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171-403: " First Flight " is the fiftieth episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise , the twenty-fourth episode of the second season . It first aired on May 14, 2003, on UPN . It was written by John Shiban and Chris Black , and was directed by Star Trek: The Next Generation actor LeVar Burton ( Geordi La Forge ). Set in the 22nd century, the series follows

342-472: A stutter . Although test pilots at Edwards mock the Mercury program for sending "spam in a can" into space, they recognize that they are no longer the fastest men on Earth, and Yeager states that "it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially when it's on national TV." While testing the new Lockheed NF-104A , Yeager attempts to set a new altitude record at the edge of space but

513-436: A "great movie in all regards". Alan Shepard harshly criticized both the movie and the book: "Neither Tom Wolfe nor [Philip Kaufman] had talked to any of the original seven guys, at any time... The Right Stuff [both the film and the book] is fiction... The movie assumed that Grissom had panicked, which wasn't true at all. The movie made him look like a bad guy for the whole movie. They were very hard on John Glenn's wife, who had

684-560: A $ 27 million budget. Despite this, it received widespread critical acclaim, and was nominated for eight Oscars at the 56th Academy Awards , four of which it won. The film was a huge success on the home video market. In 2013, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film

855-627: A 40-page book binding case, with the film in Blu-ray format. The extras are in standard DVD format. In addition, the British Film Institute published a book on The Right Stuff by Tom Charity in October 1997 that offered a detailed analysis and behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Although an album mix had been prepared by Bill Conti in 1983 (and indeed the poster contains the credit "Original Soundtrack Available On Geffen Records "),

1026-541: A 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 52 reviews, with an average score of 8.80/10. The website's critical consensus reads: " The Right Stuff packs a lot of movie into its hefty running time, spinning a colorful, fact-based story out of consistently engaging characters in the midst of epochal events." On Metacritic — which assigns a weighted mean score — the film has a score of 91 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert named The Right Stuff best film of 1983, writing: "There

1197-410: A CBS affiliate; though WOIO eventually took over production of the newscast by 2002). Harrisburg affiliate WLYH-TV briefly continued its newscasts after switching to UPN from CBS in 1995, until WHP-TV began operating the station under a local marketing agreement that fall. WFTC /Minneapolis continued to produce a late evening newscast after Fox Television Stations (which acquired KMSP-TV through

1368-692: A Vulcan advisor, but previously appeared in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Defiant " as a member of the Maquis terrorist group . Also appearing in "First Flight" was Victor Bevine . He had previously appeared in DS9 , Voyager and the movie Star Trek: First Contact . "First Flight" also provided the stage for an exchange with the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) . Three crew members of

1539-542: A brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen." The following appeared as themselves in archive footage: Ed Sullivan with Bill Dana (in character as José Jiménez ); Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev embracing at a review, joined by Georgi Malenkov , Nikolai Bulganin , Kliment Voroshilov , and Anastas Mikoyan ; Lyndon B. Johnson ; John F. Kennedy ; Alan Shepard (in Kennedy footage); and James E. Webb , director of NASA during

1710-525: A cable-originated service to increase its distribution to markets without an over-the-air affiliate in July 1998; however, the service, which was to have been named UPN Plus, ultimately never launched. UPN did have one cable-only affiliate in its station form, WNFM-TV in Fort Myers , Florida , which joined the network in 1998. In markets where Viacom had a CBS/UPN duopoly after its 2000 merger with CBS,

1881-443: A combination of "UPN" or "Paramount" (the latter having been used only by the network's Viacom-owned stations, some of whom adopted the "Paramount" branding prior to UPN's launch), and the affiliated station's channel number. By the late 1990s, affiliates were simply branded under the "UPN (channel number or city)" scheme (for example, Chicago affiliate WPWR-TV called itself "UPN Chicago" and New York City O&O-turned-affiliate WWOR-TV

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2052-636: A contractual clause that would – within a 45-day grace period – force Chris-Craft to either buy Viacom out of UPN, or have Chris-Craft sell its ownership stake in UPN to Viacom. Three days later on February 8, Chris-Craft subsequently filed a lawsuit against Viacom in the New York Supreme Court to block Viacom's merger with CBS, claiming that a pact signed between the two partners in 1997 had prevented either from owning "any interest, financial or otherwise" in "any competing network," including CBS, for

2223-462: A few nights of programming each week, with additional nights of primetime shows gradually being added over the course of several seasons. Because of this, UPN's affiliates were basically independent stations for all intents and purposes during the network's early years, with these stations airing either syndicated programs or movies during primetime on nights when the network did not provide programming. The first expansion of its primetime lineup came with

2394-460: A former Green Beret , was killed when he failed to open his parachute because he may have been unconscious from smoke. In 1982, the scene of the wives of the astronauts watching the television broadcast was filmed on military housing in Novato, California. Yeager was hired as a technical consultant on the film. He took the actors flying, studied the storyboards and special effects, and pointed out

2565-469: A four-year period through January 2001. On March 17, New York Supreme Court judge Herman Cahn ruled against Chris-Craft's move for a permanent injunction to curtail the Viacom-CBS merger and the enforcement of Viacom's ultimatum. Unable to find a suitable partner, on March 20, Chris-Craft allowed Viacom to buy out its 50% stake for $ 5 million, giving Viacom full control of UPN. This gave UPN

2736-482: A great film." He later named it one of the best films of the decade, and wrote: " The Right Stuff is a greater film because it is not a straightforward historical account but pulls back to chronicle the transition from Yeager and other test pilots to a mighty public relations enterprise". He later put it at #2 on his 10 best of the 1980s, behind Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull . Gene Siskel , Ebert's co-host of At

2907-495: A local newscast in the 10:00–11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific (9:00–10:00 p.m. Central and Mountain Time) timeslot at some point during or throughout their affiliations with the network; there were also a few stations that produced a weekday morning newscast, although early evening newscasts were largely absent on most of these stations. The UPN affiliate body had fewer news-producing stations in comparison to stations aligned with

3078-400: A locust-like chatter to accompany the press corps whenever they appear, which was achieved through a sound combination of (among other things) motorized Nikon cameras and clicking beetles. Professional American football player Anthony Muñoz has a minor role in the film as a hospital orderly named Gonzales; the soft-spoken Muñoz was asked to lip sync his lines, and a "deeper, gruffer voice"

3249-432: A mild speech problem. They made Lyndon Johnson look like a clown. It was just totally fiction." Chuck Yeager said of his characterization: "Sam [Shepard] is not a real flamboyant actor, and I'm not a real flamboyant-type individual ... he played his role the way I fly airplanes". Robert Osborne , who introduced showings of the film on Turner Classic Movies , was quite enthusiastic about the film. The cameo appearance by

3420-478: A move that resulted in calls by state politicians for the FCC to revoke Fox's license to operate the station. KTTV took over production of sister station KCOP's newscasts in 2007, before discontinuing news programming on that station in 2013. KMAX's news department has since been merged with that of KOVR although it still produces a morning newscast separate from that station. WKBD shut down its news department (which

3591-564: A network's station in the East Coast and West Coast. For this reason, some doubt was cast on UPN's future after Fox Television Stations bought most of Chris-Craft's television stations for $ 5.5 billion on August 12, 2000, which included several UPN affiliates (including WWOR and KCOP). Fox later bought the third-largest UPN affiliate, Chicago's WPWR-TV, through a separate deal with Newsweb Corporation for $ 450 million in June 2002. Despite

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3762-441: A new block. In 1999, UPN contracted the rights to the network's children's programming lineup to The Walt Disney Company ; as a result, the teen-oriented and animated series were replaced with a new block called Disney's One Too , which debuted on September 6, 1999, and featured select programs seen on ABC's Disney's One Saturday Morning lineup (such as Recess and Sabrina: The Animated Series ). Many UPN affiliates at

