SQUARE ONE vs. 3-2-1 CONTACT

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TAKING SIDES OF LATE 80's CHILDRENS' EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING!

Potential run-in: Newton's Apple

Sub-thread: "Mathnet" -- Kate Monday vs. Pat Tuesday, or does George Frankly pwn both of them?

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

MATH MAN
MATH MAN
MATH MAN
MATH MAN
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FOOTBALL HELMET FOR SOME REASON

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

CONTACT

IT'S THE ANSWER

TO THE QUESTION

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

WTF Leee, you're always talking about how busy you are, and then you start this thread?

I'm just bitter because I was too old for these shows.

― Haibun (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh God, I LOVED the semi-swishy balding blonde dude from Square 1. 321 Contact always seemed like the standard-bearer.

― hampsterfrench (hampsterfrench), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Trini = first tv crush ever

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought i was the only one that watched this.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:52 (twenty-one years ago)

WE'RE THE BLOODHOUND GANNNNNNNNNNG

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:52 (twenty-one years ago)

jeez, i watched both of these religiously, but i can't seem to remember anything about either of them! something's telling me Square One was a little cooler, though

― lemin (lemin), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:54 (twenty-one years ago)

oh. my. god. i forgot square one existed. i watched it religiously, it was like a cooler edison twins.

square one in '05!!

(weeeeeeeeeeird little xpost there)

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Square One was so brilliant it still hurts.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

BUT WHEN YOU USE YOUR HEAD
YOU'LL ALWAYS WIN
JUST LIKE THE EDISON TWINS

AND THEN ONE OF YOU LOOKS LIKE A BLONDE MICHAEL J FOX
AND YOU SHOW UP ON MACGUYVER AS A SPEED-POPPING NERD GENIUS
BAD GUY FOR SOME REASON

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:57 (twenty-one years ago)

so did you guys get the edison twins in the us?

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:59 (twenty-one years ago)

if you lived in michigan and had CBC on basic cable, you did

also, we watched a few episodes in various middle school/junior high classes when the teachers were lazy that day

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:02 (twenty-one years ago)

i liked how for like 15+ years, you could turn on 321 Contact and see the same bloodhound gang eps all shot on 16mm in 1982 or so.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

holy shit, i was RIGHT! he WAS the dude on a macguyver ep!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0754781/

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:06 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, i'm kind of reeling from the information that paul from the edison twins (the one who always wore trucker caps with felt deer antlers and shorts, white running shoes and brown socks) is named "sunny besen thrasher" in real life.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:08 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a crazy world

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:11 (twenty-one years ago)

this thread fucking rules. what about ENCYCLOPEDIA on HBO?

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:11 (twenty-one years ago)

remember on square one they had those math detectives at the end of every show?

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:12 (twenty-one years ago)

i vote for the Curiosity Show

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:17 (twenty-one years ago)

or even Braingames, the animated quiz show on HBO

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:19 (twenty-one years ago)

BRAINGAMES IS NOW OVER

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Cutty, that be "Mathnet"!

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"the stories are made up but the problems are real."

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:30 (twenty-one years ago)

how long until someone mentions carmen sandiego?

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:30 (twenty-one years ago)

oh.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:30 (twenty-one years ago)

holy crap:

http://home.comcast.net/~nspil/sq1.htm

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:32 (twenty-one years ago)

The Edison Twins was on the Disney Channel. I think I can still remember the theme.

The girl from the Bloodhoung Gang was on Elisabeth Rohm's last Law and Order episode!!!!

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Carmen Sandiego had that really over-cheesy a capella theme song that I can still recall to this very day. Um, otherwise, pretty classic.

As for "Square One" vs. "3-2-1 Contact", I have a bit more fondness for "3-2-1 Contact", so them. I love that theme song, you know. I think I ended up finding it somewhere online one time and I played it over and over again and almost sobbed because the sentimental side of me was THAT moved/affected by it. I remember "3-2-1 Contact" as being one of those programs I anxiously anticipated when I was a kiddo. And I thought it was so cool that there was this character, Paco, who was one of the "Bloodhound Gang"!!

Also: PBS educational kids' programming will always rule the school. HBO schmach-BO. ;)

― Samantha Baker (Dee the Lurker), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

when i was a child instead of "newton's apple" we had "newton's shit". we would take a clump of wet sand in our hand, squat, put the hand under our ass and release. thank you leee for reminding me of this.

― John (jdahlem), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Der. I meant Ricardo, not Paco. Though I do remember Paco in other segments of the program. (Ha, I just looked up info on "3-2-1 Contact".)

