Cosmic Odyssey (TV series)

Cosmic Odyssey was a proposed science documentary television series intended as a follow-up to Carl Sagan's highly successful Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Production was spearheaded by Sagan and his wife, Ann Druyan, in the late 1990s. The series aimed to explore a wider range of scientific topics than Cosmos, delving into areas such as evolutionary biology, genetics, the origins of life, and the future of humanity in the universe, in addition to astronomy and astrophysics.

While a substantial amount of pre-production work was completed, including script outlines and concept art, Cosmic Odyssey was ultimately never fully realized due to a confluence of factors. These included difficulties in securing adequate funding, securing favorable broadcast slots, and, most significantly, Carl Sagan's deteriorating health and subsequent death in 1996.

The scripts and ideas developed for Cosmic Odyssey reportedly influenced later projects undertaken by Druyan, including the 2014 series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, and its subsequent sequel, Cosmos: Possible Worlds. While not a direct continuation, these later series are often seen as carrying on the spirit and educational goals that Cosmic Odyssey aimed to achieve. The existence and details of Cosmic Odyssey remain of interest to fans of Sagan and science education.