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Star Stuff: An Exploratory Case Study of the Cosmos Television Franchise

Official Trailer | Cosmos: Possible Worlds | National Geographic UK

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2. Cosmos 1 Flash Website (1440 by 1080p Capture)
6. Apollo 11 Address Joint Session of Congress after Historic Flight Speaker John McCormack of Massachusetts introduced the Apollo 11 crew members before a Joint Meeting of Congress. The moment marked the culmination of a determined American effort to defeat the Soviet Union in a “space race” that began with the launch of Sputnik by the Soviets in 1957. “We are honoring today three men who represent the best in America and whose coordinated skill, fantastic daring, and visionary drive have made history that constitutes a turning point of paramount importance in the journey of mankind,” Speaker McCormack proclaimed. Each astronaut—Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins—addressed the enthusiastic audience about their successful moon landing on July 20, 1969. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, acknowledged the role of the House and Senate in the successful mission. “It was here, in these Halls that our venture really began”—a reference to the legislation that established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the funding of the space program by Congress. Before the conclusion of the meeting, the honorees presented Speaker McCormack and Vice President Spiro Agnew with two American flags that had flown over the respective chambers before being brought onto the moon.
7. With Classic Show's Return, The Sky's the Limit
11. Cosmos: Possible Worlds Companion Book Cover
12. New Cosmos - Key Image

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A New Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse and Seth MacFarlane You have just emerged in the section of this project devoted to the new Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Seth MacFarlane. 2010 marked a critical shift in the United States’ approach to space exploration under the administration of President Barack Obama. On April 15th, 2010, President Obama announced that he would allow private industry to supply services to NASA on a contractual basis. The announcement was made in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center. This change in policy opened the door for SpaceX to make trips later to the International Space Station on behalf of NASA. I have isolated eight minutes of the speech that specifically focus on private space exploration below.
While these changes at NASA were unfolding, Ann Druyan’s focus was on creating a new Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse Tyson as the host. However, the project didn’t get off the ground until Seth MacFarlane got on board as a producer. Here is an article by the New York Times on August 5th, 2011, announcing MacFarlane’s involvement in the show.

Cosmos was not new territory for MacFarlane. His fandom for the original series had already materialized as a skit that was aired on March 4th, 2007, in Season 5, Episode 12 of his TV series Family Guy. On November 12, 2013, he took things a step further by funding the opening of the Seth MacFarlane Collection of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan in the Library of Congress archives. The online portion of this archive has been of great value to me while creating this project. Several of the items are embedded throughout its sections. Here is a post on the Library of Congress website announcing the opening.
As the 2014 release of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey approached, Tyson, MacFarlane and Druyan began to take to make media appearances to promote the show. Here’s 10 minutes of an interview with Tyson from January 16th, 2014, on the PBS show, Overheard, with Evan Smith. Topics in this interview include: the positioning of the show as a sequel rather than a remake; the reason it is on Fox and not PBS; how Tyson planned to host the show differently compared to Sagan; and why the Cosmos series has continued to endure.
Tyson was well acquainted with the Cosmos series and Carl Sagan prior to Druyan asking him to host the new season. He first visited Sagan’s laboratory at Cornell University while he was still a High School student. Their encounter that day is recounted in the first episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Sagan’s letter inviting him to visit Cornell has been digitized in the Seth MacFarlane collection, which you can now view below.

Though Tyson would not accept his offer to attend Cornell and work on the Viking space probes, their relationship continued to endure in the decades that followed. When the first episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey aired on March 9th, 2014, it featured a 30-second introduction by President Obama. Here is a 3-and-a-half-minute trailer showcasing the tone of this new series. It also demonstrates some of the cutting-edge CGI effects and animated sequences provided by MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door Productions.
After the show’s premiere, Druyan, Tyson, and MacFarlane appeared in a Q&A session live streamed by Fox. Here is an 8-minute clip from that Q&A discussing what they are most excited to communicate in the new series, why they chose to put the show on Fox over other networks, and how they straddled the line between education and entertainment.

Almost four years after the release of Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey, a new second season titled, Cosmos: Possible Worlds, was announced on January 13th, 2018. The new series was set to air in spring 2019 on Fox and National Geographic channels, once again. This section launched into a radically different political climate under the administration of President Donald Trump. In fact, six months after the announcement of this new season, President Trump made one of the biggest outer space-related announcements of his presidency. He announced a new division of the US military known as the Space Force. If you would like to watch the speech, I’ve included 11 minutes that specifically discuss the Space Force below.
Production on Cosmos: Possible Worlds continued throughout the rest of 2018. However, Fox announced that it was investigating sexual misconduct allegations against Tyson in November and ultimately postponed its March 3rd, 2019 premiere date for the show. These allegations came from three different women. One was a former assistant that said she had to leave her job due to sexual harassment. Another was a physics and astronomy professor that reported being groped by Tyson at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in 2009. A third was a former classmate at the University of Texas who accused Tyson of raping her in the 1980s. On March 15th, 2019, Fox announced that it had concluded its investigation and would allow Cosmos: Possible Worlds to air. Here’s an article from The Hollywood Reporter released that day discussing the announcement and the allegations against Tyson.
Five days after that announcement, the Walt Disney Corporation would close a deal to purchase the 21st Century Fox catalogue in a massive $71.3 billion merger. Thus, this made the new season of Cosmos a Walt Disney production.

Cosmos: Possible Worlds made its debut a year later on March 9th, 2020. It was accompanied by a companion book of the same name written by Druyan. This book included all the same content as the show. Also, there were added passages from Druyan discussing her work with Sagan, their marriage, and other reflections grounded in her personal lived experiences. These passages really helped me to better understand her and Sagan’s life behind the scenes. I have included a couple quotes from the book in this project. To conclude this section on the new Cosmos series with Tyson and MacFarlane, I will leave you with a 2-minute trailer for Cosmos: Possible Worlds. After which, you may continue to my short essay titled, "Who Owns (the) Cosmos", by clicking the blue button at the bottom of your screen. You can also select another section you are interested in by returning to the Launch Point or using the drop-down menu at the top of your screen.