Mathnet

Mathnet
Kate Monday (Leech) and George Frankly (Howard).
Genre	Kids' Crime Drama
Developed by	Janette Webb George E. Swink
Written by	David D. Connell Jim Thurman
Directed by	Charles S. Dubin James F. Golway Karl Epstein Jesus Salvador Treviño Bill Schreiner
Starring	Beverly Leech (1987-1990; 19 episodes) Joe Howard (1987-1992; entire series) Toni DiBuono (1991-1992; 11 episodes) James Earl Jones (1987-1988, 1991; 5 episodes) Emilo Del Pozo (1990-1992; 16 episodes) Tyra Ferrell (1987; pilot episode only) Mary Watson (1987–1990; 13 episodes) Bari K. Willerford (1990-1992; 16 episodes)
Opening theme	"Danger Ahead"
Composer(s)	Gerald Fried John Rodby (Conducted and arranged by)
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	30
Production
Location(s)	Los Angeles (1987-1990) New York City (1990-1992)
Camera setup	Film (Principal Photography) Videotape (Post-Production) Single-camera setup
Running time	Varies
Production company(s)	Children's Television Workshop
Broadcast
Original channel	PBS
Picture format	1.33 : 1 (Full screen)
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	January 26, 1987 (1987-01-26) – May 6, 1994 (1994-05-06)

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.

Development and Production

Upon casting Joe Howard as George Frankly, and Beverly Leech as Kate Monday, production on the show went underway immediately. The pilot episode, "The Problem of the Missing Baseball", was shot in one week in August 1985^[1], and upon successfully testing positively among the audience of kids as a segment on Square One TV (which hadn't premiered yet), production on the regular season 1 episodes, commenced a little while later in early 1986. The "Mathnet Founded 1985" logo, as seen at the end of each episode, represents the year the pilot was filmed.

After a successful first season, production began on 6 brand new episodes in late 1987 and early 1988. They were scheduled to air in time for Square One TV's second season in 1988. While the season 2 episodes were airing, the decision (for unknown reasons) was made to move to New York City, where Square One TV was taped at. By the time production ended on the third season and its 6 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 6 episodes with the new character commenced in 1990, and ended in 1991, in time for Square One TV's fourth season. Joe Howard was the only regular cast member to appear in all 30 episodes. Production on the final season and its 5 episodes began in 1991, and ended in 1992, the same year it was scheduled to air.

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.

Premise

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 aired on The Phred on Your Head Show (one of Noggin's original programs).^[2]

The show had the habit of breaking the fourth wall often, with such things as talking about what happened in (say) "an earlier episode".

Mathnet was produced by Janette Webb, the widow of Dragnet producer Jack Webb.

Math and science

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")

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Guest stars

Some of the most recognizable names in film, television, and theater, have made guest appearances on this show. Among them were Edward Winter, Yeardley Smith, Dick Wilson, William Windom, James Karen, Kenneth Mars, Henry Jones, Kevin McCarthy, Geoffrey Lewis, Russell Johnson, McLean Stevenson, Dick Sargent, Jack Riley, Marcia Wallace, Estelle Harris, Tammy Grimes, Arnold Stang, Jayne Meadows, Bob Arbogast, Weird Al Yankovic, John Moschitta, Jr., and 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.

Alternate versions

In 1991, GPN released 5 episodes from the first two seasons on VHS ("The Problem of the Missing Baseball", "The Trial of George Frankly", "The Problem of the Dirty Money", "The Case of the Missing Air", and "The View from the Rear Terrace"). These versions were more or less the same as the originals, but had the title of the episode tacked underneath the shows' logo in part 1. Also, "TUESDAY", "WEDNESDAY", "THURSDAY", and "FRIDAY" bumpers were added so that viewers would know which part of the episode was up next.

Around the same time, select PBS stations combined parts of an episode to air on primetime. This was done primarily for seasons 3-5 (New York City era). These versions were re-edited so that they would come in at just under an hour long, featured other segments from Square One TV as "commercials", and newly-created end credits, among other differences. Two of the primetime airings found their way onto commercially-released VHS tapes from Republic Pictures in 1992 ("Despair in Monterey Bay" and "The Case of the Unnatural").

