3-2-1 Contact

Back in 1980, when I was in 3rd grade, I remember a brand new show premiering on PBS called 3-2-1 Contact. At that time, I had just started getting interested in science. Since I didn't have cable, and Mr. Wizard I had never heard of at the time, I found this show to be very interesting. It became an after school routine for me to watch, looking forward to what they had planned to teach that week. For those of you who've never watched it, they would to devote an entire week on a particular subject, which really kept you watching if it was something that interested you (or kept you changing the channel if you were bored by it, something that never happened to me on this show).

3-2-1 Contact really inspired me to maintain an interest in science ever since then. It was 3-2-1 Contact that got my interest in computers back then, which turned out to be a lucrative career for me. I also used to subscribe to the magazine they had by the same name (also published by Children's Television Workshop who created Sesame Street and The Electric Company).

All in all, I'd have to say that this was a very wonderful series to learn from, and now that it's on Noggin a new generation of kids can learn from it. My young son and I watch it together now, and he's learning a lot from it.

3-2-1 Contact (1980-1992) was a fun show that I watch for a few years when I was a kid. The concept of the show was two girls and a guy talking about science and making it fun. There was also a cheesy mystery short thrown in. It was a continuing serial that featured a group of young sleuths who went around solving real easy problem solving cases. I stopped watch the show after 1983. But during the first three seasons I sure did have a lot of fun watching this show. I saw some later episodes but it just wasn't the same. I'll always have my memories.

A P.B.S. children's program.

I remember watching this show hundreds of times as a kid! Mind you, I loved the 1980 season with Trini, Mark, and that other gal (can't remember her name). A friend of a friend who's an actor in LA actually met Mark, and he's doin' okay. I didn't care for the other seasons, but I'd do anything to see the old 1980 episodes again.

A cult serial treasure of the 80s that connects education with fun in a very charming way and thus tackles the important task of showing young people that the acquisition of knowledge is a great good that can be very fulfilling and enjoyable. Iconic backdrops, likeable characters and actors, funny ideas and well-chosen knowledge transfer make this series a little treasure. It's just sad and not a good sign of the times that such productions have no place on TV today.

I saw probably the entire first season and I agree the show gradually became a little stale in following years.

Of course there was the bouncy theme song with a disco vibe, that included lines like "Contact/ it's the reason/ it's the moment/ when everything happens./ Contact.../ Let's make contact." Sounds vaguely like a proposition. Making science sexy, maybe. Someone should record a club remix.

Part of the footage that played along with this (aside from a Saturn V lift-off, an arc lamp, and I think an earth-mover) was of a frog wiping spittle off its eye in slow motion. This made me gag, especially since it came right before a slobbering infant. Of all the stock footage available, they chose two cuts with saliva to illustrate the wonders of the natural world.

All in all, it was a pretty good show. I didn't care for the fictional segment ("The Bloodhound Gang"), and I was embarrassed by its theme song.

It is probably difficult to make a show like this, since the children with an interest in science probably know a lot of the basics already, yet the ones with only a passing interest are the real target audience, since the makers wanted more to instill curiosity than to inform. There is no way this show could be considered to teach with any degree of rigor. It was essentially a succession of appealing or curious images that could be easily explained, with a sort of Encyclopedia Brown show tacked on.