3933-485: A news sharing agreement with KIRO-TV between 2003 and 2005. Not all of UPN's news-producing stations were owned by the two companies that formed the nuclei of the network's affiliate group; WUAB / Cleveland , which started its news department in 1988, also continued its 10:00 p.m. newscast as a UPN affiliate (it would begin producing newscasts for sister station WOIO-TV in February 1995, after that station became

4104-791: A number of times previously and was very familiar with them. Jack Ridley had actually died in 1957, even though his character appears in several key scenes taking place after that, most notably including Yeager's 1963 flight of the NF-104A. The Right Stuff depicts Cooper arriving at Edwards in 1953, reminiscing with Grissom there about the two of them having supposedly flown together at the Langley Air Force Base and then hanging out with Grissom and Slayton, including all three supposedly being present at Edwards when Scott Crossfield flew at Mach 2 in November 1953. The film shows

4275-427: A programming partnership with Chris-Craft to create the network. Chris-Craft and Paramount/Viacom each owned independent stations in several large and mid-sized U.S. cities, and these stations formed the nuclei of the new network. Warner Bros. announced plans to launch a similar network, which would become known as The WB , in close proximity to UPN. The belief that a new broadcast network could grow to be competitive

4446-583: A request of $ 100,000, which Salhany refused. At one point, the network was set to be titled the U/P Network before its current name was decided. Ultimately, the "U" in UPN stood for Chris-Craft subsidiary United Television , which owned the network's two largest stations, WWOR-TV in New York City and KCOP-TV in Los Angeles ; the "P" represented Paramount Television, the studio that formed

4617-480: A rock climbing accident. Archer, seeking solitude, desires to travel into the nebula in a shuttlepod armed with spatial charges to excite the dark matter. Sub-Commander T'Pol , noting that captains are prohibited from traveling off-ship unaccompanied, joins him and convinces him to tell the story of his friend Robinson and the Warp 5 program. In a series of flashbacks, Commander Archer meets with Commodore Forrest, and

4788-400: A satellite television programming network featuring programs largely produced by college students since 1991. The founder and first head of UPN, Lucie Salhany , approached NACB with an offer of US$ 50,000 to transfer the name. Due to the costs related to rebranding the student network, and under the advice of its then-volunteer legal counsel, Cary Tepper, the non-profit association countered with

4959-642: A scheduled NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins in Miami to be postponed from its scheduled start time of 1:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET; the game aired locally on KDKA-TV and WFOR-TV while their respective UPN sister stations, WNPA-TV and WBFS-TV , aired CBS's regular Sunday night programming instead. These factors led to the network struggling in the ratings over much of UPN's existence, with its later Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Enterprise , perhaps suffering

5130-490: A simulated rocket blast from the exhaust pipes. A series of wooden mock-up X-1s were used to depict interior shots of the cockpit, the mating up of the X-1 to a modified B-29 fuselage and bomb bay and ultimately to recreate flight in a combination of model work and live-action photography. The "follow-up" X-1A was also an all-wooden model. The U.S. Navy's Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket that Crossfield duelled with Yeager's X-1 and X-1A

5301-642: A sitcom set during the Civil War that centered on a black English nobleman who becomes the valet to Abraham Lincoln ; even before its premiere, the series was riddled by controversy and protests from several African American activist groups (including the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP , who picketed outside Paramount Studios one week before the originally scheduled pilot episode ) and some advertisers for its perceived lighthearted take on American slavery in

First Flight (Star Trek: Enterprise) - Misplaced Pages Continue

5472-455: A slightly decreased rating of 2.3/4%, but the viewing figures were higher. "Bounty" was watched by 3.54 million viewers, whereas "First Flight" was watched by 3.3 million. "First Flight" was the 93rd most watched programme of the evening. The episode aired during the following week was the season two finale, whose figures rebounded slightly; " The Expanse " had a final rating of 2.8/4% with an audience of 3.88 million. Michelle Erica Green reviewed

5643-567: A technician, Navy Counselor 1st Class Kathleen J. Grant played a Senator and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Thomas P. Hunt was the Senator's assistant. All three were pleased to be appearing on the show, with Grant saying that "My nephew told all of the kids at his school his aunt was going to be on Star Trek . That makes the experience even more of a thrill for me", and Hunt saying "This will be on reruns for years to come, when I'm 60, I'll be able to say, 'Hey, that's me on Enterprise.'". In return,

5814-423: A two-disc DVD Special Edition that featured scene-specific commentaries with key cast and crew members, deleted scenes, three documentaries on the making of The Right Stuff including interviews with Mercury astronauts and Chuck Yeager, and a feature-length PBS documentary, John Glenn: American Hero . These extras are also included in the November 5, 2013 release of the 30th Anniversary edition, which also includes

5985-456: A week. Thirty "Movies of the Week" would have followed Star Trek: Phase II on Saturday nights. Plans for the new network were scrapped when sufficient advertising slots could not be sold, though Paramount would contribute some programs to Operation Prime Time , such as the mini-series A Woman Called Golda , and the weekly pop music program, Solid Gold . Star Trek: Phase II was reworked as

6156-426: A year, but they have proved that his father's design was sound. Archer launches his final two charges into the cloud, and a breathtaking nebula slowly reveals itself. Archer calls T'Pol to watch the actual nebula with her eyes, rather than monitor it through the sensors. T'Pol mentions the human tradition of first discoverers of astronomical phenomena having naming rights. Archer makes a sarcastic crack about calling it

6327-437: Is destroyed as it approaches warp 2.2, but Robinson escapes. The Vulcans argue that the warp program should be postponed, but Archer wants the program, and his father's engine research, to continue. Archer, and his new friend Lieutenant Tucker , then go to the 602 Club to discuss the problem. Robinson arrives and blames Archer's father, and he and Archer end up in a fist fight. The next day Archer discovers Robinson packing up

6498-481: Is informed that although he excelled in simulations, his colleague Commander Robinson has been awarded the warp 3 test ship, the NX Alpha . Disappointed, Archer goes to the 602 Club, a local bar, bumping into Robinson there. Later, Robinson takes the scheduled flight aboard the NX Alpha , breaking the warp 2.0 barrier. He refuses a command from Forrest to stop and instead increases speed; the craft soon destabilizes and

6669-409: Is nearly killed in a high-speed ejection when his engine fails. Though seriously burned after reaching the ground, Yeager gathers up his parachute and walks to the ambulance, proving his worth. On May 15, 1963, Cooper has a successful launch on Mercury-Atlas 9 , ending the Mercury program. As the last American to fly into space alone, he "went higher, farther, and faster than any other American ... for

6840-422: Is unclear exactly what it is. It cannot be seen by telescopes, and it is theorised that it makes up a great deal of the matter in the universe. John Shiban and Chris Black wrote "First Flight", the fiftieth episode of Enterprise . Former Star Trek: The Next Generation actor LeVar Burton directed the episode, his second of the season and fourth overall. He had previously directed episodes of other shows in

7011-530: The Alcubierre drive , using a similar theory. In the Star Trek universe, Zefram Cochrane invented the drive in 2063. Cochrane was portrayed by James Cromwell in the film Star Trek: First Contact and re-appeared in this role in the pilot of Enterprise , " Broken Bow ". That episode showed the culmination of the development of the warp 5 engine, which was designed by Jonathan Archer's father, Henry, in

First Flight (Star Trek: Enterprise) - Misplaced Pages Continue

7182-476: The Bell X-1 and X-1A rocket-powered record-breakers. Other "real" aircraft included the early jet fighters and trainers as well as current USAF and United States Navy examples. These flying aircraft and helicopters included: A number of aircraft significant to the story had to be recreated. The first was an essentially static X-1 that had to at least roll along the ground and realistically "belch flame" by

7353-669: The Happy Bottom Riding Club run by Pancho Barnes , who classifies the pilots at Edwards as either "prime" (such as Yeager and Crossfield) that fly the best equipment or newer "pudknockers" who only dream about it. Gordon "Gordo" Cooper , Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Donald "Deke" Slayton , captains of the United States Air Force , are among the "pudknockers" who hope to also prove that they have "the Right Stuff". The tests are no longer secret, as

