| The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. | |
|---|---|
The Kids, with Klintsinger and Sgt. Vinton, from the NBC television show, "The Kids from C.A.P.E.R." |
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| Genre | Saturday morning children's shows |
| Created by | Romeo Muller |
| Developed by | Merrill Grant |
| Directed by | Stanley Z. Cherry |
| Starring | Steve Bonino, Cosie Costa, Biff Warren, John Lansing, Robert Emhardt, Robert Lussier |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Alan Landsburg, Don Kirshner |
| Producer(s) | Stanley Z. Cherry |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Original run | September 11, 1976 – September 3, 1977 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | The Monkees |
The Kids From C.A.P.E.R. is a Saturday morning live action television comedy series for children, produced by NBC, that aired from September 11, 1976 to November 20, 1976 and resumed from April 9, 1977 to September 3, 1977. The 13 episodes were produced and directed by Stanley Z. Cherry; among the executive producers was rock impresario Don Kirshner. Both Cherry and Kirshner had worked for previous television series, including The Monkees.
Although the show has not been released on video, there is an LP of most of the songs from the series (omitting the theme song, and two other songs, "Baby Blue" and "You're Under My Spell"), released by Kirshner Records and Tapes in 1977. One of the songs from the series, "When It Hit Me (The Hurricane Song)" was released as a single. In addition, it was recorded by Rob Hegel (who co-wrote the song) for his 1980 album released by RCA. "Tit For Tat," and "Baby Blue" had both been previously released by Neil Sedaka (who co-wrote both songs) on his 1975 album "Hungry Years."
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The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. followed, and to an extent parodied, the "teen crimefighter" motif common to children's programming. The team was attached in some unspecified way to the 927th Police Precinct in the fictitious city of Northeast South Weston. A story would typically begin with the team being approached with a problem by a girl guest star. A recurring gag during the series was the inevitable explanation at this point of what the acronym C.A.P.E.R. stood for. The boys would stand at attention and reply in unison, "The Civilian Authority for the Protection of Everybody, Regardless," followed by a four-part harmonization of "Ta-da", reminiscent of The Three Stooges' harmonized "Hello".
Each episode featured a song which was performed by the characters in a short and a long form at different points in the story.
P.T. was the leader of the group, and routinely broke the fourth wall to provide exposition and narration. He showed a variety of skills and talents which tended to vary by episode, usually a superhuman sense of smell. For the first two episodes, he wore green military fatigues, but for the rest of the series, he was always seen wearing a khaki shirt with leopard-print collar and pocket flaps with an ascot.
Bugs possessed superhuman strength and speed. For reasons that were never explained, Bugs would immediately devolve into an incoherent but short-lived rage upon hearing the word "bananas." A recurring gag of the series was Bugs' usually being prevented from using his powers due to his vulnerability to this word. For the first two episodes, Bugs wore a peach-colored oriental tunic with blue jeans. Subsequent episodes showed him in white sailor's hat, a red and white vertically-striped tunic, white pants with brown suede spats.
Doomsday, incongruously named given his innocent and childlike characterization, had the ability to communicate with animals and spoke constantly about food. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants. Unlike the other characters, his traditional outfit did not change after the first two episodes.
Doc, in the words of the theme song, had "the looks, and the brains" of the group. For the first two episodes, he wore a blue t-shirt with bluejeans. Thereafter, he wore a blue three-piece leisure suit with a white shirt.
The regular cast also included Sergeant Vinton, the only policeman ever shown and presumably their liaison, and a milquetoast reporter named Kurt Klinsinger who persistently pursued C.A.P.E.R. in hopes of an exclusive. Klinsinger is usually seen wearing goggles pushed up onto his forehead.
Props included Caperband Radios (walkie-talkies with a prominent "C" on them), and the Turquoise Telephone, the hotline on which they were occasionally summoned to duty. C.A.P.E.R. travelled about in a modified delivery truck known as the Big Bologna, a conspicuous vehicle given the gigantic hot dog mounted on the roof. Another regular feature was Mr. Featherstone, a shark who lived a fishtank in their headquarters in the Krelvin Building ("the tallest building in the world with no elevators"). He also had a tank inside the Big Bologna. An unrealistic-looking handpuppet who more closely resembled a child's plush toy than an actual shark, he spoke only in unintelligible gibberish although he often appeared to be singing along with the boys during the reprise of the episode's featured song. Mr. Featherstone possessed a navigational sense. He would occasionally emerge from his tank in the Big Bologna in a manner reminiscent of the Jaws poster and utter some gibberish which would be translated as "He says,'Make a left at the next corner.'"
Each episode began with a silent comedy vignette, with a cast member in voiceover giving "the secret word". This is usually a word that ended up being featured in the episode. At the end of the episode, another silent vignette would appear in which "the caper code" would be given in voice over—a series of letters and numbers such as "E4, D2, C6, B6". This was presumably code for the next week's secret word.
| № | Title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Too Much Time on Their Hands" | 1976 September 11 |
| 2 | "Kids from H.Y.D.E." | 1976 September 18 |
| 3 | "Ghost from C.A.P.E.R." | 1976 September 25 |
| 4 | "The Uncanny Nanny" | 1976 October 2 |
| 5 | "Invasion of the Frankfurter Snatchers" | 1976 October 9 |
| 6 | "The Pieman's Pool" | 1976 October 16 |
| 7 | "King Cone" | 1976 October 23 |
| 8 | "The Post Monster General" | 1976 October 30 |
| 9 | "The Terrible Tollman" | 1976 November 6 |
| 10 | "Dunga Gin" | 1976 November 13 |
| 11 | "The Phantom of the Drive-In Movie" | 1976 November 20 |
| 12 | "Mummy's the Word" | 1977 May 21 |
| 13 | "The Goodfather" | 1977 August 13 |
At the start of the 1976-77 television season, The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. was part of a three-hour block of six live action shows that aired Saturday Morning on NBC, alongside Land of the Lost, which was entering its third season, and four other new shows: Monster Squad; McDuff, the Talking Dog; Big John, Little John; and Muggsy. NBC shook up this lineup in late November, cancelling McDuff and putting The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. on hiatus. The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. returned on April 9, 1977 and replaced the cancelled Muggsy in the lineup. Neither C.A.P.E.R. nor any of the other three remaining shows returned to the NBC lineup for the beginning of the 1977-78 television season.
The pilot episode was refactored into a flashback episode in the full series: "Mummy's the Word", presumably to account for the changes in costume and set decoration. These changes are alluded to by lines of dialogue in the newer wrapper material episode, such as "Don't you remember the good old days, when the Big Bologna was blue?" and "Boy, you guys sure dressed funny in those days." The latter is said by Doomsday, the only character to retain his costume from the pilot.
The title sequence was reworked for the 1977 run to incorporate visuals from actual episodes; these were not present for the first run in 1976. The result is that the later titles are paced more in keeping with the theme music and contain more visual interest.