Beakman's World/Trivia

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• Actor Allusion:
  • One of Beakman's occasional exclamations was "Zaloom!"
  • A last-season segment on sound frequency had a Blues Brothers motif. Senta Moses (aka Phoebe) got her start in movies as a dancing extra in The Blues Brothers.
• Dawson Casting: Averted with Josie (Alanna Ubach was 16) and Liza (Eliza Schneider was 17), and played straight with Phoebe (Senta Moses was 23).
• Hey, It's That Sound:
  • Apparently, the crew were avid Scrabble fans (producer Marijane Miller was a contestant on Scrabble).
  • You might note the similarities some of the background music has to that of Rugrats. Denis Hannigan and Rusty Andrews composed background music for both shows.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Don Penguin's voiced by Alan Barzman, who also did the Energizer Bunny commercials ("They keep going and going and...").
• I Am Not Spock: Paul Zaloom's other main job is as a political puppeteer... and those shows are very much not safe for kids...
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Unlike most examples, it's been played enough times that there are plenty of tapes to be circulated, plus Netflix now offers the (almost) entire series.
• Missing Episode:
  • Downplayed with a missing segment. In the Beakmania segment in the "Camels / Density" episode, depending on the version, you either get a "Doctor & Meekman" segment on strep throat, or a "Wide Beak-World of Sports" segment explaining how Michael Jordan can look like he's defying gravity. Syndicated reruns give the former; the Netflix version has the latter.
  • Five episodes haven't been uploaded there on Netflix for whatever reason. They include two Josie episodes (Refraction-Magnets and Bees-Earthquakes), two Liza episodes (Bats-Energy and Snakes-Seasons), and one Phoebe episode (Sweat-Weighing a Car).
• No Budget: Three actors (and rarely some extras) and a bunch of simple props. Of course, that means the do-at-home experiments fit right in.
• Science Marches On: While the science in the shows is still completely accurate, some facts have been revised(for example, Pluto's not a planet anymore). The last episode of the first season is also Hilarious in Hindsight for this reason: in it, Beakman establishes an empirical process for the kids to answer any science question they have. The steps involved are:
  • 1)Formulate a Precise Question
  • 2)Home Resources (dictionaries and encyclopedias in print)
  • 3)Phone Tips (calling a related expert on the topic)
  • 4)Field Research (going to a library or other institution of learning).
    Step 1 pretty much stays the same, but it's mind-blowing how the Internet has rendered the three other steps, if not obsolete, at least inconvenient.
  • In their second segment on optical illusions (focusing on 3-D pictures), they repeatedly make mention of recording the show so you can have more time to see the picture... via VCR. Now, you can just pause your Netflix playback.
• Throw It In: It appears the general rule of the director is "If what's shot is funnier than what's scripted, go with it." It seems this was largely a one-take show (and some of the screw-up first takes were thrown in as well, like Liza's cockroach freak-out).
  • One notable example is the "Measurement" segment when Beakman compares Phoebe and Lester's foot sizes to explain the need for standardized measurements. At the end of the segment he playfully tickles Phoebe's foot and she kicks him in the face.
• Uncanceled: CBS shut the lights out after 65 episodes, but fan outcry got it back; this was the reason for the second Suspiciously Similar Substitute.