posted 07-29-2003 02:45 PM
Does anyone remember the TV series "The Cape"?
The Cape told the story of select members of the NASA Astronaut Corps at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a focus on their personal lives as they train for, and execute, Space Shuttle missions. The series stars Corbin Bernsen as USAF Colonel Henry J. "Bull" Eckert, an experienced astronaut who, early in the series, was the Director of Astronaut Training but later in the series was also tasked with the responsibility of Chief of the Astronaut Office.
I know it was terrible series but it was fun to watch.
KenDavis Member
Posts: 190 From: W.Sussex United Kingdom Registered: May 2003
posted 07-30-2003 04:43 PM
I saw this mentioned in a magazine some years back but it was never aired in the UK. I have always wondered if it was any good.
What made it 'terrible' for you? Anyone else want to comment?
Don't give too much of the plot away (if there is one), we may get it over here one day!
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3183 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 07-30-2003 04:58 PM
Ken, it already has been. I think it was on Sky a few years ago.
Mike Dixon Member
Posts: 1452 From: Kew, Victoria, Australia Registered: May 2003
posted 07-30-2003 10:53 PM
The entire series aired in Australia about two years ago (Sundays at noon on free to air and in an "out of ratings" period... in other words, an audience of about ten) and despite being what I'd consider a mix of middleweight drama/soap, it wasn't all that bad. Corbin Bernsen (LA Law) played the lead role.
MrSpace86 Member
Posts: 1618 From: Gardner, KS Registered: Feb 2003
posted 07-30-2003 11:08 PM
I saw some of the episodes as well a long time ago. It wasn't a bad series, it just wasn't very accurate.
I can say that my favorite episode was the John Glenn one, where the kid loved Glenn and they had to delay a shuttle launch because he was missing.
Anyways, I know all this stuff probably doesn't help at all, but I'll look into helping you guys find your episodes!
p51 Member
Posts: 1668 From: Olympia, WA Registered: Sep 2011
posted 05-10-2013 04:58 PM
I know this an uber-old thread, but I don't recall the series from when it originally ran and only first heard of it a year or two ago.
I assume it was never released on DVD? Any episodes online anywhere?
issman1 Member
Posts: 1045 From: UK Registered: Apr 2005
posted 05-11-2013 03:41 AM
quote:Originally posted by KenDavis: ...but it was never aired in the UK.
Actually, it was aired on the old Sci-Fi Channel on Sky TV in 1996 and repeated every so often afterwards.
It was a mixture of NASA fact, fiction and of course mid-90's American melodrama. Corbin Bernsen was very good as the Chief Astronaut while the rest of the cast did its best with the mostly cliched dialogue and plots.
Probably available on DVD somewhere, but here's a clip of the opening credits.
posted 05-11-2013 04:18 AM
Never saw it, looks reasonable though?
Jay Chladek Member
Posts: 2272 From: Bellevue, NE, USA Registered: Aug 2007
posted 05-13-2013 12:23 AM
Not too long ago, I got Adam Baldwin's autograph. We talked briefly about the shuttle launches we had seen and he mentioned while filming the show at Kennedy Space Center, he got to witness four shuttles go up, two from the top level of the Vehicle Assembly Building (at least one had him and Corbin being filmed as their astronaut characters watching it go up from the VIP section decked out in their blue flight suits).
Some of the early episodes of the show seemed a bit cheesy and cliche, but it did seem to find a balance as it went along. Ironically, the final episode as I recall had Columbia having to launch in an emergency to help repair another shuttle in orbit after its bottom tiles got damaged by an impact from a solar array on the Mir station. If only real life could have had a similar successful outcome.
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1220 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 05-13-2013 06:21 AM
One episode sticks out in my mind that had the shuttle find a lost Soyuz with a dead crew on board. It was a secret failed lunar mission from 1968. I think it was a two-parter.
When I was at KSC around that time, I remember a lot of promotion signs and posters in the gift shop. They would be awesome to find.
And still no DVD for this show?
Space Geek FL Member
Posts: 20 From: Inverness, FL, USA Registered: Oct 2011
posted 05-13-2013 02:18 PM
Little known fact, Tim Gagnon (KSCartist) is in one of the episodes. He plays a space convention event vender. I understand he also helped them out quite a bit so maybe he can give more info to the subject.
xlsteve Member
Posts: 392 From: Holbrook MA, USA Registered: Jul 2008
posted 05-13-2013 02:33 PM
Here is a list of episodes with synopses and air dates.
LM1 Member
Posts: 696 From: New York, NY Registered: Oct 2010
posted 05-21-2013 07:59 PM
I just located this card for The Cape in my postcard collection:
The back of the card features a list of over 200 TV stations that carry the series and a list of the 40 stations worldwide that carry it. The card measures 4" X 6".
astro-nut Member
Posts: 970 From: Washington, IL Registered: Jan 2006
posted 06-15-2013 06:32 AM
I, too, remember this show and really enjoyed it, even though it was all fiction. It is interesting of the similarities of the shows (events) to the real space program.
