Cyberchase

Cyberchase
File:Kids on logo.jpg Cyberchase cybersquad clockwise from left: Jackie, Inez, Matt and Digit
Created by	Sandra Sheppard Kristin Laskas Martin Larry Jacobs
Starring	Christopher Lloyd Gilbert Gottfried
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	62
Production
Running time	30 Minutes
Original release
Network	PBS
Release	January 21, 2002 – present

Cyberchase is a children's American animated television series on PBS Kids and PBS Kids GO!, produced by Thirteen/WNET New York and Nelvana. This television series premiered January 21 2002, although the episode "The Poddleville Case" was shown as a pilot on WNET in 2000. This show is for children ages 7 to 11, and instructs in Discrete Mathematics.

Plot

Template:Spoiler The show stars three Earth children, Matt, Jackie, and Inez, and a bird-like cyborg called Digit who is a species of bird called a cyboid. The three kids and Digit have various adventures to stop the evil deeds of the Hacker and his two cyborg henchmen, Buzz and Delete.

The series takes place in Cyberspace, with planetlike bodies called "Cybersites." Each cybersite is inhabited by "Cyborgs", the virtual inhabitants of Cyberspace. Some are based on real-world places, such as ancient Egypt and the American Old West, or fantasy worlds, such as mythological Greece. The guardian of all Cyberspace is Motherboard; her repairman is Dr. Marbles.

Season One

List of episodes (season 1)

In the permiere episode, "Lost My Marbles", Hacker infects Motherboard with a computer virus. At a library on Earth, while looking at a library computer, Matt, Jackie, and Inez are sucked into a dimensional portal to Cyberspace. Their first adventure involves going to an island to rescue Dr. Marbles. In subsequent adventures, they return to Cyberspace and strive to defeat Hacker in his evil plans, which alternate from those focusing on ruining Motherboard to those on a smaller scale in which he tries to take over a Cybersite.

From then on the cybersquad continues to find a new encryptor chip for Motherboard while preventing Hacker from taking over Cyberspace.

In one episode the kids nearly retrieved the encryptor chip but lose it in a dust storm.

Season Two

List of episodes (season 2)

The kids continue their quest to stop Hacker from taking control of Cyberspace and find the encryptor chip. Another episode featured the cybersquad retrieving the encryptor chip. Unfortunately they lost it again, only this time when a cyber-frog got it as part of a ransom deal for Digit.

Season Three

List of episodes (season 3)

In the third season, the kids meet Slider, a rebel-style skateboarder who lives in the cybersite, Radapolis. He first appeared in the episode The Borg of the Ring where he retrieves the Totally Rad Ring of Radapolis from Hacker. The kids also discovers his father, Coop, had orphaned him.

The most dramatic event in the season happened in a two part miniseries called The Snelfu Snafu. While Slider was searching for his father, he stumbles across a coordinate indicating the location of the elusive encryptor chip. As he alerts the cybersquad, they soon discover it was in the hands of an auctioneer. The kids eventually earn enough snelfus to earn it, but they unfortunately discover the chip was infected to override Motherboard replacing it with Hacker. The kids then find a way to retrieve the chip. Upon finding it, they also rescue Dr. Marbles. However, when they attempt to put the chip in the circuits, the hardware rejected it because it was corrupt. Dr. Marbles was forced to reboot Motherboard destroying the chip in the process.

Season Four

List of episodes (season 4)

Season Five

List of episodes (season 5)

Cyberchase "For Real"

Each Cyberchase episode is followed by "Cyberchase for Real", a live-action educational supplement linking concepts learned in the show to real life experiences. The actors are in their twenties, but act in a manner similar to the children in the target audience, providing a source of amusement for anyone in or above the target age. "For Real" is produced by WNET on location in and around New York City after production is completed on the animated segments. These "For Real" segments are broadcast exclusively on PBS in the United States where the program runs longer (since public television does not intersperse commercials during its shows). "For Real" segments can also be viewed at Cyberchase Online.

