Everyone celebrates Trini's birthday with a piñata. Marc visits a visually-impaired boy navigating around his school and neighborhood. Trini discovers a boy whose vision was improved with a cornea transplant.
FILM INSERT: How A Television Works song (filmed at Connecticut Public Television with some stars of Sesame Street.
ANIMATION: How the eye sees.
THE BLOODHOUND GANG: ""The Case of the Thing in the Trunk, Part Two."" (Recycled from the episode called Fast/Slow: Speed and Racing). Using a pinhole camera effect with a piece of cardboard picking up light from a hole in the side of the van, the gang learns where the mummy is being stowed. They radio that information to the police after trapping the henchman.
Overview
3-2-1 Contact is an American science educational television show that aired on PBS from 1980 to 1988, and an adjoining children's magazine. The show, a production of the Children's Television Workshop, teaches scientific principles and their applications. Dr. Edward G. Atkins, who was responsible for much of the scientific content of the show, felt that the TV program wouldn't replace a classroom but would open the viewers to ask questions about the scientific purpose of things.
S01E01 Noisy/Quiet: Production & Processing of Sound
January 14, 1980 30 min
A sixty-second tease introduces the cast and previews some of their scientific adventures. This is followed by a four-minute film showing the recording of the 3-2-1 Contact theme. (See Quotes.) While Lisa and Marc talk...
Same 60-second tease as in first episode precedes an invasion of noises into Marc's world. Knowing that ""noise annoys,"" Marc illustrates (with a decibel reader) that loud noises can damage people's hearing. Lisa shows Trini...
S01E03 Noisy/Quiet: How People & Animals Use Sound
January 16, 1980 30 min
Lisa goes to Hawaii to see how dolphins use sonar. Another segment sees sonar of bats. Trini sees an ultrasound apparatus at work. The Bloodhound Gang finds a wrinkle in The Case of Princess Tomorrow.
Dizzy Gillespie shows off his jazz talents. Trini checks out the behind-the-scenes work at a Kiss concert. The Bloodhound Gang cracks the Case of Princess Tomorrow.
Lisa, Marc, and Trini are given a puzzle. They hear a bell ring and, as instructed, put the bell in a closed jar and take out some of the air with a vacuum pump. Since...
Trini becomes concerned when and where a hurricane is projected to strike. Marc visits Six Flags Great America to learn the mechanics and design of roller-coasters and talks to Frisbee-throwing champion John Kirkland. He also...
Hurricane Rufus is turning inland, heading toward the workshop. This prompts Trini to give a brief description of a hurricane. Jerome Barkum of the New York Jets visits the workshop to discuss human force of...
Hurricane Rufus is now abutting the workshop. Trini prepares herself with a lifeboat. She proves to Marc and Lisa that boats will float because of their shape. Trini gets a lesson in scuba diving and...
Hurricane Rufus strikes the workshop. Calmer discussion of the Earth's forces are seen at a circus, in the paths of satellites, and at the Bay of Fundy. The Bloodhound Gang teams up to solve ""The...
Marc learns about the growth of corn and pigs at the Bakers Akers farm. Trini sits in on an expectant mother's ultrasound. At the Bronx Zoo, Lisa goes on the rounds with a young veterinarian...
Lisa arrives at a hospital to see treatment for a premature baby. Trini and others at Staten Island discuss adolescent changes. ANIMATIONS: Einstein images; Human from conception to birth through growth; average life spans of...
Lisa ventures into a sewage treatment plant in Chicago.Film inserts: Msima Spring in Kenya houses a massive food chain, and it all centers around hippos; the recycling of aluminum cans; leaf-cutter ants.ANIMATION: Gloria wants to...
Lisa sees a volcano that is almost ready to erupt. Marc demonstrates a model volcano. Trini joins a group of young archaeologists uncovering fossils along the Illinois River.ANIMATIONS: The moving rocks of Earth; one billion...
REHASHED FROM THE PREVIOUS FOUR EPISODES: Lisa sees a volcano that is almost ready to erupt. Marc learns about the growth of corn and pigs at the Bakers Akers farm. ANIMATION: One billion years of...
Trini and Lisa stage a surprise birthday party for Marc. It revolves around a tape recording which Marc must play at various speeds. Features Harry Blackstone's complex magic acts (with one trick slowed down).ANIMATION: How...
Lisa gets some instructions on rhythms from a professional drummer and witnesses the wicked tides at the Bay of Fundy. Trini examines migratory birds. Marc learns about human heartbeats and how a pacemaker works. ANIMATION:...
Recycled from Episode 12: Lisa arrives at a hospital to see treatment for a premature baby.A make-up artist transforms Marc into an old man, explaining human aging along the way. In a separate film sequence,...
