View the full graphic comic here.

PANEL 1:
A large crowd is gathered outside to view the launch of the Apollo 11 rocket at Cape Kennedy in Florida. Some stand on car tops with binoculars while others aim cameras toward the launch pad surrounded by a billowing cloud of smoke.

Text reads: Nearly one million onlookers were present for the launch of the Apollo 11 mission on July 16, 1969. In little more than two days, that number would be dwarfed by the 600 million viewers tuning in to witness astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon.

PANEL 2:
A close up of a man with wavy brown hair wearing glasses  inside a television control room with multiple monitors. His glasses lenses reflect the top half of the Apollo 11 space shuttle. Another man behind him says, “there she goes! Now!”

Text reads: Joel Banow watched remotely from studio 41 inside CBS headquarters in New York City. As director of space programming, Banow had seen his share of launches, but Apollo 11 was different. CBS would dedicate more than thirty hours of non-stop programming to celebrate the unparalleled achievement of the Apollo 11 mission. Programming that was set to begin… 

PANEL 3:
A white spacecraft orbits around  a large fictional space station in a sea of stars.

Text reads: Banow had spent much of 1968 considering how to bring Apollo 11’s journey into living rooms across America. His job was to keep audiences engaged with the mission once it moved offscreen. A self-professed admirer of science fiction, Banow kept swinging back to pop culture’s most iconic portrayal of the space age for inspiration. 

PANEL 4:
An illustration of a surrealistic scene from the 1902 film, “le Voyage Dans La Lune” or “A Trip to the Moon”. Several men sleep on the ground while two women in long robes stand together holding up a star shaped object, the planet earth hovering behind them. Next to them, a woman sits on a crescent moon and a mysterious figure appears out of a Saturn-shaped sphere with rings.

Text reads: 1902’s “Le Voyage Dans La Lune” (“A Trip to the Moon”), by French filmmaker Georges Méliès, gave early 20th-century audiences a satirical look at what it might be like to visit our celestial neighbor.

PANEL 5:
A split screen depicts a scene from the science fiction movie, “Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars”. A blonde man in a red shirt holds down a dark haired man in a lavender cape. The other half of the screen shows a young boy reading a comic book titled “Astonishing Stories” with a red cartoon dinosaur on the cover.

Text reads: Sci-fi supermen like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers excited cinema-goers of all ages during the ’30s and ’40s… While names like Asimov, Hubbard and Heinlein dominated newsstands and bookstores around the world with visionary tales of mankind’s past, present and future in outer space.

PANEL 6:
Three split screens show a humanoid figure covered in shiny metal, followed by a robotic figure with mechanical gears inside a clear helmet, and a couple running in an alleyway.

Text reads: By the ’50s, human fascination with what’s-out-there had turned to fear of alien invasions and threats from other worlds. Distrust of the unknown replaced the spirit of discovery, as the threat of communism became a national concern.

PANEL 7:
A round satellite with four antennas orbits in space above earth.

Text reads: Yet Americans’ fascination with the Russian space probe Sputnik, and the space race that followed, inspired the next generation of genre classics.

PANEL 8:
Split screens show scenes from three different televisions shows.The first includes two men in gray overalls with one holding onto a microphone. The second screen shows two women and a man standing in front of a spaceship and the third screen shows a close up of two men looking ahead. One has dark hair with pointy ears and the other with reddish hair and an arrowhead shaped emblem on his left chest.

Text reads: CBS’ “Men into Space” premiered in 1959 and broke new ground with its portrayal of astronauts and the inherent dangers of space exploration. “Lost in Space” debuted in 1965 and featured a future family of stranded travelers—the space family Robinson—endeavoring to find their way home each week. “Star Trek” hit airwaves a year later and depicted space as “the final frontier” but one to be explored instead of conquered. All these seemed like preamble compared to what came next.

PANEL 9:
On the surface of a dark brown rugged earth, six large apes surround and hold onto a large monolith slab in the center.

Text reads: In 1968, MGM released director Stanley Kubrik’s sci-fi masterpiece, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Space Odyssey told the story of human encounter with an extraterrestrial monolith and its role in the evolution from apes to starfarers.

PANEL 10:
Banow and others enter a movie theater whose marquee displays the film title, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Text reads: Shortly after the film’s release, Banow attended a screening with some friends at the Paramount Theater on Broadway.

PANEL 11:
Banow, rapt, watches the movie screen filled with streams of brightly colored lights.

Text reads: Space Odyssey’s vivid depiction of the Space Age was unlike anything audiences had seen before. It raised the bar for science fiction and inspired Banow to do the same with his coverage of the space program. With the entire world watching, Banow was determined to give them an experience closer to what was found in cineplexes than on the small screen.

PANEL 12:
Three male television anchors, each from different networks, report on the Apollo 11 launch from desks decorated with the NBC’, ABC and CBS logos, all on site near the launch.

Text reads: Coverage of the space program had become competitive in the decade since NASA began in 1958. The “Big Three” networks were locked in a space race of their own, each vying for higher ratings with every new launch. CBS’ Moon Mission broadcast had to be more than stimulating. It needed to outshine the competition. The event itself would bring viewers, but what could be done to keep them?

PANEL 13:
A family of four in their living room watch President Kennedy on television as he says, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Text reads: Recalling President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 speech at Rice University…Banow was driven to keep the world tethered to Apollo 11 every step of the mission.

PANEL 14:
Inside a television studio, a man in a gray suit and red tie sits at the anchor desk. On his right, with name and title written above is Robert J. Wussler, Executive Producer. To the man’s left are Joan Richmann, Co-Producer and Clarence Cross, Co-Producer. 

Text reads: Using NASA’s flight plan as a script, he would employ a combination of scale model simulations, miniatures and a series of detailed animations to create an immersive experience for those watching at home. “When the rocket is out of sight, it becomes an audio—a radio show. That absence of visuals created the concept of simulating what’s in space.”

PANEL 15: 
Against dark, starry space, the title “Man on the Moon” is centered between a partial view of the Earth above and the Moon below.

Text reads: CBS coverage of the Apollo 11 mission began a few minutes after 6:00 a.m. on launch day. Aptly titled, “Man on the Moon: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11,” the broadcast opened with a stunning animated sequence produced by Reel Three animation.

PANEL 16:
A man with dark rimmed glasses sits at a desk with a spotlight on a piece of paper. With a pencil in hand, he draws on the paper.

Text reads: Founded by former Disney animator Richard Spies, Reel Three was recruited by Banow to create high-quality, pre-recorded animation of moments typically unseen by the public.

PANEL 17:
Out in space, the Saturn V Rocket launcher separates from the Apollo lunar module.

Text reads: Complex maneuvers, like the separation of the Saturn V Rocket’s three stages. And the docking and undocking of the Lunar Command module.

Text reads: Continue to Part 2 transcript here.