Square One Television

Square One
Format	Educational/Children's television series
Starring	Reg E. Cathey Beverly Mickins Arthur Howard Larry Cedar Luisa Leschin Cynthia Darlow Cristobal Franco Beverly Leech Toni DiBuono Joe Howard
Narrated by	Cynthia Darlow
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	230
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Children's Television Workshop
Broadcast
Original channel	PBS
Audio format	Mono (1987–1991) Stereo (1992–1994)
Original run	January 26, 1987 – May 6, 1994

Square One Television (sometimes referred to as Square One) is an American children's television program produced by the Children's Television Workshop to teach mathematics and abstract mathematical concepts to young viewers.

Created and broadcast by PBS in the United States from 1987 to 1994, the show was intended to address the so-called "math crisis" among American schoolchildren. The show was revived for the 1995–1996 PBS season as a teacher instruction program, Square One TV Math Talk.

Square One was also shown on the U.S. cable television channel Noggin in syndication beginning in 1999, but was removed from its lineup along with other Children's Television Workshop shows on May 26, 2003.

Format

Sketches

Square One comprised short sketches that introduced and applied concepts in mathematics such as counting, combinatorics, vulgar fractions, estimation, probability, and geometry. The sketches featured regular characters and were mainly parodies of pop culture icons or popular television shows. Sketches were presented in various formats, including music videos featuring a particular subject in mathematics and taught the subject through song (e.g., Roman numerals, obtuse and acute angles, percentages, negative numbers, etc.) or comedic sketches (e.g., General Mathpital, a parody of General Hospital; Nobody's Inn, a parody of Fawlty Towers; Late Afternoon with David Numberman, a parody of Late Night with David Letterman; etc.).

Mathman was a regular segment and a parody of Pac-Man. The skit helped viewers learn to recognize common mistakes while solving math problems, such as forgetting to carry a digit, or making errors with negative numbers. A blue tornado character named "Mr. Glitch" was Mathman's enemy.

Backstage with Blackstone featured math-related magic tricks and performances by Harry Blackstone, Jr.. Each segment involved two cast members at a time (Reg E. Cathey portrayed Blackstone's assistant). After performing a trick, Blackstone explained how the trick worked.

Other animated segments included Dirk Niblick of the Math Brigade, who often use his mathematical skills to help his friends and neighbors in everyday situations; Zook & Alison; and Fax Headful, a parody of Max Headroom.

Game shows

Several segments featured child contestants competing to win prizes.

• • Piece of the Pie, a survey-based game similar to Family Feud, using pie charts and teaching percentages. The game was hosted by Cris Franco and Arthur Howard, and later by Beverly Mickins.
  • Close Call, a game about estimation, using "how many beans are in this big jar"-type of questions, and bearing a similarity to The Price Is Right. The game was hosted by Arthur Howard, who in season 3 was accompanied by Luisa Leschin, who would replace Howard as the host the very next season. Reg E. Cathey replaced Leschin as co host.
  • Triple Play, a game teaching addition and multiplication by connecting numbers and making triangles on a game board. The game was hosted by Cynthia Darlow. This game was only played in season 2.
  • But Who's Adding?/But Who's Multiplying?; the show's first original game, hosted by Larry Cedar.
  • Square One Squares, a tic-tac-toe game similar to Hollywood Squares. The game was later replaced with Square One Challenge, which bore a similarity to To Tell the Truth. Both games were hosted by Larry Cedar.

Mathnet

Kate Monday (Leech) and George Frankly (Howard).

Each episode featured a closing segment titled Mathnet, starring Joe Howard as George Frankly and Beverly Leech as Kate Monday. Toni DiBuono later replaced Leech as Pat Tuesday. A parody of Dragnet, the story line of each skit featured the detectives attempting to solve crime by using math. Each Mathnet story line spanned five episodes.

Sources of funding

Among the funders of Square One included the following:

• The Carnegie Corporation of New York (January 26, 1987–December 20, 1991)
• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (January 26, 1987–November 30, 1990)
• The U.S. Department of Education (January 26, 1987–December 14, 1988)
• The National Science Foundation (January 26, 1987–May 4, 1995)
• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (January 26, 1987–May 4, 1995)
• IBM (January 26, 1987–October 2, 1989)
• Viewers Like You (October 1, 1989–May 4, 1995)
• Ford Foundation (January 25, 1987–December 22, 1993)
• Intel (January 5, 1992–May 4, 1995)

External links

• Square One TV at the Internet Movie Database
• Square One TV at TV.com
• Official Site