By Caleb John Clark
Just when you think network TV is dead, it pulls off something like Beakman's World. Every Saturday morning on CBS, Beakman, a crazed scientist with a New York accent and black spiked hair (think Ferris Bueller crossed with Seinfeld's Kramer) takes kids on a half-hour educational roller-coaster ride.
The last episode I caught covered sound waves, pressure, and explosions. To explain pressure, Beakman placed a playing card on the top of a half-full glass of water. (This isn't a new science demo – Mister Wizard did the same card trick 30 years ago – but Mister Wizard didn't have a tattooed guy named Lester dressed as a giant rat helping him.) Beakman turned the glass upside down and the card stayed put, holding the water. Beakman explained that we live at the bottom of an ocean of air, and like swimming to the bottom of a pool (image of a swimming pool flashed on screen for a split second), you feel pressure on your head, the same kind of pressure that holds the card against the glass. My thirtysomething roommate, (the same guy who initially wanted to change the channel but was too lazy to move) jumped up off the couch and ran into the kitchen. "Cool! It works!" I heard him yell a few moments later.
Beakman's show is filled with fast cuts, comical sound effects that accompany waving arms and dancing eyebrows, and in-your-face graphics that clarify concepts and keep you watching closely.
Beakman also reads letters sent from viewers. One Saturday, he came upon one that read, "When are you going to stop talking and blow something up?" Immediately, a montage of every major explosion ever caught on film blazed across the screen: Falling buildings, fire bombs, rockets blasting off. Then Beakman's mother and her bridge partners marched out in full bomb squad pads and made a disclaimer before Beakman proceeded to blow up a "film canister thingy" with a couple of "fizzy tablets." Meanwhile, Lester the rat had sneaked away and dropped a chunk of dry ice in a garbage can full of water and closed the top. You can guess the rest. At the end of the half-hour, a couple of penguins watching TV in a snowstorm came on. "What'd you think of the show?" said one and the other answered, "Dynamite. Now let's turn the TV off and find something neat to do."
There might be hope for network TV after all.
Beakman's World can be seen on CBS, Saturdays 12-12:30 p.m. EST.
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