Sunday, April 12, 2020

Daytime Heroes: Mathnet (1987)

From Square One Television comes an ingenius send-up of Jack Webb's Dragnet, right down to using a portion of Walter Schumann's "Danger Ahead" (The Dragnet theme) as theme music.

Mathnet was originally in serial format during the first two seasons of Square One, before switching to done-in-one mysteries in the third season. A pilot was produced in 1985, two years before the series began. While the regular cast were relative unknowns, Mathnet did attract a few well known guest stars during its run, including James Earl Jones, Dick Sargent, and, in the following season 2 serial, Ronnie Schell (ex-Gomer Pyle, USMC, Battle of The Planets, Good Morning World) and Ron O'Neal, who is still remembered for the "Superfly" movies of the 70's.



After three seasons, the setting was changed from Los Angeles to New York, likely for budget reasons.

As correspondent Mike Doran noted in our review of Square One, Mathnet episodes were eventually released in stand alone video compilations. Wouldn't mind a revival, especially with today's kids now doing online lessons.

Rating: A.

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