simmytbone
12-31-2012, 03:11 AM
Hey guys,
25 years ago, we were introduced to a popular Math Show called Square One TV
Square One TV was a series that aired on Public Television's PBS from 1987 to 1994 and it was from Children's Television Workshop the producers of Sesame Street, The Electric Company and 3-2-1 Contact
The show was intended to address the so-called "math crisis" among American schoolchildren. The show was revived for the 1995–1996 PBS season as a teacher instruction program, Square One TV Math Talk.
Square One was also shown on the U.S. cable television channel Noggin in syndication beginning in 1999, but was removed from its lineup along with other Children's Television Workshop shows on May 26, 2003.
The series stars Veteran TV and Film Actor Reg E. Cathey, Veteran Actor Larry Cedar, Stage Actress Cynthia Darlow, Cristobal Franco, Arthur Howard
Veteran Actress/Producer Luisa Leschin, Beverly Mickins and Veteran Actress/Singer Priscilla Lopez
Sketches
Square One comprised short sketches that introduced and applied concepts in mathematics such as counting, combinatorics, vulgar fractions, estimation, probability, and geometry. The sketches featured regular characters and were mainly parodies of pop culture icons or popular television shows. Sketches were presented in various formats, including music videos featuring a particular subject in mathematics and taught the subject through song (e.g., Roman numerals, obtuse and acute angles, percentages, negative numbers, etc.) or comedic sketches (e.g., General Mathpital, a parody of General Hospital; Nobody's Inn, a parody of Fawlty Towers; Late Afternoon with David Numberman, a parody of Late Night with David Letterman; etc.).
Mathman was a regular segment and a parody of Pac-Man. The skit helped viewers learn to recognize common mistakes while solving math problems, such as forgetting to carry a digit, or making errors with negative numbers. A blue tornado character named "Mr. Glitch" was Mathman's enemy.
Backstage with Blackstone featured math-related magic tricks and performances by the late Harry Blackstone, Jr.. Each segment involved two cast members at a time (Reg E. Cathey portrayed Blackstone's assistant). After performing a trick, Blackstone explained how the trick worked.
Other animated segments included Dirk Niblick of the Math Brigade, who often use his mathematical skills to help his friends and neighbors in everyday situations; The Further Adventures of Zook & Alison; and Fax Headful, a parody of Max Headroom.
Game shows
Several segments featured child contestants competing to win prizes.
But Who's Adding?/But Who's Multiplying?: the show's first original game, hosted by Larry Cedar. Two players captured spaces on a gameboard by adding or multiplying two digits at a time, trying to be the first to complete a row/column/diagonal.
But Who's Counting?: hosted by Monty Carlo (played by Arthur Howard). Two pairs of players tried to make the smallest/largest five-digit number possible, placing one digit at a time as it was spun on a carnival wheel.
Piece of the Pie (Introduced in season 2, lasted until season 4): a survey-based game similar to Family Feud, using pie charts and teaching percentages. The game was hosted by Cris Franco and Arthur Howard, and later by Beverly Mickins.
Close Call: a game about estimation, using "how many beans are in this big jar"-type of questions, and bearing a similarity to The Price Is Right. Arthur Howard was the original host, replaced at the beginning of Season 4 by Luisa Leschin (who was co-host for the previous season). Leschin's co-host was Reg E. Cathey.
Triple Play: players spun wheels to choose two digits, then had to add/multiply them in order to match numbers on the gameboard, trying to complete a triangle. The game was hosted by Cynthia Darlow, and only lasted one season (Season 2).
Square One Squares: a tic-tac-toe game similar to Hollywood Squares and To Tell the Truth. The game was later replaced by Square One Challenge. Both were hosted by Larry Cedar.
Mathnet
Mathnet is a segment on the children's television show Square One Television, of which five seasons were produced (1987–92). This parody of Dragnet featured detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department who solved mysteries using their mathematical skills. There were two main characters: detectives Kate Monday (Beverly Leech) and George Frankly (Joe Howard). Mary Watson also had a regular role as the duo's technical analyst, Debbie Williams. The third season had the show's setting moved to New York City. Beginning in the fourth season, Kate Monday was replaced by Pat Tuesday (Toni DiBuono). James Earl Jones played a recurring role as Chief Thad Green. He also briefly appears in season 4 and indicates he knows Pat Tuesday. When the duo was transferred to New York, Captain Joe Greco (Emilio Del Pozo) became their new boss and undercover NYPD officer Benny Pill (Bari K. Willerford) became their semi-regular backup support.
