Texarkana native a co-producer on new Apple TV+ show
Texarkana native on production team for new Apple TV+ show
Speculative fiction takes us on a twist through history to imagine the infinite number of “what ifs” that arise if famous events turn out differently than they did.
Such is the case with “For All Mankind,” the new Apple TV+ web series program about the thrilling space race that, in reality, saw the United States beat the Soviet Union to put an astronaut on the Moon.
Imagine, if you will, if it wasn’t Neil Armstrong, an Ohio-born aeronautical engineer who famously took a “giant leap for mankind” when he stamped his boot print on the Moon’s gray surface, to have that honor of first man on the Moon.
What if the U.S. lost the space race and a Russian astronaut landed there first? Imagine if instead of a U.S. flag placed there, it was a Russian flag adorning the Moon in the 1960s as the Cold War raged?
“For All Mankind” is an exercise in this sort of alternative history. Created by a team that includes Ronald D. Moore, the screenwriter and producer for a string of hit shows such as “Star Trek,” the re-imagined “Battlestar Galactica” and “Outlander,” the new series started in November and has already been renewed for a second season.
And it’s a Texarkana native who’s among the show’s co-producers for this season and will serve as supervising producer for season two of “For All Mankind.”
Ben McGinnis daydreamed about making TV shows and worked at Arkansas High School’s Razorback TV, but now he works for Tall Ship Productions as a producer working for Moore, one of the biggest names in TV. Moore has won both Emmy and Peabody awards for his “Battlestar Galactica” work. McGinnis refers to him as a “brilliant storyteller” who brings magic to his projects.
For the series “For All Mankind” to get made, McGinnis gets involved in every step of the process: idea development, writing, production and post-production work included. “I see the big picture and help oversee the entire process … making sure everyone has the information they need to make the best show possible,” he said.
As such, he gets to work with many departments, from production design to costumes and visual effects and more. That’s roughly 200 people. It’s his job to help ensure the show’s creative vision is realized.
“There are other producers helping manage that workload as well, but they often come and go so I’m a constant, reliable source as one of Ron’s producing partners,” McGinnis said.
He’s worked with Moore for about 11 years, starting out as an assistant and working his way up to be a producer on Moore’s current projects and working on the development of future projects. Sony Pictures is the studio on this project and Apple is the network.
“As the producer on this project specifically, I’m kind of a catch-all, and I say I do the things other people don’t want to do. It’s just helping track everything. It’s such a huge production. There’s so many little details,” McGinnis said. He may cover production meetings or may visit the set or go on location scouting. He does it all.
“It’s just making sure basically the writer’s vision is executed,” McGinnis said. Behind the scenes, he ensures the machinery works to create each episode.
For example, he managed the creation of Apollo mission badges so they had “For All Mankind” characters’ names on them. “They were redesigned so they were specific to the new mission objective,” McGinnis said. They had to create new badges because the show extends beyond Apollo 17.
McGinnis gets to see a new Apollo world come to life in this creative vision.
“It’s really exciting. That ties into the premise of the show, which is this butterfly effect that happens with the Russians beating us to the Moon first,” McGinnis said. If Russia would have won, it would have spurred the U.S. to continue the race and reach further into space.
The Apollo project had these dreams in mind. “They actually had all these plans to build a moon base on the moon and continue exploring on to Mars,” McGinnis said. “So we get to see that realized in the show.” In this way, the show recaptures the excitement for the space program at the time of the Moon landing, he believes. It’s even comparable to some of the space projects in the works now.
“It just kind of happened that way, too,” McGinnis said. From initial concept talks to putting it on the small screen, the project has been two years in the works. Along the way, news trickled out about the U.S. returning to the Moon and going to Mars in real life.
This first season has 10 episodes lined up for Friday releases. “We have been picked up for a second season. We’ve been working on that for a while now. We’ve already started shooting,” said McGinnis, who’s been happy to see the response to the show.
He’s also pleased to have been part of such projects with Moore; he’s also worked on “Outlander.” Via his film school studies at the University of Texas at Austin, he ventured out to Los Angeles, finishing up school work there with internships.
“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” McGinnis said about working for
Moore. A temporary job on “Battlestar Galactica” kept turning into other projects. He always wanted to be on the creative side of TV work and thought about being a writer, but he’s focused more on being a creative producer and doing development work.
Growing up here in Texarkana, Ben kept his eye on this world as a youngster. He saved up money to buy cameras to shoot things.
“Definitely always behind the camera filming stuff,” McGinnis said about his youth. For all four years at Arkansas High, he worked with Razorback TV. He also helped run the AV department at First United Methodist Church downtown, working with Don Ruggles.
“We were filming the service every Sunday,” McGinnis said. He also helped Ruggles with aerial footage from the pilot’s helicopter, which was understandably pretty cool to do.
What sparked this early love for TV and got him dreaming about it?
The first show he remembers that stoked his interest was “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” which ran for four seasons. He remembers being at the elementary school lunch table, talking about it with another fan of the show.
“I think it was just being a fan of TV when I was a child, and getting excited to watch the new episode each week and then talking about it at school with friends the next day. Just being passionate about them telling stories and the connections to the characters,” McGinnis recalled.
Now, years later, he has a chance to make something that TV viewers can get just as passionate about seeing and talking about.
And he’s looking forward to how “For All Mankind” unfolds its story on the small screen. He looks forward to seeing how different the world could look when they catch up to 2019 and 2020.
“We want to keep the show as grounded as possible, and I think that what’s really cool about it during season one is that it all feels very real. This isn’t what happened but it could have been in terms of the science and the technology of the day. As we progress, things are going to progress faster in the show, so we’ll start seeing technology in the show before we did in real life,” McGinnis said.