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The Voyage of the Mimi was a thirteen-episode American educational television program depicting the crew of the Mimi exploring the ocean and taking a census of humpback whales. The series aired on PBS and was created by the Bank Street College of Education in 1984 to teach middle-schoolers about science and mathematics in an interesting and interactive way, where every lesson related to real world applications.

In each episode, viewers were taught something scientific relating to plot events in the previous episode of the show. For example, an episode's plot would be about obtaining drinkable water, and over the course of the episode, the viewer would also be given lessons about condensation, heat, and the three states of matter. Each lesson had accompanying student and teacher handouts or worksheets.

A second series was produced in 1988, The Second Voyage of the Mimi, in which the two Granvilles, along with other archaeologists, searched for a lost Mayan city, and uncovered a conspiracy along the way.

Cast

The Voyage of the Mimi starred a young Ben Affleck as C.T. Granville, and Peter Marston as his grandfather Captain Granville. Marston was a scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the production of the program and used to own the actual ship, the Mimi.

Cast Listing:

• Ben Affleck as Clement Tyler (C.T.) Granville
• Peter Marston as Captain Clement Tyler Granville
• Edwin De Asis as Ramon Rojas
• Victoria Gadsden as Anne Abrams
• Mark Graham as Arthur Spencer
• Judy Pratt as Sally Ruth Cochran
• Mary Tanner as Rachel Fairbanks

Episodes

Each episode consists of two fifteen-minute segments.

The first segment of each episode follows a serialized tale of scientists taking a census of humpback whales off the coast of Massachusetts. Captain Clement Tyler Granville, the owner of the sailboat Mimi is hired by scientist Anne Abrams and her colleague Ramon Rojas to make the census. Anne's Graduate Research Assistant is Sally Ruth Cochran. In addition, the two scientists each invite a high school student (Arthur Spencer and Rachel Fairbanks) to take part in the study. Finally, Captain Granville's identically-named grandson comes visiting for the summer in order to give his mother a break during her pregnancy.

Each second segment is a standalone exploration of one of the scientific principles touched on in the serialized tale. In these second segments, one of the actors who portrays a young person (Ben Affleck, Mark Graham, or Mary Tanner) comes out of character and interviews real, in many cases well-known, scientists about their work. These scientists include oceanographer Sylvia Earle, geologist Kim Kastens, zoologist Katharine Payne, Greg Watson of the New Alchemy Institute, and physicist Ted Taylor.

In addition, Judy Pratt, a student at Gallaudet University, and Peter Marston, a scientist at M.I.T., come out of character in interviews with Ben Affleck at their respective workplaces.

Episode List:

1. All Aboard ----- Planet Ocean
2. Setting Sail ----- Whale Watch
3. On the Shoals ----- Mapping the Blue Part
4. Counting Whales ----- Whale Bones
5. Going Fishing ----- Scraping the Bottom
6. Home Movies ----- Songs in the Sea
7. Fastening On ----- Hands Full of Words
8. Tracking the whale ----- World's Worst Weather
9. Shipwrecked ----- Goose Bumps
10. Making Dew ----- Water, Water, Everywhere
11. The Feast ----- A New Alchemy
12. Rolling Home ----- Boat Shop
13. Separate Ways ----- A sailor and a scientist

The real vessel Mimi

The Mimi is a French-built sailboat, originally constructed in 1931 as a small cargo and fishing vessel. It was purchased in the early 1980s by Peter Marston and was kept moored in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Besides its appearances on the TV show, it went from city to city and acted as a tourist attraction in places such as Salem, Massachusetts, Boston, and other cities.

Marston retained ownership of the vessel until 1999, when the boat was sold to new owners; Captain George G. Story of Gloucester, Massachusetts, his brother Captain Alan M. Story of Deltona, Florida and Spiro "Steve" Cocotas, also from Gloucester. They operated the vessel as Three Mates Inc. for several years, bringing the boat to as many as 28 cities along the east coast. The Mimi is currently owned by Michael Spurgeon and is presently tied to a dock in Boston.

Criticism

The Voyage of the Mimi received harsh criticism from Neil Postman in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. Postman's book criticized the show for spending millions of dollars to teach children that all education should be entertaining, simple, and require no context. Postman wrote,

And, in the end, what will the students have learned? They will, to be sure, have learned something about whales, perhaps about navigation and map-reading, most of which they could have learned just as well by other means. Mainly, they will have learned that learning is a form of entertainment or, more precisely, that anything worth learning can take the form of entertainment, and ought to.

References

1. Postman, Neil (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Penguin Group.

External links

• Voyage of the Mimi Fanclub - Download Theme Song
• Voyage of the Mimi I Sites
• IMDB entry
• Bank Street Corner's Voyage of the Mimi page

• PBS network shows
• Science education television series
• 1984 television series debuts