3-2-1 Contact: Scientists at the writers’ table

Ingrid Ockert’s article “S is for Science: The making of 3-2-1 Contact” (Physics Today, January 2021, page 26 ) ably portrays the pioneering roles viewer research and innovative programming played in the landmark series. But as a former curriculum developer at the Children’s Television Workshop, which produced 3-2-1 Contact, I’d like to point out that the article omits mention of a less obvious way in which the show broke new ground.

Rather than relying solely on outside content advisers, the Children’s Television Workshop adopted the novel strategy of also bringing people with scientific expertise in-house to collaborate on the day-to-day making of 3-2-1 Contact. After the show’s maiden year, that responsibility fell to the biologist Ed Atkins, who went on to oversee all the science in the series. He was perhaps the first scientist invited into the intricacies of television production on this scale.

He was an inexhaustible source of ideas for episodes and a conduit for the many other scientists who contributed to the show in front of the camera or behind the scenes. In his work with writers, animators, editors, and producers, Atkins touched every science-related image and idea that appeared on screen and essentially established the role of content director in science television thereafter.

That so many in the scientific community today think back to 3-2-1 Contact and smile is a wonderful testament both to the soundness of the Children’s Television Workshop’s vision of melding content with production in the development of the series and to Atkins’s unique gifts in that arena.