Zoom, the children’s program with the infectious theme song that first aired a half-century ago, took an odd turn at the very beginning. Christopher Sarson, a British-born Boston transplant who earlier helped bring Masterpiece Theatre to WGBH, originally pitched the idea to WBZ and even shot a pilot for a show called Zoom-In featuring a few children, local TV personality Rex Trailer, and a baby elephant.
Although WBZ passed on Zoom-In, Sarson persuaded WGBH to let him use $30,000 left over from another program to film a second pilot. Over the course of a week in September 1971, the station aired it every evening as a test. The rest is history, and historical.
Zoom became the first television program for children and by children. From the first episode, which premiered on Channel 2 on January 9, 1972, Zoom differed from other shows for kids that all relied on the presence of adults. Here, the grown-ups were behind the camera. For 155 episodes across six seasons, a rotating cast of preteen children told jokes, acted out skits, sang and danced, and rapped about their thoughts and feelings.
Zoom quickly gained a critical and popular following, with The New York Times hailing it in 1972 for its “non-violent, non-hardsell, often delightful fun and games.” And unlike other programs vying for the attention of the younger audience — notably Sesame Street and The Electric Company, with their defined educational goals — Zoom focused on fun. Or, as the Zoomers themselves might put it in Ubbi Dubbi: Zuboubom fubocubusubed ubon fubun.
Maura lives in North Carolina today and follows the Whalercanes EXCEPT when they play the Bruins.
Maura's family banked most of her Zoom income except for
The money went in the bank, but I do remember that we used [some of it] to buy for the family our very first color TV. Watching the Boston Bruins games and seeing all the different uniforms from other teams with color, that was a big deal.
