The Cape

That negative Titusville comment was so ridiculous it should never been printed. -- There was more truth in those behind-the-scene episodes than he/she could imagine. It was purposely kept low-key, with most shoots off-base to MINIMIZE any impact on Launch Processing.

The only show we've seen come down the cinematic pike that did not overly romanticize the all-so-human aspects of our "Ascans" and Flight folks.

It was one HELLUVA good show and the effort to bring it back keeps on growing..

I think that THE CAPE is a brilliant TV series. It stars Corbin Bernsen and Adam Baldwin and follows the lives of 7 ASCANS (Astronaut Candidates) and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The actors are brilliant and the storyline is excellent.

The show is also one of the most realistic there is. Many people at NASA and Buzz Aldrin (the astronaut) were technical consultants and helped make this one of the best shows ever.

Unfortunately THE CAPE is not being made any more because it was put on at 3am so nobody could watch it. Even so there is a group of people (including myself) that liked THE CAPE when it was on TV and are trying to get another series made. I recommend The Cape to everybody. 100%.

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

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.

Some professions lend themselves better to television than others, and that of the pilot (let's face it, astronauts are little more than uber-pilots) is one of them - unless it involves adventure, that is. If it involves straight drama, the problem is that you're challenged to be just as involving when you're grounded as when you're in flight; the only thing anyone remembers about "Spencer's Pilots" is its stirring theme music*, and "Call To Glory" was similarly forgettable.

"The Cape" was no more successful in that respect; to be fair it wasn't really a BAD show - from Corbin Bernsen onwards nobody's acting stunk up the place, and the writing was okay (plus the sight of Bobbie Phillips post-"Murder One" and pre-those "Chameleon" TV movies was never a minus) - but it never really overcame the basic problem of what to do with the characters, and it played far too much like a soap for comfort, except when it launched into space... of course, it would have been too implausible to have a crisis occur every week (in real life, thankfully, accidents in the US space programme are rare), and they didn't. But it was at the expense of making the show more attention-keeping.

Mainly notable as one of the last shows produced by MTM before Twentieth Century Fox swallowed the cat whole - a sad comedown from the days of "Rhoda" and "Hill Street Blues."