Welcome to 1960’s America, when men were men, everything was A-Okay and programs were paid for by commercial breaks! This is a link to a new enterprise, which will hopefully allow us to do more like this in the near future, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE if you like it.
Parts 2 and 3 come later this week, with Part 4 a week from now on July 20th, 2019.
Can’t wait to hear your comments. I sure hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing and presenting it.
— Bill
35 replies on “Apollo 11: What We Saw, with Bill Whittle [Part I]”
So um… Why aren’t these available anymore?
I guess Mr.Whittle was naughty and was bumped off the channel by the truth deniers at YouTube..
Excellent production. The background info is superb. The historical references to what was happening then are priceless. I was stationed in Delaware then and living off base. We were fortunate enough to have a good quality 19′ b&w tv to watch the event unfold. Interesting to note that a few weeks later Woodstock was happening and I was on my way to Asia where I spent my fourth and final year in the Air Force. BTW I was a jet engine mechanic. For someone who knew virtually nothing about motor mechanics it was fascinating to learn how these engineering marvels operate.
“Weighing Evidence” The Fact Check:
It was a summer Sunday afternoon, in Fargo, ND. I was working my way through school at a local TV Station. We were an ABC affiliate, and broadcasting from the World’s Tallest Tower. I was “on the board,” and responsible for all the local programming. I was the guy that “squeezed” the station IDs, local commercials, into the programs you watched. Typical Sunday fare would be mix of Buck Owens, Porter Wagner, and a few other 30 minute country music programs, or one of my favorites; “The Big Valley–starring Barbra Stanwick.” High point of a Sunday would be the Million Dollar Movie, usually a B&W from the station’s catalog of 50s-60s films.
A typical Sunday schedule would have me on from noon until 6 pm, then we’d do the 6 pm news then I’d then be back in for the 10 pm nightly news. I would have a station engineer in for an hour or so to set up our videotaping of the ABC news feed. We’d then start editing for the nightly news, and do some routine maintenance. The Talent would show up an hour or so early for news prep.
But this day was special. I arrived and had to nearly push my way to “my” board. I had 3 engineers, 2 news anchors, and several others from the sales staff, all in “my control room!”
All were there for one reason only – to watch the greatest single human accomplishment of their lives. What a day.
Bill and team, Thanks for putting this show together.
Jim
Thank you, Bill. I am so proud of you!
Great job Bill, as I would expect. I have one small correction. It is not true that no one in Mission Control knew what a 1202 alarm was. Steve Bales, Guido (Guidance Officer) of the Flight Dynamics branch gave Flight Director Gene Kranz the OK “Go Flight” on that and the subsequent alarm during descent. It is true the astronauts hadn’t encountered that during simulations, but Bales responded very quickly with the right answer, knowing that the computer would reset and continue to function.
One reason why Wernher Von Braun and other German researchers were cut a lot of slack after the war was that the USA and a few other countries had trapped them there in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Most people start in the early years of the war which is too late. There is a claim that before the war in the 1930’s Goddard tried to get Wernher Von Braun to America for a speaking tour and it was blocked by academics and state department officials that saw rocketry as pseudo-science and fraud. There is a good chance it would have been a one way trip and Von Braun would not have gone back. Other German scientists were blocked in the same period. There was a very deep hatred of Germans after WW1. Several major scientific conferences in the 1920’s and 1930’s were moved from New York and Boston to Europe because the Americans would not give German scientists visas. These Germans had the simplest defence; You denied us visa’s and trapped us with that monster.
Several repeated attempts were made to block Albert Einstein by German hating, and probably very traumatised, WW1 veterans in the State Department.
This was taken into account when the questions about German scientists complicity with the Nazi’s was raised in the 1940’s and 1950’s but in many cases was not public.
The same state department staff blocked thousands of Jewish researchers trying to flee Germany and later Europe at the same time.
Sadly while America lifted these restrictions mid war Australia’s bans were still in place months after VE day.
