Contact! Let's make contact!
May 3, 2016 11:43 AM   Subscribe

 
3-2-1 Contact
Is the [something]
Is the moment
When everything happens
Contact
[something, something]
[etc.]

posted by Faint of Butt at 11:46 AM on May 3, 2016 [14 favorites]


YESSSSSSSSSSS
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:48 AM on May 3, 2016


Let's make contact! (tympani, brass fanfare, quick cuts)
posted by infinitewindow at 11:51 AM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Faint, I always thought that the first [something] is "secret."
posted by wenestvedt at 11:59 AM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


Whoa, LYRICS SOLVED in the previously thread.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:00 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


"Whenever there's trouble, we're there on the double! We're the Bloodhound Gang! If you've got the crime, we've got the time; we're the Bloodhound Gang!"

I used to love this show. And my favorite version of the theme was the first one. It had a grit to it that I like.
posted by droplet at 12:01 PM on May 3, 2016 [7 favorites]


I suspect my watching this show as a kid is a big reason why I became a scientist.
posted by exogenous at 12:02 PM on May 3, 2016


MATHMAN. MATHMAN. MATHMAN. MATHMAN.
posted by SansPoint at 12:04 PM on May 3, 2016 [13 favorites]


I loved the Bloodhound Gang. My friends and I started up our own little chapter one summer. I wanted to be Vicky but my friends made me be Cuff. :-/ We also didn't solve any crimes.
posted by Elly Vortex at 12:04 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


"Bloodhound Detective Agency! Whenever there's trouble, we're there on the double!! Mr. Bloodhound isn't here..."
posted by jazon at 12:05 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


I have strong positive feelings about 3-2-1 Contact, but I have to go to work now. Will say more in about 12 hours.
posted by hippybear at 12:09 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


This is my fucking jam.
posted by echocollate at 12:11 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


I loved this show. I was a little upset when the original kids moved on, but a long running kids TV show has to do it.

I remember an animation with mountain building, glaciation, and erosion. I am now a geologist, so I am guessing it had some influence. It was certainly my first introduction to deep time.
posted by Badgermann at 12:13 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


Among the things Dirk Niblick of the Math Brigade will do are to look us right in the eye and to show us numbers that should be displayed.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 12:24 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


Mr. Bloodhound Isn't Here - great band name/MeFi handle.
posted by schoolgirl report at 12:28 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*cough*
Thank you ever so kindly, this is very much my jam.
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 12:35 PM on May 3, 2016


MATHMAN. MATHMAN. MATHMAN. MATHMAN.

Even Mr Glitch knows that was Square One TV.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:37 PM on May 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


I watched this show religiously when I was a kid! It was fantastic at making science accessible and appealing. I didn't go into the sciences, but I have a lot of interest in them that probably stems largely from this show.

When I think back to the children's TV shows I watched in the late '70s/early '80s (Sesame Street, 3-2-1 Contact, Big Blue Marble, Mr. Dressup, Zoom), I realize how inventive and progressive they were. I'm sure they are part of why I became the earnest leftie I am today.

Plus, I loved that theme song--it started running through my head as soon as I saw this post!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:37 PM on May 3, 2016 [8 favorites]


SQUARE ONE!!!!!!!!!

Man, we live in an age of such bounty.

Back in 2000, I went to the Museum of Television and Radio in New York JUST so that I could watch a few episodes of shows like these, confirm my recollection of their opening themes and bask in sense memory.

Anyway, thanks for this post!
posted by Narrative Priorities at 12:38 PM on May 3, 2016 [5 favorites]


Oh, duh. Now that I read the whole post, I'm the Glitch.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:40 PM on May 3, 2016 [5 favorites]


Maybe I will wear my Square One sweater to trivia tonight.
posted by maryr at 1:00 PM on May 3, 2016


Akin to the Spider-man and Letter Man segments on The Electric Company, The Bloodhound Gang was 3-2-1 Contact's answer to the entertaining mini-show within a show.

The Bloodhound Gang were three school kids who worked for a detective agency (if memory serves) after school. They were: "Vikki" (played by Nan-Lyn Nelson), "Ricardo" (Marcelino Sánchez), and "Skip" (Seth Greenspan). I don't really remember the other two, but Vikki kicked ass.

Since this was a segment on 3-2-1 Contact, a science show after all, the crimes were usually solved due to the kids knowledge of science.