(xpost)

― Samantha Baker (Dee the Lurker), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:41 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG! This is the "3-2-1 Contact" theme song!! (Thanks to some awesome younger folks who recorded this for the linked-to site.)

― Samantha Baker (Dee the Lurker), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Mathnet was the shit! which one was that on?

― lemin (lemin), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 05:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Mathnet was on Square One. If I had to choose between Mathnet and Bloodhound Gang I would probably suffer from Brain-splosion. They were both perfect in every way. Mathnet was definitely funnier, though.

"This is a film, but it's short."

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 05:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Mathnet had that one where the kidnapee sang the tones of the kidnappers' phone number in his ransom phone call - and one of those Scooby Doo type Killer Who Wears A Mask To Make Him Look Like The Protagonist style plots! god that was awesome ... 6 year old's dream!

― lemin (lemin), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 05:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Not just any kidnapee -- Bruce Stringbean. I didn't know who Springsteen was at the time, so I thought Stringbean was a genuine rock star.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:16 (twenty-one years ago)

3-2-1 Contact is a little doper because it precedes Square One. Both are great programs. 3-2-1 Contact has better graphics and superior synthesizers. They also actually went to Antarctica. Square One, as I recall never did anything like that.

― Lit Up Like a Douche, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I was just thinking of Square One recently. It was my favorite TV show in 4th grade, a fact that I don't remember being embarrassed about until everyone in class had to go around and say what their favorite show was, and everyone else's was Double Dare (which was still on Nickelodeon at the time and so I couldn't see it, since we didn't have cable), and suddenly I realized OMG my favorite TV show is about math.

Anyway, "Mathnet" was awesome: one time the Fibonacci sequence factored heavily into the week's episode.

Wasn't there some character named Dirk something? Dirk Niblett?

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Awesome, I just checked that website linked above: Dirk Niblick. Haha, why do I remember that?

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i remember on 321 Contact we (the young viewer) followed a still in-make-up Peter Criss to the ear doctor for a test. the doctor said he is losing his hearing because of his cymbals. you would think i would've learned something! anyway Square One never did segments like that so 321 Contact is more classic by x321!!!

― chaki in charge (chaki), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:27 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost
YES! imdb says Dirk Niblick ...
i remember having around 10 vhs tapes of Square One i borrowed from my best friend. i don't think i ever actually gave them back, although i have no clue what actually happened to them

― lemin (lemin), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Double Dare was so awesome when it began

too bad that marc summers soon went nuts, brought a 45 to the show tapings, and made each kid retake the physical challenge until they'd done it PERFECTLY and then AGAIN....etc

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Marc Summers had to work on a floor with a square grid pattern. And the freaking mess. Poor dude. Remember Harvey? He was the poor man's Jim Henson.

― Lit Up Like a Douche, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:44 (twenty-one years ago)

using "Ruckzuck" by Kraftwerk as your theme rulez.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:46 (twenty-one years ago)

wait, which one was harvey?

and i've suddently remembering all the other nickelodean("Nick(TM)") game shows that they made in the late 80's after Double Dare was a success.

....

actually, the only one i can think of is the one where kids would go scrambling thru this huge house set-thing, searching in each room for the answer to a trivia question.

one of the hosts of the show was the eldest kid on "Land of the Lost"

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:49 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.xanfan.com/trading/funhouse.jpg

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

With JD Roth.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, that was quick

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

also, it took me like several episodes to figure out that Dangermouse was a actual british cartoon, as opposed to just being set there

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Nick really went to shit when they relocated to Orlando. Double Dare was OK for a while.

JD Roth = Marilyn Manson.

― Lit Up Like A Douche, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:53 (twenty-one years ago)

WESLEY EURE, THAT WAS HIS NAME

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0262374/

and the show was "Finders Keepers"

whoa. check the goodness here: http://www.johnnorrisbrown.com/classic-nick/index.htm

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 06:57 (twenty-one years ago)

whoa. apparently, Harvey was also a senior producer on "Trading Spaces":

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0367589/

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 07:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Kingfish, it was quick because I WAS JUST ABOUT TO POST IT ANYWAY!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 07:04 (twenty-one years ago)

So... I've met Paco.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 07:09 (twenty-one years ago)

In the 90s, he was trying to get his hiphop carreer off the ground. And he had a shaved head.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 07:10 (twenty-one years ago)

dare we ask what name he went by?

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

found it:
full cast & crew for 321 Contact:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190169/fullcredits

AND

Square One TV:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0191731/fullcredits

---

oh wow. the guy who played Ricardo was in The Warriors, and died in 1986...

