PBS educational shows you watched in school

[bandit957]

Anyone else remember watching educational shows on PBS in the classroom? By that, I don't mean the really big shows like the ol' Sesamaroo. I mean shows that were relatively obscure.

Most of these shows were only 15 minutes per episode. They were mostly filmed in the 1970s but aired well into the 1980s.

Here's some examples...

'Inside Out'
'Self Incorporated'
'Cover To Cover'
'Truly American'
'Ripples'
'Studio See'

I also remember a show that had a puppet called Clyde the Frog.

A few episodes stick out in my mind. I remember an 'Inside Out' where a boy walks around in a city in Quebec and keeps asking people, "Do you speak English?" He gets really mad when they reply in French. There was also a 'Self Incorporated' where a boy enters a photography contest, and his rival ruins his photo negatives by stepping on them. I think both of these are up on YouTube now.

I'm still looking for an old show like this where some kid tramples another kid's toy dinosaur collection.

[In_Correct]

Anyone else remember watching educational shows on PBS in the classroom? By that, I don't mean the really big shows like the ol' Sesamaroo. I mean shows that were relatively obscure.

Most of these shows were only 15 minutes per episode. They were mostly filmed in the 1970s but aired well into the 1980s.

Here's some examples...

'Inside Out'
'Self Incorporated'
'Cover To Cover'
'Truly American'
'Ripples'
'Studio See'

I also remember a show that had a puppet called Clyde the Frog.

A few episodes stick out in my mind. I remember an 'Inside Out' where a boy walks around in a city in Quebec and keeps asking people, "Do you speak English?" He gets really mad when they reply in French. There was also a 'Self Incorporated' where a boy enters a photography contest, and his rival ruins his photo negatives by stepping on them. I think both of these are up on YouTube now.

I'm still looking for an old show like this where some kid tramples another kid's toy dinosaur collection.

Bill Nye
3 2 1 Contact
Square One Television
Amigos

Now for one that I am trying to find that fits your description:

No school that day so I was watching PBS during a non P.B.S. Kids block. There was tons of perhaps American Public Television or other random TV mini series not meant for children.

I do not remember any thing about it except for the title segment and the credits segment (but obviously not the title it self.)

It was perhaps a math programme as it had various geometric shapes flying towards the screen as if you were moving forward. It was made with a crude computer simulation with accompanying electronic keyboard music. The melody is not unlike X-Files Theme.

The end credits segment is similar, same music, same grid environment from an old computer simulation, but instead of geometric shapes, it now contains the end credits in the same position, appearing to fly towards the screen until out of view, one after the other.

[davewiecking]

We didn't have TV's in classrooms at the time, but I was on an episode of Cover to Cover (with Jon Robbins) in 1964. Taped at WETA studios, but I have no idea if they were in Shirlington, VA at the time. 15 minute B&W show; the book was Wind in the Willows. I gave reports on 2 of the characters- Toad and another. Another classmate gave 2 others.

Time for a trip to the attic to find my "script" . I'd give plenty for a copy of that tape that was undoubtedly erased shortly after broadcast.

[briantroutman]

I don't recall ever watching these 15-minute series in the classroom. We did, however, use worksheets taken from The Letter People when I was in kindergarten, even though we never watched any of the TV installments in class. It blew my five-year-old mind when I stumbled onto a Letter People episode on TV at home one day. The idea that something could exist both in school and on television in the "real world"  was an epiphany, strange as that sounds.

My daughter has really taken to The Letter People, and many episodes are available on YouTube. Watching them now, I can appreciate the little sprinkling of adult humor in the series. For example the recurring game show host character's voice is a dead ringer for Paul Lynde. In another episode when a pet dragon named Dolly runs away and later comes home, the owner's relieved reaction is "Well hello, Dolly. It's so nice to have you back where you belong!"  I'm sure the jokes went over all of the kindergartners' heads.

