Episode
number: 20
Network broadcast date: Friday,
August 28, 1964
Incident
at Apogee
Genre: Space-age drama
Author: William N. Robson
Production number: 13
Production date: Thursday,
July 9, 1964
Director: Ted Bell
Plotline: In outer space to attempt the very first spacewalk, a rookie astronaut has no idea that his veteran co-pilot harbors fierce resentment towards him, convinced the rookie is sleeping with his wife. He’s about to find out at the worst possible time…
Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+640828+020+Incident+at+Apogee.flac
Cast: Ralph Camargo, Joan Shea, Jack Manning, George Petrie, Cliff Carpenter, Richard Herd
Notes:
This episode was almost a year before a spacewalk ever took place. The first actual spacewalk was
in March 1965 by Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. The walk lasted 12 minutes and posed serious problems for Leonov when he attempted to return to his capsule. His suit expanded when he left the capsule and he had to release air to barely fit back in, causing a severe case of the bends. He was able to return to the capsule and earth. Ed White was the first American to attempt a spacewalk, three months after Leonov. White unfortunately died in 1967 in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire.
Robson was a legendary radio writer, producer, and director; at the time of this production he was working at Voice of America. He started in the 1930s when radio production was new and experimental. Despite his production of numerous patriotic programs during and after WW2, including his drama series Operation: Underground, mainly about the resistance against Communism in Eastern European countries, he got caught up in the Red Channels blacklist. A few years later, CBS returned him to the network when he took over Suspense and produced, directed, and wrote for CBS Radio Workshop. In the end, his leadership of Voice of America productions led to Peabody Awards for the agency.
This recording was provided by T5 director-producer Warren Somerville in the late 1970s.