CosmosaSpecialEditionStill01Introduction

“Cosmos, a special edition” is a documentary television series broadcast in September 1986 and presented by the award-winning American astronomer and scientist Carl Sagan. Consisting of 6 episodes, the series is essentially a re-worked, shortened and updated version of the popular television series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” (1980) that was produced for PBS public television in the US and ultimately broadcast in over 60 countries worldwide.

On occasion of the re-appearance of Halley's comet in 1986 Sagan wanted to re-visit the original Cosmos-series and focus more on the astronomical subjects. With the status of the series changing to a commercial product, this posed some difficulty regarding the legal rights of the music used in the series. While copyrighted music could be used freely in the original series due to its educational nature, with “Cosmos, a special edition” any copyrighted music that could not be cleared needed to be replaced. For this reason Vangelis was asked to compose a new score which is unique to this edition.

This revisited version of the Cosmos television series is special in several ways. First of all the series is much shorter than the original broadcast, consisting of 6 episodes each about 45 minutes in length. Visually the series uses several of the historic sequences and animations from the original series, but interweaved are also new computer animated sequences and additional scenes with host Carl Sagan. As known today, the special edition was at least broadcast in the USA (on the TBS network), Japan, Austria, Argentina, Singapore and Australia.

As for the music, the special edition contains a selection of music as heard in the original series, combined with new music by Vangelis composed specially for this series. The score is registered in a publisher’s list as “Comet”, where it is attributed a total of 21 cues. Two of the new pieces are re-arranged versions of compositions used in the original Cosmos television series (i.e. '3rd Movement' from the album "Heaven And Hell" (1975) which served as the main theme) and 'Alpha' (from "Albedo 0.39" (1976)). Unfortunately Vangelis’ beautiful score was never officially released, with exception of the main theme heard during the opening and closing titles of the episodes, which was included as ‘Comet 16’ on the “The Music Of Cosmos” Collector’s Edition 2CD-set released in 2000. Some of Vangelis’ new music also appeared in the 2000 remastered release of “Cosmos, a personal voyage” on VHS and DVD and apparently one cue also made it into the 1989 VHS release.

To coincide with the television broadcast of “Cosmos, a special edition” RCA Records in the US released two promotional vinyl singles, where the label text “The Comet Theme from COSMOS: A Special Edition” suggests the music is from Vangelis’ score for the special edition. However the music included on the records is the track ‘Alpha’ from Vangelis’ album “Albedo 0.39” (1976).

 

CosmosaSpecialEditionCreditDetails and credits

  • Title: Cosmos, a special edition
  • Country: United States
  • Year: 1986
  • Length: 6 episodes of 45 minutes
  • Presented by Carl Sagan.
  • Written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan and Steven Soter.
  • Directed and produced by Geoff Haines-Stiles
  • Original music by Vangelis.
  • Associate producers: Ann Druyan and Anne Drecktrah
  • Editor and special visual effects: Russel Srole
  • Comet animation: Don Davis, Positive video, Cinematte.
  • Audio: Kent Gibson, Sound Design, C.A.S.
  • Produced by The Entertainment Network, INC, in association with KCET Los Angeles and Carl Sagan.
  • Dedicated to the men and women who explore the Cosmos.

CosmosaSpecialEditionStill03Episodes

  1. Other Worlds Part 1
  2. Other Worlds Part 2
  3. Children Of The Stars Part 1
  4. Children Of The Stars Part 2
  5. Message From The Sky Part 1
  6. Message From The Sky Part 2

 

Media

Unfortunately the television series “Cosmos, a special edition” was never officially released on home video. However recordings of television broadcasts exist, such as these from Australian and Japan:

  • (Australia) episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
  • (Japan): Episode 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

 

TheMusicOfCosmosCEFrontDiscography

CD

7” single

  • 1986 Alpha / Alpha RCA 5006-7-RAA US (promotional) “The Comet Theme from COSMOS: A Special Edition”

12” single

  • 1986 Alpha / Alpha RCA 5703-1-RDAB US (promotional) “The Comet Theme from COSMOS: A Special Edition”

 

Recording studio

The music for the television series “Cosmos, a special edition” was recorded in Vangelis’ own Nemo Studios in London.

 

Links

 

Gallery

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