The Wrong Stuff – Again!

October 13, 2021

Invented Plot Lines Trash Personal Lives of Astronaut Heroes

Commentary by Bob Granath

A year ago on Oct. 9, 2020, Disney+ launched a TV series re-boot of the motion picture The Right Stuff. In the revised version, the historic facts were, by in large, presented accurately. However, the personal lives of the Original 7 Mercury astronauts were depicted like the fictitious characters of a soap opera. After eight episodes, the streaming network mercifully pushed the “abort button” and cancelled the series.

The 1983 film failed as an accurate chronicle of efforts to pave the road to space. Writer-director Philip Kaufman’s screenplay repeatedly veered far from reality for entertainment and comedic purposes, leaving viewers with a distorted version of historic facts.

Click here to read more about the 1983 film, The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff television series was an original production by National Geographic, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Warner Bros. for Disney+. Numerous scenes were filmed on Florida’s Space Coast including the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and in Titusville.

The July 29, 1960 unmanned test launch of the Mercury Atlas-1 spacecraft was depicted in the Disney+ version of The Right Stuff. The flight ended 65 second after liftoff when the Atlas rocket exploded. The capsule is shown after NASA engineers reassembled it to help determine what caused the failure. The capsule is a good metaphor for the TV show. — *The July 29, 1960 unmanned test launch of the Mercury Atlas-1 spacecraft was depicted in the Disney+ version of The Right Stuff. The flight* ended 65 second after liftoff when the Atlas rocket exploded. The capsule is shown after NASA engineers reassembled it to help determine what caused the failure. The capsule is a good metaphor for the TV show. Photo credit: NASA

Producers of the latest version of The Right Stuff advertised that it was, like the movie, based on Tom Wolf’s 1979 book of the same name. However, the script seems to follow the storyline in journalist Neal Thompson’s 2004 book, Light This Candle, a biography of Alan Shepard.

Each episode of the Disney + series began with the disclaimer, “This dramatization, although fictionalized, is based on actual events. Dialog and certain events and characters have been created or altered for dramatic purposes.”

But, in pursuit of “dramatic purposes,” most viewers have no way of separating fictionalized plot lines from what the people were really like.

As was the case with the movie, fabricated dialog and stories mar what could have been a chronicle of humankind’s greatest achievement of the twentieth century. Instead, the TV series makes all seven astronauts appear to have dysfunctional family lives and constantly at odds with each other.

In his book, Thompson argues that articles about the lives of the original astronauts published in Life magazine during the 1960s were what he termed “semi-propagandistic stories.”

“A conspiracy of hero making had begun,” he wrote.

True, the Life features portrayed only positive aspects of the astronauts’ lives, but the Disney+ version of The Right Stuff appears to be a conspiracy of hero trashing by the TV show’s writers and directors with fabricated stories.

Family Feud

In the Disney+ series, there is an ongoing conflict between Alan Shepard portrayed by actor Jake McDorman and Patrick J. Adams as John Glenn.

The Disney+ version of The Right Stuff was advertised as, like the movie, based on the Tom Wolf’s 1979 book of the same name. But the script seems to follow Neal Thompson’s 2004 book, Light This Candle, a biography of Alan Shepard. — *The Disney+ version of The Right Stuff was advertised as, like the movie, based on the Tom Wolf’s 1979 book of the same name. But the script* *seems to follow Neal Thompson’s 2004 book, Light This Candle, a biography of Alan Shepard. Photo credit: SpaceAgeChronicle.com*

In Light This Candle and in Disney+’s version of The Right Stuff, Glenn is presented as a church-going faithful husband who followed military regulations. As a result, Thompson describes him as “priggish” – self-righteously moralistic and superior.

Glenn was “the self-anointed moralist of the group,” he wrote.

Alan Shepard is clearly depicted as the opposite in both the book and the TV series. Thompson describes Shepard as “a cheating husband, a self-centered speed freak and arrogant elitist.”

It plays out in one episode when Adams as Glenn challenges the other astronauts when a news reporter photographs an astronaut leaving a hotel room with a woman who is not his wife.

In his 1999 book, John Glenn – A Memoir, Glenn noted this actually happened. U.S. Air Force Col. John “Shorty” Powers, director of Public Affairs for NASA’s Space Task Group, contacted Glenn saying, “A leading West Coast paper called him (Powers) for reaction to a front-page story it was planning to publish the next morning.”

Glenn telephoned the newspaper’s editor late at night and appealed to his patriotism arguing that the article could jeopardize the future of NASA’s space program. The story was not published.

Afterward, Glenn called all seven astronauts for a meeting.

“We are public figures whether we like it or not, and we have to act like it,” he said admonishing his colleagues.

This part of the story line is true.

Conspiracy of Hero Trashing

However, that meeting “would (split) the group into factions and the wounds would take many years to heal,” Thompson claimed and the TV story line follows that narrative.

As the TV series plot moves forward, the dialog continually presents Glenn as sanctimonious and despised by most of the other astronauts.

As in Light This Candle, the TV show’s script depicts Shepard as the person who was guilty of the indiscretion and he tells Glenn about the encounter with the reporter. However, Shepard’s character is angered that Glenn got NASA management involved and accuses him of trying to sabotage Shepard’s reputation in an attempt to get himself, Glenn, assigned for the first flight into space.

