Yahoo! introduces you to the 3-2-1 Contact Awareness Society

We are coming up on 25 years since the original 3-2-1 Contact was
first broadcast to a small portion of the world. From its first
airing January 14, 1980 on selected affiliates of the Public
Broadcasting Service, it gradually became an educational phenomena.

The original season of 3-2-1 Contact looked very much like any other
TV series that the Children's Television Workshop was so known for.
Field sequences were used in several shows, allowing the first 3-2-1
Contact season to go 65 episodes. Correlating with each theme week
was "The Bloodhound Gang," young sleuths working from the Bloodhound
Detective Agency in Kenilworth, New Jersey.

The rebirth of 3-2-1 Contact in October 1983, introduced a new
element of reality to those exploring science concepts. For the next
six years, 3-2-1 Contact was recognized around the world as one of
the best children's shows on television.

Today, though, the original 3-2-1 Contact is virtually forgotten.
Archives of the former Children's Television Workshop have virtually
disappeared. The coveted names "3-2-1 Contact" was taken by a
contact-lens maker (adding an exclamation point at the end to avoid a
lawsuit). And the sacred name "The Bloodhound Gang" has been ripped
off by a musical group of suspect character.

Just how severe is the breach? Recall that on October 4-8, 2004,
Sesame Workshop dusted off and replayed "Hurricane Week" from late in
Sesame Street's 32nd season (June 2001). There was no attempt to
locate, let alone dust off and re-air, Hurricane Rufus' invasion of
the original 3-2-1 Contact from the spring of 1980.

Thus I have created the 3-2-1 Contact Awareness Society.

ABOUT MYSELF:

As a teenager, I kept track of all 225 episodes of 3-2-1 Contact and
collected a handful of one-sentence synopses. I paid close attention
to what episodes were discarded over time, keeping written notes
about their last airdates. When I learned CTW had printed a 3-2-1
Contact episode rundown for the surviving 205 shows, I asked for a
copy (since lost). So devoted was I to the series that, when I
learned PBS was quitting 3-2-1 Contact in the fall of 1992, I
desperately called a friend of a friend in Orange County to see if he
could record the last 20 broadcasts off KOCE (they were not going to
run in my area).

I have held on to my files all these years in the hope that it would
benefit somebody. Once my interest in the Internet jumped into the
passing lane, I discovered almost no online page kept a master list
of the original 3-2-1 Contact and its 225 shows.

IMDb did provide a page acknowledging 3-2-1 Contact, but its crew
credits were very shallow. The only writing credit was to Michael
Winship. After an exchange of emails, I found Winship had written
back-to-back-to-back 3-2-1 Contact Extras, which were, in truth, the
antithesis of the original series. (See A FEW RULES below.)

When I discovered TV Tome in the summer of 2003, I quickly learned
that Web site had no page devoted to 3-2-1 Contact. I established
and now edit the 3-2-1 Contact guide at TV Tome. Just about
everything found in that guide, is my effort.

On the early morning of January 5, 2004, I went through a Google
search, hoping that some Web head devoted a site to 3-2-1 Contact's
memory in the fashion of the Square One TV Recognition Drive. The
closest I came was a man who has tapes of many 3-2-1 Contact shows.
(He has helped me flesh out some episode synopses in the TV Tome
guide. Other synopses came from a very substantial video library in
the 661-Land.)

Yahoo! has societies devoted to Sesame Street, The Electric Company
and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Nothing of 3-2-1 Contact existed
until now.


A FEW RULES:

Since some people, many in official positions, have gotten the
details of the original 3-2-1 Contact confused, let me provide them.
The original 3-2-1 Contact consisted of 225 half-hour programs. The
first season consisted of 65 shows, followed by 40 shows in the
second season, 20 each in Seasons 3-5 and 30 shows in Seasons 6 and
7. The 3-2-1 Contact Awareness Society is devoted only to those
programs. It will try not to involve itself with the eight 3-2-1
Contact Extras (more a spin-off of the late ABC Afterschool Specials
than anything else) or the 30-part 3-2-1 Classroom Contact. Both of
those have been the source of confusion, in fact. Web sites run by
PBS affiliates and libraries have sometimes used the simple title 3-2-
1 Contact on these spin-offs.

The 3-2-1 Contact Awareness Society will devote itself to the
original 225 shows and the people involved in them. I have been able
to track some of them down:

Director and senior producer Ozzie Alfonso now runs Terra Multimedia
in New York.
Writer and voice actor Jim Thurman is retired.
Season 2 producer Alyce Myatt accepted a major position at PBS in
2000.
David Quinn is an English professor at the University of Washington.
Leon W. Grant (Marc) and Kelly Pino (Kathy) have further pursued
their acting careers.
Benjamin H. Carlin (Paco) still lives in Brooklyn. (He would, in
fact, verify that Marcelino Sanchez, who played Ricardo on "The
Bloodhound Gang," died of cancer in 1986.)
Vice-President of Production David D. Connell died of cancer in 1995.
I have read suggestions online that Stephanie Yu graduated from
Harvard in 1999. I can't confirm this without consulting a Harvard
graduate; only he/she can access the Web page called "Post Harvard."
Other Web pages suggest Stephanie is a lawyer in New York City. Only
tried contacting that office once.