The Johns Hopkins Science Review (1948–1958) User Reviews

The Future was Exciting, and Still Is

[Lame-Username-1234 · 7/10 · 23 February 2010]

With almost certainly the largest number of surviving kinescope-reordings of any show telecast via DuMont, it's no surprise that a few episodes are online. I saw one recently, called "Man will Conquer Space", with special guest Wernher Von Braun speaking in his adorable German-accent detailing some ideas, some of which worked, some of which didn't, to send man into space and eventually the moon! The spacecraft shown was expected to have three stages to get into space to a space-station, to be used as the beginning-point to get a man to the moon, and the part that would land on the moon was called "ugly", though to me it looked retro-cool. Some parts are dated (like the idea of a wheel-like space station), some still sound worth of reviving, and some were so correct, it isn't surprising the space program was a fairly quick success all things considered (I am amazed that even then, they knew very small natural objects in space could be far more dangerous than large ones). The programme is dated, of course, sometimes in a silly manner, but it's so good-natured and so amazingly, unexpectedly correct (even with some goofs in both space science and in the production of the show), that it ends up being a whole lot of fun. Plus, the next episode (which was given a short promo) was about computers! Talk about ahead-of-it's-Time TV!

The Science Review's Exciting Review

[lukebees · 7/10 · 1 September 2018]

In the 1950s, as the television pervaded throughout North America, there was a fourth network called Dumont. Today, we associate that fourth network to be Fox because Dumont are no more. Dumont was a company that competed with ABC, NBC, CBS for a decade in the 1950s and made history as a cable network. Although those three networks are still recognizable today, Dumont never rose to their fame and ended by the 1950s. Over the next decades, the hundreds of programs and thousands of episodes that aired in that network's time were lost, never to be seen again. Although Dumont may be gone forever, there are segments of it that survive and one of those is The Johns Hopkins Science Review. This show is hosted and written by Lynn Poole, an interesting host who appears to be in his late 50s or 60s but is actually in his 40s. In a completely live show, Poole informs the viewer about how things were done in the 1950s, which in some ways may still be relevant today. The show was quite successful for its time, attracting renowned scientific geniuses such as Wernher Von Braun, and winning the Peabody Award. Even though The Johns Hopkins Science Review was saved from complete destruction, it may be difficult to get your eyes upon the show. A hundred episodes or so are kept in good hands at the Johns Hopkins University that hosted the show, but few of these are viewable. There are a few public domain episodes you can find on Internet Archive or YouTube(on some channels associated with Johns Hopkins University), such as Don't Drink The Water, The Master Glass Blower, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, A Visit to the Studio, or Concrete With Muscles. You may try to contact the University itself to get hands on some addition episodes, though they may only offer Betamax versions. Even with those few episodes, The John Hopkins Science Review is essential watching for anyone with an interest to Dumont's short period of televising.