NASA restores moon landing video
With the help of Hollywood, those historic, grainy images of the first men on the moon never looked better.
NASA unveiled refurbished video Thursday of the July 20, 1969, moonwalk restored by the same company that sharpened the movie Casablanca.
NASA lost its original moon landing videotapes and after a three-year search, officials have concluded they were probably erased. That original live video was ghostlike and grainy.
NASA and a Hollywood film restoration company took television video copies of what Apollo 11 beamed to Earth 40 years ago and made the pictures look sharper.
NASA emphasized the video isn't "new" — just better quality.
"There's nothing being created; there's nothing being manufactured," said NASA senior engineer Dick Nafzger, who's in charge of the project.
But some details seem new because of the sharpness.
Original tapes likely erased
Originally, Armstrong's face visor was too fuzzy to be seen clearly. The refurbished video shows his visor and a reflection in it.
The $230,000 US refurbishing effort is only three weeks into a months-long project, and only 40 per cent of the work has been done.
But it does show improvements in four snippets: Armstrong walking down the ladder, which includes the face visor image; Buzz Aldrin walking down the ladder; the two astronauts reading a plaque they left on the moon; and the planting of the flag on the moon.
The original videos beamed to Earth were stored on giant reels of tapes that each contained 15 minutes of video, along with 13 other channels of live data from the moon. In the 1970s and 1980s, NASA had a shortage of the tapes and erased about 200,000 tapes and reused them. That's apparently what happened to the famous moon landing footage.
Nafzger praised the restored work for its crispness. The restoration company, Lowry Digital of Burbank, Calif., also refurbished Star Wars and James Bond films, along with Casablanca.
The company noted that the latter film had a pixel count 10 times higher than the moon video, meaning the moon footage was fuzzier than that vintage movie and more of a challenge.
Lowry president Mike Inchalik said of all the video the company has dealt with, "This is by far and away the lowest quality."
Big Letterman win in late-night
NEW YORK – There could be a new king emerging in late-night television.
David Letterman's CBS "Late Show" whipped NBC's "Tonight" show in the ratings last week by nearly 800,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Letterman generally lost to "Tonight" when Jay Leno was the host, and he hasn't had this big a victory margin since returning from heart surgery in 2000.
A late-night generation gap also appears to be emerging: the median age of O'Brien's audience last week was more than 10 years younger than Letterman's. NBC says that's good news, since advertisers pay a premium to reach youthful audiences.
In the 18-to-49-year-old age demographic for which NBC sells advertising, O'Brien won each night last week, NBC said.
Still, Letterman has won two of the last three weeks among all viewers during which both men competed with original programming. And the "Late Show" received another boost Wednesday with an attention-getting appearance by Paul McCartney.
"We feel we've got the momentum going for us right now and we feel very confident," said David Poltrack, CBS' chief researcher.
He said network executives had privately been hoping that Letterman could gain ground against O'Brien and be able to take over first place in the fall. The situation is still fluid, but changes seems to be happening faster than they expected, Poltrack said.
Significant numbers of the traditional late-night audience have made the switch, even though O'Brien continues to be very popular with young viewers who liked him when he was on a later time slot.
Last week Letterman averaged 3.68 million viewers, compared to O'Brien's 2.82 million, Nielsen said.
'30 Rock' leads Emmy nominations with 22 bids
LOS ANGELES – Tina Fey's satire-rich sitcom, "30 Rock," received a leading 22 Emmy Award nominations Thursday, while the '60s retro series, "Mad Men," led the drama pack with 16 bids.
The shows were honored last year as best comedy and drama and have a chance to repeat the performance at September's awards.
The TV movies "Grey Gardens," with 17 nominations, and "Into the Storm," with 14 nods, were among the front-runners. Chandra Wilson of "Grey Anatomy's" and Jim Parsons of "The Big Bang Theory" helped make the announcement at the TV academy's theater — and both proved to be among the lucky.
"No! ... This is some sort of trick fest," said Parsons, when his nomination for lead actor in a comedy series for the CBS show was announced.
"I'm going to the party" was Wilson's response to her bid for outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie for "Accidental Friendship." She was also nominated for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for "Grey's Anatomy."
The number of contenders in series and acting categories were expanded this year, which may have allowed room for some unexpected bids, including a rare best-comedy series nomination for an animated series, "Family Guy."
The series fields are especially crowded, with seven contenders in both drama and comedy categories. Joining "Mad Men" are fellow cable dramas "Big Love," "Breaking Bad," "Damages" and "Dexter." Two network dramas, "House" and "Lost," also made the cut.
Among comedies, the nominees besides "30 Rock" and "Family Guy" include other network series "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Office." Cable contenders include "Entourage," "Flight of the Conchords" and "Weeds."
In announcing that the traditional five nominees would grow to six in top categories, the TV academy noted that a tie could expand the field even more.
Affection was scarce for series that came to an end last season, including long-running medical drama "ER," "Boston Legal" and "Battlestar Galactica." There was a scattering of nominations among them, but nothing in the marquee categories of acting or best series. Another just-ended series, "The Shield," was shut out.
Vampire saga "True Blood" and its star Anna Paquin, who won a Golden Globe earlier this year, were shut out of the major categories.
Fey, the executive producer as well as star of "30 Rock," had a chance to repeat as lead actress in a comedy series. Other contenders in the category are Christina Applegate for the canceled "Samantha Who?", Toni Collette for "United States of Tara," Julia Louis-Dreyfus for "The New Adventures of Old Christine," Mary-Louise Parker for "Weeds" and Sarah Silverman for "The Sarah Silverman Program."
Joining last year's winner Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock" and Parsons in the comedy category for lead actor is Steve Carell of "The Office," Jemaine Clement of "Flight of the Conchords," Tony Shalhoub of "Monk" and Charlie Sheen of "Two and a Half Men."