Post by milkywaycannonball on Jul 2, 2020 22:31:07 GMT
Hello. I have been searching for a live-action science variety series for older kids that I saw on VHS tape in 2003. In my latest attempt at searching, I found two Reddit posts from a couple years ago clearly searching for the same show.
The most distictive segment I remember about this show were segments with a head-in-a-jar character. The OPs of the two threads I found both remember his name as "Larry the Omnipotent Head in a Jar". The only other relevent thing that can be found on Google is a YouTube video with a comment under it from years ago that also seems to have seen this(the video is linked in one of the threads).
Both of the previous searchers saw this show in science classes. While I was homeschooled and saw it on a VHS tape my mom received through some online thing that might have been specifically for educators. This gives me reason to believe the show might have been specifically distributed for educators. I remember the head-in-a-jar looked different in one of the six episodes on my tape though. That gave me reason to believe the episodes were from different seasons of a show that aired on TV.
Here are the two old Reddit threads, followed by mine: https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/762ciz/tomt_video_or_show_i_watched_in_junior_high/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/81bci5/tomt_tv_kids_show_about_science_similar_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/hjg70e/tomt_another_science_show_for_older_kids_seen_on/
I do hope it is possible to find this show. I have a feeling it is a possible lost media mystery.
I found clips of this show online and I'm not seeing the head thing in an episode I skimmed for, but this does seem pretty old and weird.
I found that listing while searching yesterday. It seems a bit old to be the show, but I will try finding clips and seeing if it could be. In my Reddit post I describe what I remember of other segements of this show.
I'll also clarify that I am pretty certain I just had one tape with (I think) 6 episodes on it. Though it's not impossible it could have been a re-release of this, if this is it.
I will post again if I come to certainty that this is not it, or lacks enough findable clips to prove it. Thank you for helping out on a potential lead.
Update: I found a channel with every episode of the Adventures Into Science series on YouTube. I watched over half the first episode and skimmed through a few more. I am positive this is not it, and has quite a different format from what I'm looking for.
The series with "Larry the Omnipotent Head in a Jar" had, I'm fairly certain, a (retro) Sesame Street-style format consisting at least mostly of different, unrelated (though sometimes recurring) short segements with no overarching narration. If there was a main hosted segement of the show, it does not stand out to me and probably wasn't much more prominent than the Street Scenes of pre-2002 Sesame Street. I could be mistaken though.
Hmmm, that's very interesting. I'll keep looking, I imagine this is something under all of our noses.
Thank you. I'll keep looking too. Though I'm not sure where to search. The best I can think of to do is look for information on different science series that were on VHS. Along with asking around to find anyone else who remembers this and actually knows what it was.
This became a lot more intriguing to me once I found those old Reddit threads. I really wonder where the answer will be found.
Post by milkywaycannonball on Jul 3, 2020 16:57:22 GMT
So I was searching on the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine for any possible leads. I found a company called Schlessinger Media that might be a possibility. They are a major publisher of videos for the classroom. They go back far enough, and have a lot of science ones, including for grades 5-8. The problem is, I cannot find a place to access most of their releases online(let alone ones that are likely/possible) to find out if this was something made by them. If anyone knows a way to view a lot of their science videos(some of which are series), I would appriciate it.
Do you happen to remember what subjects the series would cover? That might help in coming through the schlessinger media stuff.
I just know for sure that it had a lot to do with science. Also possibly featured math too, based on one of the others who remembered it on Reddit remembering it involving math; and the music video segment I vaguely remember might have been about math. Because one of the posters saw it in chemistry class, it likely had a lot to do with chemistry. It is also very possible that different episodes focused on different topics. I am sorry I cannot be much more help here.
I do have a strong feeling that if Schlessinger Media made this that it would be one of their series meant for grades 5-8. I know it was way above me when I saw it, which is part of why my memories are so unclear on what stuff in it was even about. Thank you so much for being interested. I really wonder how easy this will be to find.
There's a comment here from 2013 that reads "We decided to see the video in our AP Chem class. BIG mistake. Everyone in the video is high and it is totally incomprehensible. I'm also pretty sure our IQ fell. At least the head in the jar is omnipotent"
There's a comment here from 2013 that reads "We decided to see the video in our AP Chem class. BIG mistake. Everyone in the video is high and it is totally incomprehensible. I'm also pretty sure our IQ fell. At least the head in the jar is omnipotent"
Thank you so much. I saw your response on Reddit first. You don't know how happy I am to see this again and know what it is. How hard was it to find? Now I want to find out more information on this series and how much if any seems to be lost.
Thank you so much. I saw your response on Reddit first. You don't know how happy I am to see this again and know what it is. How hard was it to find? Now I want to find out more information on this series and how much if any seems to be lost.
No worries It took me about 45 minutes of searching, a combination of the keywords "vhs" "science" and "head" ended up leading me to the right place.
Thank you so much. I saw your response on Reddit first. You don't know how happy I am to see this again and know what it is. How hard was it to find? Now I want to find out more information on this series and how much if any seems to be lost.
No worries It took me about 45 minutes of searching, a combination of the keywords "vhs" "science" and "head" ended up leading me to the right place.
Thank you. That's more dedication than I have the attention span for. It really means a lot that you were even interested.
So from the searching I have done so far, it looks like the episode you linked is the only one online. (Unless there is more on some hard-to-find torrant site or something.) Besides this VHS listing, there is a listing on Ebay for a DVD with 7 episodes released in 2004. I cannot figure out yet if there were more episodes than that. It seems like this isn't really lost, but most of the episodes just aren't easily (if at all) accessable online. I would want to buy the DVD and upload the episodes if I had the equipment and knew how.