7524-790: The Kids' WB Saturday morning lineup from fellow predecessor The WB, resulting in UPN affiliates that joined The CW in September 2006 carrying network-supplied children's programming for the first time since the One Too block ended. Some Fox stations that declined to carry 4Kids TV passed on that block to an affiliate of UPN or The WB, or an independent station , in order for the Fox affiliate to air general entertainment programming or local newscasts on Saturday mornings (for example, WFLD in Chicago moved

7695-781: The Metro-Goldwyn Mayer library. UPN had approximately 143 full-power owned-and-operated or primary affiliate stations in the United States, and another 65 stations aired some UPN programming as secondary affiliates. Although it was considered a major network by Nielsen for ratings purposes, UPN was not available in every American television market . In some areas, UPN programming was shown off-pattern by affiliates of other networks (airing immediately after programming from their primary network on some Fox and WB stations, or during overnight timeslots on major network affiliates) or by otherwise independent stations, such as in

7866-618: The Paramount Teleplex as the main brand for movies at any given timeslot, the Paramount Prime Movie for primetime features, and the Paramount Late Movie for films airing in late night timeslots. From 2002 to 2006, UPN offered a movie block (airing on Saturdays or Sundays depending on the affiliates) called Hot Weekend Movie , which carried movies (theatrical, made-for-TV and direct-to-video) from

8037-782: The Tribune Company at roughly the same time. Paramount formed the Paramount Stations Group in 1991 when it purchased the assets of the TVX Broadcast Group , which owned several independent stations in major markets. This was not unlike the purchase of the Metromedia stations by News Corporation five years earlier, which were used as the nucleus for Fox. In another parallel, 20th Century Fox (the News Corporation subsidiary behind

8208-603: The UPN Movie Trailer to its stations. The weekend block featured mostly older theatrically released action and comedy films, often those from the Paramount film library. The Movie Trailer block was discontinued in 2000 to give stations that opted for them room for a two-hour block of select UPN series that aired in primetime during the past week. There were also three Paramount-branded blocks that aired on Viacom's UPN owned-and-operated stations between 1995 and 2000:

8379-531: The United Paramount Network , with initial plans to run two hours of programming in prime time for two nights per week. The new network would be co-owned by United & Paramount Television, while most of its shows were to be produced by Paramount Television. Initially, the network was to simply be called "U", but the "U Network" trademark was held by the now-defunct National Association of College Broadcasters (NACB), which had been operating

8550-459: The sound barrier , war hero Captain Chuck Yeager receives the chance to fly the X-1. Yeager becomes the first person to fly at supersonic speed, defeating the "demon in the sky". Six years later, Muroc, now Edwards Air Force Base , still attracts the best test pilots. Yeager (now a major) and friendly rival Scott Crossfield repeatedly break one another's speed records. They often visit

8721-503: The "T'Pol/Archer Nebula". T'Pol gently responds that she was thinking Archer could name it the "Robinson Nebula", after his friend. "First Flight" was inspired by the 1983 film The Right Stuff , the story of the test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base and the first NASA astronauts . Reference is also made to the Apollo 11 lunar landing, when Archer mentions that no-one remembers astronaut Buzz Aldrin 's first words when he stepped onto

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8892-428: The 1980s and 1990s; there were unaffiliated commercial television stations in most of the major television markets, even after the foundation of Fox in 1986. Meanwhile, Paramount , which had long been successful in syndication with repeats of Star Trek , launched several first-run syndicated series by the 1990s, including Entertainment Tonight , The Arsenio Hall Show , Friday the 13th: The Series , War of

9063-470: The 1998–99 season). In 1997, UPN added two teen-oriented series to the lineup with reruns of the syndicated Sweet Valley High (based on the young adult book series by Francine Pascal ) and a new series, Breaker High (which co-starred a then-unknown Ryan Gosling ); both shows filled the weekday morning block for the 1997–98 season, while they were also included alongside the animated series on Sunday mornings. Unlike other networks, UPN gave its affiliates

9234-499: The 19th century . Despite the publicity Desmond received from the controversial approach it applied to its topic, the series suffered from low ratings (with the first episode on October 5, 1998, placing 116th out of 125 programs aired that week on network television) and was canceled after four episodes. Six months before Viacom announced its $ 36 billion merger with (the original) CBS Corporation , in March 1999, Viacom applied

9405-426: The 4Kids TV schedule to co-owned then-UPN affiliate WPWR-TV , while WFLD aired infomercials). During the late 1990s, UPN produced a number of television films under the umbrella brand Blockbuster Shockwave Cinema , in conjunction with sponsor (and then-sister company) Blockbuster Video , almost all of which were sci-fi films . From UPN's inception until 2000, the network also offered a hosted movie series called

9576-403: The 9:00 p.m. hour; both received mixed reviews. Neither lasted long. Other early UPN programs included the action series Nowhere Man , starring Bruce Greenwood and Marker , starring Richard Grieco ; the comic western Legend starring Richard Dean Anderson ; the sci-fi themed action series, The Sentinel ; and Moesha , a sitcom starring R&B musician Brandy Norwood . Of

9747-490: The Big Three television networks (NBC, ABC and CBS) and considerably fewer than Fox and especially The WB. In several markets, the local UPN affiliate either outsourced news programming to an NBC, ABC or CBS station in the market (either due to insufficient funds or studio space for production of their own newscasts, or in later years after the FCC permitted duopolies in markets with at least eight unique station owners in 2000,

9918-735: The Chicago station. When the network launched in January 1995, UPN automatically added six affiliates with functioning news departments through Chris-Craft/United Television and Viacom's respective affiliation deals with the network; all of those stations started their news operations as either independent stations or during prior affiliations with other networks: WWOR-TV/Secaucus, New Jersey (New York City), KCOP-TV/Los Angeles, WKBD-TV / Detroit , KPTV / Portland, Oregon , KMSP-TV / Minneapolis and WTOG / Tampa, Florida . Two more stations would join them later on: KSTW / Seattle , also owned by Viacom at

10089-566: The Chris-Craft purchase, and converted it into a Fox O&O) acquired the station from Clear Channel Communications and switched the station to UPN – it was moved to 10:00 p.m. to avoid competing with KMSP's 9:00 p.m. newscast until the WFTC newscast was canceled in June 2006. With the exception of KPTV and KMSP, both of which are now Fox stations, none of the former UPN affiliates that produced newscasts during their affiliation with

10260-492: The Fox Family Channel, which was renamed ABC Family (now Freeform) the past year. At the same time, the "One Too" branding was dropped from on-air usage due to the rebranding of ABC's Saturday morning lineup from One Saturday Morning to ABC Kids (although the block was unofficially referred to as Disney's Animation Weekdays outside the network). UPN subsequently chose not to renew its contract with Disney, with

10431-441: The Fox network, which was spun off with the company's other entertainment assets to 21st Century Fox on June 28, 2013 before Disney acquired them on March 20, 2019), like Paramount, had long been a powerhouse in television syndication. All indicators suggested that Paramount was about to launch a network of its own. On October 27, 1993, Viacom and Chris-Craft announced the formation of a new television network, later to be named

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10602-520: The Kennedy and Johnson administrations. In 1979, independent producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler outbid Universal Pictures for the movie rights to Tom Wolfe 's book, paying $ 350,000. They hired William Goldman to write the screenplay. Goldman wrote in his memoirs that his adaptation focused on the astronauts, entirely ignoring Chuck Yeager. Goldman was inspired to accept the job because he wanted to say something patriotic about America in

10773-483: The Movies , also named The Right Stuff the best film of 1983, and said: "It's a great film, and I hope everyone sees it." Siskel also went on to include The Right Stuff at #3 on his list of the best films of the 1980s, behind Shoah and Raging Bull . In his review for Newsweek , David Ansen wrote: "When The Right Stuff takes to the skies, it can't be compared with any other movie, old or new: it's simply