Excellent work, BIll! Your podcast provides accuracy, context, and wonder. Thankfully it doesn’t have the sensationalized hyperbole that I’m seeing in so many documentaries right now.
WOW, the memories and the pride this brings back. The night before the first moon landing and walk, my husband and I were watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I was looking out the car window at the moon with awe in the fact that in a few hours AMERICAN MEN would be walking on that orb. May we do it again and soon! Also, I remember the day that Grissom, White, and Chaffee died on the launch pad–my whole family of parents, brothers, and I crying over their loss. But none of us thought that it should stop us from going into space. And even prior to that, in my geometry class in high school we listened breathlessly on the radio to those first Apollo shots–amazing times! Thanks, Bill, for this magnificent work. Waiting for the rest of the series and going to tell others to watch.
I was alive and lived all of what you are showing. I had a set of Annie Oakley pistols. Star Trek was my favorite show. I was 15 when we landed on the Moon. I watched the first shuttle take off, from Germany where I was posted ATT. Space always fascinated me. And I am still waiting for my hover car.
This is some superb writing, Bill, and excellent presentation and production values. This is really, really good work and you should be very pleased with it. I heartily congratulate you, and I am looking forward to watching the other episodes.
However, I am offering a bit of (I hope) constructive criticism. While the DW editors did a superb job of finding and inserting appropriate archival footage, they succumbed to one of my worst pet peeves: aspect ration abuse. This takes two forms, both abusing the human skull: (1) smushing people’s heads so that they are too short and too fat (the shots of Krantz in Mission Control), or (2) cutting people’s heads off completely, as in the shot of Armstrong climbing down the ladder. You talked about your dad crossing the room to point at the TV to/draw a circle around his helmet, and then the rest of his body. Only the illustration showed no head.
N.B. this is what I saw watching the first episode podcast on my TV via Roku’s Youtube channel last night. I haven’t gone back to double-check my recollection against the show, so I may be wrong.
Finally, while you were at the Crown Plaza in NYC, I was in my family’s living room in officer’s housing at Pearl Harbor, where it was still daylight during the moon surface walk. Unfortunately, I don’t remember it because I was only five weeks old. But my mom is enjoying watching your podcast with me, and remembering watching the live feed.
I just LOVE this Bill!!! Splendidly and powerfully done!!
This is a masterpiece.
Bill/Scott: Is it better we watch it here, or over at Daily Wire? Which supports BW.com’s mission better?
Also, if we share this with others, would you prefer we share the Youtube link, the BW.com link, or the Daily Wire link? Mahalo!
I’ve done both but partly by accident.
Excellent work, Bill. I really appreciated that you started well before 1961. Gives context and perspective to the whole space race.
This is magnificent and I can’t wait for the rest. Wonderful! This is the way educational docs should be. The whole program felt like it ran about ten minutes. Did I say it was good? It is. Very.
This is spectacular!
As a 29 year old, with friends and family, we watched the entire event in our living room in awe of the magnitude of what was unfolding before our eyes. This series should be required viewing in every school in America. It is incredibly well written and presented Bill. You are a creative genius and a credit to our country and to the free world. I cannot wait for installments 2, 3, and 4. The genius of mankind, simply put, is divided into Good and Evil. Part 1 so vividly presents that and evokes both options for the world of disaster and hope. As a culture and society today we are bombarded with a healthy dose of disaster by our ‘esteemed’ main stream(?) media. Part 1, presents hope for the US and the world. God, as always, is in control and will ultimately decide the outcome. You have presented the evidence that man, given free will, can, to a degree, alter that outcome. Good men must prevail and God must decide. Thy Will Be Done! God Bless America, you and your staff and the entire world.
Bill, thought Part 1 was fantastic – is there a set date for the rest of the series? Friends are already asking when and where to look.
Absolutely brilliant!
This reminds me of The Space Movie or some of the earlier documentaries I still have. Bill, your love and admiration for the men and women who accomplished this national goal shines out of your production. Thank you so much for doing this. I had forgotten just how excited I was about every aspect of our space program and this brought it all back to me.
