Zoom

• An example of onomatopoeia that indicates swiftness
• Zoom lens and digital zoom, in photography and computer programs
• In motion picture production, a camera movement requiring a zoom lens ("zoom in/out")
• Page zooming
• Zoom climb in aviation

Companies

• Zoom Airlines, a Canadian based, low-cost trans-atlantic airline
• Zoom Corporation, a Japanese audio company, distributed in the U.S. under the Samson family of companies
• Zoom Technologies, a modem manufacturer located in Boston, Massachusetts

Television

• ZOOM, a children's television show created by PBS
• zOOm, an Indian entertainment and lifestyle television channel.

Music

• "Zoom", a song by The Commodores
• Zoom (album), an album by Electric Light Orchestra, released in 2001
• Zoom, an album by Tata Young, released in 2007
• "Zoom" (Lil Boosie Song), a 2006 song by American rapper Lil Boosie
• "Zoom" (Soda Stereo Song), a song by Argentinian rock band Soda Stereo
• Zoom (Dr. Dre song), a song by Dr. Dre & LL Cool J
• Zoom (song), a song released in 1982 by Fat Larry's Band
• Billy Zoom (b. Tyson Kindell), an American guitarist and founder of X

Other

• Zoom (film), a 2006 film starring Tim Allen
• Zoom (game), a computer game
• Zoom Schwartz Profigliano, a drinking game often referred to simply as Zoom
• Zoom (comics), one of the Reverse-Flashes, enemies of the Flash in the DC universe
• Zuum (Monster Rancher), a fictional character

See also

• Zoom In, a teen produced news and entertainment show which broadcasts in the San Francisco Bay Area on cable channels 27 and 29

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 07:31:27 PST (GMT -0800)
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ZOOm

zOOm is an Indian entertainment and lifestyle television channel.

Programming

• Maximun Style
• Page 3
• Popkorn Newz

External links

• Official Site
• Online Indian TV - Including live Zoom TV

ZoOm

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Last updated on Wednesday February 06, 2008 at 14:32:56 PST (GMT -0800)
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ZOOM

ZOOM was an American educational television show, created almost entirely by children, which aired on PBS from January of 1972 to March of 1978. A new version of the show, also on PBS, premiered in 1999 and ended production in 2005. Both versions were produced by WGBH-TV in Boston. Christopher Sarson was ZOOM's creator and original producer (1972-1974).

ZOOM encouraged children to "turn off the TV and do it!" On the show, a cast of (usually) seven kids (known as ZOOMers) performed various activities such as games, plays, poems, recipes, jokes, and science experiments, all suggested by viewer contributions. The performers in the original series were known for wearing striped rugby shirts and jeans, and for performing the show barefoot. The mail-in request became a pop culture reference for its music exhortation to, "Write ZOOM, Z-Double-O-M, Box 3-5-0, Boston, Mass 0-2-1-3-4: send it to ZOOM!". There was also a language game on the show called Ubbi-Dubbi and another called Fannee Doolee.

ZOOM was a new kind of series when it premiered on January 3, 1972. Unlike other children's fare at the time, it was for the most part unscripted. Far from seeking to capitalize by making stars of the child actors, the contracts prohibited them from making any television appearances or doing commercials for three years after they left the show.

ZOOM was intended to inspire children to be active investigators, creators, and problem-solvers as well as introduce them to the principles of ethnic diversity. The show's ZOOMSci segment, for example, featured on the later incarnation, encouraged viewers to try the activities shown on ZOOM and to send in their results.

When ZOOM made a comeback in 1999, parents who had grown up watching the show could now share it with their own children, and found that it was very much the same as it had been in the 1970s. The theme song was similar, there was still Ubbi-Dubbi, and the ZOOMers continued to play games and perform skits suggested by other children. While the ZOOMers would occasionally appear barefoot for certain games and skits, the entire show was no longer performed barefoot. With the advent of the Internet, the "0-2-1-3-4" jingle was rarely sung, supplanted by one that emphasized "PBSKids, dot org!" Also, when reading aloud the names of contributors, the later version provided only first names and abbreviated surnames (e.g., "Paul T."), presumably as a compromise between crediting the children and meeting modern privacy expectations for child safety.

The show was last filmed during the summer of 2004, many episodes taking place off of the ZOOM set. The decision to cancel the show was largely due to failing ratings, with the last season's ratings down almost a fifth from the previous year. There is currently talk of putting ZOOM on either PBS Kids Sprout or soon-to-be 24-hours digital PBS Kids Go! channel.

The first ZOOM series lasted six seasons (1972–1978) and featured 49 ZOOMers. The second ZOOM series lasted seven seasons (1999–2005) and featured 32 ZOOMers. At the end of every season of the second series, cast members who had grown too old were replaced by new cast members.