Another 15-minute series my daughter enjoys is The Write Channel. It's an interesting combination of stop-motion animation and live action. An anthropomorphic bug (R.B. Bugg) is an aspiring reporter for a fictional TV station, and he's aided by news director/anchor Red Green (no, not that Red Green). On the show, R.B. watches an event unfold and then turns in a rough draft of a story that's full of short, repetitive sentences. (Bill went to the fair. Jan went to the fair. It was the state fair.), then Red helps him revise and combine the sentences (Bill and Jan went to the state fair.)as disembodied white hands move the words around on screen. Unfortunately, only a couple of episodes are available online.

Many of these 15-minute series were distributed by the Agency for Instructional Television (AIT) or its predecessor, National Instructional Television (NIT). Some of the short subject films directed toward older children and teenagers are, in my opinion, if not great filmmaking, at least adventurous and reflect a certain zeitgeist of the late '60s and '70s that films could connect with young people in a manner that would challenge their perceptions of the world and inspire them to think. One Inside/Out that stuck with me was a vignette in which we see a boy being bullied relentlessly throughout the day by a classmate...even after school and into unfamiliar territory as the victim tries to lose his bully. At the end, the bully falls off a ladder and is laying in pain on the ground as we see the victim finally turn around and confront the bully. Will he help the bully up? Kick him while he's down? It was an interesting installment.

Of the various AIT series, one that I particularly like is Thinkabout, which is focused on developing critical thinking skills in young adults. In addition to having a great analog synth theme and some very '70s Scanimate-like graphics in the intro, some of the episodes are rather well done. Many of the installments are available on YouTube.

[bandit957]

My kindergarten class had the inflatable Letter People, but I don't remember the TV show.

[Roadgeekteen]

Not really. Bill Nye was common in Middle School, but most things we watch in school are taken from Youtube.

[ET21]

Bill Nye and Where's Carmen San Diego

[abefroman329]

Square One TV or GTFO

[HazMatt]

Square One TV or GTFO

The geometry teacher at my high school would start every semester with this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqIki33mTgs

[bandit957]

Anyone remember a math show in the '80s? It wouldn't be 'Square One', for Wikipedia says that didn't debut until 1987. The show I'm talking about would have aired around 1985, though it probably wasn't much older. It featured a man and a woman singing about math.

[bandit957]

Another show I remember is 'Mulligan Stew'. I think that's where I learned the 4 food groups. (Although around here back then, everyone thought the 4 food groups were Dubble Bubble, Bubble Yum, Bubblicious, and Bazooka.)

[abefroman329]

Anyone remember a math show in the '80s? It wouldn't be 'Square One', for Wikipedia says that didn't debut until 1987. The show I'm talking about would have aired around 1985, though it probably wasn't much older. It featured a man and a woman singing about math.

Sounds like Square One to me.

[US71]

I remember National Gergraphic films.

[cjk374]

Anyone remember a math show in the '80s? It wouldn't be 'Square One', for Wikipedia says that didn't debut until 1987. The show I'm talking about would have aired around 1985, though it probably wasn't much older. It featured a man and a woman singing about math.

There was a show called "Mathnet", which was a spoof of "Dragnet". It starred James Earl Jones as the chief of the Mathnet detectives. They didn't do any singing though.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GJmWPNckrpo

[bandit957]

Another one I remember was 'Slim Goodbody'. He was a guy who looked sort of like Richard Simmons, but he had all his internal organs and veins painted on his body.

[briantroutman]

There was a show called "Mathnet", which was a spoof of "Dragnet".

Mathnet was a sketch on Square One, not its own show (unless it was spun off at some point that I'm not aware of).

Another one I remember was 'Slim Goodbody'. He was a guy who looked sort of like Richard Simmons, but he had all his internal organs and veins painted on his body.

I remember seeing Mr. Goodbody in school, but not as a TV program. We saw short segments in the form of still filmstrips with audio accompaniment.

[nexus73]

Television, did you say television?  We were lucky to have a radio!  Back in 6th grade the station which had coverage for most of the county, AM of course, would do an educational show broadcast once a week.  That was it for us back in the mid Sixties in terms of any sort of technology allowing us students to glean information from outside the school.

