Disney's “The Right Stuff” Also Salutes the Women with the Wife Stuff

Plenty In National Geographicamp8217s new drama series The Right Stuff available on Disney beginning October 9 we learn who the astronauts were and we learn about the women who kept them bound to Earth In what the producers hope is the first season of an ongoing series viewers come to know the wives especially Annie Glenn Trudy Cooper and Louise Shepardamp8220These men would not be who they were without the womenamp8221 said Jennifer Davisson executive producer and president of production Appian Way Productions Appian Way founded by Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Horizon Scripted Television produced the series amp8220That sounds antiquated but I donamp8217t mean it that way They truly challenged these men One of the things we talked about a lot in beginning stages is you had America at the timeamp8221 Indeed America at the time had husbands set the pace and wives followA human has not yet been created with more sheer swagger than a fighter pilot turned astronaut For a woman to partner with that sort of man she too must be made of the right stuffEloise Mumford Fifty Shades of Grey portrays Trudy Cooper as a study in feminism albeit one shrouded in the realization that her dreams would forever be dashed A fearless pilot she has left her husband Gordon amp8220Gordoamp8221 Cooper when the series opens because of his infidelities But amp8220Gordoamp8221 wouldnamp8217t be accepted into the nascent NASA program unless he was happily wed so Trudy relents and gives the marriage another tryamp8220In her own right Trudy Cooper could have outpaced 39Gordo39 in every way and wasn39t allowedamp8221 Davisson asserted amp8220She was basically as capable as any of the others and the closest she could get was by being somebodyamp8217s wifeamp8221Mumford39s performance thrums with melancholy amp8220I found myself unable to shake the sadnessamp8221 she told MediaVillage during a chat on set amp8220I was trying to not dwell on that as I am sure Trudy tried as well I spent a lot of time thinking about why she would come back and the amount of strength it must have taken to get to that point I thought a lot about why she did that and how heartbreaking it is She loved flying and this would be the closest she would ever get to the space program if she was a wife witnessing it That was heartbreaking to me and very indicative of the timeamp8221Cooper played by Colin Oamp8217Donoghue Once Upon a Time wasnamp8217t the only Mercury Seven astronaut prone to affairs Alan Shepard Jake McDorman was a serial philanderer Still he and his wife Louise had a tacit understanding of donamp8217t ask donamp8217t tell Shannon Lucio The OC found Louise Shepard an amp8220interesting mixture of a totally rounded bluecollar mom and a sort of poised elevated whitecollar womanamp8221Like most of the other astronaut wives not much is known about Louise However one unbreakable connection the Shepards forged is known amp8220He had this ritual where he would call her every day at 5 pmamp8221 Lucio recalled amp8220Behind any good man is a great woman It must take a lot of sacrifice and effort and will to make this happen I think the wives were intrinsic because they gave fortitude to these men There is someone back home who made everything work not just cleaning the house and raising the children but paying the bills and doing everything Itamp8217s like in a business They are the CFO and the CEO The husband can go off and bring glory to the family but without that backbone of stability what they did would not have been possibleamp8221The wife people knew best was Annie Glenn played here by Nora Zehetner She and John Patrick J Adams were toddlers when their moms put them together in a playpen They started dating in junior high and were married for 73 years until his death four years ago Annie was 100 when she succumbed to COVID this springamp8220She was very strongamp8221 said Zehetner who coincidentally played Gemini astronaut wife Marilyn See in The Astronaut Wives Club amp8220I think that she knew herself which is something we all struggle with And I just think she had so much love Their love story is endlessly inspiring to me and the fact he really seemed to defer to her I think she chose to remain in the background because of her speech impediment and it was very hard to give interviews But I do think in their private life she really held him upamp8221As expected with Nat Geo all is precisely accurate including that 1950amp8217s Technicolor vibrance in the sets and wardrobes The series explains without being pedantic how the country united during the Cold War when dominance in science was the goal And it offers a vital lesson in womenamp8217s historyamp8220The sad thing about the wivesamp8217 roles as they were portrayed in history is they were made out to be the doting housewivesamp8221 said showrunner and producer Mark Lafferty who was determined to search deeper amp8220What is going on inside these families Itamp8217s not just the mechanics of going inside the space program What is it like when the men come home and these women have their own livesamp8221Click the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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Disney's “The Right Stuff” Also Salutes the Women with the Wife Stuff

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Jacqueline Cutler

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Disney's “The Right Stuff” Also Salutes the Women with the Wife Stuff

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