Episodes

Season 1 (1987; filmed from 1985-1986)
01. "The Problem of the Missing Monkey" (Episodes: 101-105; rerun in 136-140) (Production Codes: 11031-11035)
02. "The Problem of the Missing Baseball (Original 1985 Pilot)" (Episodes: 106-110; rerun in 141-145) (Production Codes: 10540-10760)
03. "The Problem of the Passing Parade" (Episodes: 111-115; rerun in 146-150) (Production Codes: 11011-11015)
04. "The Trial of George Frankly" (Episodes: 116-120; rerun in 151-155 and in 171-175) (Production Codes: 11021-11025)
05. "The Problem of the Dirty Money" (Episodes: 121-125; rerun in 156-160) (Production Codes: 11051-11055)
06. "The Mystery of the Maltese Pigeon" (Episodes: 126-130; rerun in 161-165) (Production Codes: 14081-14085)
07. "The Problem of the Trojan Hamburger" (Episodes: 131-135; rerun in 166-170) (Production Codes: 11041-11045)

Season 2 (1988; filmed from 1987-1988)
08. "The Case of the Willing Parrot" (Episodes: 201-205; rerun in 231-235) (Production Codes: 20030-20034)
09. "The Case of the Great Car Robbery" (Episodes: 206-210; rerun in 236-240) (Production Codes: 20010-20014)
10. "The Case of the Deceptive Data" (Episodes: 211-215) (Production Codes: 20340-20344)
11. "The View from the Rear Terrace" (Episodes: 216-220) (Production Codes: 20320-20324)
12. "The Case of the Missing Air" (Episodes: 221-225) (Production Codes: 20020-20024)
13. "The Case of the Map With a Gap" (Episodes: 226-230) (Production Codes: 20000-20004)

Season 3 (1990; filmed from 1988-1989)
14. "The Case of the Erstaz Earthquake" (Episodes: 301-305) (Production Codes: 30001-30005)
15. "The Case of the Swami Scam" (Episodes: 306-310; rerun in 331-335) (Production Codes: 30011-30015)
16. "The Case of the Parking Meter Massacre" (Episodes: 311-315) (Production Codes: 30021-30025)
17. "The Case of the Unkidnapping" (Episodes: 316-320; rerun in 336-340) (Production Codes: 30131-30135)
18. "The Case of the Strategic Weather Initiative" (Episodes: 321-325) (Production Codes: 30031-30035)
19. "The Case of the Masked Avenger" (Episodes: 326-330) (Production Codes: 30081-30085)

Season 4 (1991; filmed from 1990-1991)
20. "The Case of the Unnatural" (Episodes: 401-405; rerun in 431-435) (Production Codes: 40121-40125)
21. "Despair in Monterey Bay" (Episodes: 406-410; rerun in 436-440) (Production Codes: 40101-40105)
22. "The Case of the Calpurnian Kugel Caper" (Episodes: 411-415) (Production Codes: 40071-40075)
23. "The Case of the Galling Stones" (Episodes: 416-420) (Production Codes: 40111-40115)
24. "The Case of the Poconos Paradise" (Episodes: 421-425) (Production Codes: 40091-40095)
25. "The Case of the Purloined Policies" (Episodes: 426-430) (Production Codes: 40081-40085)

Season 5 (1992; filmed from 1991-1992)
26. "The Case of the Mystery Weekend" (Episodes: 501-505; rerun in 526-530) (Production Codes: 50021-50025)
27. "The Case of the Smart Dummy" (Episodes: 506-510; rerun in 531-535) (Production Codes: 50231-50235)
28. "The Case: Off the Record" (Episodes: 511-515) (Production Codes: 50011-50015)
29. "The Case of the Bermuda Triangle" (Episodes: 516-520) (Production Codes: 50251-50255)
30. "The Case of the Piggy Banker" (Episodes: 521-525) (Production Codes: 50241-50245)

See also

• Numb3rs

References

1. ^ "Joe Howard Interview". Square One TV.org. 2007-08-16. http://www.squareonetv.org/default.asp?ID=21. Retrieved 2012-03-19. 
2. ^ http://www.tv.com/shows/square-one-tv/episode-211-210986/

External links

• SquareOneTV.org - Guide of episodes guest star appearances
  • Episode guide
• Mathnet - To Cogitate and to solve - Episode guide, photos, sound clips, and actor bios.

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