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1220 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 07-10-2013 06:39 PM
I have been watching them. The episode with the death of the shuttle pilot's wife during a mission gets me every time. And my favorite, "Buried in Peace". When a lost Soyuz turns up in orbit with two dead cosmonauts who failed to get to the moon in 1968.
Ken Havekotte Member
Posts: 3017 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
posted 07-11-2013 12:26 PM
I was a big supporter and fan of "The Cape" television show series throughout the mid/late 1990s.
My firm supplied lots of the displayed space memorabilia — mostly decals, photos, patches, and posters — that had been used on the space show series. My family and I were also able to host some of the TV show actors, producers (like Anson Williams), and cameramen to a dinner party and visits to my home when the series was in filming here on the Florida Space Coast.
I was able to visit, mostly with Anson, "The Cape's" primary film studio in Port Canaveral along with one of their favorite ocean-view areas in south Cocoa Beach, not too far from nearby Patrick AFB.
There was one incident that I remember while at their Port studio. Anson was showing me all around their facilities when he opened up a "back door" of sorts that went into a shuttle orbiter flight deck mockup. Right as we both started to enter the back of the module, a few yards behind the shuttle astronaut crew cdr/pilot seats, someone yelled out, "CUT," and "RESET!"
Unknown to me, and I guess to Anson as well, we had interfered with a "live" filming crew segment at the other end of the cockpit mockup. They were actually filming a clip at the front of the orbiter's crew compartment with an occupied "astronaut crew" donned in their orange spacesuits.
Once inside, and after a few quick seconds, I could see and hear two actor-astronauts participating in some kind of countdown or launch performance.
What about the interference? Actually, it was no big deal at all, as Anson said, "Sorry guys," and with no other notice or mention of it again, the crew went back to work and re-did the take or scene.
On another occasion, I was asked to help design and produce a series of cloth emblem patches to be spacesuit worn by the actor shuttle crews.
I still do have those original files and drawings, however, if I recall — NASA did not authorize the use of any unofficial patches, rather a real shuttle flight or not, in connection with any of their own governmental-owned agency flight pressure suits.
It was indeed a fun time here on the Space Coast with many fond memories of my time or association with "The Cape" TV series nearly 20-some years ago!
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1220 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 07-11-2013 03:31 PM
Ken, thanks for those memories! The last episode I watched, "Reggie's Wild Ride" was one directed by Anson and I had no idea he directed any before I saw his name. I hope you can share some of those patch drawings. Too bad they couldn't be used.
Posts: 2919 From: Titusville, FL Registered: Feb 2005
posted 07-11-2013 05:47 PM
Like Ken I also supplied some of my collection for use as props. I enjoyed a day of filming as an extra for one episode. I believe it was titled: "The Enemy Within."
I portrayed a vendor at a Space Fest kind of event. The episode concerned the brother of an astronaut selling one of his mission patches that he had signed. I still have that patch along with a few others made for the show. I wasn't aware that Ken had made them.
I was fortunate to meet both Anson Williams and Corbin Bernsen. The female astronaut portrayed by Bobbi Phillips was very nice as well.
Ken Havekotte Member
Posts: 3017 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
posted 07-11-2013 06:30 PM
Tim, I can't recall the patch referred to in the episode that you were a part of.
I've got some original sketches, etc. that were designed for the TV series, however, since NASA wasn't going to allow any of them to be used for real shuttle spacesuit attachments, I don't recall any actual cloth patches produced.
I think your patch was an earlier issue that one of the guys had put together for that specific episode, but it wasn't provided by my firm, I am sure of.
Would you be so kind to depict it here as I would love to see it, and next time you're over for a visit, it would be a privilege to show you the original sketches and mission patch drawings that, unfortunately, never came to life on "The Cape" series.
Pretty cool, Tim, that you played a space souvenir vendor in one of the episodes, which is one of my actual space occupations. I am much too shy, though myself, to play any kind of "extra" or support TV or movie role, even though I did have chances to do so in various picture productions.
I bet it was lots of fun, huh?
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1220 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 07-11-2013 07:46 PM
quote:Originally posted by KSCartist: I portrayed a vendor at a Space Fest kind of event.
Is that you with the red polo shirt with patches on it? Just watching that episode now!!
KSCartist Member
Posts: 2919 From: Titusville, FL Registered: Feb 2005
posted 07-12-2013 04:08 PM
That's me.
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1220 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 07-12-2013 04:10 PM
I am surprised at how much I enjoyed the episodes. Sure, we know it is rather inaccurate with this little group of astronauts doing all of the missions. But, it does show off NASA and the shuttle program very well when it was at the height of it's post-Challenger/pre-ISS period.
The final episode, which involves the Atlantis' tiles being damaged at Mir and Columbia being fast tracked on a launch to repair them is so ironic. It took them four weeks to get Columbia off the ground and do tile repair.
