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Mathnet
1987 · TV series · 5 seasons
Mathnet is a segment on the children's television show Square One Television, of which five seasons were produced. This parody of Dragnet featured detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department who solved mysteries using their mathematical skills. There were two main characters: detectives Kate Monday and George Frankly. Mary Watson also had a regular role as the duo's technical analyst, Debbie Williams. The third season had the show's setting moved to New York City. Beginning in the fourth season, Kate Monday was replaced by Pat Tuesday. James Earl Jones played a recurring role as Chief Thad Green. He also briefly appears in season 4 and indicates he knows Pat Tuesday. When the duo was transferred to New York, Captain Joe Greco became their new boss and undercover NYPD officer Benny Pill became their semi-regular backup support.
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4 comments on Hacker News
This is exactly the plot of a Mathnet episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-XMRu_q4s
A mathnet reference, wow. My favorite show as a kid, I even show my kids it today.
Edit: Found the episode for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-XMRu_q4s
Numb3rs is for wimps.
Real math nerds fondly recall -- and search for on YouTube -- old episodes of Mathnet, the cop show that made up the last 1/3 to 1/2 of PBS's Square One TV.
Yes, it's for kids, and the math that's there focuses on basic things like prime numbers and Fibonacci sequence. But it's brilliant, laced with humor, and you're likely to see more actual math being done in one 10-minute episode of Mathnet than in a season of Numb3rs.
Mathnet! That was an afternoon staple for me. The two detectives named after days of the week...
As a kid, I remember watching one episode where they opened a door with a credit card(!) and I was like "Mom, do you have a credit card" - I didn't tell her why and next thing I know after thirty minutes I shocked her by opening our side door with the credit card. Later, I got it down to 5 seconds and they changed the locks...