Mercury astronauts, from the left, Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper and Deke Slayton speak to reporters during a news conference for opening of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at its original facility in May 1990. Photo credit: SpaceAgeChronicle.com/Bob Granath

That is a false storyline written by Mark Lafferty and directed by Rob Bailey slandering the reputation of Glenn. In reality, NASA managers were involved from the beginning as Powers was the person who informed Glenn of the incident.

Again, it is hard for those who were not alive in the 1960s to separate historic fact from disparaging fiction.

Thompson contradicts himself when he writes that during training for the first American space flight with Shepard as prime and Glenn as back up, “the two men had drawn surprisingly close and that mutual antagonism had been replaced by something akin to friendship.”

Shepard’s mission took place in 1961 with Glenn following as the first American to orbit the Earth the following year.

All seven astronauts were highly motivated, vastly skilled and frequently put their lives on the line. They had different personalities, sometimes disagreeing. But, unlike the TV series, Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra pointed out that they supported each other.

“My most beautiful memory of the Mercury Program is how seven men – all super achievers with super egos – came together to work as a team,” he wrote in his 1988 book Schirra’s Space. “We had total faith in one another.”

Click here to read more about the real Mercury astronauts.

Fabricated Conflict

It seems movie and television show producers want “conflict” in already dramatic storylines, whether it is actually there or not.

The 2011 film Sour Surfer, tells the story of competitive surfer Bethany Hamilton. As a 13-year-old, she lost an arm in a 2003 shark attack. As Hamilton returns to competitive surfing in the film, a fictitious rival is added to the plot. The producers wanted “conflict” – as if learning to surf with one arm was not enough.

“My most beautiful memory of the Mercury Program is how seven men – all super achievers with super egos – came together to work as a team. We had total faith in one another.”
— Wally Schirra,
Mercury, Gemini & Apollo Astronaut

On Jan 15, 2009, news was widely reported how Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger successfully landed a US Airways Airbus A320 jet airliner in New York’s Hudson River after both of the jet’s engines shut down. All aboard survived.

The story of Sullenberger’s heroic quick thinking and professionalism is chronicled in the 2016 movie Sully. However, the film’s storyline injects conflict where there was none. It depicts the ensuing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as “prosecutorial” suggesting Sullenberger, portrayed by actor Tom Hanks, could have returned to LaGuardia Airport or nearby Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

“I do not know why the writer and director chose to twist the role of the NTSB into such an inaccurate depiction,” said the NTSB’s Investigator-in-Charge, Robert Benzon. “Their treatment of the NTSB went very far beyond cinematic license into simple mean-spirited dishonesty.”

Again, in the Disney+ version of The Right Stuff, conflict between Glenn, Shepard and other astronauts is exaggerated and fabricated for “dramatic purposes.”

Dizzy Spells

Another serious inaccuracy in the TV series also involved McDorman as Shepard. From the first episode, which took place in 1959, he is depicted as suffering from frequent dizzy spells and a ringing in his ear. It was not until late 1963 that doctors diagnosed Shepard with Meniere’s disease. The condition is a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance. He was grounded shortly thereafter.

Alan Shepard participates in a simulation for his Mercury flight in early 1961. It would have been irresponsible for him to hide his inner ear condition, another example of the Disney+ version of The Right Stuff sacrificing an astronaut’s reputation for “dramatic purposes.” Photo credit; NASA

If Shepard had actually been suffering with the condition at the time of his Mercury flight in 1961, and had an episode while flying an aircraft or in space, it could have been disastrous. Instead of hiding the condition, Shepard sought help from NASA’s doctors after reporting his symptoms to fellow Mercury astronaut, Deke Slayton, by then the agency’s director of Flight Crew Operations.

After surgery, Shepard returned to flight status and commanded Apollo 14 in 1971 becoming the only Mercury astronaut to walk on the Moon.

It would have been irresponsible for Shepard to hide his inner ear condition, another example of an astronaut’s reputation being sacrificed for “dramatic purposes.”

A curious depiction in the Disney+ version of The Right Stuff is actor Jackson Pace as Mercury flight controller Glynn Lunney. The actor looks like a 14-year-old. Like many of those in the Mercury Control Center at that time, Lunney was in his mid-20s. He is depicted as a somewhat bumbling teenager.

During Gemini and Apollo, Lunney served in the crucial role of flight director and went on to become Shuttle Program Manager for United Space Alliance, NASA’s Space Flight Operations Contractor.

The TV Show’s Reception

The Disney+ version of The Right Stuff received mixed reviews. It was given a 55 percent approval rating by Rotten Tomatoes, the review-aggregation website for film and television. By comparison, the movie received a 96 percent approval rating.

*Glynn Lunney at his Mission Control console as flight director during the perilous Apollo 13 mission in April 1970. Photo credit: NASA*

In recent years, numerous movies and television shows have attempted to tell about NASA’s efforts to explore and utilize space. Some were on target others were not.

On television in 1996 and 1997, The Cape claimed to tell the story of astronauts at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center focusing on their personal lives while training for Space Shuttle missions. During 2015, The Astronaut Wives Club, based on Lily Koppel’s book of the same name, attempted to chronicle the experiences of the wives of America’s first group of astronauts.

Both failed, as they were merely prime-time soap operas.

On the other hand, films such as 1995’s Apollo 13, 2016’s Hidden Figures and 2018’s First Man, as well as HBO’s 1998 mini-series From the Earth to the Moon, all take some “dramatic license.” But all provide more accurate depictions of America’s efforts in space.

Click here to read more about the Apollo 13 movie

How do you view the historical accuracy of The Right Stuff – the TV show or movie? Feel free to add your thoughts in the “Leave a Reply” section below.