The Kids From C.A.P.E.R.

The Kids From C.A.P.E.R. was a Saturday morning live-action television comedy series which aired on NBC from September 11, 1976, to November 20, 1976, and reran from April 9, 1977, to September 3, 1977. The show's title is clearly derived from the 60s spy-fi show "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", and parodied different pop culture shows of the day, including "The Monkees", "Six Million Dollar Man", "Shazam!", "Scooby-Doo Where Are You!" and their numerous imitators up to that point. All 13 episodes of the series were produced and directed by Stanley Z. Cherry; among the executive producers was Don Kirshner. Both Cherry and Kirshner had previously worked on "The Monkees", Cherry having written the episode "Some Like It Lukewarm" in 1968, while Kirshner was the original musical supervisor for The Monkees until early 1967.
Although the show has not been released on video, there is an LP of most of the songs from the series, omitting "Baby Blue", "You're Under My Spell" and, ironically, the show's theme. The LP was 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; the song was also recorded by Rob Hegel (who co-wrote the song) for his 1980 RCA album. Two other album tracks, "Tit for Tat" and "Baby Blue", had both been co-written and previously released by Neil Sedaka on his 1975 album "Hungry Years".
Overview.
The "Kids from C.A.P.E.R." (the Civilian Authority for the Protection of Everybody Regardless) were a team of four teenage boys headquartered in the 927th Police Precinct in the fictitious city of "Northeast Southweston"; together they helped the police to solve unusual cases. The CAPERs communicated using "Caperband" Radios (walkie-talkies with a prominent "C" on them - they were actually modified Star Trek Communicators made by the Mego Corporation in 1974), and prospective clients contacted them via the Turquoise Telephone. Their headquarters was located in the Krelvin Building ("the tallest building in the world with no elevators").
The boys all wore brown belts with buckles emblazoned with a big letter "C" (Doc's buckle was presumably hidden underneath his vest). The group often traveled around Northeast Southweston in the "Big Bologna", a one-time hot dog vendor wagon converted into a mobile crime lab, though the giant hot dog display remains on the roof.
Every episode began with a silent comedy vignette, with a cast member in voiceover giving the "Secret Word", which was usually key to that episode's plot. At the end of each episode, another silent vignette would appear in which a "Caper Code" would be given in voice over; a series of letters and numbers such as "P3 E8 R19 C2" (TIME). This was presumably code for the next week's secret word.
Each episode would open with P.T. narrating what was about to happen. The team would then be visited by a girl who needed their help with a problem; in most episodes the girl would become attracted to a different member of the CAPERs. Each episode also featured a song which was performed by one of the CAPERs in a short and a long form at different points in the episode, though emphasis was never placed on the music itself. To wit, unlike the Monkees, the CAPERs did not consider themselves musicians and were never seen playing musical instruments.
A recurring gag during the series was the group's explanation of what the acronym C.A.P.E.R. stood for; when asked, the boys would all quickly 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".
Production Information.
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.