ZOOMing Out

 

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!