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 07:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't actually remember what name he went by.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 07:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't really talk to him much. He mostly stayed in his bedroom.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 07:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember the Fibonnaci sequence episode.. the house had white and brown tiles, arranged in the fibonnaci sequence, and there was a helpful parrot.

i also remember the diamond thief episode, where the diamond was dropped in the bay, and they had to calculate the speed at which the boat was travelling, the rate of descent, the speed of the current etc. to find the diamond's location.

also, another jewel thief episode, where the thief had a turban covered in glue, to which he affixed the stolen jewels.

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 08:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to be so excited to come home from school, get a snack, and watch SQUARE ONE in our family room with yellow and orange shag carpeting. Was Math Man the one who ran around and ate numbers?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Was either one of these shows the one with the mannequin dude who came to life when you put the fancy cabbie hat on his head? Which also starred a rat or a mouse or something?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

mathnet

OH MY GOD

I remember the Fibonnaci sequence episode.. the house had white and brown tiles, arranged in the fibonnaci sequence, and there was a helpful parrot.

OH MY GOD

xpost thats today's special dude, get with the program

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks to you all, I have the Encyclopedia theme song stuck in my head (Betty were cool weren't they?).

I am going to keep singing the Encyclopedia song so I don't get the Carmen Sandiego theme stuck in my...dammit.

DAMN YOU ROCKAPELLA!!!!!!!

― Ash (ashbyman), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Was either one of these shows the one with the mannequin dude who came to life when you put the fancy cabbie hat on his head? Which also starred a rat or a mouse or something?

I remember this! It's an entirely different show whose name I can't recall. I used to watch every PBS kid's program, back when they were tops -- not like Arthur or that freakish one with the two-headed dragon.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

it was called today's special.

― chaki in charge (chaki), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

you're thinking of today's special

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Also it was called Today's Special.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember watching Square One and eh, Ghostwriter, a lot when I was a kid. That "Nine, Nine, Nine" song still gets stuck in my head to this very day.

I actually went to a taping of Carmen Sandiego (two kids in my class were on the show once.)

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Today's Special was in a department store, featuring a security guard, a computer named Sam, a mouse, and Jeff Hyslop as the mannequin who would freeze when his hat fell off. of course, every second episode would hinge on his hat falling off at an inopportune, or, occasionally, very opportune moment. i remember one episode where there was a storm and the store was flooding and the only solution was to send Jeff Hyslop onto the roof to put his poncho over the hole and, true to form, his hat fell off. it was quite scary at the time, because the water was threatening to drown the computer named sam.

Carmen Sandiego was great, esp. the crazy tension filled climax! The chosen kid, surrounded by friends, family, and a cheering studio audience, would have to place beacons on a huge floor map. the announcer would call out ARGENTINA! and the kid would have to run to Argentina and put the beacon down; if he or she was correct, a red light on top of the beacon would start spinning and a siren would go off. repeat with VIETNAM! and DENMARK! and VENEZUELA! and MONGOLIA! and all of a sudden there are five spinning red lights and five sirens and the crowd is going WILD and the kid has to place YUGOSLAVIA! with SEVEN SECONDS LEFT. it was incredibly stressful to watch.

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

SQUARE ONE WAS THE GREATEST SHOW EVER

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved Square One. I don't think I ever really got into 321-contact. Had the magazine though!

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.jillthepill.net/mathnet/pics/hi5.jpg

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I think this is yet another division that's a function of generation.

Am I right in remembering that SO never had nearly as much 'serious' content as 321C?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean, like, teen pregnancies?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:15 (twenty-one years ago)

square one was MATH through early 80's humor!

321 was SCIENCE through late 70's imagery!

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, but wasn't there more science than math?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:19 (twenty-one years ago)

square one was ALL math.

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i remember fondly the PBS commercials afterwards as well, with the lovely female voice:

"this program was brought to you from a grant by ________________"

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I just found out Jeff Hyslop was in the movie of Jesus Chris Superstar!!

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyone remember on 3-2-1 Contact the guy who didn't speak and had rolls of toilet paper (on rollers) all over his body, and he'd roll out the toilet paper to, I dunno, express himself? I swear I'm not making this up.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

MUMMENSCHANZ!!!

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:24 (twenty-one years ago)

This program was made possible by a grant from the American Association for Public Broadcasting. Oh, I LOVED that voice! so calming after the frenetic mania of Square One or, christ, the Carmen Sandiego finale.

watching that clip of MathMan brings back such weird memories. Mr Glitch! the sounds!

I always saw Square One at 4:00, after Reading Rainbow at 3:30. Words, then Numbers. very appropriate.

― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 20 January 2005 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, I just tried to google up a picture of Paco and totally failed. Surely someone out there is less lame than me.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 21 January 2005 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

No luck?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

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