Madeline Fretz - A month ago, my friend Noah Darden (Thomperfan) made a massive art project featuring almost every Sesame Street character ever. I decided to do the same thing, but with every ZOOMer ever, and now here you go! (Click on the image to see it fullscreen!)
The Great ZOOM Mural is a tribute to both ZOOMs as well as the 1996 pilot. I made sure to include not only the ZOOMers, but the logos for ZOOM, WGBH, and PBS Kids, Ubbi Dubbi, several posters, a picture of ZOOM creator Christopher Sarson, and a sign reading "Welcome Back! We sure have missed you!" (more on that on Parents and Kids Share Together).
Oh, and BTW, here are the signs in the mural. They're too small to look at in the actual picture!
I hope you enjoyed this picture, and keep an eye out for more exciting ZOOM projects in the future. Thanks for reading! Bubye (that's Ubbi Dubbi for "bye")!
Oh, and one more thing, please ignore the fact that some ZOOMers are missing or have almost disappearing eyes.
Madeline Fretz - Have you ever read my ZOOM fanfic ZOOMing Out (FKA "The Sad Goodbye")? If you haven't, I'm going to sum it up for you today (SPOILERS BEWARE!!!). ZOOMing Out takes place during the filming of Season 3 in summer 2000. The first part of the fic is about a typical day on the ZOOM set - ZOOMers singing their theme song and then hanging out in the ZOOMZone. Keiko from Season 1 appears (as she was in an old article about Season 5(?) auditions) and gets to sing a song with then-current ZOOMer Caroline ("Man or ZOOMer"). Now, I tend to treat my fanfics like real movies, so I can totally picture Salma Hayek (or at least someone like her) playing Future Caroline (https://zoom-fanon.fandom.com/wiki/ZOOMing_Out)
Kate Taylor and Marcy Guthner, who both worked on the show, come in and tell the kids that their show has been canceled due to PBS funding cuts. As I mentioned in Come On and ZOOM, the original show was going to get cancelled when it was in its third season, but, after receiving many content from fans, WGBH decided to keep the series. That's why I had the show get cancelled around Season 3. After that, the ZOOMers (and ZOOMCrew) spend some time in the fic packing up props and other ZOOMBelongings, reminiscing about the good times they've had and singing fun songs. You may note that this fic is starting to get akin to my 2020 Season 7 fanfic "The End of the Road," in which ZOOM also gets cancelled and the ZOOMers have to say goodbye to one another, but takes place during the show's actual final season.
Later, the ZOOMers break up and choose their own paths in life. For example, Rachel goes to space camp (with Keiko) and meets a new friend. When we see the ZOOMers getting new jobs, we notice how sad they are and how they long to be with their friends and show again. While Kenny and Caroline weren't married in real life and kids aren't supposed to live in houses by themselves, I just had them do these things.
Our villain is Harold the Troll, who lives in a small door in a North Carolina house, plans to demolish the ZOOM set and kidnap the ZOOMers. Caroline and Kenny receive a tape of WGBH studios in Boston catching fire, no thanks to Harold and his cohorts, and send it to Rachel. After seeing how horrific the tape was, the ZOOMers have to get back together again.
Now, to you, this fic may sound like The Muppets (same songs, same plotholes), albeit with some originality. While I didn't mention the songs played in the time saving montage and cleaning montage, they would obviously be 80s songs.
In one scene, Rachel and Kaleigh discover an attic filled with old WGBH stuff, including tapes of old school ZOOM. As I said in the commentary (second chapter), this scene was inspired by a scene in an old movie I remember seeing (maybe The Secret Garden)?
At the end of the story, Keiko washes the trolls away (hooray for her!), Caroline and Kenny get married (which, as I said, never happened in real life), and Pablo shows up at the wedding, helping Keiko play the organ. The fanfic ends with ZOOM fans outside, holding up signs (again stolen from The Muppets) and the ZOOMers singing "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." I had so much fun making this story and I hope you have fun reading it. Bye, ZOOMers!
Made this on Thursday. I decided to draw pictures of the best child actors in television history and hang them up in my wall.
Now, I know you may be asking "Where's Jared?", "Where's Maya?", "Where's Taylor?". Now, the reason for this: when thinking about what ZOOMers to draw, I decided to go with A). Not dead B). The ones I remember seeing the most (even though I was born after ZOOM ended). Enjoy!
In 2002, PBS noticed a ratings drop, and ZOOM was no exception.
The people at WGBH saw this and realized that if they didn't do something sooner, ZOOM would fade into obscurity, never to be seen again.