Cast

Main article: List of Cyberchase characters

Voice actors

• The Hacker, dastardly villain - Christopher Lloyd
• Digit, cyborg bird helper for the kid heroes - Gilbert Gottfried
• Matt - Jacqueline Pillon
• Jackie - Novie Edwards
• Inez - Annick Obonsawin
• Buzz, Hacker's minion - Len Carlson (Seasons 1-4, Season 5: 4 episodes), Philip Williams (Seasons 5 - )
• Delete, Hacker's minion - Rob Tinkler
• Motherboard, the benevolent ruler of Cyberspace - Kristina Nicoll
• Dr. Marbles, inventor who works with Motherboard - Richard Binsley
• Slider, a skateboarder - Tim Hamaguchi
• Coop, Slider's father - Tony Hawk
• Wicked, a witch who is Hacker's love interest and sometimes nemesis - Linda Ballantyne
• Sam Vander Rom, newsman - Al Roker

Cyberchase "For Real" cast

• Bianca DeGroat - Bianca DeGroat
• Harry Wilson - Matt Wilson
• Kareem - Kareem Blackwell (pilot episode)

Trivia

• A couple of episodes of Cyberchase had a spoof on Harry Potter called Sharri Spotter.
• Skateboard legend Tony Hawk voiced a character named Coop, father to a popular recurring character named Slider who is a James Dean-type character that rides and builds skateboards. Sliders is also the name of a popular science fiction television series about a group of people that slide into various parallel worlds.
• Real life 19th century mathematician and early computer programmer Lady Ada Lovelace is a character in a Valentine's Day episode, "Hugs and Witches". She is played by Saturday Night Live founding cast member Jane Curtin.
• In the live-action "For Real" segments, host Bianca DeGroat uses her real name on air, while host Matt Wilson uses the pseudonym "Harry" Wilson, to avoid confusion with the character Matt in the animated segment.
• In the "For Real" segment in "A Day at the Spa", Harry says he tried working at a hair salon. In Cyberchase episodes, this is never seen.
• The pilot episode "The Poddleville Case" is aired as the seventh episode (#107) in the first season. Digit does not appear in this episode, and the animation is by Curious Pictures instead of Nelvana. The pilot aired in March 2000 on Thirteen/WNET New York and WPBT/Channel 2 Miami.
• "Chewcroca", a dinosaur is a take off on Chewbacca, a hairy creature from Star Wars.
• In the episode "Codename: Icky", the gatekeeper mermaid's name is Binary.
• The currency of Cyberspace is the snelfu. This money was first noted in the episode "R-Fair City". It especially gained popularity during the third and fourth seasons. It was first shown as a furry coin of a head of a monster on the front, and a short "tail" on the back. The snelfu was first resembled as a bill in "A World Without Zero".
• In "A World Without Zero", Hacker is heard talking to someone named Leo about a movie sequel, where Leo was frozen alive, rather than drowned. He may have been talking to the actor Leonardo DeCaprio about a sequel to his movie Titanic.
• The episode, "The Wedding Scammer", parodies The Today Show weddings and features the voice of The Today Show's weatherman Al Roker.
• In one episode, Dr. Marbles said "Emission Impossible!", which could be a reference to the Family Guy episode "Emission Impossible".

Opening theme

Cyberchase! We're moving,

We're beating Hacker at his game.

Don't tell me he's trying to hack the Motherboard --

We'll get him every time.

Cosmic worlds

Freaky places that we've seen!

WE'VE GOT THE POWER

OF ONE TWO THREE FOUR

Running in a Cyberchase

We'll meet him face to face

We'll stick together, all the time

Adventures in cyberspace.

THE CHASE IS ON!

Just wait and C-Y-B-E-R-CHASE!

• Lyrics and song: http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/club/downloads_theme.html

External links

• Official website - games, video, downloads, and more
• Cyberchase Parents and Teacher Website - lessons, video, and tools to use Cyberchase to teach math; includes each episode's description
• Cyberchase at IMDb
• Cyberchase at TV.com

GROUPS AND FORUMS

• Cyberchase Central newsgroup archived at Google
• Cyberchase Fans, a Yahoo TV Group
• Delete Lovers Shrine Forum(Some Adult Content)