Apollo 1 was very much not production hardware. "The Vintage Space" channel on YT has a good rundown, "Duplicate Apollo Spacecraft". They didn't lose any crew on production hardware, although 13 was close.

AS-204 was absolutely production hardware. The later hardware was different because three people died. They died in rehearsal for an actual mission.

> Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was planned to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1

The second version was already starting production when three people died. There was never any intention to build any more of the first one, or to send it beyond low Earth orbit.

Changes were made based on the fire. The capsule was “production” in the sense that it was going to carry people. It doesn’t need to be mass produced to be “prod”. It’s prod like “this instance matters”.

Apollo 1 should have been production like it mattered. But instead the first prototype was pressed into service because the real one wasn't ready yet. The fire was proof.

“In service” and “production” are synonymous in this case.

Not as it turned out.

No Saturn V launch failed. The very first all-up test of the Saturn V, Apollo 4, was a complete success. Apollo 6 was mostly a success, aside from the failure of the S-IVB to restart, and no part of the vehicle was lost. Every crewed launch of the Saturn V was a success, the Apollo 13 failures were unrelated to the Saturn V. For the uncrewed launch of Skylab on SA-513 the booster's S-IC and S-II stages worked normally. The third stage was Skylab itself, a converted S-IVB. It reached orbit successfully despite sustaining severe damage resulting in the loss of the station's micrometeoroid shield/sun shade and one of its main solar panels.

The "accidental abort test" was launched on a Little Joe II, a simple single-stage solid rocket motor, not a Saturn of any variety. This booster was unrelated to any Saturn hardware.

So, if Starship killed a crew of three in a pre-launch rehearsal like Apollo 1 did, you’d be on here defending it as not a problem?

If the Starship second stage failed to restart causing it to fail to get to TLI, or tried to take out its manned crew like 13 did, you’d be claiming it’s still a sterling safety record?

You’d have considered this test a success if it reached orbit “despite sustaining severe damage” on the way up?

Come on.

> Every crewed launch of the Saturn V was a success

Fine. Same for Starship, so far.

“My hunch is that whatever happens, we'll see scenes of Apollo people clapping and cheering and Apollo fans calling the flight a success. From what they tell me, no Apollo launch has ever failed.”

It's ok to just say, "You're right, I was wrong". Try it some time, you might be surprised how much better you feel about yourself.

Does this approach work for you often?