Cast Reunion ZOOM PBS-TV Show

Cast Reunion ZOOM PBS-TV show Bernadette Yao, Joe Shrand, Kenny Pires, Maura Mullaney, Nancy Walker

ZOOMers Cast Reunion – ZOOM PBS-TV show – Bernadette Yao, Joe Shrand, Kenny Pires, Maura Mullaney, Nancy Walker

Cast Reunion ZOOM PBS-TV show Bernadette Yao, Joe Shrand, Kenny Pires, Maura Mullaney, Nancy Walker

Bernadette Yao – TV child star, on the PBS Kids show, ZOOM, Bernadette is no stranger to the performing arts She is a recording artist and independently produced 3 albums of healing music for meditation, sung back up for artists like Suzanne Vega, and was a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Read More: Zoom Star Bernadette Yao Releases Single in Honor of AAPI Heritage Month

Joseph Shrand – TV child star, on the PBS Kids show, ZOOM – I’m Joe. After a career in theater I went to Medical School, and am now Board Certified in Adult Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine.

Kenny Pires -TV child star, on the PBS Kids show, ZOOM  “I lived in Roxbury, currently living in Yorktown VA, after zoom 28-1/2 years in the Air Force. Zoom opened the world for me and made me want to travel to see it”

Maura Mullaney -TV child star, on the PBS Kids show, ZOOM I lived in the Boston neighborhood of Hyde Park. After ZOOM, I did voice-over work, several stage productions, and I dabbled in writing, music and radio. I went to Providence College and majored in Political Science.

Nancy Walker – TV child star, on the PBS Kids show, I grew up in the Roxbury/Dorchester of Boston. After Zoom, I pursued an acting career. I was casted in a TV Movie, See How She Runs and a PBS Program, Infinity Factory. I attended BU College of Fine Arts. I left after 2 years to return to WGBH and start my TV Production career working in Local Programming. 

ZOOM (1972-1978; ZOOM PBS-TV), a half-hour PBS show for 7-to-12-year-olds, was ’70s kids’ culture in a nutshell: brightly colored, optimistic, utopian, and short-lived. The show was part of the educational TV boom of that decade, kickstarted by the establishment and funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS in the late sixties and early seventies. Children’s Community and Public Television in the 1970s was created by Leslie Paris, Associate Professor of History at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her work on ZOOM was made possible by grants and fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Participatory Cataloguing Project at WGBH, the UBC Hampton Research Endowment Fund, and the UBC Public Humanities Hub.

On January 9, 1972, the children’s television series ZOOM premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) affiliates across the country. Designed for an audience between the ages of seven and twelve, ZOOM focused on young people making and sharing their own fun. Its distinctive claim was that viewers sent in the ideas for the jokes, plays, games and other activities that a cast of children, known as ZOOMers, then shared with its national viewership. The series addressed this audience as active cultural producers who had interesting talents and ideas to convey; each week, the cast recited WGBH’s postal address as a poem, ending in song, such that the repeated call to “Send it to ZOOM” likely made “02134” the best-known zip code among American children of the 1970s. As the series’ theme song asked, “Who are you? / What do you do? / How are you? / Let’s hear from you! / We need you!”

Produced at public television station WGBH in Boston, ZOOM was one of the most successful non-commercial children’s series of the 1970s. Over the course of six seasons, millions of American children watched ZOOM, and they responded to its exhortation to participate by sending in an average of 10,000 letters every week. Some viewers suggested themes for discussion among the ZOOMers, or passed along tongue twisters and riddles. Others shared original plays, poems, stories, and artwork. Many wrote in asking for specific ZOOM cards, which contained information about activities highlighted on previous episodes; these viewers generally included a SASE, or self-addressed stamped envelope, in anticipation of a reply. By 1976, ZOOM had received over two million letters.

There were between seven and 10 ZOOMers – preteen cast members – on the show, depending on the season. The kids were paid for their work, but they weren’t doing this full-time; they continued in school, and each stayed in the cast for only thirteen weeks. The introduction to the show gave each of the current ZOOMers a small cameo to do a signature “move” (a somersault, a little dance), and called for viewers to get involved (“Who are you? What do you do? How are you? Let’s hear from you! We need you!”)

Cast Reunion ZOOM PBS-TV show Bernadette Yao, Joe Shrand, Kenny Pires, Maura Mullaney, Nancy Walker


About this event

Collectibles Extravaganza Independence Weekend Show and Sale, July 1-3, 2022, returns to Boxboro Regency Hotel in Boxborough, MA.

Antique & Collectible Toys • Comic Books • Action Figures • Funko Pops • Art • Vintage Vinyl Records • Books • Collectibles • Magazines • Memorabilia • Video Games • Star Wars • G.I. Joe • Transformers • Ghostbusters • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles • Pokemon • My Little Pony • DC Comics • Batman • Superman • Wonder Woman • Teen Titans • Marvel Universe • Avengers • Spider-Man • Sports & Non Sports Game & Trading Cards • Card Games • Dr. Strange • Diecast Vehicles • Tonka • Hot Wheels • Matchbox • Nascar • Monsters • Sci-Fi • Fantasy • Horror • Ephemera • Figurines • Limited Editions • Posters • Graphic Novels and Lots More!

CollectiblesExtravaganza.com

Daily and weekend passes available while supply lasts.

Cast Reunion – ZOOM PBS-TV show – Bernadette Yao, Joe Shrand, Kenny Pires, Maura Mullaney, Nancy Walker

Concert after-parties included in admission:

Friday July 1st – 8:00 – 10:30 pm – COSPLAY KARAOKE with Cowboy Mach Bell (Joe Perry Project) and Chelsea Brickham (Actress, Model, Designer, Cosplayer)

Saturday July 2nd – 8:00 – 10:00 pm – SAL BAGLIO ROCKHOUSE (The Stompers, Amplifier Heads), Opening Act Charlie Farren!

Cosplay activities, photo ops, panels and presentations all weekend.

Friday July 1, vendors and artists will be open from 4:00 until 8:00 pm, with special early buyers access at 3:00 pm.

Saturday July 2, vendors and artists will be open from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm, with special early buyers access at 9:00 am.

Sunday July 3, vendors and artists will be open from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm, with special early buyers access at 9:00 am

Hotel rooms are available for only $99 + tax per night. Call the Hotel and ask specifically for the Collectibles Show group when you call 978-263-8701 to reserve your room. Each night of Hotel reserved using the code ComicCon when reserving directly with the Hotel will receive ONE Free Weekend General admission.

Guaranteed Not Boring and FREE PARKING

CollectiblesExtravaganza.com for more info!

Cast Reunion ZOOM PBS-TV show Bernadette Yao, Joe Shrand, Kenny Pires, Maura Mullaney, Nancy Walker