10944-544: The NASA spacecraft and were built from the original mold. For many of the flying sequences, scale models were produced by USFX Studios and filmed outdoors in natural sunlight against the sky. Even off-the-shelf plastic scale models were utilized for aerial scenes. The X-1, F-104 and B-29 models were built in large numbers as a number of the more than 40 scale models were destroyed in the process of filming. The blending together of miniatures, full-scale mock-ups and actual aircraft

11115-528: The NX prototype vessels. The guest cast in "First Flight" included the return of Vaughn Armstrong in the recurring role of Admiral Forrest, although this was his most demanding shoot so far, requiring him to be on set for five of the seven days of filming. Keith Carradine was cast as A. G. Robinson. This episode also saw the return of some actors who had appeared in other series of the Star Trek franchise. These included Michael Canavan , who appeared in this episode as

11286-496: The Soviets had orbited Sputnik , Grissom had already left Edwards and returned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base , where he had served previously and was happy with his new assignment there. Grissom did not even know he was under consideration for the astronaut program until he received mysterious orders "out of the blue" to report to Washington in civilian clothing for what turned out to be a recruitment session for NASA. While

11457-627: The Soviets in the new Space Race . The search for the first Americans in space excludes Yeager because he lacks a college degree. Grueling physical and mental tests select the Mercury Seven astronauts, including John Glenn of the United States Marine Corps , Alan Shepard , Walter Schirra and Scott Carpenter of the United States Navy , as well as Cooper, Grissom and Slayton; they immediately become national heroes. Although many early NASA rockets explode during launch,

11628-422: The Soviets. Shepard is the first American to reach space on the 15-minute sub-orbital flight of Mercury-Redstone 3 on May 5. After Grissom's similar flight of Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, the capsule's hatch blows open and quickly fills with water. Grissom escapes, but the spacecraft, overweight with seawater, sinks. Many criticize Grissom for possibly panicking and opening the hatch prematurely. Glenn becomes

11799-596: The UPN station was used to air CBS network programs if local sporting events or extended breaking news coverage would air on the CBS station, sometimes resulting in UPN programs being pre-empted outright, as the CBS-owned outlets were usually the senior partner in the duopolies (an exception being Detroit , where WKBD-TV is considered the senior partner to WWJ-TV due to WKBD being longer-established). One such event occurred on September 26, 2004, when Hurricane Jeanne forced

11970-471: The Viacom buyout. Shortly afterward, Viacom shortened the network's official name from the "United Paramount Network" to the three-letter initialism, "UPN". Viacom also proposed a rebranding of UPN into the " Paramount Network ", using a prototype logo based on Paramount's mountain logo, which served as the basis for the "P" triangle in the network's original logo that was used until September 2002. This idea

12141-550: The Worlds , Star Trek: The Next Generation , and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . In 1993, Time Warner and Chris-Craft Industries entered into a joint venture to distribute programs via a prime time programming service, the Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN), which is UPN's partial parent. Chris-Craft later became a partner in UPN, and Time Warner launched The WB in a joint venture with

12312-523: The addition of programming on Wednesday nights on March 6, 1996 (during the second half of the 1995–96 season); that expansion also saw UPN assume the broadcast rights to the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards , which aired its inaugural broadcast on CBS the year before. UPN ordered 36 sci-fi films to air as part of its weekly movie presentations beginning in 1998; the films were supplied by four production companies, with most of

12483-472: The adventures of the first Starfleet starship Enterprise , registration NX-01. In this episode, after Captain Jonathan Archer ( Scott Bakula ) is informed of the death of his former colleague, A.G. Robinson ( Keith Carradine ), he relates the story of breaking the warp 2.5 barrier to T'Pol ( Jolene Blalock ) while investigating a dark matter nebula . The episode was inspired by the story of

12654-496: The ambitious astronauts all hope to be the first in space as part of Project Mercury . Although engineers see the men as passengers, the pilots insist that the Mercury spacecraft have a window, a hatch with explosive bolts, and pitch-yaw-roll controls. However, the Soviet Union beats them into space on April 12, 1961, with the launch of Vostok 1 carrying Yuri Gagarin . The seven astronauts are determined to match and surpass

12825-453: The animated adaptation of Dilbert . In Summer 2005, UPN aired R U the Girl , in which R&B group TLC (not with Left Eye) searched for a woman to join them on a new song. The network also produced some special programs, including 2001's Iron Chef USA . Much of UPN's comedy programming between 1996 and 2006 (particularly those that aired as part of the network's Monday evening lineup)

12996-646: The background of the Earth as seen from high-flying planes and from orbiting spacecraft. Kaufman gave his five editors a list of documentary images he needed, sending them off to search for film from NASA , the Air Force and Bell Aircraft vaults. They also discovered Russian stock footage not viewed in 30 years. During production, Kaufman met with resistance from the Ladd Company and threatened to quit several times. In December 1982, one reel of cut workprint of

13167-620: The brand "UPN Hawaii"). This would be a continuation of the trend of networks using such naming schemes, which originated at Fox (and even earlier by the Canadian CBC ), and was also predominately used at CBS (which has most of its owned-and-operated stations, with a few exceptions, brand using a combination of the network's name and over-the-air channel number) and The WB (with the exception of its Tribune Broadcasting-owned affiliates in Los Angeles and Chicago, and certain other stations); NBC and ABC also use similar branding schemes, but not to

13338-526: The case of KIKU-TV in Honolulu , Hawaii . Some affiliates were also known to extensively preempt network programming in order to broadcast local sporting events. By 2003, UPN had an estimated audience reach of 85.98% of all U.S. households (equivalent to 91,689,290 households with at least one television set). In contrast, The WB was viewable in 91.66% of all U.S. television homes. This is mainly because UPN did not have wide distribution in areas ranked below

13509-584: The cast and crew. Critical reception to this episode was mostly positive, with praise directed at Scott Bakula. The episode received the second-lowest number of viewers received by Enterprise at that point, which was blamed on it being aired opposite the series finale of Dawson's Creek . As Enterprise is about to investigate a dark matter cloud, Captain Archer is informed by Admiral Forrest that his former Starfleet colleague, Captain Robinson, has died in

13680-405: The companies would shut down UPN and competitor The WB to launch a new joint venture network later that year. UPN ceased broadcasting on September 15, 2006, with The WB following two days later. Select programs from both networks moved to the new network, The CW , when it launched on September 18, 2006. Paramount Pictures had played a pivotal role in the development of network television. It

13851-541: The company's stock; both the original Viacom – which was renamed CBS Corporation – and a new company that took the Viacom name would be controlled by the original Viacom's parent National Amusements (controlled by Sumner Redstone ). UPN was kept by CBS Corporation, while the new Viacom took Paramount Pictures among other holdings each company acquired in the deal. The split took effect on December 31, 2005. On January 24, 2006, UPN parent CBS Corporation and Time Warner ,

14022-516: The contents of his locker. He concedes that it is primarily an intermix problem, but that the engine could still work. Archer and Robinson then steal the NX Beta , with Tucker in flight control, but it starts to suffer the same issues as the Alpha . As Starfleet security detains Tucker, Archer and Robinson coax the engines to warp 2.5. Archer and Robinson are reprimanded, and the program is grounded for

14193-527: The distinctive Edwards Air Force Base landscape, so the entire production crew moved to the Mojave Desert to shoot the opening sequences that framed the story of the test pilots at Muroc Army Air Field, later Edwards AFB. Additional shooting took place in California City in early 1983. During the filming of a sequence portraying Chuck Yeager's ejection from an NF-104, stuntman Joseph Svec,

14364-415: The division of affiliates, but Chris-Craft expressed extreme skepticism and declined to proceed with the merger. A merger would ultimately come in 2006 with the creation of The CW . UPN launched on January 16, 1995, initially carrying programming only on Monday and Tuesday nights from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time . The first telecast, the two-hour pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager ,

