That's All There Is

Al Bean was the only artist to walk on the moon. After retiring from the space program at the age of 49 he took up painting full-time, right up until his passing at the age of 86 in 2018. Some of his paintings included real moon dust and others tiny fragments of his mission patch. His paintings sell for approximately $15,000 each.

The narration mentions the plan to use a timer to photograph both Bean and Conrad on the moon. As they were unable to do this, Bean recreated this in several paintings. Not wanting to leave out CM pilot Richard Gordon, in two paintings he depicted all three of them as standing on the moon.

After Alan Bean and Dick Gordon say goodbye to one another, they close each hatch (CSM and LM) and it is implied that they simply undocked from one another. This is false as the Apollo spacecraft utilized a docking probe inside the docking tunnel that had to be disassembled before gaining entry to the LM. Thus, this had to be reassembled before the LM could be separated again.

On the 1999 UK VHS version, three uses of strong language (one said by a newscaster and two by astronauts) were cut out by the BBFC in order to avoid getting a 15 rating and to keep the episode in line with the rest of the series (at a PG rating). When the series was re-submitted in 2006 for the DVD release, the episode was passed uncut with a 15 rating.

Referenced in Dinner for Five: Episode #4.2 (2005)