couple of the male dancers, I said, “I used to look like that.” At one of the next rehearsals, I brought in a photo taken of me in a swimsuit, when I had been scuba diving and was young and buff. “See, I told you, I used to look like you guys,” I quipped.
The young professional dancers were wonderfully complimentary. “You still look like that, Buzz!” Russian-born Maks Chmerkovskiy said. Maks and Derek Hough were tremendously encouraging to me during my time on the show.
All the girls were great to me, too. I loved dancing with the beautiful girls on the show, and simply hanging out with the young people was invigorating for me.
Ashly encouraged me to turn off my mind and move to the music. That was especially difficult for me, because I was not accustomed to not thinking about what I was trying to do. I was having a bit of trouble figuring out the steps, so I told Ashly that I needed to sketch out “the trajectories” for where I needed to go on the dance floor during the numbers on which I would be dancing. I plotted out the dance trajectories so I would know where to go and what I needed to do. Once I got the dance thing down in rendezvous concepts that I could understand, I was okay!
Our first dance on the show’s season premiere was a cha-cha to the Sam Cooke version of “Cupid,” a dance with a lot of quick movements. Ashly tried to come up with choreography that worked well for me but still covered the dance floor and played up to the audience and the judges. For our performance, Ashly wore a sparkling red dress, and I wore a bright red shirt with a dazzling black vest covered in diamond-like rhinestones.
The dance went as well as could be expected, and the crowd applauded enthusiastically. One of the studio audience members seen applauding during the telecast was actor Tim Allen, the voice of Buzz Lightyear.
Ashly and I thought the routine went well, but the judges didn’t agree. The cranky, “older” judge, Len Goodman, began his critique of our routine by complimenting me. “I remember sitting at home in England watching you walking on the Moon and being amazed,” Len said, “not only at the technology, but the braveness of you guys for going up there for the first time.”
“Very lucky guys,” I agreed.
Then Len, a longtime professional ballroom dancer, declared his opinion of my dancing ability. “I want to commend you for your bravery coming out tonight. Unfortunately, I cannot give marks for bravery, just the dancing, and that wasn’t too good.”
The studio audience of more than 700 people howled in disapproval.
The quick-witted Tom Bergeron, the show’s host, jumped in and asked Len, “And how is that British space program going?” Len just shook his head and laughed.
Bruno Tonioli began by asking, “How can I criticize a hero and a legend?” But of course he did. “It’s my job,” he said.
Bruno told me, “You did a cha-cha-cha … but it looked like you had your Moon boots on.” Then, apparently trying to find something positive, Bruno said, “Let’s say it is going to get better next week.”
The third judge, Carrie Ann Inaba, picked up on one of my main reasons for doing the show in the first place. “You know, what is great about this show is that it inspires people at home to get out and do things they might be afraid of.”
“That’s right,” I agreed.
“You sure inspired a ton of people tonight,” Carrie Ann complimented me. I appreciated the judges’ kind words, but they still awarded Ashly and me the lowest scores of the evening.
The following week, for the fox-trot, I danced to the classic Frank Sinatra song “Fly Me to the Moon.” Wearing a tuxedo and a sparkling silver bow tie, I began the dance by saluting the American flag and ended it in front of an American flag, reminiscent of the one Neil and I planted on the Moon 41 years previously.
Once again, although our routine was a hit with the audience—they gave us a long, enthusiastic standing ovation—the judges were unimpressed. “The man on the Moon looks stuck on the fox-trot,” Bruno commented. “You look like you were avoiding craters,” he added.
Ashly and I performed the waltz to “What a Wonderful World.” For this dance, I was dressed in a striking military uniform, replete with my silver bow tie, attire to which I was accustomed.