The theme song (sung by Damaris Carbaugh) to introduce the segment went something like this:

"Whenever there's trouble,
we're there on the double...
we're the Bloodhound Gang.
If you've got the crime,
we've got the time...
we're the Bloodhound Gang."

I seem to remember that the segments were split; so in the first piece you got the crime and investigation, then near the end of the show [3-2-1 Contact], they'd show the second half where the gang used their TAG status to divine the solution. Unlike the Bradys, these two-parters never took the Gang to Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, or a just-opened theme park.

Each new episode seemed to start with one of the gang answering the agency's phone thusly:

"Bloodhound Detective Agency — 'whenever there's trouble we're there on the double' — Mr.Bloodhound isn't here..."
That Mr. Bloodhound was never in!

Here are some episodes that I remember parts of:
(warning, if you've printed this out, somehow travelled back in time, and are a die-hard PBS fan there may be episode-ruining spoilers ahead!)

• someone was kidnapped, but because there was a small hole in the side of the van, it made a pinhole camera-type image on the interior of the van. This fact helped the kidnapee recognize areas he was taken to.

• someone was tricked into believing there was a ghost in their yard because they saw a weird white apparition — turns out it was done by attracting hundreds of moths with pheromones. I think this is the same episode where a cardboard silhouette affixed to a model train was used to establish an alibi (it cast a shadow on a curtained window as it rolled by).

• an unsuspected twin extorts money from his brother. The ransom is placed in a trash can on a wintry day. The Bloodhound Gang watches the can but no one approaches it, but for some woman in a raincoat who pours some liquid into it. They figure it was a actually a man because of the way the raincoat was closed (I guess women put the right flap over the left flap in front or something), figured it was the twin because he was also left handed, and figured out the money never left the can after garbage men emptied it because the money was frozen to the bottom (due to the liquid being poured on it earlier).

• a van containing an expensive ice sculpture is stolen. By the time the van is found the sculpture has melted leaving only sea water behind. They gang solves this one knowing that the sculpture was made of fresh water. Also, the drivers alibi: he said that he could smell the chocolate factory when he drove, but the gang found out that the wind was going the opposite way that day. This put him on the only other road — the one that went along the ocean (from where he could easily procure the sea water). Book 'em, Dano!

• a man with amnesia who could only remember the words "Johannes Kepler" — turns out the man was an astronomer. Not sure if there was a crime involved or if it was just this mystery — perhaps having forgotten our code of laws he jaywalked on the way to the agency.

• an expensive antique clock is stolen, several large bags of salt are found nearby — turns out an employee bagged the clock and sunk it in the well (that old chestnut, eh?), planning to add salt to the well later and make it rise to the surface. I believe they may have been the only investigators that had to demonstrate their hypothesis by using an egg, a glass of water, and plenty of salt. This may also be the episode where the culprit's alibi is shown to be false because he said he'd turned on the shower for a few minutes, and then seen the theifs reflection in the bathroom mirror. Vikki gives him what for by demonstrating that his hot shower would have rendered the mirror too foggy to show a clear reflection.

• several classic cars are stolen from a car lot during the night. The owner is astounded because his string of security lights make it "almost broad daylight". Turns out the man who sold the lot the security lights gave him a string where you can un-screw one bulb and it breaks the circuit. Knowing this, he did some unscrewing and some stealin'. The Gang risks Mr.Bloodhounds beloved classic car (giving the gas tank only about a teaspoon of gasoline — just enough, they figure, to start the engine and take it a couple of feet out of the parking lot) to catch the thief.

[copied from a post I'd made years ago on everything2.com]
posted by blueberry at 1:10 PM on May 3, 2016 [7 favorites]


Always been meaning to get around to doing a 3-2-1 Contact post. Excellent show, and excellent post!
posted by Roger Dodger at 1:25 PM on May 3, 2016


I was about to demand a Tomes and Talismans post then I dug this up.

MetaFilter, you are clutch as fuck.
posted by echocollate at 1:45 PM on May 3, 2016


"I think this is the same episode where a cardboard silhouette affixed to a model train was used to establish an alibi (it cast a shadow on a curtained window as it rolled by)."

Was this also the one where the guy said he could see somebody in the mirror when he was in the shower but was busted when the gang realized that the mirror was probably steamed up?

