Ronald D Moore talks about bringing 'For All Mankind' to Apple TV+
'Battlestar Galactica' creator Ron Moore has planned out seven seasons for 'For All Mankind,' and revealed why he chose to rewrite NASA history for it.
Ronald D Moore's writing team has planned out seven years of "For All Mankind"
The real start of Apple TV+ as a serious venture for Apple can be traced back to the hiring of Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg as heads of video programming in 2017. Once these ex-Sony TV executives were in post, they say that one of their first phone calls was to "Battlestar Galactica" and "Outlander" creator Ronald D Moore.
According to Wired, Van Amburg talked with Moore about doing a drama about 1970s NASA as far back as 2014 and revived the conversation once he got to Apple.
"I still think about that NASA-in-the-70s idea," Van Amburg reports telling Moore. "What do you think about doing a "Mad Men" sort of thing?"
Moore says that he liked the idea, but that it had a serious flaw if it were to work as a drama series.
"The Apollo missions were over [by the 1970s]," he says. "There was this broken-dream quality to it, and that's not a heroic adventure. It's a sad story of declining ambition."
Moore suggested an alternative history version instead, bolstered by conversations with real-life astronaut Garrett Reisman, now director of space operations at Space X. It was Reisman who told Moore about how close Russia had come to being first on the moon, and Moore says that was the start of the show.
Moore and a team of writers spent two months plotting out ten episodes of what would become called "For All Mankind," covering 1969 to 1974. The team took historical reality and applied this one change to it all.
For instance, the Soviets beating the US to the moon would've led to Congressional hearings and ones that senator Ted Kennedy would've attended in 1969. That one change means Kennedy doesn't go to Chappaquiddick and he does run opposite Nixon in 1972.
All of this detail was present when Moore formally pitched the show to Apple executives.
"Ron hadn't just thought about what the first hour of [the show' was," says Van Amburg, "he had thought about hour 40."
"The level of detail was overwhelming," says Jamie Erlicht. "Every aspect of the butterfly effect that would happen from the slightest change in that event."
"It's an aspirational show," says Moore. "It says, 'Wouldn't this have made us a better country and a better world if we had done all these things?' Not just more Apollo missions, but the way we treated one another as human beings."
There have been reports of creative differences between Apple and various producers of its other Apple TV+ shows, but Van Amburg says that the aim in every case is to make the best series possible.
"We're not doing demographic programming," he says. "No one is sitting around saying we need to find the next show for males [aged] 18 to 34, or the next show for females older than 32. We're defining our programming by quality."
The first three episodes of "For All Mankind" will be released as part of the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1. A second season has already been ordered.
Ronald D Moore's writing team has planned out seven years of "For All Mankind"
The real start of Apple TV+ as a serious venture for Apple can be traced back to the hiring of Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg as heads of video programming in 2017. Once these ex-Sony TV executives were in post, they say that one of their first phone calls was to "Battlestar Galactica" and "Outlander" creator Ronald D Moore.
According to Wired, Van Amburg talked with Moore about doing a drama about 1970s NASA as far back as 2014 and revived the conversation once he got to Apple.
"I still think about that NASA-in-the-70s idea," Van Amburg reports telling Moore. "What do you think about doing a "Mad Men" sort of thing?"
Moore says that he liked the idea, but that it had a serious flaw if it were to work as a drama series.
"The Apollo missions were over [by the 1970s]," he says. "There was this broken-dream quality to it, and that's not a heroic adventure. It's a sad story of declining ambition."
Moore suggested an alternative history version instead, bolstered by conversations with real-life astronaut Garrett Reisman, now director of space operations at Space X. It was Reisman who told Moore about how close Russia had come to being first on the moon, and Moore says that was the start of the show.
Moore and a team of writers spent two months plotting out ten episodes of what would become called "For All Mankind," covering 1969 to 1974. The team took historical reality and applied this one change to it all.
For instance, the Soviets beating the US to the moon would've led to Congressional hearings and ones that senator Ted Kennedy would've attended in 1969. That one change means Kennedy doesn't go to Chappaquiddick and he does run opposite Nixon in 1972.
All of this detail was present when Moore formally pitched the show to Apple executives.
"Ron hadn't just thought about what the first hour of [the show' was," says Van Amburg, "he had thought about hour 40."
"The level of detail was overwhelming," says Jamie Erlicht. "Every aspect of the butterfly effect that would happen from the slightest change in that event."
"It's an aspirational show," says Moore. "It says, 'Wouldn't this have made us a better country and a better world if we had done all these things?' Not just more Apollo missions, but the way we treated one another as human beings."
There have been reports of creative differences between Apple and various producers of its other Apple TV+ shows, but Van Amburg says that the aim in every case is to make the best series possible.
"We're not doing demographic programming," he says. "No one is sitting around saying we need to find the next show for males [aged] 18 to 34, or the next show for females older than 32. We're defining our programming by quality."
The first three episodes of "For All Mankind" will be released as part of the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1. A second season has already been ordered.
Comments
I was in my teenage years during NASA's explosive development. And, it wasn't just about science and technology but teamwork: They not only pulled together one of the greatest scientific teams ever in the history of the world but united the nation in shared enthusiasm as well as the rest of the world -- because their stated goal was to advance scientific discovery for all of mankind. And they did just that.
They did the right things for the right reasons. Yes, it was prompted by competition with the Russians -- but the methods, goals and objectives were not nationalistic. They were global: It culminated and was summarized in just a few short words: "One step for man...."
I don't think any fiction or fantasy can every top that reality and, for me, kind of sacrilegious to try.
Are you people serious? You really can’t stand the idea of women getting airtime in exciting drama, can you? Damn man, that is some sorry shit.
I have no problem with fiction or alternative history fiction. Don’t recall any jokers whining about Man in the High Castle - “But Japan and Germany LOST! You’re rewriting history!” Uh no, they weren’t writing history, they were writing fiction. Same here.
True story. When I was in college, I worked for the Bureau of Land Management on a fire crew that was housed in the blockhouse of the old Rocketdyne test facility north of Sparks, Nevada. Saturn V engines were tested there, with the tests stand and much of the stainless steel piping still in place in the late 1970's.
I'll certainly will be watching, because there is a hell of a lot of process involved in spaceflight, and that will almost certainly be on display.
On the other hand, I find little things such as inaccurate haircuts in historical set pieces very off-putting, or using out-of-period) dialog, or characters behaving in ways that wouldn't have been tolerated in that time (...or maybe that's the Catholic school in me leaking out).
Anyhow, hate that stuff, and it's not that hard to do it right.
For myself, I won't watch the Apple version of this because I don't want to start playing with what was such a marvelous, wonderous achievement on so many different levels: scientific, engineering, technical and workmanship, governmental, industrial as well as societal. It's like re-writing the founding and beginnings of Apple. Nothing can match the reality -- only tear it down.
Seems there is no shortage of people who will happily trample all over historical fact to promote a particular agenda. Happily, "For All Mankind" appears to be emphasising the "What If...?" angle rather than suggesting that the portrayal represents reality. I was really impressed by the Battlestar Galactica reboot, so I'll be watching FAM to see if it brings the same level of entertainment.
I enjoyed the Battlestar Galactica reboot, but the ending of the series SUCKED!!!!!
Funny you should mention the Steve Jobs movie then, since that was historical fiction as well.