The tales of Mathnet

So back from my sixth grade days, my math teacher from time to time would show these old episodes of this program called Mathnet, a segment of a show called Square One Television. Keep in mind that this show was from the late 80s to early 90s while I was watching this in the mid-2000s.

The idea behind Mathnet was that it was a parody of Dragnet where police officers use mathematics to solve crimes and mysteries. Each “episode” comprised of five parts, one for each weekday. The episodes I watched were “The Problem of the Missing Baseball”, “The Trial of George Frankly”, and “The View from the Rear Terrace”, and I’ll talk about them briefly. Before we do, let’s get to the characters.

As I watched 3 episodes from Season 1 and 2, I only know the cast that was featured in Los Angeles, as the series moved to New York for Seasons 4 and 5. Granted, one character, George Frankly (portrayed by Joe Howard) was the lone character to appear in all five seasons. Anyway, aside from George, there was his partner, Kate Monday (portrayed by Beverly Leech), as well as technical assistant Debbie Williams (portrayed by Mary Watson). There were also occasional appearances of the chief of the LAPD in the show, Thad Green, and he was portrayed by James Earl Jones. No, I’m serious. The voice of Darth Vader is in this show as well.

Anyway, I’ll talk about briefly about the episodes and some of my thoughts on them. I won’t dive deep into the mathematics but I’ll at least graze what topics are discussed. The first is “The Problem of the Missing Baseball”, where a baseball that kids were playing with mysteriously goes missing after a towering hit, and one of the kids reveals that it’s a souvenir of his dad’s as it was signed by Babe Ruth.

There isn’t much to talk about, although one thing that did stick was the element of kinematics in this one: an object hitting a wall at an angle will bounce back with the same angle, which is referred to as “the angle of reflection”. I do remember that after finishing the fifth part, we got assigned a homework worksheet on this idea.

Anyhow, let’s get to this next one: “The View from the Rear Terrace”, an apparent spoof of Rear Window, where Kate is injured and unable to go into work, leaving George alone to investigate seemingly harmless pranks go off at banks. I’ll try not to spoil too much, but I will say it does get a bit intense (even for a kid’s show) by the fifth part. Logic is a consistent feature in this episode, although I do remember talking briefly about compound interest in this one as it was something that George had tried to tell a customer while undercover.

Anyway, on to “The Trial of George Frankly”, which is probably my favorite of the bunch. Various basic math topics get discussed here and there (with a flare of logic, of course, given that they’re more investigators than officers), such as how the suspects created a bank robbery scheme. What really stuck to me was the acting and the plot of this episode: George had been on vacation on an island the previous week, with no one aside from a boatsman seeing him. At the same time, he is seen committing a bank robbery on security footage, causing great confusion to him as well as Kate and the chief. Anyway, a real interesting one, and one quite humorous. This was also the only episode I watched that featured James Earl Jones as Chief Thad Green, and I remember his presence fondly. During his first scene, he asks George where he was, and I guess I’ll give you a bit of the exchange:

Chief: Does the island have a name, George?
George: Yes, it’s an old Indian Name. “Nomanisan”. Ever hear of it?
Chief: Nomanisan Island?
George: (nods)
Chief: No, I don’t think so.

For whatever reason I love to chuckle at the way this entire scene is delivered (I mean this in a very good way). It’s so well done. Anyone take note of the name of the island and the hidden meaning (no man is an island)? Anyhow, I think another scene where the acting is on point is when the chief reveals who is presiding over George’s trial. George gulping at the name gets me every time.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this brief and lighthearted post. Do feel free to check out this article, by the way, if you have ever watched Mathnet (this includes my fellow middle school classmates).