Born immediately after the box office success of Apollo 13, and produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Tom Hanks, this TV series featured a main theme composed by Michael Kamen. The episodes varied in the composers for the rest of the music, including music from James Newton Howard, Jeff Beal, Brad Fiedel, Mark Isham or Mark Mancina. Marc Shaiman was called to score a episode significantly named, "The Original Wives Club", something that resembles his work in The First Wives Club.
Directed by Sally Field, the episode centres on the experiences of the long-suffering couples of the heroes from the space, and it is necessary to admit that it does not offer too many possibilities for the composer to make a long score, due to the great quantity of songs from the era that were finally used (any more than one dozen), a great dose of dialogue and a little time dedicated to the space scenes.
The composer starts his work with a main theme topic based on a motive of three notes with variants of three by three, inside his most recognizable style and his singular sound, this is: the piano as main instrument, also a main clarinet, everything underlined by delicate strings. It exceeds to say that it is the most complete moment of this brief work, and consists of two parts: the first one of the main theme and a second that describes the following appearance of the Apollo XVI in the space and a conversation between his crew members.
The rest of the history passes almost entirely among fashion shows and chats between wives, giving a chance to Shaiman to compose a fanfare for the opening of a show, staying his labor relegated during most of the footage to brief dramatic incidental clauses with the use of the piano as tense protagonist. Already for almost the conclusion, when we attend the takeoff of the Apollo the XVI, we can return to a fragment of score in all its fullness and that logically presents the main theme. During this final part the composer presents nice variants of this theme, until the episode is closed with another song from the era.
An occasion of limited interest in which the composer gives a right and which increase the list of his unknown works.

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