(From Newsday) With the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing this week, what better time to remember five other worthy series - after the televised Apollo missions, that is - that featured astronauts?
I DREAM OF JEANNIE (1965-1970) Larry Hagman co-starred as Capt. (later Major) Tony Nelson, and the beautiful genie (Barbara Eden) he found in a bottle on a deserted island where he crash landed his spacecraft. IT'S ABOUT TIME (1966-1967) Astronauts Hec (Jack Mullaney) and Mac (Frank Aletter) smashed through the time barrier in their spacecraft and landed in the Stone Age, where they befriended cave dwellers Shad (Imogene Coca) and Gronk (Joe E. Ross). Halfway through the series they fixed their spacecraft and returned to 1966, with Shad and Gronk along for the ride. SPACE (1985) In this five-part, 13-hour adaption of James Michener's bestseller, Harry Hamlin and Beau Bridges played two prominent NASA astronauts of the 1960s. In the climatic episode, they piloted a successful voyage to the dark side of the moon. MOONLIGHTING (1987) Mark Harmon played ex-astronaut Sam Crawford, who, in season 3, was the love interst of Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd). DEFYING GRAVITY (2009) Debuting Aug. 2 on ABC, this drama (from a producer of "Grey's Anatomy") is set in the near future. It concerns eight astronauts from five countries on a mysterious six-year mission.
