Look Around You! - the source

A while back I posted about the BBC show Look Around You!, a parody of distance learning shows from the late 70s and early 80s. I find the parody hilarious, but I have come to understand through the years that satire is only funny if you're in on the joke.

So, I'd like to let a few more folks in on the joke. I'm assuming that the Look Around You! shows are spoofing British versions of the shows from the videos below. Admittedly, the shows below are a little more plot-driven that Look Around You! is, but it's still a paper thin plot.

The videos below are from KET, Kentucky Educational Television, the PBS network that I grew up watching on the Louisville PBS stations. They were designed to help prepare adults for their GED (General Education Development) tests. If those tests were passed - and they're still around and available - then the person would effectively have earned a high school diploma.

The shows would be played on local PBS or often available as VHS tapes at local libraries. Students would watch the shows and work through a workbook that they would have ordered and purchased in advance. I remember shows in math and English, but I assume that there were also social studies and science shows, too. The shows that I remember tended to have loose plots tying the lessons together. 

There was the English program...

...the math program...

You can even check out what the workbook would have looked like thanks to the magic of YouTube.

And, yes, I remember watching some of the shows because I was that nerdy. I would have been in elementary or middle school at the time and likely would have looked at most of the concepts as being things I already knew.

But, man, I was always down for some 3-2-1 Contact.