Mathnet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Mathnet was a segment on the children's television show Square One in which five seasons were produced (1987-88, 1990-92). This parody of Dragnet featured detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department who solved mysteries using their mathematical skills. There were two main characters: detectives Kate Monday (Beverly Leech) and George Frankly (Joe Howard). Mary Watson also had a regular role as the duo's technical analyst, Debbie Williams. Later on in the series, Kate Monday was replaced by Pat Tuesday (Toni DiBuono) one season after the show's setting moved to New York City in the third season. James Earl Jones played a recurring role as the chief Thad Green. He also briefly appears in season 4 and indicates he knows Pat Tuesday. When the duo was transferred to New York, Captain Joe Greco (Emilio Del Pozo) became their leader and undercover NYPD officer Benny Pill (Bari K. Willerford) became their semi-regular backup support.
Each segment of the series aired on one episode of Square One, a production of the Children's Television Workshop 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. A Mathnet comic briefly appeared in 3-2-1 Contact magazine, also a CTW production, but the magazine eventually stopped featuring Square One content.
Both Mathnet and Square One went off the air in 1994, reappearing from 1999-2003 on the cable television network Noggin, a joint venture of Nickelodeon and CTW.
Contents |
[edit] Math and science
Real principles of math and science used by the detectives to solve crimes include:
- Kinematics ("The Problem of the Missing Baseball")
- Chromatic scale ("The Problem of the Passing Parade")
- Displacement of fluids ("The Problem of the Trojan Hamburger")
- Fibonacci sequence ("The Case of the Willing Parrot")
- Statistical sampling ("The Case of the Deceptive Data," "The Calpurnian Kugel Caper," "The Case: Off the Record")
- Triangulation ("The Case of the Map with a Gap", "The Case of the Bermuda Triangle", "Despair in Monterey Bay")
- Random number generation ("The Calpurnian Kugel Caper")
- Databases ("The Case of the Pocono's Paradise")
- Handwriting analysis ("The Case of the Purloined Policies")
- Hamiltonian path ("The Case of the Smart Dummy")
- Process of elimination ("The Case of the Great Car Robbery")
- Number Patterns ("The Case of the Missing Air")
[edit] Trivia
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
George Ernest Frankly's oft-mentioned next-door neighbor, Mr. Beasley, was the neighbor in the other direction of another Square One Television regular: the animated Dirk Niblick of the Math Brigade. This fact comes up several times in both Mathnet episodes and Dirk Niblick cartoons, usually focusing on how George borrowed things from Mr. Beasley, and is always losing them. Because he was also animated, Mr. Beasley only appeared on Dirk Niblick.
The detectives wore shoulder holsters; however, they carried calculators instead of guns. At times, the two would draw out their calculators and point them like guns. Joe Greco and Benny Pill did however, use (but never fired) guns to apprehend suspects.
Instead of the Los Angeles coat of arms and LAPD motto, the Mathnet cruisers display a parody with the stars on the American shield replaced with equals signs, the Bear Flag replaced with a compass and geometric figures, the eagle replaced with a multiplication sign, and the rook and lion replaced with division and addition signs, with the motto "to cogitate and to solve".
Yeardley Smith, better known as the voice of Lisa Simpson, was featured in a story arc where she played the young friend of a gorilla. ("The Problem of the Missing Monkey")
Although the rest of Square One TV's sketches refer to the Michigan Wolverines, George Frankly is shown a diehard fan of all the major Los Angeles teams, especially the Dodgers and the Rams. When the detectives move to New York, George still has his Dodgers pennant in the office as a reminder of his LA roots.
[edit] Memorable quotes
- "The story you're about to see is a fib, but it's short. The names are made up but the problems are real."
- "My name is Monday. I'm a mathematician."
- "My name is Tuesday. I'm a mathematician."
- "Speaking Frankly -- I mean, Frankly speaking."
- "Mathematicians! Freeze!!"
- "Plenty of time left." (George, said just after disarming a bomb and just before reading that there was only one second left on it.)
- "My name is Noel Sphinx Jr. My father was The First Noel."
- "Who? Scarlett? No, this isn't Kate. It's Frankly, Scarlett, and I don't give a--"
- "That's easier said than done. My house has been stolen."
- "Son of a gun!...Sorry, I didn't mean to curse." (George, upset.)
- "George shouldn't have robbed the bank, your Honor. The pilot was lying."
- "That's what I mean. Capital of Illinois is Springfield, not Chicago. He's always giving kids wrong information."
- "Zero times seven is zero. Zero times any number is zero. He can't tell our kids lies!"
- "Entertaining?! You called Telling Lies, Giving Misinformation and being abusing Entertaining?!"
- "Listen, Kids! There are five Great Lakes. Springfield is the Capital of Illinois. And when you multiply any number by zero, the answer is always zero!"
- "I didn't know it was against the law to chop down a parking meter with a chainsaw and throw it in the back of a pickup truck"
- "...the brothers KARamozof, or KaraMOZof" (whenever mentioning the suspects, caps indicating pronunciation)
- "Ah George (Steinbrenner) is a <lots of car horns beeping>"
[edit] Notable guest stars
|
|
|
[edit] Spanish voices
|
|
|
[edit] Credits
|
|
A Turtleback Production in association with The Entertainment Group
[edit] External links
- SquareOneTV.org - Guide of episodes guest star appearances
- Mathnet - To Cogitate and to solve - Episode guide, photos, sound clips, and actor bios.
- GPN Educational Media - VHS recordings available for sale.