14535-464: The episode a score of three out of four, saying that he welcomed the back story to the series being fleshed out in this episode. He thought that the episode itself wasn't very challenging to watch, but thought that the melancholy ending was fitting. He even thought that it might be worthwhile to go further back in time to see the actual founding of Starfleet. In his 2022 rewatch, Keith DeCandido of Tor.com gave it 4 out of 10. Den of Geek ranked this

14706-433: The episode for TrekNation , and thought that Scott Bakula in particular gave one of his best performances of the show so far. Both he and Carradine worked well together, but thought that the other characters in the flashback were clichéd. Overall, she thought it was a "superbly filmed episode" with several new sets which were well used, and the visual effects were good. Jamahl Epsicokhan at his website " Jammer's Reviews " gave

14877-400: The errors. To prepare for their roles, Kaufman gave the actors playing the seven astronauts an extensive videotape collection to study. The effort to make an authentic feature led to the use of many full-size aircraft, scale models and special effects to replicate the scenes at Edwards Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station . Special visual effects supervisor Gary Gutierrez said

15048-548: The fact that UPN would not be able to have extensive small-market coverage at launch due to a lack of commercial television stations in those areas, Paramount Television denied Advance Entertainment Corporation permission from distributing the network's programming over the WWOR EMI Service , the superstation feed of New York City affiliate WWOR-TV, preventing the network from reaching markets without an exclusive or secondary UPN affiliate. The network proposed launching

15219-470: The film much well-needed heft. He is the center of gravity". Colin Greenland reviewed The Right Stuff for Imagine , and stated: "It is the film's willingness to question [...] idealism, while laying down some very fine footage of things that are moving very fast, which makes The Right Stuff thoroughly absorbing for nearly three and a quarter hours." Tom Wolfe made no secret of his dislike for

15390-475: The film that included portions of John Glenn's flight disappeared from Kaufman's editing facility in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood. The missing reel of cut workprint was never found, but was reconstructed using a black and white duplicate copy of the reel as a guide and reprinting new workprint from the original negative, which was always safely in storage at the film lab. Although The Right Stuff

15561-408: The film took liberties with certain historical facts as part of "dramatic license", criticism focused on one: the portrayal of Gus Grissom panicking when his Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft sank following splashdown. Most historians, as well as engineers working for or with NASA and many of the related contractor agencies within the aerospace industry, are now convinced that the premature detonation of

15732-419: The film was being made. Other notable inaccuracies include: early termination of Glenn's flight after three orbits instead of seven (in reality, the flight was scheduled for at most three orbits); the engineers who built the Mercury craft are portrayed as Germans (in reality, they were mostly Americans). A large number of film models were assembled for the production; for the more than 80 aircraft appearing in

15903-536: The film, especially because of changes from his original book. William Goldman also disliked the choices made by Kaufman, writing in his 1983 book Adventures in the Screen Trade : "Phil [Kaufman]'s heart was with Yeager. And not only that, he felt the astronauts, rather than being heroic, were really minor leaguers, mechanical men of no particular quality, not great pilots at all, simply the product of hype." The Mercury Seven astronauts were mostly negative about

16074-419: The film, static mock-ups and models were used as well as authentic aircraft of the period. Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Wilmore, USAF (Ret) acted as the United States Air Force liaison to the production, beginning his role as a technical consultant in 1980 when the pre-production planning had begun. The first draft of the script in 1980 had concentrated only on the Mercury 7, but as subsequent revisions developed

16245-418: The film. In an early interview, Deke Slayton said that none of the film "was all that accurate, but it was well done." However, in his memoirs, Slayton described the film as being "as bad as the book was good, just a joke". Wally Schirra liked the book a lot, but expressed disappointment and dislike for the movie, and he never forgave the producers for portraying Gus Grissom as a "bungling sort of coward", which

16416-456: The first American astronauts as seen in the film The Right Stuff . Several sets were specifically built for this episode, and a reference to the designer of the Enterprise from the original Star Trek series is included in the story. Three crew-members from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) appeared in this episode, and handed over a flag from the ship to

16587-614: The first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury-Atlas 6 on February 20, 1962, surviving a possibly loose heat shield, and receives a ticker-tape parade . He, his colleagues, and their families become celebrities, including a gigantic celebration in the Sam Houston Coliseum to announce the opening of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston , despite Glenn's wife Annie 's fear of public speaking due to

16758-408: The first special effects were too clean for the desired "dirty, funky, early NASA look." So Gutierrez and his team started from scratch, employing unconventional techniques, like going up a hill with model airplanes on wires and fog machines to create clouds, or shooting model F-104s from a crossbow device and capturing their flight with up to four cameras. Avant garde filmmaker Jordan Belson created

16929-542: The franchise, including the hundredth episode of Star Trek: Voyager , " Timeless ". In this episode, Tucker states that his commanding officer at the testing facility is Captain Jefferies, this is a direct reference to artist and set designer Matt Jefferies , designer of the original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) . Jefferies died two months after the episode was aired. Production began on March 10, 2003, and concluded on March 18. The first days' shoot consisted of scenes in

17100-468: The launch of the Enterprise itself. The Vulcans during this period gave oversight and advice to Starfleet in the development of the warp drive, but sought to slow the progress of the humans. "First Flight" showed a previously unseen period in the development of the fictional warp drive, with the pursuit of the warp 2 barrier. The dark matter mentioned in this episode is a real phenomenon, although it

17271-465: The majority owner of The WB, announced that they would shut down the two respective networks and launch a new broadcast network that would be operated as a joint venture between both companies, The CW , which incorporated UPN and The WB's higher-rated programs with newer series produced exclusively for The CW. The new network immediately signed 10-year affiliation agreements with 16 stations affiliated with The WB (out of 19 stations that were affiliated with

17442-460: The merger of that network's owned-and-operated stations into Viacom's Paramount Stations Group unit), created duopolies between CBS and UPN stations in Philadelphia ( KYW-TV and WPSG), Boston ( WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV ), Miami ( WFOR-TV and WBFS-TV ), Dallas–Fort Worth ( KTVT and KTXA ), Detroit ( WWJ-TV and WKBD-TV ), and Pittsburgh ( KDKA-TV and WNPA ). Viacom's purchase of CBS

17613-483: The military soon recognizes that it needs good publicity for funding. Cooper's wife, Trudy, and other wives are afraid of becoming widows, but cannot change their husbands' ambitions and desire for success and fame. In 1957, the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite alarms the United States government . Politicians such as Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and military leaders demand that NASA help America defeat

17784-479: The moon. Aldrin's actual first words were "Beautiful view." Warp drive was first mentioned in Gene Roddenberry 's first-draft pitch for Star Trek , dated March 11, 1964, although in that version it was referred to as a "space-warp drive". The drive allows for a vessel to travel faster than the speed of light by warping space-time around the ship itself. In 1994, physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed

17955-449: The most and ultimately being canceled by the network in a controversial decision in February 2005. The most consistent ratings performer for the network was WWE SmackDown . During the 2004–2005 season, the network was getting consistently better ratings than The WB, much of this thanks to its carriage of the WWE. When the network launched, UPN began having most of its stations branded using

18126-495: The most thrilling flight footage ever put on film". Gary Arnold in his review for the Washington Post , wrote: "The movie is obviously so solid and appealing that it's bound to go through the roof commercially and keep on soaring for the next year or so". In his review for The New York Times , Vincent Canby praised Shepard's performance: "Both as the character he plays and as an iconic screen presence, Mr. Shepard gives

18297-503: The movie bombed at the box office with $ 21.1 million (domestically). The failure of this and Twice Upon a Time caused The Ladd Company to shut down. As part of the promotion for the film, Veronica Cartwright, Chuck Yeager, Gordon Cooper, Scott Glenn and Dennis Quaid appeared in 1983 at ConStellation, the 41st World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore. The Right Stuff received overwhelming acclaim from critics. The film holds

