Square One TV

Cross "Sesame Street," math, and "Saturday Night Live" and what do you get? A weird show for pre-teens that teachers math concepts through sketch comedy and parodies. I remember everything from PacMan to Max Headroom being on this show. And who could forget the Mathnet series at the end of each show?

Square one simply rocked :) It was held together by a lot of silliness but that's ok. Mathman (pacman-like cartoon) ruled and was my favorite part of the show :) I was less fond of many of the game shows, especially "piece of the pie". Production was best during the first season, though later seasons had gems like "Nobody's Inn", a parody of John Cleese in "Faulty Towers" and nearly as well done :)

And, it was a good show, too. It looked like it had a good-sized budget,anyway. There were no ultra-cheesy sets or grainy 16mm filmed segments(like some other well-known PBS kids shows), from what I remember. Plus, the show seemed truly modern in the realm of PBS educational programs, definitely 1987.

This was such a great show. I don't know a single mathamagician or engineer that didn't watch this show growing up. Along with 3-2-1 Contact! this show was the epoch of PBS educational programming.

Mathman....Mathman....Mathman......

True it would be too hooky and not enough special effect and too much intelligence to make it on TV now, but it was soo good.

I still can hear the theme song playing in my head when ever I do math. Which is a bit to often sometimes.

Please who ever made the show put out a box-set. If not for todays kids who need something more then 5 second sound bytes of learning, but for those of us who grew up watching this spectacular show. Then again if I saw it for the first time now I would probably think it sucks.....

Having seen so many of the videotapes I erased of Square One TV, I feel like such a dummy for not keeping them. The show has been gone for 10 years, and no network in my area is showing reruns of the episodes. PBS won't even air Mathnet either!

Square One TV was an amazing and fun show for the young and the old. It was more than just a math show. It also had tongue-in-cheek music videos ("Less Than Zero" is one of my favourites), David Numberman, Dirk Niblick, Piece of the Pie...and of course, MATHNET! I couldn't really decide if I liked the early ones (in LA with Kate Monday) or the later ones (in NYC with Pat Tuesday) better. But each show was quite fun! Some fans of action movies, however, probably wouldn't like Mathnet because George and Kate/Pat used calculators instead of guns. Boy, taking a stroll down Memory Lane makes me hyper!

Still, I wish PBS would quit hiding this show in the vaults, and, if they won't license it to another company, just release it on DVD. I'd buy all the episodes! Because my videotapes (if any) are wearing out, and I'd love to have a piece of my early years back again!

If anybody out there from PBS is reading this, I hope they understand my plea!