Want a side order of boring?  When it rained, which was often on the southern Oregon coast, we would be taken to the multipurpose room to watch 16mm films about, get this, golf tournaments!  Another wasted opportunity for either education or playtime. 

Those were the days.  Yeah, right...LOL!  Today the digital attractions are so attractive that they are as potent as heroin in terms of addicting the user.  Maybe we did have it better back then. 

Given that "Sesame Street" was just a TV broadcast instead of an interactive online program, I would say it was the MVP for educating preschoolers when it first came out and it would still be a valuable item in the teaching arsenal.  "Brought to you by the number 3".  It was a major help to my nieces who were around in that era.

Rick

[Roadgeekteen]

Television, did you say television?  We were lucky to have a radio!  Back in 6th grade the station which had coverage for most of the county, AM of course, would do an educational show broadcast once a week.  That was it for us back in the mid Sixties in terms of any sort of technology allowing us students to glean information from outside the school.

Want a side order of boring?  When it rained, which was often on the southern Oregon coast, we would be taken to the multipurpose room to watch 16mm films about, get this, golf tournaments!  Another wasted opportunity for either education or playtime. 

Those were the days.  Yeah, right...LOL!  Today the digital attractions are so attractive that they are as potent as heroin in terms of addicting the user.  Maybe we did have it better back then. 

Given that "Sesame Street" was just a TV broadcast instead of an interactive online program, I would say it was the MVP for educating preschoolers when it first came out and it would still be a valuable item in the teaching arsenal.  "Brought to you by the number 3".  It was a major help to my nieces who were around in that era.

Rick

I thought that tvs were mainstream by the 50s.

[GaryV]

I thought that tvs were mainstream by the 50s.

Not in schools.  Those things cost money.  And where would you put the antenna?  The school wasn't wired for video, and because many were constructed with thick brick or stone, rabbit ears wouldn't have picked up well.

We saw film strips with sound on record players - "bing".

And sometimes movies, if the teacher could figure out how to thread the projector.  By about 4th grade, there were always a few students in the class who could do it better than the teacher.

[cjk374]

There was a show called "Mathnet", which was a spoof of "Dragnet".

Mathnet was a sketch on Square One, not its own show (unless it was spun off at some point that I'm not aware of).

I doubt it was a spin-off. I just didn't remember Square One.

Another one I remember was 'Slim Goodbody'. He was a guy who looked sort of like Richard Simmons, but he had all his internal organs and veins painted on his body.

I remember seeing Mr. Goodbody in school, but not as a TV program. We saw short segments in the form of still filmstrips with audio accompaniment.

For some reason, I thought Slim Goodbody was part of Capt. Kangaroo. Again, I could be wrong. That was 35-40 years ago for me.

Damn I need to quit doing that math. The number keeps getting bigger.     

[bandit957]

I remember in one classroom in grade school we had something called U-Film, which lets you make your own flimstrips by drawing on the filmstrip with markers.

[bandit957]

I could have sworn there was also a show called 'Watch Your Language', which I only remember because it sounds like an adult scolding a kid for cussing.

[SectorZ]

I remember National Gergraphic films.

Same here. Lots of those in the early 90's in junior high. I actually enjoyed a lot of them, though it wasn't cool to admit it at that age.

[bandit957]

I remember National Gergraphic films.

Same here. Lots of those in the early 90's in junior high. I actually enjoyed a lot of them, though it wasn't cool to admit it at that age.

We saw some in the early '90s in high school, but I thought they were pretty slow-paced and not too exciting, even if they had important subject matter. Some of them were really old. I remember a really old National Geographic film about poaching.

[nexus73]

I remember National Gergraphic films.

Same here. Lots of those in the early 90's in junior high. I actually enjoyed a lot of them, though it wasn't cool to admit it at that age.

We saw some in the early '90s in high school, but I thought they were pretty slow-paced and not too exciting, even if they had important subject matter. Some of them were really old. I remember a really old National Geographic film about poaching.

Speaking of old NatGeo's, when I was young, the local library had a collection of their magazines going back to before the Great War AKA World War I.  Those were fun to read!

Rick