After a successful first season, production began on six new episodes for the second season. By the time production ended on the third season and its six episodes in 1989, Beverly Leech (Kate Monday) left, and was replaced by a new character named Pat Tuesday, played by Toni DiBuono. Production on the first six episodes with the new character commenced in 1990, and ended in 1991, in time for Square One TV's fourth season. Production on the final season and its five episodes began in 1991, and ended in 1992.
During production, the background music also changed. Originally, it had a synth score. But gradually, as the series progressed, it was replaced with an orchestra score.
Each segment of the series aired on one episode of Square One, a production of the Children's Television Workshop aimed at teaching math skills to young viewers. Five segments made up an episode (one for each weekday), with suspense building at the end of each segment. A Mathnet comic briefly appeared in 3-2-1 Contact.
Both Mathnet and Square One went off the air in 1994 (it was rerun until then after the final 1992 season was completed), reappearing from 1999–2003 on the cable television network Noggin, a joint venture of Nickelodeon and CTW. However, only 65 episodes were leased by the Noggin network. Mathnet segments also aired on The Phred on Your Head Show (one of Noggin's original programs).[1]
Mathnet was produced by Janette Webb, the widow of Dragnet producer Jack Webb.
Real principles of math and science, and mathematical tools used by the detectives to solve crimes include:
Alphanumerics ("The Case of the Unnatural")
Kinematics ("The Problem of the Missing Baseball")
Chromatic scale ("The Problem of the Passing Parade")
Displacement of fluids ("The Problem of the Trojan Hamburger")
Modular Fibonacci sequence – the Pisano period mod 5 ("The Case of the Willing Parrot")
Statistical sampling ("The Case of the Deceptive Data," "The Calpurnian Kugel Caper," "The Case: Off the Record")
Triangulation ("The Case of the Map with a Gap", "The Case of the Bermuda Triangle", "Despair in Monterey Bay")
Random number generation ("The Calpurnian Kugel Caper")
Databases ("The Case of the Pocono's Paradise")
Handwriting analysis ("The Case of the Purloined Policies")
Hamiltonian path ("The Case of the Smart Dummy")
Process of elimination ("The Case of the Great Car Robbery", "The View from the Rear Terrace")
Number patterns ("The Case of the Missing Air")
Bar charts and line charts ("The Case of the Purloined Policies", "The Case of the Great Car Robbery")
A number of well-known actors made guest appearances on this show. Among them were the late Edward Winter (M*A*S*H), the late Eve McVeagh, Yeardley Smith (The Simpsons & Herman's Head), the late Dick Wilson (The Charmin Man Mr. Whipples), the late William Windom (The Farmers Daughter), James Karen, the late Kenneth Mars (Disney's The Little Mermaid), the late Henry Jones, the late Kevin McCarthy (Death of a Salesman), Geoffrey Lewis (Flo who also appeared on S.W.A.T. and Starsky & Huthc), Russell Johnson (Gilligan's Island), the late McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H & Match Game), the late Dick Sargent (Bewitched), Jack Riley (The Bob Newhart Show & Rugrats), Marcia Wallace (The Bob Newhart Show, The Simpsons, Match Game & Full House), Estelle Harris (Seinfeld & Toy Story), Tammy Grimes, the late Arnold Stang (Top Cat), Paul Dooley, Maddie Corman (Seven Minutes in Heaven & Some Kind of Wonderful), Veteran Actor John Michael Higgins, Famed Actress Jayne Meadows, the late Bob Arbogast, Veteran Comedy Singer Weird Al Yankovic, The Micro Machines Man John Moschitta, Jr., Veteran Actor Wayne Knight (The Edge, Seinfeld & 3rd Rock From the Sun) and Tony Award Winning Actress Betty Buckley. In addition, real life L.A.P.D. officers, Sam Salazar and Steve Fellman, have also appeared as themselves, and did head writers, David D. Connell and Jim Thurman, as various characters (sometimes together). Sometimes, only Thurman's voice would be heard.
