The Cape

The Cape series was on air in Europe, my country Belgium in the year 1997-1998. It was aired on the dutch speaking side of the country and i think i seen all of the 23 episodes, i hope. I found it to be a very good show that gives a very interesting inside look (maybe not that perfect!?) on what goes on in and around the cape and in the lives of the people that makes the things work over there. I never seen this show again and want to by it on DVD, but no luck, it seems to be forgotten? It is a shame that such quality show seems to be disappeared between the dust of the archives. Lots of more uninteresting shows are released and reach the public.

We live in hope, maybe somebody gets the idea to release it after-all.

Wishes from Belgium. August Vanden Balck

The Cape was a good show but never given the chance to find an audience or should I say the audience couldn't find the show. In my area it played at 1:30am on Saturday nights. The networks probably would have done it in even faster. Later I saw one of the actors selling real estate on HGTV House Hunters. With a large cast and a lot of location shooting it was probably and expensive show to do. The success of SPACE COWBOYS (AWFUL) tells me that a show about the US space program could have been successful if it had been given a good time slot. I wish the one season was available of DVD. Since it involved NASA the show had a real feeling about it. The theme music was also very good. One of the final shows that involved a Russian capsule with dead Cosmonauts aboard was excellent.

The Cape was a great show for those of us who lived in the same community in which it was filmed or for those who wanted to but could not. I am guessing that the drama was set to be soap opera like to show us that even astronauts were people too. It obviously was not supported by NASA as the agency can only provide footage to all interested parties not actually produce a commercial (for profit) program. For me it was exciting to see venues I recognized including Cocoa Village, Cocoa, Florida, in the grocery store shopping scene of one of the episodes. Quick spoiler: No such kind of store there in the mid 1990's or now in 2019.

The show was a pretty good attempt at a hard subject. There's no way you can reconstruct everything a Astronaut does, or does not do. Not bad for a show from 1996 though. Special effects didn't kick in strong until a couple of years later for television. Over all, The Cape was a great show, but was never really given a chance on network television, at a decent time. As for the other comment, something is not right and I need to clarify. The show started airing in 1996 and the Columbia disaster was on Feb 1st. 2003. So, how can it have any bearing on this show. Do your research before you leave comments. Helps you not look stupid. By the way, NASA did have "some" bearing on the show, the Technical Adviser was Buzz Aldrin. If you don't know who that was, he was the second man on the Moon. Anyway, I can't wait until it comes out on DVD.

Unfortunately for viewers, their votes don't count. Shows get canceled due to studio politics. The producers don't invest enough time & money selling new shows to generate enough sponsor support. And, residuals aren't paid on new shows (not in the contract). Thus, great shows get canceled. If production executives, network presidents & studio owners cared about the viewers more than their own paychecks, shows might last long enough to generate a supportive audience. Instead, new shows are launched with limited fanfare, the shows creators are already working on their next big thing, and viewers are left wondering what just happened. Network execs. don't care when a show gets canceled. They just want the bottom line on profits. Thus, we (the viewers) are cheated out of great entertainment. Too bad the networks aren't owned by the viewers...things would change for the better. But, that will NEVER happen. Too bad. I miss The Cape and all other great shows like it, that are systematically replaced by less-appealing shows that cost less to produce. Follow the money, and you can prove this to yourself.