3-2-1 Contact

Original Opening title of 3-2-1 Contact

3-2-1 Contact was an American science educational television show which aired on PBS from 1980 to 1992. The show, a production of the Children's Television Workshop, taught scientific principles and their applications. The name 3-2-1 Contact is a reference to the countdown used to direct a space shuttle or missile launch, replacing the phrase "lift off" with "contact."

History

3-2-1 Contact was the brainchild of Samuel Y. Gibbon, who had been the executive producer of The Electric Company for CTW from 1973 to 1977. Gibbon left CTW before production began, though. The first season of 65 programs began airing January 14, 1980 on select PBS member stations; it featured a cast of three young adults who discussed science in a multi-purpose room known as "the workshop." The first season came to an end on April 11, 1980. 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 entered a more reality-based feel. 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.

For a time in the mid-'1980s, the program was coproduced with the French television network FR3 and featured several new French cast members in addition to the American cast.

Some PBS stations have carried 3-2-1 Classroom Contact, an edited version of the series made for in-school viewing.

Hosts

Hosts of 3-2-1 Contact usually spanned one to 4 years on the show:

• Liz Moses as Lisa (1980)
• Leon W. Grant as Marc (1980)
• Ginny Ortiz as Trini (1980)
• Liz Gorcey as Jackie (field segments, 1983)
• Kelly Pino as Kathy (1983-85)
• Frank Gomez as Miguel (1983-86)
• Benjamin H. Carlin as Paco (1983-86)
• Judy Leak as Robin (1983-86)
• Manny Mendiola as Diego (1985-86)
• Tannis Vallely as Mary (1985-86)
• Candida Romero as Monique (1986)
• Abigael Maryan as Chantal (1986)
• Ericka Pazcoguin as Maggie (1986-87)

And as themselves:

• Mary Lopez (1986)
• David Drach (1986-87)
• David Quinn (1986-88)
• Debra Allison Shapiro (1986-88)
• Todd A. Rolle (1986-88)
• Hopey Fitzpatrick (1987-88)
• Stephanie Yu (1987-88)
• Z. Wright (1987-1988)

The Bloodhound Gang

One common segment at the end of some shows was The Bloodhound Gang, a group of junior detectives who used science to solve crimes. Episodes of the series needed to be run in regular sequence for understandable viewing, as each "episode" of Bloodhound Gang would be regularly cut between 4 and 5 Contact episodes.

The magazine

The show spawned a print magazine of the same name that also focused on science. In the mid-1980s, the magazine absorbed some of the content of sibling publication Enter, which included computer programs written in the BASIC computer language, submitted by readers. Later, it occasionally featured content from Square One Television as well, another CTW production. Such content frequently took the form of a two-page comic strip, often parodying a popular show or movie of the time, with a math-related question at the end.

The Bloodhound Gang stories also made the leap to the magazine, but were subsequently replaced with a series of mostly self-contained stories entitled The Time Team (starting in September 1990). These stories found teenage characters Sean Nolan and Jenny Lopez travelling to different time periods (past and future). Their surroundings and personal encounters were described with great detail, educating readers as to the customs of various cultures throughout history; and on trips to the future, often pushing present day hot button issues (for example, a 1993 story saw the two travelling to what appeared to be a prehistoric forest, but towards the end, they found a Brazil flag, a newspaper clipping from 1995, and a bulldozer at work: this was in fact a Brazilian rainforest being levelled).

The Time Team was replaced by a comic serial, Cosmic Crew, in 1996, focusing on the adventures of a group of teenagers (and their robot butler) in space. Their first story arc (which ran for more than a year) had them trying to figure out a series of riddles relating to places in the solar system, while fending off many villains, to claim a treasure (which turned out to be a scholarship fund). Another story arc had a delinquent who had been a villain in the first arc join them in order to chase down a gang of other delinquents. Despite being effectively replaced, a few The Time Team stories were run whenever there were gaps between installments of Cosmic Crew.

Many of the magazine's cover stories involved current events, such as 1990s oil fires in the Middle East (featured in 1991). Also, there was a games section, in which most of the games were related to the stories inside the issue.

In 1996, CTW presumably concluded that faithful readers from the late 80s and early 90s had long since moved on, and the magazine began to reprint non-time-sensitive stories from years past. For example, a 1991 article on the geography of the Galápagos Islands -- an unchanging subject -- could very well re-appear in an identical format a half a decade later.

Under Sesame Workshop the magazine later became Contact Kids, removing the original reference to the television show. Production of the magazine was suspended indefinitely in 2001.

After production

Though the show went off the air in 1992, it appeared in reruns from 1999 to 2003 on the cable television network Noggin, then a joint venture of CTW and Nickelodeon. Occasionally, shows were also rerun on Nickelodeon's "Cable in the Classroom" time period. For all these Nickelodeon and Noggin airings, the series was rated TV-Y7 (possibly due to the target audience).It also still aired on some PBS stations as reruns from 1993 to 1998 before it was switched to Noggin in 1999.

