Minute 046: Stupid Beatles Breaking Up

GUEST HOST: STAR WARS MINUTES’ PETE THE RETAILER

Barbara Lovell is having an argument with her mother about…

“the stupid Beatles breaking up!” says Susan Lovell.

“They’re not stupid! You’re stupid!” shouts Barbara.

“Barbara! Barbara!” says Marilyn, “I know you’re in mourning…”

“I’m not going, Mom!” says Barbara. “Dad won’t even know if we’re there!”

“The whole world is going to be watching this broadcast, young lady, and so are we,” replies Marilyn, pulling a red and white polka-dot dress out of Barbara’s closet.

Later, at the Mission Control Center, Jim Lovell appears on the video monitor.

“Okay,” says Lovell. “Good evening, America, and welcome aboard Apollo Thirteen! I’m Jim Lovell, and we’re broadcast to you tonight from an altitude of almost two hundred thousand miles, away from the face of the Earth, and we have a pretty good show in store for you tonight. We are going to show you what life is like here in the vast expanse of space…”

Mission controllers aren’t paying much attention to the video screen. Marilyn, Barbara, and Susan Lovell sit in the visitors’ viewing lounge. One of the flight controllers turns his head to watch baseball player Jimmy Wynn rounding third base on a baseball broadcast from a nearby monitor.

“The first thing we’d like to do is provide you with the appropriate background music,” continues Lovell. “So, uh, hit it there, Fredo.”

“Hello world!” says Fred Haise, as he presses the PLAY button on his cassette player. “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum begins to play. Haise spins the cassette player in zero gravity.

IN THIS MINUTE:

Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks
Jack Swigert: Kevin Bacon
Fred Haise: Bill Paxton
EECOM White Team: Clint Howard
EECOM Gold Team John Aaron:  Loren Dean
Marilyn Lovell:  Kathleen Quinlan
Barbara Lovell: Mary Kate Schellhardt
Susan Lovell: Emily Ann Lloyd