18468-485: The network continue to maintain an independent news department – despite license requirements imposed by the station's 1983 transfer of its license to Secaucus, New Jersey from New York City to cover New Jersey issues, WWOR-TV, which continued to produce news programming after coming under common ownership with Fox O&O WNYW , shut down its news department in July 2013 and replaced its lone 10:00 p.m. newscast with an outside produced program called Chasing New Jersey ,

18639-453: The network dropping all children's programming after August 31, 2003. This left UPN as one of only two major broadcast networks that did not air a children's programming block, the other being Pax TV, which discontinued its Pax Kids lineup in 2000, before returning children's programming as Ion Television through the 2006 launch of Qubo (as a 24/7 network, it was pulled off the air in 2021). Incidentally, UPN's successor The CW carried over

18810-563: The network for eight months in 1998 due to a compensation dispute; it received a rare waiver from the network to air a marathon of the last half of season four of Star Trek: Voyager which it had not aired in August 1998, before the fifth season's premiere in September. ). One Chris-Craft/United Television-owned station, KMSP-TV in Minneapolis–Saint Paul , only branded as "UPN 9" for its entertainment and network programming. Due to

18981-430: The network on August 31; as a result, UPN's last two weeks of programming did not air in 10 markets where Fox owned a UPN affiliate that was set to become an owned-and-operated station of MyNetworkTV, when that network launched on September 5, alongside other markets where the local UPN station affiliated with MyNetworkTV or terminated their UPN affiliation during the summer. Shortly after the network's closure, UPN's website

19152-452: The network's early offerings, only Star Trek: Voyager , Moesha and The Sentinel would last longer than one season. As a result of the lack of viewership, UPN operated on a loss and had lost $ 800 million by 2000. Within nearly two years of the network's launch, on December 8, 1996, Paramount/Viacom purchased a 50% stake in UPN from Chris-Craft for approximately $ 160 million. Like Fox had done nine years earlier, UPN started with

19323-506: The network's launch were already airing The Disney Afternoon , a block supplied by Disney-owned syndication distributor Buena Vista Television ; however, that block would be discontinued in August 1997. The addition of Disney's One Too expanded UPN's children's program block back to two hours, running on Sunday mornings and weekday afternoons. In September 2002, Digimon: Digital Monsters moved to UPN from Fox Kids , due to Disney's acquisition of Fox's children's program inventory as well as

19494-454: The network's programs. One month later on February 22, Fox announced the formation of MyNetworkTV , a new network that would also launch in September 2006 that would use the company's soon-to-be former UPN affiliates as the nucleus. Over the next eight months, determinations were made as to which shows from the two networks would cross over to The CW, as well as which of UPN and The WB's affiliate stations would be selected to become affiliates of

19665-445: The network's run (though it did offer children's programming on weekend mornings until 2003, and a movie package to its affiliates on weekend afternoons until 2000, when the latter was replaced with a two-hour repeat block of UPN programs); as a result, affiliates held the responsibility of programming their Saturday and Sunday evening schedules with syndicated programs, sports, movies or network programs that were preempted from earlier in

19836-428: The network) that were owned by that network's part-owner, the Tribune Company – including stations in the coveted markets of New York City , Los Angeles and Chicago – and 11 UPN stations that were owned by CBS Corporation. Fox Television Stations' nine UPN affiliates were passed over for affiliations as a result, and two days later, those stations removed all UPN branding from those stations and ceased promotion of

20007-410: The network, with the network's de facto owned-and-operated flagship stations becoming Philadelphia outlet WPSG (now an independent station) and San Francisco outlet KBHK-TV (now KPYX, also an independent). In addition, neither Chris-Craft or Viacom had ever held ownership of Chicago affiliate WPWR-TV , which had been the largest UPN station that was not owned-and-operated by the network before

20178-557: The network. Under CBS, new shows began to breathe life into the network starting in Fall 2003 with America's Next Top Model and sitcom All of Us (which was produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith ), followed up by the Fall 2004 premiere of the mystery series Veronica Mars and the Fall 2005 premiere of the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris , produced and narrated by Chris Rock . On June 14, 2005, Viacom announced that it would be split into two companies due to declining performance of

20349-409: The new network. Programming-wise, six UPN shows – America's Next Top Model (which was the last surviving series from UPN that remained on The CW's schedule until it moved to VH1 in 2016), Veronica Mars , Everybody Hates Chris , Girlfriends , All of Us , and WWE SmackDown! – were chosen to move to The CW for its inaugural 2006–07 fall schedule. With the exception of WWE SmackDown! , all of

20520-496: The ninth best episode of this television series. The Digital Fix called it a "surprising charming episode" that helped provide context for the Enterprise' s mission, but that it should have come in season one. "First Flight" was first released for home media use on DVD as part of the second series box set of Star Trek: Enterprise . The release featured text commentary on the episode from Star Trek and NASA designers Michael and Denise Okuda . The episode also featured as one of

20691-558: The only time the network carried programming officially outside of weeknights. UPN had planned to air a second season of the XFL in 2002, but it also demanded that SmackDown! be reduced by 30 minutes; McMahon did not agree to the change and the football league folded not long afterward. Like Fox and The WB, UPN never aired national morning or evening newscasts ; however, several of its affiliates and owned-and-operated stations did produce their own local news programs. Several UPN affiliates ran

20862-502: The option of running its weekend children's program block on either Saturdays or Sundays. In January 1998, the network entered into a deal with Saban Entertainment to program the Sunday morning block (with shows such as The Incredible Hulk , X-Men and Spider-Man joining the lineup). There were rumors that UPN then entered into discussions with then-corporate sister Nickelodeon (both networks were owned by Viacom ) to produce

21033-405: The original Rocky . ( The Right Stuff would have reunited Avildsen with both producers, and also with a fourth Rocky veteran, composer Bill Conti .) Ultimately, Chartoff and Winkler approached director Philip Kaufman , who agreed to make the film, but did not like Goldman's script; Kaufman disliked the emphasis on patriotism, and wanted Yeager put back in the film. Eventually, Goldman quit

21204-429: The programs that aired during the network's final three months were reruns. Unlike The WB, which closed its operations two days later with The Night of Favorites and Farewells (a special night of programming paying tribute to the network's most popular series), UPN closed with little to no fanfare on September 15, 2006, fading to black after that night's WWE SmackDown!. The Fox-owned UPN stations had disaffiliated from

21375-424: The project in August 1980, and United Artists pulled out. When Wolfe showed no interest in adapting his own book, Kaufman wrote a draft in eight weeks. His draft restored Yeager to the story, because "if you're tracing how the future began, the future in space travel, it began really with Yeager and the world of the test pilots. The astronauts descended from them." After the financial failure of Heaven's Gate ,

21546-670: The rare distinction of being one of the only broadcast networks to not have had owned-and-operated stations (O&O) in the three largest media markets, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago (with The WB – the only network that never have had an O&O – being the only other, as minority owner Tribune Broadcasting owned most of its charter affiliates including those in all three markets , while majority owner Time Warner only owned WTBS-TV , an independent station that originated then- superstation TBS ). With Viacom taking full ownership control of UPN, KCOP-TV and WWOR-TV lost their statuses as O&Os and automatically became affiliates of

21717-437: The real Chuck Yeager in the film was a particular "treat", which Osborne cited. The recounting of many of the legendary aspects of Yeager's life was left in place, including the naming of the X-1, "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife and his superstitious preflight ritual of asking for a stick of Beemans chewing gum from his best friend, Jack Ridley. American Film Institute On June 23, 2003, Warner Bros. Pictures released

21888-583: The real-life Enterprise had been voted as "Sailors of the Year" by the U.S. Navy, and so were given the roles of extras in this episode. This was not the first time such an exchange had occurred; previous winners had appeared as crew members on board the fictional Enterprise in the episode " Desert Crossing ". This time around they were given roles at the NX Command Center instead. Aviation Maintenance Administrationman 2nd Class James D. Frey portrayed