They played this same episode over and over and over and over. It was always a big deal when it wasn't that episode.
posted by delicious-luncheon at 1:57 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Also, does anybody else vaguely remember a long-running segment where one of the 3-2-1 people was stuck in a broken old car in the middle of the desert?
posted by delicious-luncheon at 1:58 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


Thanks for this.

When I first saw The Warriors in the late '90s, I got so excited because it had both Marcelino from the Bloodhound Gang and Trini from Season 1 of 3-2-1 Contact in it. I wanted to share my excitement with someone, but I discovered that while everyone knew the Bloodhound Gang, no one knew who Trini was. It was frustrating.

This was a terrible story.
posted by NBelarski at 2:17 PM on May 3, 2016 [6 favorites]


Also, does anybody else vaguely remember a long-running segment where one of the 3-2-1 people was stuck in a broken old car in the middle of the desert?

Yes, you'll find it here:
posted by NBelarski at 2:48 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Contact is the answer; is the reason that everything happens!


Does it imply an argument against Newtonian "action" at a distance?
posted by Phersu at 2:51 PM on May 3, 2016


When I think back to the children's TV shows I watched in the late '70s/early '80s (Sesame Street, 3-2-1 Contact, Big Blue Marble, Mr. Dressup, Zoom), I realize how inventive and progressive they were. I'm sure they are part of why I became the earnest leftie I am today.

I was thinking about how much things have changed with educational children's TV, and that sent me looking for articles. I found one that called them "MOOCs for kids," which I love.

It's not that we don't have children's TV any more, or don't have funding for it. It's that it's just plain not as good, IMO.
posted by Miko at 2:51 PM on May 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


OMG loved that show. What an earworm theme song.
posted by gottabefunky at 3:02 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think this is the animation you remember, Bagermann
It's called Al Jarnow's Cosmic Clock.
posted by hot_monster at 3:30 PM on May 3, 2016


I still sometimes think of two articles I read in the 3-2-1 Contact magazine: one about twins who spoke their own language (I wanted a twin!!!!) and the other about the sun expanding and burning up Earth and likely Mars in a bunch of years (I don't want to die!!!!!)
posted by armacy at 5:25 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


I didn't see much of the tv show but I was OBSESSED with the magazine, read my issues over and over. I think there was a recurring bit with a couple of siblings (or possibly friends?) who time traveled? I know they ran a short entry at some point about how Pluto was actually closer to the sun than Neptune which blew my damn mind.
posted by colbeagle at 6:35 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


That episode with the phosphorescent ghost freaked me out. I also remember something about a rubber ball shattering after being exposed to something dangerous. Good times.
posted by Biblio at 9:14 PM on May 3, 2016


It makes me sad that Ghostwriter killed Square One TV. Ghostwriter didn't even seem that good, and didn't it barely last a year?
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 11:21 PM on May 3, 2016


the sun expanding and burning up Earth and likely Mars in a bunch of years (I don't want to die!!!!!)

Ok, we must have gotten that magazine at some point, because I totally remember that story. I think I remember wishing I were going to be around to be out in space watching it happen. :P
posted by epersonae at 10:15 AM on May 4, 2016


I vaguely remember an episode of 3-2-1 Contact where they went to a professional movie makeup artist and did werewolf makeup, but never could verify that actually existed.

I remember the warning that was included before the pig dissection episode though. And it was great.

Square One was my jam. I can still sing lots of those songs from heart. "Possibilities, don't you mess with me! I"ve got a ghost of a chance!"
"Nine nine nine, times any number you can find, it all comes back to nine!"
posted by Theta States at 10:22 AM on May 4, 2016 [2 favorites]


Ok, this is a bit that I almost wasn't sure was real, but which I remembered from my childhood: 3-2-1 Contact segment at a KISS concert. It's mostly about setting up, lighting, etc., and also about explaining how color works.
posted by epersonae at 3:19 PM on May 4, 2016 [3 favorites]


Oh man, I can remember watching the episode where they dissected a cow eye like it was yesterday. Trying to be cool, but not being able to actually watch an eye being cut up, I turned my back to the TV and "watched" the reflection in the collection of cassette tapes across from the tv. At the time, I felt like I successfully convinced everyone in the room that I wasn't squeamish, just really cool.
posted by stripesandplaid at 5:39 PM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was a teenager and I lived those shows. Some of my friends were in college and they loved those shows. Need to stop making fucking Caillou and bring back those PBS shows instead
posted by Smibbo at 8:53 AM on May 9, 2016


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