All you’re missing is Gene Krantz’s lucky vest! Maybe the Air and Space Museum would let you borrow it for your program.
I was on NASA’s mailing list before the Gemini missions. Wish I had kept all of the little 3 page info sheets that NASA mailed out. The one on how they made freeze dried food was really neat. By the way, an exact replica of Goddard’s lab exists as a museum in Roswell, New Mexico. Can’t wait for Part 2 of this! It was great
FANTASTIC! John and I just watched and you have such a passion for the topic, it really comes through on screen. SO much packed into just the hour as well. We learned some new information. But we both laughed and cried. So as far as Story Telling, Bill, the Hubs and I think you are one of the Greats! Looking forward to watching them all!
I watched on Daily Wire yesterday. Today I’ll watch from this new link.
I will click wherever I need to, to see more of these wonderful shows.
Great work, Bill! I disagree that the Atom Bomb video was your greatest, and you’ve been chasing your tail since then. If the measure of a video’s success is the amount and degree that it affects the viewer, then I posit that your whole career has been a pinnacle,
This series is merely one of many jewels in the crown of your success.
Keep flying, Bill. We’ll continue to watch you soar.
3 1/2 days. Still may favorite.
Bill, I know I have said this before, but you are absolutely Narrator/Story teller extraordinaire. Fantastic work on Part 1. I am just a few years older than you and this really brought back memories. Your style of weaving yourself in as a young boy in NYC was captivating and your vast knowledge of the space program rounded out the excellence. My father was recently retired from the Air Force was working for Rosemount Engineering Company who built components for the program. We were watching and listening closely to the entire event.
Ah, my dear Mr. Whittle, you have brought back so many memories for me, plus added much of substance to the things I’d only heard of in snatches and snippets. I was 18 and living in San Francisco, awaiting the Big One that would slide the state into the Pacific, when the landing on the moon was televised. I was fascinated and enthralled. You’ve brought that back in your usual superb manner and I thank you. If the rest of the episodes are equally as well prepared and delivered, you’ve created something that should, and hopefully will, become a part of America’s history. I would love to see the series become part of high school and college history lessons. Our young ones need to know these things. Well done, sir, well done.
Really great work, Bill. You were right. It is as good as your Atomic Bomb Afterburner. Visably more rich, more polished, so much information and visual content.
I’m 60 also, and I recall watching the landing on the TV, not at “The Plaza” in New York, but in our family room surrounded by mom and dad, and brother and sister. I’d forgotten about the animated LEM, but I’ll never forget the grainy image of that first step.
It seemed like forever for him to get down that ladder!
My other subscription watch on YouTube is Dan Bongino. He fills an hour show 5 days a week, and he too breaks it up with 3 spoken advertisements…and some of the same advertisers you have. I have come to expect it on free, highly popular shows. I may even go to Stamps.com/Apollo now.
On a future TSL, can you consider giving the backstory of who financed What We Saw, and who pitched the idea to whom to get it started?
Tim, you might post this on our next TSL question thread.
Sorry for the double post.
If you click on the little man-gear icon at the top of the comment section, it will give you the opportunity to delete comments that you wish you hadn’t posted.
Superbly well done Bill. Love the approach right out of the box that smacks the deniers in the face. I was not quite 2 at the time of the first landing (July 25th birthday), but remember watching later landings on the TV. I’m in on the conspiaracy too!
Subscriber #49 at the new enterprise.
The only thing that bothers me is the advertisements in the middle of eveything. I know you gotta pay for all this effort somehow, but geeze isn’t there be another way? That’s one of the things that bugs me about the Daily Wire in general (well Ben Shapiro’s stuff anyway), makes me think Shamwow! for some reason….
I disagree about the advertisements in the middle. We live in a somewhat capitalist system, and when I see the ads I think, Good! It is important that Bill and Co. make money so they can continue this incredible work!
To quote the great Robert Heinlein, “TANSTAAFL”. “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”.
Love Heinlein!