22059-486: The same broad level outside their O&Os. While the "Big Three" networks do not require their affiliates to have such naming schemes (though some affiliates choose to adopt it anyway) and only on the network's O&Os is the style required, UPN mandated it on all stations – though in one case, Milwaukee affiliate WCGV branded as "Channel 24" from 1998 to 2001, excluding UPN imagery from its station branding (WCGV, which previously branded as "UPN 24", had disaffiliated from

22230-406: The same time as the series finale of Dawson's Creek on The WB . "First Flight" received a 2.4/4% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it was seen by 2.4 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 4 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was the second lowest rating received by the series at that point, and "Bounty" received

22401-548: The series), and former ABC series Clueless and The Hughleys . The first program that UPN acquired from another network was In the House , which moved to the network from NBC (which canceled the LL Cool J sitcom after its second season) in 1996. In its later years, as part of the network's desire to maintain its own identity with its own unique shows, UPN instituted a policy of "not picking up other networks' scraps", which

22572-416: The shows and aired them together on Tuesday nights until Roswell ended its run in 2002; Buffy ended its run the following year. In January 2002, Viacom President and COO, Mel Karmazin restructured the network, resulting in UPN being taken out of the ownership of Paramount Television , and being placed under the oversight of CBS Television, with CBS President Leslie Moonves being given responsibility for

22743-406: The shuttlepod with Blalock and Bakula as other members of the cast were still shooting scenes for the episodes " Horizon " and " Regeneration ". The present-day scenes were completed on the second day of filming, with the remaining five days of shooting being devoted to the flashback scenes. Sets were built specifically for this episode, including the NX Command Center, the 602 Club and the interior of

22914-479: The soundtrack album release was cancelled following the film's disappointing box office. In 1986, Conti conducted a re-recording of selections from the score and from his music for North and South , performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and released by Varèse Sarabande The original soundtrack was released by Varèse Sarabande on September 20, 2013, prepared from the 1983 album mix (as

23085-446: The spacecraft hatch's explosive bolts was caused by mechanical failure not associated with direct human error or deliberate detonation by Grissom. This determination had been made long before the film was completed. Many astronauts, including Schirra, Cooper and Shepard, were critical of The Right Stuff for its treatment of Grissom, who was killed in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in January 1967 and thus unable to defend himself when

23256-423: The station being operated through a legal duopoly or management agreement with a major network affiliate); other affiliates opted to carry syndicated programming in the hour following UPN's primetime programming lineup. For example, one of the largest O&O UPN affiliates in the country, WPWR-TV , never aired news programming in its 11-year run. This is mainly due to Viacom and Chris Craft 's non-affiliation with

23427-474: The station's circumstances of holding full cable carriage across the state of Minnesota and into The Dakotas as a superstation , local management preferred to retain their pre-UPN "Minnesota 9" branding in some manner, as most of the UPN schedule was of low appeal to the station's rural viewers, and it was building a successful and competitive news department that did not depend on the success or failure of UPN. KMSP's news division success despite UPN affiliation

23598-496: The studio put The Right Stuff in turnaround . Then The Ladd Company stepped in with an estimated $ 17 million. Actor Ed Harris auditioned twice in 1981 for the role of John Glenn. Originally, Kaufman wanted to use a troupe of contortionists to portray the press corps, but settled on the improvisational comedy troupe Fratelli Bologna , known for its sponsorship of "St. Stupid's Day" in San Francisco . The director created

23769-452: The theatrical film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture , absorbing the costs already incurred from the aborted television series. Paramount, and its eventual parent Viacom (which bought the studio's then-parent, Paramount Communications, in 1994), continued to consider launching their own television network. Independent stations , even more than network affiliates , were feeling the growing pressure of audience erosion to cable television in

23940-596: The three Enterprise episodes on the Star Trek Fan Collective DVD Set "Captain's Log". The set featured episodes selected by each of the Captains from the Star Trek series, and several chosen by the fans, a total of seventeen episodes. A release on Blu-ray Disc for season two occurred on August 20, 2013. UPN The United Paramount Network ( UPN ) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It

24111-444: The three of them being recruited together there for the astronaut program in late 1957, with Grissom supposedly expressing keen interest in becoming a "star-voyager". According to their respective NASA biographies, none of the three was posted to Edwards before 1955 (Slayton in 1955 and Grissom and Cooper in 1956, ) and neither of the latter two had previously trained at Langley. By the time astronaut recruitment began in late 1957 after

24282-425: The three sailors presented the cast and crew of Star Trek: Enterprise with a flag that had been flying on the aircraft carrier earlier in the month. "First Flight" was first shown in the United States on May 14, 2003 on UPN . It was aired on the same night as the following episode, " Bounty ". Both episodes saw a reduction in viewing figures compared to previous weeks, which was attributed to them being broadcast at

24453-588: The time of UPN's launch, the network's de jure flagship stations were Chris-Craft-owned WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey (which serves the New York City market) and KCOP-TV in Los Angeles (which serves the Los Angeles market). Even after Chris-Craft sold its share in the network to Viacom, WWOR and KCOP were still commonly regarded as the de jure flagship stations of the network since it had long been common practice for this status to be associated with

24624-489: The time, after it affiliated with UPN in 1997 through the reversal of a 1995 affiliation switch with CBS affiliate KIRO-TV (which also kept its news department as a UPN affiliate), and KMAX-TV/Sacramento, which joined UPN after being acquired by Viacom in 1998 and began producing newscasts shortly after its 1995 affiliation with The WB. KSTW and WTOG's news departments were shut down in 1998 due to cost-cutting measures mandated by Viacom; newscasts would briefly return to KSTW via

24795-404: The titles coming from Paramount. Some titles would be shown on Showtime first, which allowed the premium cable channel to cooperate in advertising the movies. UPN completed its prime time expansion in the 1998–99 season, with Thursdays and Fridays as the last nights of programming to be added to the network's evening slate. That season saw the debut of The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer ,

24966-444: The top 100 Nielsen-designated media markets, whereas The WB operated The WB 100+ Station Group – a cable -only station group that was launched by the network in September 1998 – to provide broad coverage to those markets (from January 1995 to October 1999, The WB's programming was carried over the superstation feed of the network's Chicago affiliate WGN-TV through a programming agreement with its owner Tribune Broadcasting). Despite

25137-628: The treatment into more of the original story that Wolfe had envisioned, the aircraft of the late-1940s that would have been seen at Edwards AFB were required. Wilmore gathered World War II era "prop" aircraft including: The first group were mainly "set dressing" on the ramp while the Confederate Air Force (now renamed the Commemorative Air Force) B-29 "Fifi" was modified to act as the B-29 "mothership" to carry

25308-469: The uncertainty of the network's future following the Fox purchases, UPN reached four-year affiliation agreements with Fox Television Stations' nine UPN affiliates on September 24, 2003. In 2001, UPN entered into a public bidding war to acquire two series from The WB – Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell – from producing studio 20th Century Fox Television . UPN eventually outbid The WB for

25479-479: The wake of the Iran hostage crisis . Winkler writes in his memoirs that he was disappointed that Goldman's adaptation ignored Yeager. In June 1980, United Artists agreed to finance the film up to $ 20 million, and the producers began looking for a director. Michael Ritchie was originally attached but fell through; so did John Avildsen who, four years prior, had won an Oscar for his work under Winkler and Chartoff on

25650-515: The week due to special programming, in the 8:00–10:00 p.m. ( Eastern and Pacific Time ) time period. This primetime scheduling allowed for many of the network's affiliates to air local newscasts during the 10:00–11:00 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific Time) time period. Most of UPN's programming through the years was produced by Paramount Television or a Viacom-owned sister company ( Viacom Productions , Big Ticket Television , Spelling Television or CBS Productions ). UPN's first official program

