Sarson says they responded to all of them. They belted out the zip code, '0-2-1-3-4.' Tens of thousands of kids took them up on the offer. Zoom encouraged creativity and made a zip code famousĪt the end of Zoom episodes, another catchy song had the cast encourage viewers to send them letters, ideas, and original writings and artwork. The cast joked around, sang and danced, played games, spoke Ubbi Dubbi and demonstrated how to make crafts. WGBH once compared it to the sketch comedy show Rowan & Martin's Laugh In. On Zoom, those interactions played out in both scripted and improvised segments. and the interaction of people rather than with any particular storyline.' Sarson set out to make a program that would deal 'with personalities. They were eager to make friends but afraid of being laughed at. None of them was real life.' He also observed how his children behaved with peers they didn't know.

While watching TV with his children in the early 1970s, he found shows like The Partridge Family 'were all false. Shrand is a psychiatrist and author.Ĭhristopher Sarson tells NPR two forces influenced his vision for Zoom. Walker's fellow Zoomer Joseph Shrand says the experience was 'exhilarating' and 'the best thing ever.' Now Dr. Walker credits the producers, composer Newton Wayland and choreographer Billy Wilson with bringing 'out the best in us.' Zoom's focus was on kids' lives She tells NPR the producers 'allowed us to be inquisitive.' After Zoom she went on to do some acting and then got into television production. 'It was seven kids having fun and just being children,' remembers original Zoomer Nancy Walker. GBH, where Zoom was produced, has a virtual event featuring a conversation with creator and producer Christopher Sarson David Kamp, journalist and author of Sunny Days: The Children's Television Revolution That Changed America, and comments from original cast members or 'Zoomers' as they're called. To celebrate Zoom's 50th anniversary, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting has made more than 100 episodes available to stream online for the first time. Its legacy, however, may have been making a Boston zip code famous.

Zoom was partly created to help model interpersonal relationships. Think Sesame Street and The Electric Company. Zoom was created during a period of experimentation in educational television. They beckoned young viewers with the lyrics, 'Come on and zoom, zoom, zoom-a zoom. Courtesy of WGBH Archivesįor pre-teens watching TV in the early 1970s, the opening to Zoom was captivating with seven, charismatic, barefoot kids in rugby shirts running, jumping, dancing and singing on a bare stage.

Sunny Days by David Kamp