Talk:3-2-1 Contact

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Hi everyone, I've done some editing on this page in the past, and I think something needs to be done with this passage:

>>>Funds for a second season were not sufficient until 1982. By then, Ozzie Alfonso was its new director and Al Hyslop its executive producer. When production resumed for the second season, which premiered on October 17, 1983, the show presented a more realistic appearance. The new cast convened at a suburban basement (these segments were shot at Reeves Teletape, which also housed Sesame Street at the time). New episodes continued to be produced through November 1988.<<<

First of all, I don't know what wasn't "realistic" about the show's first season. Is there a better way to describe the difference between the first season and those that followed?

Also, this passage implies that the "suburban basement" setting lasted all the way until 1988. I'm very sure this isn't true. At some point during the mid 1980's, the show was changed to a pure documentary format with no real "setting" at all, but I'm not sure of the exact year/season. If anyone could provide some exact information, I'm sure it would help. Thanks.

<<FWIW I'd also appreciate more info on Paco and the basement crew, since that was my first (memorable) exposure to the program, sometime around 1984...."My name is PACO. The tropics....are HOT!" -shehn>>

[edit] Origin of the name

The lead paragraph had explained it as

the words used to direct a space shuttle or missile countdown launch.

Then it was changed (with no edit summary) to something like

taken from the byegone days when a person pulled on the propeller of an airplane to start the engine. The words coordinated that person's action with the pilot's behavior.

Then it was quickly changed (with summary "reverted edits to something closer to the original text") to its present form of

the countdown used to direct a space shuttle or missile launch, replacing the phrase "lift off" with "contact."

Is anyone basing these explanations on any fact, or just speculating based on how each editor recognizes the phrase? DMacks 05:43, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

---

I'm the user who made the most recent edit in that section.

I don't have it anymore, but I remember having an issue of 3-2-1 Contact magazine (mid-80s, I think) in which a reader submitted a question asking about the origin of the show/magazine's name. The magazine editor replied by making a reference to the "3-2-1 BLAST OFF!!!" countdown used in a space launch, and then stated that the word "contact" was used as a way of showing that the magazine intended to keep young readers in 'contact' with science and technology...or something to that effect. (If anyone has that issue, I'm sure the citation and exact quote would help.)

On the first episode, Trini says in a voice-over that "The show is about people, and things, and ideas...all coming into contact."

At any rate though, I think it's safe to assume that the "3-2-1" in the title is a reference to a space launch...especially since the original opening montage shows a space shuttle about to blast off. I have no idea what that one editor was up to when adding that bit about the airplane propeller. Jphillst 03:48, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. FWIW, the idea of synchronizing electronic actions, with the final one being to make contact for some circuit in order to start an ignition sequence, is valid and would have been my first guess too (an exact ref instead of "like some expression, but with some changes made"). Which is why I was looking for some sort of officialish explanation of what their actual intent was. DMacks 00:05, 19 September 2006 (UTC)