Marc and Lisa give Trini a psychological boost prior to Field Day. Lisa checks out a professional motorcycle racer (filmed Oct. 1979). Marc gets a lesson on tennis serves from Arthur Ashe and visits Six...
REHASHED FROM THE PREVIOUS FOUR EPISODES: Lisa checks out a professional motorcycle racer (filmed Oct. 1979) and witnesses the wicked tides at the Bay of Fundy. A make-up artist transforms Marc into an old man,...
Marc and Lisa discover too late that Trini is stranded in the desert with an empty gas tank, setting the stage for three episodes. At Shea Stadium, Marc observes the Mets' signals. Lisa visits the...
Trini is still lost in the desert, despite several attempts to get messages across. Marc illustrates his expertise on bugs. He visits a researcher determining how bees communicate. More Mummenschanz performers appear.Recycled from Episode 3:...
After two days and contact, Marc sends out the Goodyear Blimp for Trini. Marc visits Bell Laboratories to see a computer that is programmed to speak (intermixed with portion of Human Voice animation from Episode...
Trini returns from the desert. She gets in her first segment of the week, visiting the University of Tennessee, where an ape named Chantek learns sign language. Trini also checks out a giant telescope in...
Trini recounts her attempts to send distress signals from the desert. Lisa and Marc remind her that her messages had to reach somebody for a good response.REHASHED FROM THE PREVIOUS FOUR EPISODES: At Shea Stadium,...
Trini decides to bring a pet to the workshop, but she didn't count on a friend bringing a wolf. At the Bronx Zoo, Lisa goes on the rounds with a young veterinarian feeding baby animals....
Marc illustrates the truth about calories while baking a pizza. A group of school kids at Staten Island learn about nutrition. Lisa's cousin, a lumberjack, visits the workshop to demonstrate the ""horizontal chop.""ANIMATION: A concatenatious...
Lisa, Marc, and Trini have been invited to a canoe trek in Maine. They have difficulty at first trying to decide what food to bring. Marc learns about the growth of corn and pigs at...
True fuel is discussed in this episode, first with the 1980 phenomenon ""gasohol"" and with real gasoline at a motorcycle race. The gasohol segment takes Lisa to a rural factory where corn kernels, with enzymes...
RECYCLED FROM THE PREVIOUS FOUR EPISODES: Gasohol, Baker's Akers, baking bread. Another sequence believed to be in this episode is a race of fuel efficiency between a school bus and a car (which is seen...
Trini has been standing in the freezing cold, threatening to become almost as sick as Marc. Lisa gives a demonstration on feeling hot and cold. But the biggest surprise comes when Lisa brings in Vicky...
The desert and polar regions demonstrate how plants and animals react to extreme heat or cold. The Bloodhound Gang unlocks ""The Case of the Secret Message.""
Marc and Trini relate temperature to each other as they make ice cream and candied apples respectively. Lisa demonstrates extreme cold temperatures with liquid nitrogen. A ""volcano chaser"" visits the workshop to discuss volcanoes. On...
Lisa is bitter over her cold. As Marc and Trini try to warm her spirits, Lisa thinks back to her visits with the motorcyclist and the hot-air balloons. The Bloodhound Gang must work quickly to...
A solar astronomer explains how the sun produces the seasons. He tells Marc that the sun is closer to Earth in winter than in summer, but the angle of sunlight is far different.REHASHED FROM THE...
Marc wants to set up a model solar system. To simulate the sun, he and the others get the largest light bulb they can buy. Only after they blow a fuse do they learn (from...
Trini follows the crew that sets up the lighting on a Kiss concert (recorded during their 1979 tour). At the workshop, Trini uses a prism to split white light into the color spectrum. Lisa witnesses...
Everyone celebrates Trini's birthday with a piñata. Marc visits a visually-impaired boy navigating around his school and neighborhood. Trini discovers a boy whose vision was improved with a cornea transplant. FILM INSERT: How A Television...
Marc proposes to burn a hole through a piece of cardboard using a magnifying glass and the sun. It doesn't harm the cardboard, but Lisa and Trini get the message.REHASHED FROM THE PREVIOUS FOUR EPISODES:...
Lisa and Trini enter an Eames Room to play tricks on Marc. Marc gets an up-close look at things through a scanning electron microscope. The Bloodhound Gang is called on to observe an apparent prognosticator...
Marc visits a researcher determining how bees communicate. Then, in a segment previously used in Light/Dark: The Eye, Marc watches a visually-impaired boy navigate around his neighborhood.THE BLOODHOUND GANG: ""The Case of Princess Tomorrow, Part...