Cast members

First Series (1972-1978)

(Source: IMDB)

First Season (Early 1972): Joe Shrand, Jon Reuning, Nina Thomassen, Tommy White, Kenny Marshal, Nancy Tates, Tracy Schulman

Second Season (1972-1973):

• Cast 1: Kenny Marshal, Nancy Tates, Tracy Schulman, Ann Davis, David Alberico, Jay Schertzer, Maura Mullaney.
• Cast 2: Ann Davis, David Alberico, Jay Schertzer, Maura Mullaney, Bernadette Yao, Leon Mobley, Luiz Peterton.
• Cast 3: Bernadette Yao, Leon Mobley, Luiz Peterton, Danny McGrath, Edith Mooers, Lori Boskin, Neal Robinson.

Third Season (1973-1974):

• Cast 1: Danny McGrath, Edith Mooers, Lori Boskin, Neal Robinson, Donna Fellows, Mike Dean, Timmy Rudman.
• Cast 2: Donna Fellows, Mike Dean, Timmy Rudman, Hector Seandon, Rose Clarkow, Shawn Miranda, Danny (II).

Fourth Season (1974-1975): Andrae Neilsan, Carmen Peterson, Cate Albonda, David (II) Sales, Harvey Reed, Norman Christian, Red Lyman, Tishy Lyman, Tommy (II) Schultz, Tracey Dunlap. (This was the only season of the original show that featured more than seven ZOOMers at one time.)

Fifth Season (Late 1976): Arcadio Gonzales, Chris Blackwell, Jennifer Gold, Karen Wing, Levell Gethers (who did not complete the season), Nell Cox, Ron Richmond.

Sixth Season (1977-1978): Amy Clark, Carolyn Malcolm, Chee Bong, John Lathan, Nicholas Butterworth, Shona Wiseman, Susan Hobbie.

Originally funded by the National Science Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Corporation For Public Broadcasting and Viewers Like You, ZOOM lost its funding in 1975, after the end of the fourth season. It was off the air from the summer of 1975 until January of 1976, when it was brought back in reruns. Later in 1976, ZOOM returned to the air with its fifth cast.

Some PBS stations continued to broadcast reruns of the series as late as early 1980.

Cast names and update

During the 1970s version of the series, WGBH never disclosed the ZOOMers' last names, which was likely part of the producers' policy of just using ordinary kids who would be likely to stay ordinary kids, and allowing the viewers to more easily identify with the ZOOMers; this policy also included a contract, in which the ZOOMers would not appear on television for three years after leaving the show.

Listed below are some cast members' full names which have come to light in later years.

• David Alberico (1972-73)
• Nicholas Butterworth (1977-1978) is Founder, President & CEO of Diversion Media
• Mike Dean (1973-1974)
• John Lathan (1977-1978) has had guest parts in The West Wing and was a member of the Engine Crew on Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?
• Danny McGrath (1973-1974) is a songwriter.
• Leon Mobley (1972-1973) is founder of DJIMBE West African Drummers and Dancers (DWADD), and has performed with the Beach Boys, Michael Jackson, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Peter Wolf.
• Edith Mooers (1973-1974) showed genius in mathematics at an early age, won prestigious academic awards in math as a university undergraduate, and went on to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT. Her father was the late legendary computer pioneer Dr. Calvin Mooers.
• Maura Mullaney (1972-1973) was last known to be an Amtrak conductor
• Harvey Reed (1974-1975)
• Jon Reuning (1972) is a New York City playwright and co-founder of United Stages, a company which produces programs and marketing for small-venue theatrical productions, including publication of current theatrical scripts. He holds a BFA in theatre, having studied at Syracuse University and the Graduate Acting program at NYU.
• Jay Schertzer (1972-1973)
• Joe Schrand (1972)
• Nancy Tates (1972)
• Tommy White (1973)
• Bernadette Yao (1972-1973) practices the healing arts.

Second Series (1999-2005)

Season 1 (1999): Zoe, Jared, Keiko, Pablo, Alisa, David, Lynnese

• David, Jared, Keiko, Pablo and Lynnese left after season one but Alisa and Zoe stayed.

Season 2 (2000): Ray, Caroline, Claudio, Alisa, Jessie/Jessica, Kenny, Zoe

• Alisa, Claudio, Jessie/Jessica, Ray and Zoe left after season two but Caroline and Kenny stayed.

Season 3 (2001): Frances, Kenny, Rachel, Eric, Kaleigh, Kevin/"Buzz", Caroline

• Buzz, Eric, Frances and Kenny left after season 3 but Caroline, Kaleigh and Rachel stayed.

Season 4 (2002): Aline, Garret, Estuardo, Kaleigh, Rachel, Matt, Caroline

• Kaleigh, Matt and Rachel left after season 4 but Aline, Caroline, Estuardo and Garret stayed.