If that isn't totally impossible, I wish someone had remembered watching this during STS-107, and maybe we would have had a different outcome. Although, I wonder if the effort would really have been made to save a damaged orbiter, or just the crew. Unless it could be flown to a landing by auto, it seams a big risk to the pilots.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 43949 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 07-12-2013 04:34 PM
quote:Originally posted by Ronpur: If that isn't totally impossible, I wish someone had remembered watching this during STS-107...
No one needed to watch a TV show to recall the idea of launching a second orbiter to rescue the first.
There are numerous reasons why launching an orbiter to rescue the crew was not feasible, nor wise, nor at the time considered. Nevertheless, the scenario was raised numerous times (mostly by spectators) in the wake of the tragedy as a "what if" exercise.
KSCartist Member
Posts: 2919 From: Titusville, FL Registered: Feb 2005
posted 07-12-2013 04:48 PM
quote:Originally posted by Ken Havekotte: I can't recall the patch referred to in the episode that you were a part of.
Here are the patches. The one in the upper left was used in the episode I was in.
Ken Havekotte Member
Posts: 3017 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
posted 07-12-2013 07:05 PM
Tim, Thanks for the patch illustrations, and if I recall, there were a few other designs that I have original color sketches of.
I'll have to locate my file folder from "The Cape" to see what exactly is in there.
Oddly enough, I do recall having drawing sketch designs of at least 2 of the ones depicted here.
While some early patches were produced, it would seem, I am thinking that only 2-3 of each cloth patch depicted above were cheaply produced by one of the show's team members, which by the way, I cannot recall his/her name at the moment.
But I do remember other designs were being worked on with the possibility of producing a bigger quantity that I was going to help with.
I really need to locate the file folder, and once I do, I'll get back to you. Thanks again!
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1220 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 07-12-2013 08:58 PM
Thanks for sharing those patch pictures! Did you design them?
carl walker Member
Posts: 366 From: Netherlands Registered: Feb 2006
posted 08-22-2013 03:58 PM
Wow, if these patches are ever made, I'd buy a set.
bkbeltgal New Member
Posts: 2 From: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA Registered: May 2014
posted 05-23-2014 02:18 PM
Oh my goodness. I was an extra on The Cape for several episodes.
Bradleyfett New Member
Posts: 5 From: Orlando Registered: May 2015
posted 06-01-2015 11:38 AM
I worked on this TV series from start to finish and it was one of the best experiences of my career. One of the joys of this project (and there were many) was meeting and working with people like Tim. Whenever we had a gap in our space knowledge that needed filling quick, these folks were always there for us.
I'm new to this forum and hope to share some more things from the series as I dig through memories and boxes! — Mark
Bradleyfett New Member
Posts: 5 From: Orlando Registered: May 2015
posted 06-01-2015 12:10 PM
Here are some pics from the Soyuz episode mentioned earlier. This is the 4 foot miniature I made for that episode (I still have this someplace!).
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1220 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 06-04-2015 11:18 AM
That's awesome! Thanks for sharing those pictures.
Bradleyfett New Member
Posts: 5 From: Orlando Registered: May 2015
posted 06-19-2015 08:39 PM
I finally found some of my Cape stuff!
These are some of the patches I acquired while working on the show. I'm sure folks here will recognize the first batch.
The rest below are some of the custom designs made for the show. Ken, do I understand you did these?
Ronpur Member
Posts: 1220 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
posted 12-08-2015 07:17 AM
I do not remember any of these actually appearing in an episode (except for maybe the signed one being in the memorabilia show scene in an episode). Did they appear in any episodes? Also what about the possibility if making sets of those patches?
BMckay Member
Posts: 3301 From: MA, USA Registered: Sep 2002
posted 07-19-2016 06:55 AM
How can I get a few of the Riles patches? It would be cool to get some signed at a comic convention this fall.
Hart Sastrowardoyo Member
Posts: 3446 From: Toms River, NJ Registered: Aug 2000
posted 09-18-2016 11:15 AM
Having seen "Enemy Within" last night, I'm puzzled: Why did NASA think Zeke was selling signed patches? That patch could have been signed by Zeke, but obtained at a meet and greet or other presentation by someone and sold.
I think the subplot could have been stronger if it was Zeke's autograph but NASA didn't believe he or a family member was selling them on his behalf.
BMckay Member
Posts: 3301 From: MA, USA Registered: Sep 2002
posted 05-07-2020 12:57 PM
I just picked up these cloth patches on eBay. Real nice:
BMckay Member
Posts: 3301 From: MA, USA Registered: Sep 2002
posted 05-26-2020 09:27 AM
Can we use these examples and make a batch of them? Also saw a new one using the logo.
BMckay Member
Posts: 3301 From: MA, USA Registered: Sep 2002
posted 05-30-2020 09:06 AM
I just picked up the whole series on DVD. Now just looking for a good 8x10 of the promo card to try to create a display with the "crew patches."
Did anyone else see in the background the blue suit lithos made for Bersen and Bancroft in the background of the scenes? I made up an orange suit one for Baldwin and Bernsen that I got signed at conventions. They loved the photos. Will try for the other cast members some day.
posted 07-29-2003 02:45 PM
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