Twenty-one years after the original show of Zoom was cancelled, PBS revived it with better production. I have never seen any episodes from the 70s, but the intros I've seen and things I read about it all say it was somewhat low-budgeted. I also hear it was better than this revival. Maybe it is, but I grew up with this version so this is the one I hold closest to me.
Zoe, Jared, Keiko, Pablo, Alisa, David and Lynese starred in the first and best season. This is the only season where I liked everybody. For anybody that does not know what Zoom is about, it follows a group of kids that have fun learning and simply have fun just have fun. There's arts & crafts, science, technology and drama. But the core of the whole thing is friendship and it really shows. I was just starting school when this premiered and it is what and where I aspired myself to be.
Zoe and Alisa were the only cast members that returned for season 2. I became so attached to all seven members of the first season that all the replacements seemed very inferior. I also didn't understand the concept of cast changes. Ray, Kenny, Caroline, Jessie, and Claudio joined the cast with Kenny and Caroline being the only new members I actually liked. The chemistry between the cast members really seemed to lack and some of the members didn't seem like they wanted to be there. Also, there were some uninteresting segments. These flaws stayed with the show throughout the rest of its run.
Kenny and Caroline made the return for the third season. They were joined by Kaleigh, Eric, Frances, Buzz, and Rachel. This was the only other season were I liked all the cast members. Although they were inferior to season 1's, most flaws in season 2 were lowered.
Season 4 was when I really stopped caring. Caroline, Kaleigh and Rachel returned, but I really didn't care about the new members. All flaws were back and higher than before, and all kids acted like: "Look at me. I'm on TV. I'm awesome." That vibe and flaws grew for the rest of the show's run. The last two seasons saw a change in format to become more hip. What a bad idea that was.
One thing I never liked about Zoom was the home video segments. That would always be when I'd stop watching and wait until the regular cast members would come back on. I still watch Zoom on Youtube so it is much easier to just skip over the boring video moments.
My 9/10 score is only for the first three seasons which are the only ones I like.