Season 6 of ZOOM was taped in summer 2003 and premiered in 2004. Kortney, Mike, and Shing-Ying stayed in the cast, while new four ZOOMers included…
…Cara Anderoli…
…Maya Morales…
…Kyle Larrow…
…and Francesco Tena.
This season had some new changes to the intro - it now had the ZOOMers at a theme park, the lyrics "You Call the Tune" and "We're Starting Soon" were removed, and there was a roll call with the ZOOMers next to pictures of them dancing instead of them introducing their names.
The joke segments now took place through a joke wall (think Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In) instead of a door on the set.
This season had a story arc with the ZOOMers in the First Lego League.
And finally, some segments such as ZOOMTales and ZOOMVid were dropped. ZOOMVid was replaced by a new segment called ZOOMOut, which was basically ZOOMGuest with ZOOMers.
…and with the new ZOOMers, new theme song, new segment, and new story arc, Season 6 of ZOOM was ready for the world.
It was time for 2004, so Season 7 of ZOOM was taped in the summer of that year and aired in 2005. This season had LOTS of changes, but let's start with the ZOOMers. Kyle, Francesco, and Shing-Ying stayed in the cast, and four new ZOOMers included…
…Nick Henry, who was adopted along with his three siblings…
…Emily P. Marshall, who was also in commercials for Papagino Pizza, Comcast, and Dunkin Donuts…
…Noreen Raja, whose parents are Pakistan and Irish…
…and Taylor Garron, who was a cast member on the first season of another WGBH kids show (which I'll get to later).
The theme song for this season was changed, while still having the same lyrics - it had the ZOOMers dancing in front of a brick wall with the logo on it and them next to a film strip of clips of them when they were introduced.
ZOOMOut from the previous season became ZOOM In On.
The ZOOMers no longer held up cardboard signs in the funding credits.
and the ZOOMers spent some segments in a colorful room.
Season 7 had two outdoor episodes.
In the season premiere, the ZOOMers spent the entire episode on a Black Dog Tall Ships schooner called Alabama in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts.
Francesco and Emily made a ZOOMSci to keep their water bottles from spilling on boat trips…
…Shing-Ying made apple brownies in the Alabama's galley…
…the ZOOMers went swimming and encountered some jellyfish…
…and the ZOOMers measured the boat's speed using a calculator.
In the other outdoor episode, titled "How We Became ZOOMers," the ZOOMers recalled their auditions, bloopers, and their time at CampZOOM, the weekend camp they went to, met each other, and prepared themselves for the show.
The Address Song from the first two seasons was back, but with altered lyrics.
During Season 7 of ZOOM, there was still a ratings drop. The changes from this and the previous season had many changes that upset many original fans, so they quit watching.
After Season 7 wrapped production in 2004, WGBH and PBS decided it was best for them to end ZOOM, with the final season airing a year later. After all, seven seasons was a good run.
ZOOM ended on May 6, 2005 with the episode you see above. At the time, Ms. Taylor and her team at WGBH were creating a new show, which was going to be either Design Squad or Hot Seat. Design Squad was to come later, leaving Hot Seat, later Hot Spot, the new show in the works. Hot Seat's first season was originally going to be the same as ZOOM's eighth and final, but plans were scrubbed. Anyways, it's interesting to know what Hot Seat would’ve been like.
The final show, which started production in 2005, aired from 2006 to 2010 on the PBS Kids GO! block. Now, I'm not going to name names, but it was a reality game show hosted by an animated orange dog who would sent his contestants - six live-action human kids, out on challenges in the real world.
This ran for five seasons and 100 episodes compared to ZOOM's seven and 201.
Just because ZOOM was no longer in production at WGBH doesn't mean it was forgotten about. The show's section at PBSKids.org remained up until 2018, but nowadays still does at r53-vip-soup.pbskids.org/zoom.
WGBH still posts about the show on its social media from time to time. So contrary to what people think, they didn't lose the rights to the show. Kate Taylor retired from WGBH in the 2010s. There were even plans to air the show on PBS Kids Sprout (now Universal Kids), the 24-hour preschool channel, but plans fell through, maybe because Sprout was aimed at two to five years olds compared to ZOOM's six to twelve.
And when the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, people started doing video chats on ZOOM, a video communications with the same name as the show, but totally different. WGBH started a campaign called ZOOM Into Action where former ZOOMers from both renditions of the show would do activities they did decades ago and participate in video chats on ZOOM (LOl!).
