The Astronaut Wives Club | |
---|---|
Genre | Period drama |
Based on |
The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel |
Developed by | Stephanie Savage |
Starring | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 10 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
|
Running time | 43 minutes |
Production company(s) |
|
Distributor | Disney–ABC Domestic Television |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Original release | June 18 | – August 20, 2015
External links | |
Official website |
The Astronaut Wives Club is an American period drama television series developed by Stephanie Savage for ABC. It is based on Lily Koppel's book of the same name. The series tells the story of the wives of the Mercury Seven—America's first group of astronauts. Actresses Dominique McElligott, Yvonne Strahovski, Joanna García Swisher, Erin Cummings, Azure Parsons, Zoe Boyle, and Odette Annable play the roles of the astronauts' wives.
The Astronaut Wives Club premiered on June 18, 2015. Following the completion of its run, the series' developer noted the series had been planned as a mini-series, telling a complete story. However, co-creator Stephanie Savage revealed in an interview with Variety that the producers were interested in making the series an anthology in case it gained a renewal for a second season. Possible seasons would have featured wives of men in the 1920s, wives of World War II soldiers, wives of men who work on Wall Street, and wives of men in the 1980s, among other possible scenarios.
The Astronaut Wives Club was originally scheduled to be broadcast during the 2013–14 American television season. On February 5, 2014, ABC officially ordered a limited series of ten episodes. It was expected to premiere on July 24, 2014, but was pushed to spring 2015 to undergo changes. It premiered on June 18, 2015.
The Astronaut Wives Club has received mixed reviews. Review aggregator site, Metacritic, has given the series a "mixed or average" score of 60 out of 100, based on 23 critics. On another review aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 50% rating, based on 28 reviews. The critical consensus there reads: "The Astronaut Wives relies on poorly paced storylines and clichéd characters, both used in service of a fact-based narrative that would have been better served in a more serious context."