Science Court, an edutainment

Edutainment

Edutainment is a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse.-Overview:...

 animated series from Tom Snyder Productions, aired on ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's One Saturday Morning (now ABC Kids) from 1997 to 2002. It was the closing show to Disney's One Saturday Morning as it aired at 11:30 am/12:30 pm. The cartoon was "filmed in" Squigglevision

Squigglevision

Squigglevision is a patented method of computer animation in which the outlines of shapes are made to wiggle and undulate. Tom Snyder of Tom Snyder Productions invented the technique, which his animation studio Soup2Nuts subsequently popularized in several successful animated series.Compared with...

.

Overview

“The half-hour program mixed courtroom drama, science experiments, and humor to teach fundamental concepts in elementary and middle school science such as the water cycle, work, matter, gravity, flight, and energy. As each case unfolded, the characters in the trial used humor to highlight scientific misconceptions and model good scientific practice.” In a typical episode, a lawsuit or criminal action would take place based around some scientific point. Humor and musical numbers were used to breakdown scientific concepts. Science Court earned top television awards for Tom Snyder. Science Court utilized Squigglevision

Squigglevision

Squigglevision is a patented method of computer animation in which the outlines of shapes are made to wiggle and undulate. Tom Snyder of Tom Snyder Productions invented the technique, which his animation studio Soup2Nuts subsequently popularized in several successful animated series.Compared with...

 as its style of animation.

Characters

The primary characters of Science Court were the trial lawyers, Alison Krempel and Doug Savage. Alison Krempel, voiced by Paula Plum, was modest, intelligent and kind. Her logical and articulate arguments always lead to the explanations of the scientific points. Doug Savage, voiced by Bill Braudis

Bill Braudis

Bill Braudis is a comedy writer and voice actor from Boston, Massachusetts who has also done stand-up comedy. He started in stand-up in 1981. He has appeared in several Soup2Nuts programs, being in the main cast of Science Court and Hey Monie!. He also appeared in the first episode of Dr. Katz,...

, was ignorant, arrogant and unscrupulous.

Both Doug and Allison called on a variety of expert witnesses to prove their case. Doug, often to his detriment, called upon child academics Dr. Julie Bean and Dr. Henry Fullerghast to testify. Their scientific testimony disproved Doug’s case. Professor Nick Parsons, voiced by H. Jon Benjamin

H. Jon Benjamin

Henry Jon Benjamin , known professionally as H. Jon Benjamin and Jon Benjamin, is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his voice-over roles as Jason and Coach McGuirk on Home Movies, Ben on Dr...

 served as an expert for Alison Krempel. He used science to successfully refute Doug Savage's ludicrous and ill-informed claims. Often Mihkaila and Tim, Miss Kremple's assistant, helped to breakdown scientific concepts. Comedians Paula Poundstone

Paula Poundstone

Paula Poundstone is an American stand-up comedian.- Early life :Poundstone was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and her family moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts. Poundstone attended Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, but dropped out to pursue a show business career...

 and Fred Stoller

Fred Stoller

Frederick "Fred" Stoller is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and voice artist, best known for his frequent guest starring as Gerard on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond...

rounded out the cast playing Judge Stone and court stenographer Fred respectively.

• Paula Plum as Alison Krempel
• Bill Braudis as Doug Savage
• H. Jon Benjamin as Prof. Nick Parsons
• Paula Poundstone as Judge Stone
• Fred Stoller as Stenographer Fred
• Jim Woodell as Fizz

Jennifer Schulman was uncredited for the debut of the series.

Status

Science Court was only in production for one year. However, reruns of the show continued for a year after that, taking the name Squigglevision and adding segments such as "See Ya Later, Estimator" starring Professor Parsons. Although the show was not successful, Tom Snyder has had great success parlaying all twelve of the episodes into a series of educational CD-ROMs with accompanying workbooks and experiment kits for schools. On December 2, 2004 Tom Snyder, founder and former CEO of Tom Snyder Productions, was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers Hall of Fame to honor his extraordinary contribution to educational publishing.

External links

• Science Court educational products from Tom Snyder Productions