25821-555: Was Star Trek: Voyager , with the first comedy shows to debut being two short-lived series: the Richard Jeni starring vehicle Platypus Man and Pig Sty . Other notable UPN programs during the network's existence included The Sentinel , Moesha , Star Trek: Enterprise , WWE SmackDown , America's Next Top Model , Girlfriends , the Moesha spin-off The Parkers , Veronica Mars , Everybody Hates Chris , and

25992-456: Was dubbed over him in post-production. Most of the film was shot in and around San Francisco between March and October 1982, with additional filming continuing into January 1983. A waterfront warehouse there was transformed into a studio. Location shooting took place primarily at the abandoned Hamilton Air Force Base north of San Francisco which was converted into a sound stage for the numerous interior sets. No location could substitute for

26163-438: Was a lot going on, and there's a lot going on in the movie, too. The Right Stuff is an adventure film, a special effects film, a social commentary and a satire... it joins a short list of recent American movies that might be called experimental epics: movies that have an ambitious reach through time and subject matter, that spend freely for locations or special effects, but that consider each scene as intently as an art film... It's

26334-729: Was a partner in the DuMont Television Network , and the Paramount Theaters chain, which was spun off from the corporate/studio parent and merged with ABC in a deal that helped cement that network's status as a major network. The Paramount Television Network was launched in 1948, but dissolved in the 1950s. Paramount had long had plans for its own television network with the Paramount Television Service . Set to launch in early 1978, it would have run its programming for only one night

26505-412: Was a strong argument when fan pressure was generated in 2004 for them to pick up Angel , the spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which had been dropped from The WB. UPN aired only one regular sports event program: the much-hyped XFL in 2001, airing Sunday evening games as part of a package from co-creator and WWE founder Vince McMahon , which also included what was then WWF SmackDown! , and

26676-414: Was abandoned after many affiliates protested, citing that the rebranding might confuse viewers and result in ratings declines, alongside the costs of rebranding their stations with a new image and new network (and possible call sign changes). Several years later, cable television network Spike (part of Viacom) rebranded as Paramount Network . Viacom's purchase of CBS a few months before (which resulted in

26847-514: Was an auspicious start, with 21.3 million viewers; however, Voyager would neither achieve such viewership levels again, nor would any of the series premiering on UPN's second night of broadcasting survive the season. In contrast, The WB debuted one week earlier, on January 11, with four series – only one of which, Muscle , would not survive its first season. The first comedy series to premiere on UPN were Platypus Man , starring Richard Jeni , and Pig Sty , with both shows airing Monday nights in

27018-419: Was based on historic events and real people, some substantial dramatic liberties were taken. Neither Yeager's flight in the X-1 to break the sound barrier early in the film or his later, nearly fatal flight in the NF-104A were spur-of-moment, capriciously decided events, as the film seems to imply – they actually were part of the routine testing program for both aircraft. Yeager had already test-flown both aircraft

27189-419: Was branded "UPN 38" and KMAX-TV / Sacramento was branded "UPN 31". WNPA / Pittsburgh originally branded itself as "UPN 19", but rebranded itself as "UPN Pittsburgh" soon after the network introduced its second and final logo in September 2002, making it one of the few that had carried both standardization styles. Many UPN-affiliated stations followed the same branding scheme (for example, KFVE / Honolulu used

27360-479: Was largely aimed at African American audiences, with minor exceptions in shows such as Clueless , Realitycheck and Head Over Heels . UPN occasionally acquired series canceled by the other broadcast networks, including former WB series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell (both of which moved to UPN in 2001, Buffy was picked up after The WB chose not to renew it due to issues with license fees while Roswell joined UPN after that same network also canceled

27531-513: Was later shared with WWJ-TV ) in December 2002, with its 10:00 p.m. newscast continuing to be produced by ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV until its eventual cancellation in 2005. CBS re-launched a news operation for both WWJ and WKBD under the umbrella title of CBS News Detroit in January 2023. When the network launched in January 1995, UPN introduced a weekend morning cartoon block called UPN Kids (later called "The UPN Kids Action Zone" during

27702-453: Was one of the pushes for Fox Television Stations to acquire United Television overall, then convert KMSP-TV to a Fox owned-and-operated station in Fall 2002. The UPN affiliation thus moved to new sister station WFTC , which followed all UPN branding guidelines until Fox pulled their support for the network in January 2006. The Right Stuff (film) The Right Stuff was a box-office bomb , grossing about $ 21 million (domestically) against

27873-510: Was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries 's subsidiary, United Television , & Viacom 's subsidiary, Paramount Television (which produced most of UPN's programming), then became solely owned by Viacom in 2000 after subsequently purchasing Chris-Craft's remaining stake. On December 31, 2005, UPN was kept by CBS Corporation , which was the new name for Viacom when it split into two separate companies. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Time Warner jointly announced that

28044-412: Was predicated on the idea that the network in question would not have a fledgling rival to contend with. With the change in landscape, the joint understanding of assured defeat prompted executives from Viacom and Time Warner (at the time, UPN and The WB's respective owners, with the latter owning most of The WB) to discuss the prospect of merging the networks together. Both sides reached an agreement on

28215-675: Was ranked #19 on the American Film Institute's most inspiring movies. The film was later expanded into its titular franchise , including a television series and a documentary film. In 1947, over the Muroc Army Air Field in California, a number of test pilots are killed while flying high-speed aircraft such as the rocket-powered Bell X-1 . After another pilot, Slick Goodlin , demands $ 150,000 (equivalent to $ 2,047,000 in 2023) to attempt to break

28386-461: Was recreated from a modified Hawker Hunter jet fighter. The climactic flight of Yeager in a Lockheed NF-104A was originally to be made with a modified Lockheed F-104 Starfighter but ultimately, Wilmore decided that the production had to make do with a repainted Luftwaffe F-104G, which lacks the rocket engine of the NF-104. Wooden mock-ups of the Mercury space capsules also realistically depicted

28557-477: Was redirected to The CW's website, and then to CBS's website. At the time of its shutdown, UPN ran only two hours of primetime network programming on Monday through Fridays from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET (compared to the three primetime hours on Monday through Saturdays and four hours on Sundays offered by the Big Three networks , ABC, NBC and CBS). UPN never carried any weekend primetime programming throughout

28728-515: Was referred to as "UPN 9", until The CW's launch was announced in January 2006). However, most of the UPN owned-and-operated stations under Viacom/CBS Corporation branded themselves by the network/city conventions (for example, KBHK-TV / San Francisco was branded as "UPN Bay Area", WKBD / Detroit was branded as "UPN Detroit", WUPA was branded as "UPN Atlanta" and WUPL / New Orleans was branded as "UPN New Orleans"). That type of branding did not always apply though, as for example, WSBK-TV / Boston

28899-569: Was said to be the "death knell" for the Federal Communications Commission 's longtime ban on television station duopolies . Further transactions added San Francisco ( KPIX-TV and KBHK-TV , the latter of which was traded to Viacom/CBS by Fox Television Stations ) and Sacramento ( KOVR and KMAX-TV , the former of which was sold to Viacom/CBS by the Sinclair Broadcast Group ) to the mix. At

29070-784: Was seamlessly integrated into the live-action footage. The addition of original newsreel footage was used sparingly but to effect to provide another layer of authenticity. The Right Stuff had its world premiere on October 16, 1983, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. , to benefit the American Film Institute . It was given a limited release on October 21, 1983, in 229 theaters, grossing $ 1.6 million on its opening weekend. It went into wide release on February 17, 1984, in 627 theaters where it grossed an additional $ 1.6 million on that weekend. Despite this,

29241-453: Was totally untrue. In an interview, Schirra said: "It was the best book on space, but the movie was distorted and warped... All the astronauts hated [the movie]. We called it Animal House in Space ." In another interview, Schirra said: "They insulted the lovely people who talked us through the program - the NASA engineers. They made them like bumbling Germans". Scott Carpenter said that it was

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