‘The Factual Stuff’ Truth Study: Did the Test Pilots All Drag by ‘Bill Baker’?
In Disney+’s tiny series “The Factual Stuff,” NASA pulls within the very most effective check pilots from each and every branch of the armed forces within the gradual 1950s as a intention to make a desire who would possibly perhaps perhaps well be the first American to accelerate into outer space. Sooner or later, the upstart program narrows down its checklist to seven males, a community that is also dubbed the Mercury 7. The hunt began with a hell of a lot more than seven, however — and additionally they all had one thing in in fashion.
In Episode 1, titled “Sierra Hotel,” we modify to Gordon Cooper (a.okay.a. Gordo, played by Colin O’Donoghue) to a foyer desk at a resort end to Langley Air Force Snide in Hampton, Virginia. There, he assessments in underneath a pseudonym, “Bill Baker.”
“Now now not most effective cease you all maintain the a associated title, you all look the a associated too,” the entrance desk clerk says, producing a tag-in e book fats of “Bill Baker” signatures.
We then watch the total faux Bill Bakers mingling around at a cocktail social gathering within the background. Yeah, these check pilots all look the a associated.
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Nonetheless did the “Bill Baker” x 100 thing essentially happen? Or used to be it merely a instrument historical within the series for dramatic — and laughable — develop? A tiny bit bit of each and every, it turns out.
This decision used to be “inventive license sourced from two historic information,” a production executive for Nat Geo suggested TheWrap.
“The astronaut candidates did assemble Top Secret orders to appear at a mysterious meeting to uncover concerning the Mercury Venture, but this took space at the Pentagon, and there maintain been no aliases,” the production exec acknowledged. “Then, when NASA recruited the next round of astronauts for Gemini, they did maintain them check in to the Rice Hotel underneath the alias ‘Max Peck.’”
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“The Factual Stuff,” essentially based fully fully on the 1979 Tom Wolfe e book that also inspired a 1983 film, tells the memoir of The United States’s first astronauts: John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gus Grissom and Deke Slayton. Respectively, Patrick J. Adams, Jake McDorman, Colin O’Donoghue, James Lafferty, Aaron Staton, Michael Trotter and Micah Stock play the check pilots who develop into instantaneous American heroes.
Govt producers comprise showrunner Designate Lafferty, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson and Danny Sturdy, amongst others. “The Factual Stuff” is a Nat Geo series made for Disney+.
The main two episodes of “The Factual Stuff” debuted Friday on Disney+. The subsequent six episodes will roll out weekly, one by one.