Reg E. Cathy is a veteran of TV & Screen
He appeared on such shows as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU and also appeared in such films as The Mask Starring Jim Carrey & Cameron Diaz and the remake of S.W.A.T. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez and LL Cool J and he appeared in the cult film favorite Pootie Tang
Today, he still appears on TV & Screen
Larry Cedar is a veteran of Television
He appeared on Star Trek: TNG, DSN & Voyager and also appeared on TV Commercials for Kellogg's Eggo Blueberry Waffles and Just Right Cereal as well as Kroger
One of his most notable appearances was playing the role of Mr. Jameson on Saved by the Bell
Today, he continues to appear on TV
Cynthia Darlow continues to appear on stage and has been doing so for many many years
She has many on and off-Broadway credits, including Grease, Prelude to a Kiss, Rumors, Taller Than a Dwarf, and Trouble in Paradise. Ms. Darlow is a member of the New York based The Actors Company Theatre (TACT). In television, she has made numerous appearances in three of the different Law & Order series, and guest starred on Soul Man and The Sopranos. Film credits include The Thomas Crown Affair (as Pierce Brosnan's secretary), Lost Souls (with John Hurt and Elias Koteas, as "Directionless Woman), and 25th Hour.
Beverly Leech has appeared on many TV shows including Sledge Hammer, Quantum Leap and Babylon 5
She continues to act to this day
She has a daughter, Kate, by her first marriage to Dennis Smeal. Beverly's hobbies are painting, woodwork and refinishing, car repair, softball and ballet. She is a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center and also works with people affected by alcoholism and drug abuse.
Joe Howard is a veteran of TV and Screen appearing on such shows as Mork & Mindy, Moonlighting, Trapper John, M.D. and The Practice
He also played the Pharmacist in the film Grumpy Old Men
He continues to act to this day
100% of Square One TV, Mathnet and MathTalk is a Production of the Children's Television Workshop and was made possible by a grants from the National Science Foundation, The U.S. Department of Education and The Coporation for Public Broadcasting
IBM and later Intel also helped Square One TV become successful as well
and so, Happy 25 to Square One TV and God Bless
25 years ago, we were introduced to a popular Math Show called Square One TV
Square One TV was a series that aired on Public Television's PBS from 1987 to 1994 and it was from Children's Television Workshop the producers of Sesame Street, The Electric Company and 3-2-1 Contact
The show was intended to address the so-called "math crisis" among American schoolchildren. The show was revived for the 1995–1996 PBS season as a teacher instruction program, Square One TV Math Talk.
Square One was also shown on the U.S. cable television channel Noggin in syndication beginning in 1999, but was removed from its lineup along with other Children's Television Workshop shows on May 26, 2003.
The series stars Veteran TV and Film Actor Reg E. Cathey, Veteran Actor Larry Cedar, Stage Actress Cynthia Darlow, Cristobal Franco, Arthur Howard
Veteran Actress/Producer Luisa Leschin, Beverly Mickins and Veteran Actress/Singer Priscilla Lopez
Sketches
Square One comprised short sketches that introduced and applied concepts in mathematics such as counting, combinatorics, vulgar fractions, estimation, probability, and geometry. The sketches featured regular characters and were mainly parodies of pop culture icons or popular television shows. Sketches were presented in various formats, including music videos featuring a particular subject in mathematics and taught the subject through song (e.g., Roman numerals, obtuse and acute angles, percentages, negative numbers, etc.) or comedic sketches (e.g., General Mathpital, a parody of General Hospital; Nobody's Inn, a parody of Fawlty Towers; Late Afternoon with David Numberman, a parody of Late Night with David Letterman; etc.).
Mathman was a regular segment and a parody of Pac-Man. The skit helped viewers learn to recognize common mistakes while solving math problems, such as forgetting to carry a digit, or making errors with negative numbers. A blue tornado character named "Mr. Glitch" was Mathman's enemy.
Backstage with Blackstone featured math-related magic tricks and performances by the late Harry Blackstone, Jr.. Each segment involved two cast members at a time (Reg E. Cathey portrayed Blackstone's assistant). After performing a trick, Blackstone explained how the trick worked.
