Science Court

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Science Court
Genre Squigglevision, animation
Format Edutainment
Created by Tom Snyder
Developed by Tom Snyder
Written by Bill Braudis
David Dockterman
Tom Snyder
Directed by Loren Bouchard
Tom Snyder
Voices of Bill Braudis
Paula Plum
Jennifer Schulman
H. Jon Benjamin
Paula Poundstone
Fred Stoller
and Jim Woodell
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 29
Production
Executive producer(s) Bonnie Burns
Tom Snyder
Niki Herbert
(coordinating producer)
Producer(s) Loren Bouchard
Tom Snyder
Editor(s) Loren Bouchard
(audio editor)
Justin Montanino
(assistant editor)
Cinematography Ivan Rhudick
(post-production director)
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run September 13, 1997 (1997-09-13) – January 22, 2000 (2000-01-22)

Science Court (retitled Squigglevision in 1998), is an edutainment animated series from Tom Snyder Productions, which was aired on ABC's One Saturday Morning block from 1997 to 2000. The cartoon was "filmed in" Squigglevision.

Contents

[edit] Overview

“The half-hour program mixed courtroom drama, science experiments, and humor to teach fundamental concepts in elementary and middle school science such as the water cycle, work, matter, gravity, flight, and energy. As each case unfolded, the characters in the trial used humor to highlight scientific misconceptions and model good scientific practice.”[1] In a typical episode, a lawsuit or criminal action would take place based around some scientific point. Humor and musical numbers were used to break down scientific concepts. Science Court earned top television awards for Tom Snyder.[2] Science Court utilized Squigglevision as its style of animation.

[edit] Characters

The primary characters of Science Court were the trial lawyers, Alison Krempel and Doug Savage. Alison Krempel, voiced by Paula Plum, was modest, intelligent and kind. Her logical and articulate arguments always lead to the explanations of the scientific points. Doug Savage, voiced by Bill Braudis, was ignorant, arrogant and unscrupulous.

Both Doug and Allison called on a variety of expert witnesses to prove their case. Doug, often to his detriment, called upon child academics Dr. Julie Bean and Dr. Henry Fullerghast to testify. Their scientific testimony disproved Doug’s case. Professor Nick Parsons, voiced by H. Jon Benjamin served as an expert for Alison Krempel. He used science to successfully refute Doug Savage's ludicrous and ill-informed claims. Often Mihkaila and Tim, Miss Kremple's assistant, helped to break down scientific concepts. Comedians Paula Poundstone and Fred Stoller rounded out the cast playing Judge Stone and court stenographer Fred respectively.

  • Paula Plum as Alison Krempel
  • Bill Braudis as Doug Savage
  • H. Jon Benjamin as Prof. Nick Parsons
  • Paula Poundstone as Judge Stone
  • Fred Stoller as Stenographer Fred
  • Jim Woodell as Fizz

Jennifer Schulman was uncredited for the debut of the series.

[edit] Status

Tom Snyder has had success parlaying twelve of the episodes into a series of educational CD-ROMs with accompanying workbooks and experiment kits for schools. On December 2, 2004, Snyder, founder and former CEO of Tom Snyder Productions, was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers Hall of Fame to honor his extraordinary contribution to educational publishing.[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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