Season 5 (2003): Aline, Garret, Caroline, Mike, Kortney, Shing Ying, Estuardo

• Aline, Caroline, Estuardo and Garret left after season 5 but Kortney, Mike and Shing Ying stayed.

Season 6 (2004): Mike, Kortney, Francesco, Cara, Maya, Kyle, Shing Ying

• Cara, Kortney, Maya and Mike left after season 6 but Francesco, Kyle and Shing Ying stayed.

Season 7 (2005): Nick, Taylor from FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, Francesco, Noreen, Emily, Kyle, Shing Ying

• Caroline was in the most seasons (4). Seasons 2, 3, 4, 5.
• Caroline and Kenny guest starred on Arthur in a "And Now Let's Talk With Us Kids" (in the case ZOOMers and gave a sneak peak behind the show ZOOM.

Merchandise

First Series

In 1975, the cast members from the first series came out with an album, Playgrounds, that was available by mail order.

There were two books published for children that were based on the 1970s ZOOM series:

• The ZOOM Catalog (ISBN 0394825322), published by Random House in 1972, featured the best stories and activities from the show;
• Do a ZOOMdo, published by Little Brown in 1975, featured activities from the show.

In 1997, WGBH released the video and book set Best of the 1970's and ZOOMers Revisited--Where Are They Now? (ISBN 1578072077).

Second Series

Four books compiled by Amy E. Sklansky were published by Little, Brown and Company:

• ZOOM Zingers (1999, ISBN 0316952613)
• ZOOM Fun With Friends (1999, ISBN 0316952753)
• ZOOMdos You Can Do! (2000, ISBN 0316952761)
• ZOOMfun Outside (2000, ISBN 0316952788)

As always, all material in these books were submitted by the viewers.

References to ZOOM in popular culture

• In the Hard 'n Phirm music video for their song "π", they parody ZOOM in a program called ZAP. The kids are named Javier, Jessica, Steve, Susan, and twins Hector & Diego. The show is produced by "WHNP" (whose logo is a clear take-off on WGBH's famous "outline" logo) and is "funded by a grant from the Windsor Pneumatics Foundation". In the video, two unidentified wizards watch the kids do increasingly more bizarre activities, including spinning around on a mop and pretending to kill each other. A phony-looking robot appears, which leaves them enraptured. Near the end of the video, the kids and the robot confront the wizards, who vaporize Steve, Hector, and Diego with laser beams. Jessica reflects one of their lasers back with a mirror, and the robot destroys the other wizard. The three remaining kids are shrunken, and they jump into a portal in the wizard's book.
• In a rare (for the time) cross-PBS parody, The Electric Company, had a sketch called "BOOM", featuring the Electric Company cast in striped turtlenecks on a mockup of the ZOOM set. "BOOM" was intentionally less polished than most Electric Company sketches, to poke fun at ZOOM's unscripted format.
• Similarly SCTV had a regular segment called "Pre-Teen World" which featured the SCTV cast pretending to be preteens who were improvising a television program they wrote and produced themselves. Often, the 'unscripted' segments would turn into disasters as real life turned out to be less cheerful than the kids implied. This was largely a parody of ZOOM (including a parody of the 0-2-1-3-4 jingle) and similar local programs.
• An episode of the series You Can't Do That on Television began with the cast members running up to camera singing "Come on and boom, boom, booma, boom," before an explosion erupts, causing them to choke on the ensuing smoke.
• In one episode of the popular TV series Friends, Joey admits to having lied on his CV and also adds, "I wasn't one of the kids on ZOOM, either."
• A segment of Jonathan Caouette's film Tarnation describes an idea that a young Caouette had for a rock musical based on his life. His hypothetical cast included the cast of ZOOM as a chorus of children in foster care. During this segment, a montage of clips from movies and TV are shown, including a few from ZOOM.
• In the sixth episode of the American version of Queer as Folk, Brian sees 17-year-olds Justin and Daphne at Club Babylon and exclaims, "Well, if it isn't the cast of ZOOM!".
• On Saturday Night Live in 1998 during the Weekend Update segment, Colin Quinn reported that ZOOM would be coming back to TV "just when we couldn't get that theme song out of our heads."
• In the King of Queens episode Spencer's friend spoke Ubbi Dubbi.

See also

• Studio See (another PBS children's program that used content from viewers)

References

External links

• PBS Kids Official Site
• (1972-1978)
• (1999-2005)

Articles

• Boston Globe: " Children's Show ZOOM a victim of ratings drop", story about 2004 cancellation of ZOOM
• "Zoom: America's kids respond"

Media

• KeithSchofield.com - Hard 'N Phirm: "Pi" (Quicktime & Windows Media)

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Saturday March 08, 2008 at 10:58:54 PST (GMT -0800)
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