So this is the end of the story. I wrote about the almost complete history of ZOOM, but there was a few stuff I didn't mention. Lemme tell ya. I’ve been through a whole lot over the past few days.
Love it or hate it, ZOOM was (and still is) a great show for kids. WGBH worked hard to make it and it totally worked. Very well. So get out a DVD, tape, digitize old videos, or go to YouTube so you can ZOOM-ZOOM-ZOOMa-ZOOM with the ZOOMers. You won't be disappointed. I promise.
Well everyone. That's the end of this biography. Thanks for reading! Goodbye!
Auditions for Season 3 of ZOOM were held and the season was filmed in 2000. The new season was ready in 2001. Caroline and Kenny stayed in the cast, while five new ZOOMers were introduced. Their names?:
…Kevin Barrette, otherwise known as Buzz…
…Eric Rollins…
…Frances Dormond…
…Kaleigh Cronin…
…and Rachel Redd. Just like Caroline, Kenny, Claudio, Jessie, and Ray in the previous season, we got enough time to know these new ZOOMers.
This season also had a few changes as opposed to the first two seasons. One was the intro - the beginning of it was shot outdoors, about the ZOOMers picking each other up and heading to the show, and had the ZOOMers saying their name and doing something like blowing bubbles or looking through a telescope when they were introduced, making it more reminiscent of the 70s intros.
The Address/E-Mail song was replaced by a few new E-Mail songs. Remember, the PBSKids.org site domain was introduced when this season was in production, so it was on the new songs, replacing the old "triple w dot pbs.org" lyric the first two seasons had. In one episode, the ZOOMers did a sound off song about the PBSKids.org link!
CafeZOOM interferes with ZOOMZnacks and ZOOMa Cum Laude became ZOOM Into Action.
…and most episodes ended with one of the ZOOMers on a computer reviewing a part of the ZOOM section of PBSKids.org.
The same year Season 3 premiered, not all things would be sunshine and rainbows at ZOOM, as on September 11th, the Twin Towers caught on fire and collapsed during a plane crash. Things were about to get serious.
The Season 3 ZOOMers reunited for a special that aired days after 9/11 called "America's Kids Respond," in which they talked about their experiences and feelings with the infamous terrorist attacks.
Once 2000 became 2001, it was time for auditions and taping for Season 4 of ZOOM. The new season, which was the most important ZOOM season ever, premiered in 2002.
"But Maddie," I hear you saying, "why was Season 4 the most important ZOOM season?"
Why? Because this season introduced us to a goddess sent down from heaven, the best person ever, ALINE BARTA!!! She was a new ZOOMer this season.
Other new ZOOMers this season included Matt Runyon, who would go on to become the most underrated ZOOMer in the show's history…
…Garrett DiBona…
…and Edgar Estuardo Alvizures, otherwise known as just Estuardo. Kaleigh, Caroline, and Rachel stayed in the cast.
I believe nothing new changed during this season, except for maybe the fact that the website promos took place by a computer on the set (where Matt had his introduction in the theme song).
After Season 4, America remembered 9/11 on its first anniversary, so ZOOM released a special called "America's Kids Remember." The special not only featured Caroline and Aline (being the amazing and awesome ZOOMer the latter is), but also former ZOOMers Alisa, Kenny, Buzz, Eric, Kaleigh, and Rachel, as they talked about their experiences with 9/11 and looked back on the attacks a year later. This special was filmed in 2002, either during or after Season 5 (I’m assuming during, as we can see the ZOOMers in this special with the Season 5 ZOOMers in a picture on the ZOOM website).
…this was the cast I was referring to in the last paragraph. Most TV shows have four seasons, and ZOOM hit five when the fifth season was picked up. Caroline, Kenny, Rachel, Kaleigh, Zoe, Alisa and the gang proved they had enough stardom as Sesame Street, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Thomas & Friends, Teletubbies, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Between the Lions. Season 5 taped in summer 2002 and aired in 2003. Caroline, Aline, Estuardo, and Garrett remained in the cast, and welcomed three new ZOOMers…
…Kortney Sumner…
…Mike Hansen…
…and Elena Sheih, otherwise known as Shing-Ying.
This season's intro started with the ZOOMers playing baseball. Other than that, I think it didn't have any changes.
During this season, three ZOOMers hosted a special on PBS Kids called the PBS Kids Pet-tacular. The ZOOMers totally should've gone on to other kids shows, especially Aline. She SHOULD'VE hosted the Sunny Side Up Show on Sprout. That I would've LOVED to see her do.
You know how I said Season 3 had changes to the show? The next season had EVEN MORE!