Other animated segments included Dirk Niblick of the Math Brigade, who often use his mathematical skills to help his friends and neighbors in everyday situations; The Further Adventures of Zook & Alison; and Fax Headful, a parody of Max Headroom.
Game shows
Several segments featured child contestants competing to win prizes.
But Who's Adding?/But Who's Multiplying?: the show's first original game, hosted by Larry Cedar. Two players captured spaces on a gameboard by adding or multiplying two digits at a time, trying to be the first to complete a row/column/diagonal.
But Who's Counting?: hosted by Monty Carlo (played by Arthur Howard). Two pairs of players tried to make the smallest/largest five-digit number possible, placing one digit at a time as it was spun on a carnival wheel.
Piece of the Pie (Introduced in season 2, lasted until season 4): a survey-based game similar to Family Feud, using pie charts and teaching percentages. The game was hosted by Cris Franco and Arthur Howard, and later by Beverly Mickins.
Close Call: a game about estimation, using "how many beans are in this big jar"-type of questions, and bearing a similarity to The Price Is Right. Arthur Howard was the original host, replaced at the beginning of Season 4 by Luisa Leschin (who was co-host for the previous season). Leschin's co-host was Reg E. Cathey.
Triple Play: players spun wheels to choose two digits, then had to add/multiply them in order to match numbers on the gameboard, trying to complete a triangle. The game was hosted by Cynthia Darlow, and only lasted one season (Season 2).
Square One Squares: a tic-tac-toe game similar to Hollywood Squares and To Tell the Truth. The game was later replaced by Square One Challenge. Both were hosted by Larry Cedar.
Mathnet
Mathnet is a segment on the children's television show Square One Television, of which five seasons were produced (1987–92). This parody of Dragnet featured detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department who solved mysteries using their mathematical skills. There were two main characters: detectives Kate Monday (Beverly Leech) and George Frankly (Joe Howard). Mary Watson also had a regular role as the duo's technical analyst, Debbie Williams. The third season had the show's setting moved to New York City. Beginning in the fourth season, Kate Monday was replaced by Pat Tuesday (Toni DiBuono). James Earl Jones played a recurring role as Chief Thad Green. He also briefly appears in season 4 and indicates he knows Pat Tuesday. When the duo was transferred to New York, Captain Joe Greco (Emilio Del Pozo) became their new boss and undercover NYPD officer Benny Pill (Bari K. Willerford) became their semi-regular backup support.
After a successful first season, production began on six new episodes for the second season. By the time production ended on the third season and its six episodes in 1989, Beverly Leech (Kate Monday) left, and was replaced by a new character named Pat Tuesday, played by Toni DiBuono. Production on the first six episodes with the new character commenced in 1990, and ended in 1991, in time for Square One TV's fourth season. Production on the final season and its five episodes began in 1991, and ended in 1992.
During production, the background music also changed. Originally, it had a synth score. But gradually, as the series progressed, it was replaced with an orchestra score.
Each segment of the series aired on one episode of Square One, a production of the Children's Television Workshop aimed at teaching math skills to young viewers. Five segments made up an episode (one for each weekday), with suspense building at the end of each segment. A Mathnet comic briefly appeared in 3-2-1 Contact.
Both Mathnet and Square One went off the air in 1994 (it was rerun until then after the final 1992 season was completed), reappearing from 1999–2003 on the cable television network Noggin, a joint venture of Nickelodeon and CTW. However, only 65 episodes were leased by the Noggin network. Mathnet segments also aired on The Phred on Your Head Show (one of Noggin's original programs).[1]
Mathnet was produced by Janette Webb, the widow of Dragnet producer Jack Webb.
