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf: In this 1970 sequel, Brown and Pufnstuf (still portraying their famous characters Armstrong and Aldrin) find themselved trapped on the Moon with no way home.
- Apollo 13: Scolari revisited his role in Magical Space Trip, helped by young cross-dresser Tom Hanks.
- Capricorn One: Football and acting great O. J. Simpson in his second greatest role ever.
- Lunar Lander: The classic Atari video game that let you land on the moon.
The Moon Landing Controversy
Despite the utter absurdity of either humans or big-headed puppets landing on the Moon, many people insist to this day that the lunar landings actually took place. The myth is so ingrained into the American psyche that President George W. Bush has talked openly about "humanity's return to the Moon". Thus far, neither the Kroffts nor Oliver Stone have been contacted about Bush's proposed project.
