''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
A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...
pastiche
A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
s 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
Square One may refer to:
Film and TV
* ''Square One: Michael Jackson'', a 2019 investigative documentary about the first allegations of child sexual abuse brought by the Chandler family
*''Square One Television'', a children's television series ...
'', a production of the
Children's Television Workshop
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization and television company that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—includin ...
(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.
Characters
* Kate Monday (Beverly Leech) – A pastiche of
Jack Webb
John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, Television director, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet (franchise), ''Dragnet'' franchise ...
's ''Dragnet'' character Joe Friday, Kate usually remains stoic when on the job and tackles almost every situation with a calm and rational mind. She appears in the first three seasons.
* George Frankly (Joe Howard) – The partner of Kate Monday (and later Pat Tuesday), George takes his job seriously but is frequently prone to fits of comical mishaps and immature reactions. He appears in all five seasons. He has a wife named Martha whom he often mentions but who is never seen or heard.
* Pat Tuesday (Toni DiBuono) – George's second partner, appearing in Seasons 4 and 5 to replace Kate. Like Kate, Pat shares the deadpan mannerisms and no-nonsense attitude of Joe Friday.
Los Angeles cast
* Thad Green ( James Earl Jones) – The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. He briefly appears in Season 4.
* Debbie Williams (Mary Watson) – Technical analyst at the LAPD division where Kate and George works, she is frequently called upon to process data obtained during Mathnet investigations.
New York City cast
* Joe Greco (Emilio Del Pozo) – Captain of the New York City precinct, he is the man who George, Kate, and later Pat report to when they move to New York City starting in Season 3.
* Benny Pill (Bari K. Willerford) – An undercover
NYPD
The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
officer, he is Mathnet's semi-regular backup support.
Guest stars
A number of well-known actors and actresses made guest appearances on this show. Among them were:
* Bob Arbogast
*
Julie Bennett
Julie Bennett (January 24, 1932 – March 31, 2020) was an American actress.
Early years
Bennett was born in Manhattan, New York, on January 24, 1932. By the time she was 18, she had been living in Hollywood, Los Angeles for so long that she was ...
*
Betty Buckley
Betty Buckley (born July 3, 1947)LuKanic, Steven A (1995). Film Actors Guide'. Los Angeles, CA: Lone Eagle Publishing. p. 55. . is an American actress and singer. Buckley is the winner of a Tony Award, and was nominated for an additional Ton ...
*
Maddie Corman
Maddie Corman (born Madeleine Cornman; August 15, 1970) is an American actress. She has appeared in over 25 films, including ''Seven Minutes in Heaven'', '' Some Kind of Wonderful'', ''The Adventures of Ford Fairlane'' and ''A Beautiful Day in t ...
Russell Johnson
Russell David Johnson (November 10, 1924 – January 16, 2014) was an American actor. He played Professor Roy Hinkley in '' Gilligan's Island'' and Marshal Gib Scott in '' Black Saddle''.
Early life
Johnson was born in Ashley, Pennsylvania, ...
Wayne Knight
Wayne Elliot Knight (born August 7, 1955) is an American actor. In television, he played recurring roles such as Newman on the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld'' (1992–1998) and Officer Don Orville on the NBC sitcom ''3rd Rock from the Sun'' (1996� ...
Kevin McCarthy
Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 55th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from January until he was Remova ...
Lara Jill Miller
Lara Jill Miller (born April 20, 1967) is an American actress and lawyer. She has played Samantha "Sam" Kanisky in the 1980s sitcom '' Gimme a Break!'' and Kathy on '' The Amanda Show''.
She voices the title characters in '' Clifford's Puppy Da ...
*
Melba Moore
Beatrice Melba Smith (born October 29, 1945) known by her stage name Melba Moore, is an American singer and actress.
Biography Early life and education
Moore was born Beatrice Melba Smith on October 29, 1945, in New York City to Gertrude Melba ...
Yeardley Smith
Martha Maria Yeardley Smith ( ; born July 3, 1964) is an American actress. She stars as the voice of Lisa Simpson on the animated television series ''The Simpsons''.
Smith began acting in 1982 after graduating from drama school. She moved to ...