Real principles of math and science, and mathematical tools used by the detectives to solve crimes include:
Alphanumerics ("The Case of the Unnatural")
Kinematics ("The Problem of the Missing Baseball")
Chromatic scale ("The Problem of the Passing Parade")
Displacement of fluids ("The Problem of the Trojan Hamburger")
Modular Fibonacci sequence – the Pisano period mod 5 ("The Case of the Willing Parrot")
Statistical sampling ("The Case of the Deceptive Data," "The Calpurnian Kugel Caper," "The Case: Off the Record")
Triangulation ("The Case of the Map with a Gap", "The Case of the Bermuda Triangle", "Despair in Monterey Bay")
Random number generation ("The Calpurnian Kugel Caper")
Databases ("The Case of the Pocono's Paradise")
Handwriting analysis ("The Case of the Purloined Policies")
Hamiltonian path ("The Case of the Smart Dummy")
Process of elimination ("The Case of the Great Car Robbery", "The View from the Rear Terrace")
Number patterns ("The Case of the Missing Air")
Bar charts and line charts ("The Case of the Purloined Policies", "The Case of the Great Car Robbery")
A number of well-known actors made guest appearances on this show. Among them were the late Edward Winter (M*A*S*H), the late Eve McVeagh, Yeardley Smith (The Simpsons & Herman's Head), the late Dick Wilson (The Charmin Man Mr. Whipples), the late William Windom (The Farmers Daughter), James Karen, the late Kenneth Mars (Disney's The Little Mermaid), the late Henry Jones, the late Kevin McCarthy (Death of a Salesman), Geoffrey Lewis (Flo who also appeared on S.W.A.T. and Starsky & Huthc), Russell Johnson (Gilligan's Island), the late McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H & Match Game), the late Dick Sargent (Bewitched), Jack Riley (The Bob Newhart Show & Rugrats), Marcia Wallace (The Bob Newhart Show, The Simpsons, Match Game & Full House), Estelle Harris (Seinfeld & Toy Story), Tammy Grimes, the late Arnold Stang (Top Cat), Paul Dooley, Maddie Corman (Seven Minutes in Heaven & Some Kind of Wonderful), Veteran Actor John Michael Higgins, Famed Actress Jayne Meadows, the late Bob Arbogast, Veteran Comedy Singer Weird Al Yankovic, The Micro Machines Man John Moschitta, Jr., Veteran Actor Wayne Knight (The Edge, Seinfeld & 3rd Rock From the Sun) and Tony Award Winning Actress Betty Buckley. In addition, real life L.A.P.D. officers, Sam Salazar and Steve Fellman, have also appeared as themselves, and did head writers, David D. Connell and Jim Thurman, as various characters (sometimes together). Sometimes, only Thurman's voice would be heard.
Reg E. Cathy is a veteran of TV & Screen
He appeared on such shows as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU and also appeared in such films as The Mask Starring Jim Carrey & Cameron Diaz and the remake of S.W.A.T. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez and LL Cool J and he appeared in the cult film favorite Pootie Tang
Today, he still appears on TV & Screen
Larry Cedar is a veteran of Television
He appeared on Star Trek: TNG, DSN & Voyager and also appeared on TV Commercials for Kellogg's Eggo Blueberry Waffles and Just Right Cereal as well as Kroger
One of his most notable appearances was playing the role of Mr. Jameson on Saved by the Bell
Today, he continues to appear on TV
Cynthia Darlow continues to appear on stage and has been doing so for many many years
She has many on and off-Broadway credits, including Grease, Prelude to a Kiss, Rumors, Taller Than a Dwarf, and Trouble in Paradise. Ms. Darlow is a member of the New York based The Actors Company Theatre (TACT). In television, she has made numerous appearances in three of the different Law & Order series, and guest starred on Soul Man and The Sopranos. Film credits include The Thomas Crown Affair (as Pierce Brosnan's secretary), Lost Souls (with John Hurt and Elias Koteas, as "Directionless Woman), and 25th Hour.
Beverly Leech has appeared on many TV shows including Sledge Hammer, Quantum Leap and Babylon 5
She continues to act to this day
She has a daughter, Kate, by her first marriage to Dennis Smeal. Beverly's hobbies are painting, woodwork and refinishing, car repair, softball and ballet. She is a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center and also works with people affected by alcoholism and drug abuse.
Joe Howard is a veteran of TV and Screen appearing on such shows as Mork & Mindy, Moonlighting, Trapper John, M.D. and The Practice
He also played the Pharmacist in the film Grumpy Old Men
He continues to act to this day
100% of Square One TV, Mathnet and MathTalk is a Production of the Children's Television Workshop and was made possible by a grants from the National Science Foundation, The U.S. Department of Education and The Coporation for Public Broadcasting
IBM and later Intel also helped Square One TV become successful as well
and so, Happy 25 to Square One TV and God Bless