So the Apollo 12 astronauts, in an effort to get some better footage for TV, brought along an experimental color TV camera. Astronaut Alan Bean accidentally pointed it at the sun, frying the sensor. But NASA didn’t want to waste perfectly good audio, so – and this is what I’m trying to confirm – they had actors recreate what was happening on the audio for the TV broadcast.
Did this “dramatization” footage survive? Was it actually NASA, or one of the TV networks who did it? Was the dramatization of an actual EVA, or of the astronauts in the command module? Did the networks try to pass it off as legitimate, or did they make it clear that the actual video was lost?
Just in case it’s not clear, I’m not a moon hoaxer, we obviously did land on the moon, people who think the moon landing was faked are idiots, please don’t try to start a moon hoax debate in this thread.
Yes, obviously they did. You have the shadows, you have flags and gloves and props and such. The Mythbusters pretty much proved that it was all staged, filmed on site.
The OP is asking if, during the course of the real Moon landing, a color camera was rendered inoperable, leading to a subsequent decision back on Earth to take the recorded audio and re-create a color video of whatever the color camera was going to record.
Thank you, Randy Seltzer, for the absolute final and inarguable proof that too many posters don’t bother to read past the title. That’s one giant leap for mankind.
Sorry for the lack of citations, but here are my own memories of that day. I was 15 at the time - -
Some sort of problem developed in the camera. I do not remember the nature of the problem, but it persisted despite all attempts at repair. Finally, after everything else had been tried and there was nothing left to lose, an astronaut (maybe Bean, maybe the other guy) whacked it with a hammer, and it worked fine for a while before totally dying later on.
This thread is the first time I’ve ever heard of it being a dramatization. The OP should consider the possibility that the reason he can’t confirm the dramatization, is that it was all real, and nothing got dramatized.
In order to prevent this thread from continuing to be derailed by people who jump in without reading the OP or subsequent posts, I’ve edited the title.
I seem to recall this happening, too. ABC television may have done it. They didn’t try to fool audiences into believing they were watching live footage. It was general knowledge that Bean had fried the color camera on Apollo 12. It wasn’t any Hollywood special effects type of footage. Just a couple of guys in spacesuits hacking around on what was obviously a soundstage. And I believe there was a caption on the screen which said “Recreated astronaut activity” or something like that. All of this is from my fuzzy memory at 12 years old, and I can’t find any information online, so this is purely anecdotal.
I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning and watched Apollo 12 live. I was mad as hell when Bean burned the camera out ( I have since forgiven him.)
All of the networks did simulations of the moonwalk, and they were clearly labeled so. I was a 15 year old space nut, and a simulation wouldn’t fool me for a second.