S01E43 Near/Far: Mapping and Navigating Over Earth
March 5, 1980 30 min
For the bulk of the show, a guest at the workshop is Willis Brown, a transcontinental pilot who discusses air travel. Trini examines homing pigeons. Marc goes on a sailing adventure.THE BLOODHOUND GANG: ""The Case...
RECYCLED FROM THE PREVIOUS FOUR EPISODES: Marc sees a sailing ship chart its return course and observes how a blind boy finds his way around; astronauts training for navigating the space shuttle.
Lisa is looking for a quilt design, which she can't quite place. Trini suggests that Lisa use a computer to create a new quilt design. Marc sees ordinary objects look extraordinary through the scanning electron...
S01E47 Order/Disorder: The Body – An Ordered System
April 1, 1980 30 min
A student of neuropharmacology visits the workshop to discuss the order of the human body and all its systems. Marc observes how a pacemaker works. Trini seeks how a doctor could restore a boy's sight...
Animals keep a semblance of order, whether they are bees in a hive or people in the Kalahari Desert searching for melons. Music and games are also part of social order, as we shall see....
Marc, Lisa, and Trini become helter-skelter at the beginning, but they calm down and devise plans. In the process, Lisa finds a pattern for her quilt. On location, Lisa sees a sewage treatment plant in...
A composer visits the workshop to discuss writing music. Marc sees the specialized work of honey bees. Trini gets the full story on setting up a rock concert.
Clothes are humans' number-one source of protecting the skin. Trini finds out what clothing works best when climbing a mountain. The Bloodhound Gang is confronted with ""The Case of the Missing Bloodhound.""
S01E52 Surfaces: Shapes and Functions at the Surface
April 8, 1980 30 min
Field locations include cacti in the Arizona desert, a Zamboni, and a scanning electron microscope. The Bloodhound Gang decodes Mr. Bloodhound's whereabouts in ""The Case of the Missing Bloodhound.""
Lisa rides a hot-air balloon and gets tips from a glassblower on making goblets. A film insert discusses bubbles and how they are used. The Bloodhound Gang is kidnapped in Part One of ""The Case...
A geologist appears in the workshop for a discussion on the three types of Earth rock. In Hawaii, Lisa sees a volcano and takes a novice surfing lesson. Film insert: Searching for oil; inactive volcanoes.ANIMATIONS:...
At the Bronx Zoo, Lisa goes on the rounds with a young veterinarian feeding baby animals. Marc visits Miami Seaquarium to see whales trained.Film insert: Leaf-cutter ants; flea circus.ANIMATION: Do you know how difficult an...
Everyone is perplexed when they find bugs living on just about everything. Trini examines a salt marsh. (Continues in Episode 59.) A guest biologist discusses water and food chains.Film insert: elephants' needs for survival.ANIMATION: Ants.THE...
Trini is convinced she has discovered a dinosaur bone. A visit to a American Museum of Natural History shows that she actually has the femur of a horse. Also at the museum, a young student...
At an aquarium, Lisa and Trini learn about volume. Marc and Lisa head out to see a supertanker. Trini stakes her case about oil spills. This includes an extension of Trini's visit to the salt...
REHASHED FROM THE PREVIOUS FOUR EPISODES: Trini is convinced she has discovered a dinosaur bone. A visit to a American Museum of Natural History shows that she actually has the femur of a horse. Marc...
The workshop welcomes a guest to discuss the human psyche of crowding.Film inserts: Building a skyscraper; the Gui people of Africa do a little minor socializing; New York City life.THE BLOODHOUND GANG: ""The Case of...
S01E62 Crowded/Uncrowded: Optimum Populations in Nature
February 12, 1980 30 min
A wildlife expert visits the workshop to extoll on the impact humans have had on animals such as the wolf. FILM INSERT: Kudzu takes over parts of the South. The elephant struggles for survival in...
S01E63 Crowded/Uncrowded: Contrasts in Densities of Materials
February 13, 1980 30 min
Trini pilots around New York City in the Goodyear blimp. Lisa gets to ride a hot-air balloon. The Bloodhound Gang gets an eyesight-full in Part Two of ""The Case of the Cackling Ghost."" (Concludes in...
S01E64 Crowded/Uncrowded: Down Among the Atoms (Liquids & Solids)
February 14, 1980 30 min
Marc adds too much food coloring to the frosting on a birthday cake for his sister, starting a discussion of molecular density in solids and liquids. The Bloodhound Gang solves ""The Case of the Cackling...
S01E65 Crowded/Uncrowded: Human Survival/Controlling Densities
February 15, 1980 30 min
REHASHED FROM PREVIOUS FOUR EPISODES: Lisa rides a hot-air balloon. FILM INSERT: The elephant struggles for survival in Africa. ADDITIONAL: The black hole.
