BY AARON SAGERS
Carl Sagan famously said the cosmos was “all that is or ever was or ever will be,” but the same could be said about the TV show Cosmos, the rockstar astrophysicist’s 1980 science series. Along with future wife Ann Druyan and astronomer Steven Soter, Sagan created a landmark program that stirred excitement about mankind’s place in the universe, and it educated without talking down to its audience.
But Sagan also said “exploration is in our nature,” and three decades after the scientist stood on a sea shore and invited audiences on a universal journey, National Geographic and Fox are ready to once more set sail for the stars with a successor series, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Though Sagan died in 1996, Druyan has kept her husband’s legacy alive as writer and executive producer of the new 13-part iteration. Joining her and Soter for the new voyage is executive producer Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame and host, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of New York City's Hayden Planetarium.