| Genre: | Children's crime-drama |
| Editor: | Ed Brennan |
| Country: | United States |
| Num Seasons: | 5 |
| Num Episodes: | 30 |
| Runtime: | Varies |
| Channel: | PBS |
| Opentheme: | "Danger Ahead" |
Mathnet is a segment on the children's television show Square One Television that follows the adventures of pairs of police mathematicians. It is a pastiche of Dragnet.
Mathnet is a pastiche of Dragnet, in which the main characters are mathematicians who use their mathematical skills to solve various crimes and mysteries in the city, usually thefts, burglaries, frauds, and kidnappings. Each segment of the series aired on one episode of Square One, a production of the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) aimed at teaching math skills to young viewers. Five segments made up an episode (one for each weekday), with suspense building at the end of each segment. Instead of guns, the detectives carry calculators.
A number of well-known actors and actresses made guest appearances on this show.[1] Among them were:
In addition, real-life LAPD officers Sam Salazar and Steve Fellman appeared as themselves; head writers David D. Connell and Jim Thurman also appeared as various characters.
Real principles of math and science and mathematical tools used by the detectives to solve crimes include:
After a successful first season, production began on six new episodes for the second season. By the time production ended on the third season and its six episodes in 1989, Beverly Leech (Kate Monday) left, and was replaced by a new character named Pat Tuesday, played by Toni DiBuono. Production on the first six episodes with the new character commenced in 1990, and ended in 1991, in time for Square One TV's fourth season. Production on the final season and its five episodes began taping in 1991, and the last episode aired in 1992.
During production, the background music also changed. Originally, it had a synth score. Gradually, as the series progressed, it was replaced with an orchestral score.
The exterior shots of the Los Angeles police station were filmed at the former LAPD Highland Park Police Station, which had closed in 1983.[2] It now houses the Los Angeles Police Museum and is located at 6045 York Boulevard.[3] [4]
The exterior shots of the New York City police station for seasons 3 and 4 were filmed at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Lower Manhattan. It now houses the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian and is located at 1 Bowling Green.[5] [6] Exterior shots for the fifth and final season were filmed at the Brooklyn Borough Hall.
The Mathnet logo is a pastiche of the Los Angeles city seal. The symbols representing the city were replaced with mathematics iconography. The founding date is the year the pilot episode was filmed.
The Mathnet motto "to cogitate and to solve" is a pastiche of the LAPD motto "to protect and to serve."[7]
At the conclusion of each episode, a title screen displays the Mathnet logo and motto against a blue background. The logo and motto were also featured on the doors of the police cars used in the Los Angeles episodes, mimicking the appearance of actual LAPD police cars.
Despite having their origins in Los Angeles, the show continued to use the logo and motto even after the setting of the show moved to New York City.
In 1991, GPN released five episodes from the first two seasons on VHS ("The Problem of the Missing Baseball", "The Trial of George Frankly", "The Problem of the Dirty Money", "The Case of the Missing Air", and "The View from the Rear Terrace").
Around the same time, select PBS stations combined parts of an episode to air in primetime. This was done primarily for seasons 3-5 (New York City era), although at least one omnibus from the Leech era was also broadcast. These versions were re-edited so that they would come in at just under an hour long, featured other segments from Square One TV as "commercials", and newly created end credits, among other differences. Two of the primetime airings were also commercially released as VHS tapes from Republic Pictures in 1992 ("Despair in Monterey Bay" and "The Case of the Unnatural").
Both Mathnet and Square One went off the air in 1994 (it was rerun until then after the final 1992 season was completed), reappearing from 1999 to 2003 on the cable television network Noggin, a joint venture of Nickelodeon and CTW. However, only 65 episodes were leased by the Noggin network. Mathnet segments also aired on Phred on Your Head Show (one of Noggin's original programs).[8]
A Mathnet comic briefly appeared in 3-2-1 Contact magazine.
Six Mathnet books, based on episodes of the show, were published:
All episodes this season were directed by Charles S. Dubin.