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!
If you want to read all over again, go to the first chapter!
PREVIOUS CHAPTER: https://ohtwoonethreefour.blogspot.com/2021/09/come-on-and-zoom-chapter-5.html?m=0
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