Credits

• Executive Producers: Kathy Mendoza, Al Hyslop, Joan Ganz Cooney, Ralph Rogers
• 'Bloodhound Gang' Executive Producer: Linda Marmelstein
• Producers: Alyce Myatt, Ozzie Alfonso, Franklin Getchell, Tish Sommers, Larry Engel
• 'Bloodhound Gang' Producers: Sue Jett, Tony Mark
• Director: Ozzie Alfonso (seasons 2-8)
• Head Writer: Boyce Rensberger
• Writers: Jim Thurman, Luis Santerio, J. Phillip Miller, Ozzie Alfonso, Franklin Getchell
• Commissioned Film Producer: Edith Zornow
• Animation Associate Producer: Joan Lufrano
• Associate Producers: Stephanie Hoffman, Liz Shore, Bob Braithwaire, Mili Bonsignori, Ruth G. Hunter, Ronna Lazarus, Gaby Lopez, Anna Ray-Jones, Ruth Saks
• Production Managers: Judith Webb, Marc Chalom
• Production Coordinator: Rita Devlin
• Travel Coordinator: Lee Matis
• Casting: Lynn Kressel
• Music: Walt Levinsky, Judy Gordon, Dick Lieb, Tish Sommers, Susan Ring, Daniel Selby
• Music Coordinator: Danny Epstein
• Associate Directors: Eulogio Oritz, Jr., Jan Cornell, Ted May, Andrew Carl Wilk, Craig Bigelow, Janet Cohen, Jean MacLean, Don Sullian, Gordon McClelland, Joan Wood
• Stage Managers: Don Sullivan, Clarlne Harrington, Corky Ramierez
• Editors: John Purcell, Nina Elias-Bamberger
• Post Production Supervisor: Andy Bamberger
• Post Production Coordinator: Sharon Blackwell
• Lighting Director: Ferdinand L. Manning, Randy Nordstrom
• Production Designer: Ronald D. Baldwin
• Art Director: Victor Di Napoli
• 'Bloodhound Gang' Art Director: Richard Bianchi
• Set Decorator: Nat Mongioi
• Props: Robert Hancox
• Costume Designers: Constance Wexler, Bill Kellard
• 'Bloodhound Gang' Costume Designer: John Boxer
• Make-up & Hair Stylists: Lynn Donohue, Lee Halls, Karen Specht, Joseph Cuervo, Michael R. Thomas, Joseph Coscia
• Video Post Production: Broadway Video, Reeves Teletape, Matrix Studios, Inc.
• Director of Operations: Ronald L. Weaver
• Technical Advisor: Walt Rauffer
• Technical Directors: Marty Begley, Ralph Mensch, Hal Warner
• Video: Dick Sens, Paul C. York, Ben Wilder, Marty Gaujenieks
• Cameras: John Feher, Miguel Armstrong, Manny Guiterez, Paul Mirasola, Steve Zinn, Frank Biondo, Jay Millard, Charles Shoemaker, Alain Onesto
• Audio: Blake Norton, Bill King, VI, Mel Becker, Phil F. Falcone, Tim Lester
• Tape Operators: Ed Hinch, Dick Smith, XI, Ben Wilder
• Sound Effects: Dick Maitland
• Studio Manager: Eleanor McIntosh
• Finance Director: Richard Norton
• Utility: Marc-Jon Sullivan
• Production Assistants: Jo Umans, Dana Caldwerood, Renee Goldkorn, Mike Klinghoffer, Roseanne Lopopolo, Althea Miller, Deborah Bolling, Tomaz Remeo, Victoria Rexer, Susan Ring
• Production Secretaries: Lynne Markis, Caroline Fernandes, Roberta Geddis-Blount, Sara Polin
• Content Directors: Charles Wolcott, Ph.D., Edward G. Atkins, Ph.D.
• Assistant Content Director: Ronnie Duberstein, Ph.D.
• Content Associate Directors: Theodore Ducas, Ph.D., Cary Lu, Ph.D.
• Content Assistant: Susan Schwarz Lynn
• Senior Consultant: Samuel Y. Gibbon
• Research Director: Milton Chen
• Research Assistants: Maria Rosa Alvarez, Agnes Sprouse
• Script Consultant: Tony Geiss
• Chairman, Board of Advisors: Gerald S. Lesser, Ph.D.
• Vice President of Production: David D. Connell
• Executive Editor: Keith W. Mielke, Ph.D.

External links

• 3-2-1 Contact at IMDb
• The 3-2-1 Contact Awareness Society at Yahoo!
• Jump The Shark - 3-2-1 Contact
• Original broadcast clip that includes theme song
• The '80s TV Themes SuperSite:
  • 321 Contact intro (1980, video)
  • 321 Contact closing music (1980)
  • 321 Contact Friday credit roll closing music (1980)
  • 321 Contact (1983)
  • The Bloodhound Gang theme
  • 321 Contact (1987)