Beakman's World (Syndicated)

The Emmy Award-winning BEAKMAN'S WORLD is a science show featuring a wacky professor (Paul Zaloom) who's devoted to answering his viewers' questions about the physical world. With the help of the obnoxious Lester the Rat (Mark Ritts) and one of three dizzy female assistants, Beakman takes viewers on a trivia-packed thrill ride, unraveling everyday mysteries such as what makes fire and what causes those creaky noises in the night. For Beakman, no question is too stupid or too gross to answer -- "Snot is your friend," he says in one episode, and to explain, he enters a larger-than-life-sized nasal passage dressed in a yellow biohazard suit and emerges covered in slime and debris. In another truly gag-worthy segment about sewer systems, Beakman asks viewers to rise for the "National Sewage Anthem." With his electric-shock hairdo poking above the rim of a toilet bowl, he and his assistant Phoebe sing a song about conserving and caring for our water supply.

Despite its sometimes-crude antics, Beakman's World is packed with educational value and positive messages -- the squeamish should simply take cover. The pace is lightning-fast and might lose the youngest viewers, but older kids are sure to love the action (explosions! smashing tomatoes!). They might even learn something from Beakman's silly impersonations of historical figures like Alfred Noble and Robert Bunsen, and it's so alive with energy that it continues to feel fresh. The series uses every tool imaginable to illustrate concepts and keep things exciting, and there are nonstop sound effects, animation, slow-motion replays, and gratuitous burp and fart jokes (kids love 'em).