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No room for 'Zoom'

The end of the pioneering show for "tweens" comes as PBS puts its stock in its youngest viewers. Older kids have tuned to Nickelodeon and other programming.

By CHASE SQUIRES
Published April 11, 2005

[Photo: WGBH]

When Zoom debuted in 1971 -- before widespread use of cable TV and the VCR -- the original cast had little competition for the attention of tweens.

	[Photo: WGBH]
	The demise of Zoom, which just began its final season, seems to signal a major change at PBS. "We're definitely staying with our strength, which is little kids," says John Wilson, PBS senior vice president of programming.

For a slice of the American adult population, the response is automatic.

Hear: "Box 3-5-0, Boston, Mass." Follow with: "Oh, 2-1-3-4."

"Send it to Zoom."

Zoom, a PBS television show aimed at children 8 to 12 years old called "tweens" - children between kiddie shows and teen fare - ends its run with its current season. More than the end of a show, Zoom's demise seems to signal a change in PBS's mission to young viewers, and it accents the gap between entertainment options available for children today and what was available for their parents. As Howdy Doody couldn't make it in the 1970s, Zoom is out of place in the 21st century.

In its first incarnation, from 1971 to 1984 (including reruns), Zoom captured tweens almost without competition. This time around, beginning in 1999, it stepped into a battlefield.

The show in both runs featured children ages 9 to 12 who perform skits, learn crafts suggested by viewers, teach games, and talk about issues affecting them. There was even a made-up language, "Ubbi Dubbi," and Zoom always encouraged children to explore and do new things.

In the Tampa Bay area, Zoom hasn't been on either of the public television stations in more than two years. Children here won't notice when the franchise dries up. There are plenty of other things to watch, anyway.

But even if local children won't notice, the show's departure closes a chapter for their parents and appears to signal PBS's surrender of the tween market.

Zoom was developed when the networks and PBS were the major TV choices. For children then, afternoons offered little besides cartoons on local UHF channels or adult game and talk shows.

Kate Taylor, executive producer of the 1999 Zoom revival, said the show's message - "Get out there. Turn off the TV and do it." - never changed. But the kids, and their entertainment options, did.

Public television has to maximize its impact where there's an opportunity, Taylor said. In the bid for 8- to 12-year-olds, PBS isn't alone. There's ABC Family, Disney, and Nickelodeon, video games and computers. PBS's strength is with younger viewers, she said.

Marjorie Cohn, Nickelodeon's executive vice president for development and original programing, said her network's strength is no accident.

"We talk to kids all the time, we listen to them, we take our cues from them," she said.

That has meant keeping up with new diversions they encounter. Nickelodeon's Internet site hosts computer games for kids; new shows are introduced through interactive games; children can download SpongeBob ring tones to their cell phones, Cohn said. This is stuff PBS in the 1970s never had to consider.

About 1.3-million children ages 2 to 11 watch Nickelodeon daily, according to the network.

"The broadcast networks, and in particular the cable networks, have taken over what PBS used to offer," she said. "I think it's up to PBS in some ways to define their niche."

At PBS, Taylor is planning a new show, aimed at younger children.

"I think PBS right now is focusing on the 8- and 9-year-olds and under," she said. "It's difficult to serve every single audience."

John Wilson, PBS senior vice president of programming, said the network might not be ready to give up on older children completely, especially with classroom support material and on the Internet where editing can boil down adult documentaries into age-appropriate learning tools for homework. But he acknowledged viewership may lie elsewhere.

"We're definitely staying with our strength, which is little kids," he said. "We've created an environment just for them."

In Tampa, WUSF-Ch. 16 program director Susan Geiger said her station's weekday children's block from 6 to 8 p.m. appeals to those younger children without going after Zoom-age kids. At WEDU-Ch. 3, director Dick Lobo said his station stopped carrying Zoom when it couldn't compete with cable for viewers.

"That age group is a very tough crowd. The competition is very tough," Lobo said. "Zoom was a wonderful show in its time, but the world has changed around it."

PBS launched PBS Kids Go! last fall. It's a block of programming for preschool and early elementary school children. The venture found success, PBS reported. Viewership for the fall was up 50 percent for children 6 to 8 from the previous fall with shows including Arthur and Postcards from Buster.

Former Zoomer Bernadette Yao - fans remember her for her signature arm twirl in the opening credits - said she's sad to see Zoom go but admits her own girls - ages 7 and 13 - don't watch much TV. They're busy with school, their computer and sports. When they do watch, it's often a DVD, she said.

The old Zoom didn't even have to go up against VCRs.

The show did launch Yao, now 44, on a career. She was a producer at WGBH, the Boston station that produces Zoom. She studied music in college and is releasing a CD of healing music this summer.

Nicholas Butterworth, another Zoom alumnus, ventured into entertainment as well. After a stint as executive director of MTV's Rock the Vote registration campaign in the early 1990s, he headed the music network's interactive division, and now he runs a startup company, Diversion Media, marketing niche DVD products, similar to video magazines.

Even as Zoom finds itself out of place today, Butterworth, 37, says its legacy lives on.

Zoom was hugely interactive - before the dawn of Internet and interactive TV." Not only did the cast read viewer mail on the show, the show produced segments based on viewer suggestions. And then, maybe, there's a link to something more pervasive, he said.

"I wouldn't push it too far, but certainly, there was something about Zoom that had a reality TV flavor to it," he said. "We weren't professional actors. We were in real scenarios that weren't staged. Years later, you saw that on MTV with The Real World."

- Chase Squires can be reached at 727 893-8739 or squires@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 8, 2005, 12:30:04]