We Interrupt This Program

Apollo 13 is en route to the Moon...and in trouble. Two days into its flight an incident occurred which disabled the main oxygen and life support systems. Through improvisation the crew has survived and is trying to get back to Earth. With no images for the TV stations to rely on, reporters have to rely on methods that are not necessarily fact-based to report on the mission.

An episode that played on my hatred of the media. We see two breeds, no generations, of reporters at work: the old-school, dependable, report the facts-type, represented by Emmett Seaborn, and the new breed, more interested in audience reactions than reporting the truth and thus prone to deceit, not sensitive to the outcomes on the lives he impacts, represented by Brett Hutchins.

Just the fact that the reporters, rather than the astronauts and the mission, are the focus of this episode is galling enough. I couldn't think of any occupation less deserving of attention. Then Hutchins' character is particularly loathsome, making it worse. Even worse is that, while he shown as more of an outlier than the norm in the context of the time (1970), today he IS the norm.

This said, it's still quite watchable. You sense the tension and the concern for the safety of Apollo 13's crew. Their chances of survival were reasonably slim, making the outcome of the mission quite amazing and a testimony to the professionalism, expertise and resourcefulness of the crew and the ground personnel.

While not something you'd like to be reminded of, the changing of media from facts-based to gutter journalism is also well demonstrated.

Produced by Ron Howard, this episode is essential viewing for those who enjoyed the film Apollo 13. Serving best as a companion piece to that film rather than an episode of this series, the episode gives a different point of view of the true events of the mission.

A story that can evoke emotion is a great story, and this is a great story, although sad. I was born in the 1950s, so my formative years were the 1960s and 70s. I grew up watching Walter Cronkite. He was the most trusted man in America.

This episode was about the change in news style more than the space shot. Cronkite gave factual "And that's the way it is." news. Around the time this movie is set, others in the "news" business started changing to a more "touchy-feelie" style of news. And this episode covers that well.

I don't know if Jay Mohr is anything like the character he portrays. He sure seems to play a lot of characters like that. He did a fantastic job playing that character, because it evoked such strong feelings against him. To this day, I won't watch anything he's in because I don't like those types of people.

I want to know that the sky is blue and the grass is green. I could care less what they neighbor thinks about the grass or how the pilot feels about the sky. As Jack Webb is reportedly reputed to say, "Just the facts."

If you want to know how the news changed into a touchy feelie style, this show's for you.

The previous reviewer missed this episode while actually watching it. the Apollo 13 story is well known enough that making a show about the way it was saved was redundant. so instead they focused on the press and how news coverage morphed from the Edward R Murrow/Walter Cronkite in-depth coverage to the tabloid news such as Fox News and MSNBC now practice. It is a brilliant episode that follows the brash new reporter covering the "people" and the fading away of the old reporter who reported the story. Anyone interested in news coverage should watch this episode. In my opinion it might have been the best. "filler added to make ten lines" what a stupid rule