The first thing Kevin Gibson did after returning to his house, torn apart by a powerful tornado Monday, was pull an American flag and a temporary flagpole from the corner of his partially standing garage.WASHINGTON – Seth MacFarlane once included a gag on his animated TV comedy “Family Guy” about an “edited for rednecks” version of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos,” featuring an animated Sagan dubbed over to say that the earth is “hundreds and hundreds” of years old.
Jokes aside, his admiration for Sagan runs deep.
The Library of Congress announced Wednesday that, thanks to MacFarlane’s generosity, it has acquired the personal papers of the late scientist and astronomer, who spoke to mass audiences about the mysteries of the universe and the origins of life.
While MacFarlane never owned Sagan’s papers, he covered the undisclosed costs of donating them to the library.
“All I did was write a check, but it’s something that was, to me, worth every penny,” MacFarlane told The Associated Press by phone from Los Angeles. “He’s a man whose life’s work should be accessible to everybody.”
MacFarlane – creator of “Family Guy,” “American Dad!” and “The Cleveland Show” – met Sagan’s widow and collaborator, Ann Druyan, at an event a few years ago that brought together Hollywood screenwriters and directors with scientists.
They agreed to collaborate on a follow-up to “Cosmos,” Sagan’s acclaimed 1980 miniseries, with MacFarlane serving as producer. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will host the series, which is scheduled to begin production this fall.
MacFarlane said he watched “Cosmos” as a child and devoured all of Sagan’s books.
“He was an enormous and profound influence in my life,” MacFarlane said. “He played an essential role – some would say the only role at the time – in bridging the gap between the academic community and the general public.”
A planetary astronomer and passionate advocate for science, Sagan contributed to a variety of NASA projects and conducted research on the possibilities of extraterrestrial life.
He also studied climate change and the “nuclear winter” that could result from a nuclear war. He died in 1996 at age 62.
The papers – contained in more than 800 filing-cabinet drawers – include correspondence with other scientists, drafts of Sagan’s academic articles and screenplay drafts for the movie “Contact,” which was based on Sagan’s novel. Also part of the collection: his grade-school report cards and a drawing he made as a child about the future of space exploration.