*
Arnold Stang
Arnold Sidney Stang (September 28, 1918 – December 20, 2009) ''
McLean Stevenson
Edgar McLean Stevenson Jr. (November 14, 1927 – February 15, 1996) was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake in the television series '' M*A*S*H'', which earned him a Golden Globe Awa ...
Dick Wilson
Dick Wilson (July 30, 1916 – November 18, 2007) was a British-American actor. He was best known as grocery store manager Mr. George Whipple in more than 500 Charmin bathroom tissue television commercials (1965–89, 1999–2000).
Biograp ...
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...
In addition, real-life
LAPD
The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...
officers Sam Salazar and Steve Fellman appeared as themselves; head writers David D. Connell and Jim Thurman also appeared as various characters.
Math and science
Real principles of math and science and mathematical tools used by the detectives to solve crimes include:
* Alphanumerics ("The Case of the Unnatural")
*
Fibonacci sequence
In mathematics, the Fibonacci sequence is a Integer sequence, sequence in which each element is the sum of the two elements that precede it. Numbers that are part of the Fibonacci sequence are known as Fibonacci numbers, commonly denoted . Many w ...
and
modular arithmetic
In mathematics, modular arithmetic is a system of arithmetic operations for integers, other than the usual ones from elementary arithmetic, where numbers "wrap around" when reaching a certain value, called the modulus. The modern approach to mo ...
(see also Pisano period) ("The Case of the Willing Parrot")
*
Kinematics
In physics, kinematics studies the geometrical aspects of motion of physical objects independent of forces that set them in motion. Constrained motion such as linked machine parts are also described as kinematics.
Kinematics is concerned with s ...
("The Problem of the Missing Baseball")
*
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce the ...
("The Problem of the Passing Parade")
* Displacement of fluids ("The Problem of the Trojan Hamburger")
*
Hamiltonian path
In the mathematical field of graph theory, a Hamiltonian path (or traceable path) is a path in an undirected or directed graph that visits each vertex exactly once. A Hamiltonian cycle (or Hamiltonian circuit) is a cycle that visits each vert ...
("The Case of the Smart Dummy")
* Process of elimination ("The Case of the Great Car Robbery", "The View from the Rear Terrace")
* Number patterns ("The Case of the Missing Air")
*
Bar chart
A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical variable, categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally. A ...
s and
line chart
A line chart or line graph, also known as curve chart, is a type of chart that displays information as a series of data points called 'markers' connected by straight wikt:line, line segments. It is a basic type of chart common in many fields. ...
s ("The Case of the Purloined Policies", "The Case of the Great Car Robbery")
*
Triangulation
In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points.
Applications
In surveying
Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle m ...
("The Case of the Map With a Gap")
Development and production
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. It now houses the Los Angeles Police Museum and is located at 6045 York Boulevard.
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
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
. It now houses the
George Gustav Heye Center
The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Sm ...
of the
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.
The museum has three ...
and is located at 1 Bowling Green. Exterior shots for the fifth and final season were filmed at the
Brooklyn Borough Hall
Brooklyn Borough Hall is a building in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. It was designed by architects Calvin Pollard and Gamaliel King in the Greek Revival style, and constructed of Tuckahoe marble under the supervision of superintendent ...
.
Logo and motto
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."
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.
Home media and syndication
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 1994 ("Despair in Monterey Bay" (retitled to "Treasure 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
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
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).
Other media
A ''Mathnet'' comic briefly appeared in ''
3-2-1 Contact
''3-2-1 Contact'' is an American science educational television show produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It aired on PBS from 1980 to 1988 and later ran on Noggin (a joint venture between the C ...
'' magazine.
Six ''Mathnet'' books, based on episodes of the show, were published:
# Casebook 1: The Case of the Unnatural (based on Season 4, Episode 1)
# Casebook 2: Despair in Monterey Bay (based on Season 4, Episode 2)
# Casebook 3: The Case of the Willing Parrot (based on Season 2, Episode 1)
# Casebook 4: The Map With a Gap (based on Season 2, Episode 6)
# Casebook 5: The Case of the Mystery Weekend (based on Season 5, Episode 1)
# Casebook 6: The Case of the Smart Dummy (based on Season 5, Episode 2)
Episodes
Season 1 (1987)
''All episodes this season were directed by Charles S. Dubin.''