Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Come On and ZOOM (Chapter 3)

 

Chapter 3: A Show with Ten Kids



ZOOM Season 4, which premiered in 1974, was great, but it had … ten ZOOMers. The only season to have them. They included (deep breath) Andrae Morgan, Cate Wadsworth Duddy, Carmen Hernandez, Tracey Dunlap, Tishy Flaherty, David Azzoto, David "Red" O'Brien, Tommy Schultz, Harvey Reed, and Norman Christian. Unlike the previous ZOOMers, these ZOOMers wore red and yellow shirts rather than red and blue ones.


It was during this season ZOOM released the "Come On and ZOOM" cast album, which shares its name with what I'm writing now. None of the Season 4 ZOOMers were in the first three seasons, and none of them would be returning for the next.


Season 5 of ZOOM premiered in 1976, and there were seven kids in the cast again - maybe because WGBH wasn't used to the ten kids Season 4 had. The new ZOOMers were Nell Cox, Levell Thomas Gethers, Ron Richmond Savel, Arcaido Gonzalez, Chris Blackwell, Jennifer Hardy, and Karen Wing Lew. 



Once 1976 became 1977, it was time for ZOOM Season 6. These new ZOOMers were Carolyn Malcolm, Amy Clark Ross, Shona Wiseman de Nile, Susan Hobbie Wolf, Nicholas Butterworth, Chee Kim, and John Lathan, and they went back to wearing red and blue shirts.


In 1978, after six seasons, ZOOM was cancelled, and the video you see above was the final scene. Though this wasn't the first time it was cancelled (see the previous chapter). 


After the show ended, a book by author Pam Benson was made called "ZOOMers Revisited: Where are they now?." The book was about what the ZOOMers were doing after they were on the show.



In 1998, a VHS tape of ZOOM called "The Best of the 70s" was released. It was re-released in DVD form ten years later as "Back to the 70s." Despite the book and videos, that would not be the end of the show. (FORESHADOWING)

PREVIOUS CHAPTER: https://ohtwoonethreefour.blogspot.com/2021/09/come-on-and-zoom-part-2.html?m=0

NEXT CHAPTER: https://ohtwoonethreefour.blogspot.com/2021/09/come-on-and-zoom-chapter-4.html?m=0

No comments:

Post a Comment