The Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), with 3-2-1 Contact entering its final season, was asked by PBS to come up with a new series to not only replace Contact, but act as a complement to Sesame Street, which was entering its 19th season.
Square One Television, over the course of five seasons (1987-92), not only filled the void, but with its anthology format and ensemble cast, recalled an earlier series, the original iteration of Electric Company (1971-7). As memory serves, Company was in reruns in some parts of the country, including in the home district, at this point.
We've already seen one of the animated features, Lt. Dirk Niblick of The Math Brigade, earlier this week. We won't see Dirk this time, as this is the series opener, which introduces Mathnet, a Dragnet parody which should've been spun off into its own series.
And, yes, as you'll see in the next episode teaser, magician Harry Blackstone, Jr. was a regular contributor.
With kids taking classes online due to COVID-19, maybe PBS should dust this off.
No rating.
4 comments:
In a way, Mathnet was spun off:
According to IMDb, each of the serialized stories was edited into its own hour-long "special" - 30 stories all-told, covering the five seasons of Square One's tenure on PBS.
Thirty hours - sounds like a DVD set to me …
I first read about Mathnet in the pages of The Armchair Detective, an upscale quarterly magazine for fans/buffs of the mystery genre.
William L. DeAndrea, a wonderful detective novelist in his own right, had a regular column in TAD called "J'Accuse!", in which he commented on any and all matters that came to his attention (it was sort of a blog, except it was on paper …).
Anyway, Bill DeAndrea saw Square One Television in its original PBS run (he had two young sons at the time), and that's when he saw Mathnet, which he loved (being a fan of original Dragnet from his own boyhood).
Also being a TV/movie buff, Bill DeAndrea spotted out many name actors who turned up in guest roles (among others: James Earl Jones, Kevin McCarthy, Betty Buckley, John Sayles, William Windom, et al.). Bill also noted that the most frequent Mathnet director was Charles S. Dubin, who did 44 episodes of M*A*S*H, among much else.
So there you have the case for bringing back Mathnet, solo or as part of Square One.
By the bye:
You might consider seeking out William L. DeAndrea's mystery novels, which are both satirical and suspenseful.
There are eight novels, starting with Killed In The Ratings, in which the mysteries are solved by Matt Cobb, a network TV executive - all good stuff.
Bill DeAndrea wrote quite a few more novels and short stories - not nearly enough, because he passed on in 1996, but they're all worth the effort to find and read.
Soon as bookstores like Barnes & Noble re-open to walk-in traffic, I'll look into it.
Uhhhmmmm …
I'm afraid you won't find Bill DeAndrea's books in B&N, since they're all pretty much out of print by now (having been dead for twenty-five years will do that, you know …).
Different story online - that's where I'm getting most of my books lately, anyway …
Thanks for the tip.
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