Cosmos: A Personal Voyage

***Cosmos: A Personal Voyage*** is a thirteen-part, 1980 television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It was executive-produced by Adrian Malone, produced by David Kennard, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, and Gregory Andorfer, and directed by the producers, David Oyster, Richard Wells, Tom Weidlinger, and others. It covers a wide range of scientific subjects, including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe.

The series was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service in 1980, and was the most widely watched series in the history of American public television until *The Civil War* (1990). As of 2009, it was still the most widely watched PBS series in the world. It won two Emmys and a Peabody Award, and has since been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people. A book was also published to accompany the series.

*Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* has been considered highly significant since its broadcast; David Itzkoff of *The New York Times* described it as "a watershed moment for science-themed television programming

## Overview

*Cosmos* was produced in 1978 and 1979 by Los Angeles PBS member station KCET on a roughly $6.3 million budget, with over $2 million additionally allocated to promotion. The program's format is similar to earlier BBC documentaries such as Kenneth Clark's *Civilisation*, Jacob Bronowski's *The Ascent of Man*, and David Attenborough's *Life on Earth*. However, unlike those series, which were shot entirely on film, *Cosmos* used videotape for interior scenes and special effects, with film being used for exteriors and location shooting (this film-video hybrid format was common in British scripted television at the time, but less so in documentary productions). The BBC—a co-producer of *Cosmos*—later screened the series, but the episodes were cut to fit 50-minute slots.

The series is notable for its groundbreaking use of special effects, which allow Sagan to seemingly walk through environments that are actually models rather than full-sized sets. The soundtrack includes pieces of music provided by Greek composer Vangelis, such as *Alpha*, *Pulstar*, and *Heaven and Hell Part 1* (the last movement serves as the signature theme music for the show, and is directly referenced by the title of the fourth episode). Throughout the 13 hours of the series, many tracks from several 1970s albums are used, such as *Albedo 0.39*, *Meddle*, *Spiral*, *Ignacio*, *Beaubourg*, and *China*. The worldwide success of the documentary series put Vangelis' music in the homes of many, and brought it to the attention of a global audience.

Turner Home Entertainment purchased *Cosmos* from series producer KCET in 1989. In making the move to commercial television, the hour-long episodes were edited to shorter lengths, and Sagan shot new epilogues for several episodes, in which he discussed new discoveries—and alternative viewpoints—that had arisen since the original broadcast. A 14th episode, consisting of an interview between Sagan and Ted Turner, was also produced. This new version of the series was eventually released as a VHS box set. This same re-edited version was also released on 12" LaserDisc. Two episodes were released per disc, one episode on each side. The LaserDiscs for the various episodes were sold separately, not in a boxed set (as was done for VHS).

El TV Xavier Owned A VHS For Cosmos In 1990

*Cosmos* was unavailable for many years after its initial release because of copyright issues with the soundtrack music, but when it was released in 2000 on worldwide NTSC DVD, subtitles in seven languages and remastered 5.1 sound were included, as well as an alternative music and sound effects track. In 2005, The Science Channel rebroadcast the series for its 25th anniversary, with updated computer graphics and film footage, digital sound, and information about relevant scientific discoveries in the intervening 25 years. Despite being shown again on the Science Channel, the total amount of time for the original 13 episodes (780 minutes) was reduced 25% to 585 minutes (45 minutes per episode) in order to make room for commercials.

El TV Xavier Owned A DVD For Cosmos

In a 2009 UK release, Fremantle Media Enterprises digitally restored and remastered the original series as a five-disc DVD set which included bonus science updates.

### Ted Turner Interviews Carl Sagan

Some versions of the series, including the first North American home video release (though not the DVD release), included a specially-made fourteenth episode, which consisted of an hour-long interview between Sagan and Ted Turner, in which the two discussed the series and new discoveries made in the years since its first broadcast.

## TV Networks

El TV Xavier (El Xavier)

PBS

BBC One