Square One Television: Difference between revisions

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: In the music video for "Graph of Love", the intro concerns a group of teenage girls noticing that a friend's relationship must've gotten serious, as there is a "diagram" in her purse.

** Part 5 of the ''Mathnet'' episode "The Trial of George Frankly", when the real George arrives at the courtroom, with just his undershirt and heart boxers, to expose the fake one.

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]] - The original pilot for ''Mathnet'', the shows' most popular segment, was titled "The Problem of the Missing Baseball". It had a different opening title sequence, a different actress playing the head of their computer division, and, among other differences, was exactly like ''Dragnet'', from the setting, to the rapid-changing close-ups during a conversation. It was filmed in one week in August 1985. <ref> Each episode ended with a bumper that said "Mathnet Founded 1985: To Cogitate and to Solve." 1985 represented the year the pilot episode was filmed.</ref> It was also the shortest ''Mathnet'' episode ever, at just under 33 minutes in length. The longest one was "Despair in Monterey Bay", at just under 87 minutes in length.

** Likewise, the original ''Mathman'' pilot had Mathman eat numbers that were smaller than 1/2. In that episode, the narrator says "When a number crosses your path...", instead of the usual "When you encounter a number...". An extremely earlier version of that episode (Mathman approaching a 1/3) can also be seen briefly in the opening credits to seasons 1-3, with a very funny-looking early version of Mathman and Mr. Glitch.

** This also applied to people working off camera as well. First and second season writer David Yazbek later co-wrote the theme songs to ''[[Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?]]?'' and ''[[Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?]]?''. Pat Tuesday and George Frankly even appeared in a first-season episode of the former, in which they gave out clues to the gumshoes to where the crook had gone.

* [[Kaizo Trap]]: Mr. Glitch once ate Mathman ''[[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|during the introduction]].''

* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Mr. Glitch cheated a couple of times, eating Mathman too soon. When Mr. Glitch himself ran the maze, he screwed up quickly, once getting eaten by Mathman's dog.

* [[Latex Perfection]]: The fake George Frankly in one episode of ''Mathnet'' was revealed to be wearing a latex mask.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: In the ''Mathnet'' episode, "The Problem of the Missing Monkey", George makes a reference to the fictional movie star, [[Sylvester Stallone|Sly Balboa]].

* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: In "The Trial of George Frankly" episode of ''Mathnet'', there's a running gag about the pronunciation of the last name of the two criminals (two brothers) that might be trying to have George framed for a bank robbery.

* [[Parody Commercial]]: "'Oops' is brought to you by erasers! Don't make a mistake without one!"

* [[Ratings]]: Primarily the subject in an episode of ''Mathnet'' called "The Case of the Deceptive Data". Beloved children's programming host, Mike Pliers, lost his show due to poor ratings, which were more in favor of ''The Viscious Vinnie Vermin Show''. But it was later revealed that {{spoiler|the ratings were all a lie, that the people who allegedly watched Vinnie Vermin, were actually fans of Mike Pliers. To make matters worse, the ratings were tampered with by none other than Vinnie Vermin himself, who also was a representative for the Hoover Ratings System named Wellworth Watching.}}

** Mathman wears a Michigan helmet.

** This memorable line from the ''Mathnet'' episode "The Trial of George Frankly":

* [[Show Within a Show]]: Many of the game shows depicted were essentially [[The Jimmy Hart Version]] of other popular game shows, given a mathematical twist, such as ''[[Family Feud]]'' ("Piece of the Pie"), ''[[The Hollywood Squares]]'' ("Square One Squares"), ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' ("Close Call"), ''[[Pac-Man]]'' ("Mathman") and others. Ironically, while some of the parodied game shows remained mock parodies, many of them were actual mini-game shows in their own right, using actual child contestants and even awarding small prizes with the show's branding.

* [[Signature Laugh]] - George Frankly of ''Mathnet''.