Songbook

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some new 2020 ZOOM stuff:

• ZOOM into Action, WGBH (YouTube)
  • Introduction by Pablo Velez Jr. (1999), with playlist of videos featuring former ZOOM cast members
  • Instruction, teaching, demonstration videos
  • Play of the Week
    • Riddles by Donna Moore – performed by 70s ZOOM members Joe Shrand, Tommy White, Nina Lillie, Tracy Tannebring and Donna Moore
  • ZOOM Chat
    • ZOOMChat #1, 17 April 2020 – host Pablo Velez, Jr. (1999), with guests Jay Schertzer (1972-1973), Bernadette Yao (1972-73), Kenny Yates (2000, 2001), Frances Domond (2001), and Kaleigh Cronin (2001, 2002)
    • ZOOMChat #2, 24 April 2020

• ZOOM reunions on The Dr. Joe Show, a podcast featuring Dr. Joe Shrand with assistant Mark Stiles and guests — I wasn’t able to embed these videos. Click the links below to watch the videos at The Dr. Joe Show’s Facebook page.
  • 4 March 2020 ZOOM reunion – Tommy, Tracy, Kenny, and Joe
  • 25 June 2020 “A Zoom Zoom Reunion!” – featuring Nancy, Kenny, Tommy, Joe, and series creator Christopher Sarson (link added to this post on 9 September 2020)
    

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For the past three months my page Always Friends + original ZOOM season 1 (1972) theme and address songs, including lyrics has been the most visited page on the site. It’s not clear to me why it suddenly became more popular, because I published the page in January 2017.

ZOOM was one my favorite TV shows in the early 1970s, and the cast of season 1 was a great team.They sang and danced as if they meant it. They played and laughed together, and sometimes shared each other’s sorrows and concerns in ZOOMraps.

I remember being heartbroken and in disbelief when I learned that all of the original seven weren’t to return for season two. How could you just break them up? My memory is that the album Playgrounds, featured in the “Always Friends” page, came out well into season 2 of the series, when even the three remaining originals who had carried over to the beginning of season 2 were gone.

Somehow I’d heard the song “Always Friends” back in 1973, though I’d never bought the album. Might have been too expensive. I don’t recall whether I heard it played on PBS to advertise the album or whether it was played on the radio. The song was beautiful, but to me it was also a deeply cutting reminder of the heartbreak of learning that the original seven were not coming back, apparently gone from my life, and perhaps from each others lives as well, forever, or so it seemed…

We really do belong a team
And we had the simple dream
That we wouldn’t have to break apart

I hadn’t heard the song for well over forty years before coming across it again a few years ago.

If you’re a fan of the early ZOOM series, and particularly of the inaugural 1972 season, then don’t miss the March 4th Dr. Joe Show episode featuring a reunion of four of the seven cast members of that first season. Tommy White joins Dr. Joe Shrand and his assistant Mark Stiles in the studio while they connect to two others by phone, Tracy Tannebring calling in from Plano, Texas and Kenny Pires calling from Hampton, Virginia.

With the quorum being moderated by Dr. Joe, each takes a turn telling their personal story of how they were chosen to be a member of the first ZOOM cast, and the four share variously funny and touching stories of their experiences while engaged in creating the weekly episodes of the show. However, to me the highlight of the show was a blessing given by Kenny starting at about the 25 minute point, which I’ve transcribed below.

You know what the most special thing is, from the show, is that we were kids…and we met…we were from all walks of life…all over the place, and to this day, however many…I don’t even wanna know what the years are, I’m not gonna mention that…but we are still friends, to this day…and we haven’t, you know, a lot of us haven’t talked, um, through those years or whatever, and we’ve met for the reunions, and some of us have been there and some of us haven’t, but it doesn’t matter, because we had a special thing, back in the day…and I love them all. And we love each other so much to where, you know, it doesn’t matter how long we haven’t been together, when we get together again it’s like we weren’t apart.

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