''Popular Mechanics for Kids'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''PMK'') is a Canadian educational television program based on ''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (sometimes PM or PopMech) is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do-it-yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation and transportation o ...

'' magazine. The program aired on

Global TV The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after CT ...

from 1997 to 2000. It was notable for starting the careers of

Elisha Cuthbert Elisha Ann Cuthbert Phaneuf (; born 30 November 1982) is a Canadian actress and model. As a child actress, she made her first televised appearance as an extra in the Canadian horror-themed series for children '' Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' and ...

Jay Baruchel Jonathan Adam Saunders Baruchel (; born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He is known for his voice role as Hiccup Haddock in the '' How to Train Your Dragon'' franchise, and for his roles in comedy movies ...

Tyler Kyte Jonathan Tyler "Ty" Kyte (born July 24, 1984) is a Canadian actor and musician. He was born in Lindsay, Ontario, and began his acting career with commercials and performing in the Musical Tommy in Toronto. Kyte was made famous amongst Canadian ...

, and

Vanessa Lengies Vanessa Lengies (born July 21, 1985) is a Canadian actress, dancer and singer. She is known for starring in the drama ''American Dreams'' as Roxanne Bojarski. She appeared as Charge Nurse Kelly Epson on the TNT medical drama '' HawthoRNe'', and ...

. The show's intent was to teach viewers how things work. It was awarded the Parents Choice Award in 2003, and was nominated for the

Gemini Awards The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States ...

. Along with Elisha Cuthbert and Jay Baruchel, the cast included Charles Powell, nicknamed "Charlie" for the program,

(who joined the show in the second season), and eventually

Overview

The program starts off with an overview of the episode. The hosts (Elisha, Tyler, Jay, and later Vanessa) then start their adventures on the show (amusement park, snowboarding, surfing, visiting a science museum, etc.) Throughout the adventures, short, educational segments are shown. In the segment "Charlie's Experiment / Tip", host Charlie, and sometimes the other hosts, demonstrate an experiment. He sometimes answers frequently asked questions about related science topics. At the start of season 3, one of the hosts (usually Vanessa) would go on a third adventure. The show then comes to a close, with the co-hosts saying "See you next week!". There have been four VHS videos called "How Do They Build?", hosted by a boy named Mike and a miniaturized man named Pop.

Segments

* Maniac Brainiac * Cool Tool * Charlie's Experiment/Tip * Mechanix with Nix and Tix, later known as just Nix & Tix * Action! * Coming Up on PMK * Rewind * Fast Forward * FACTory * Under the Hood * Gear Gutz * Sparks * System Error * eXtreme

Episodes

Cast

* Charles Powell

Production

The show was filmed primarily in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

. The show was produced by the

Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after C ...

in Canada,

Hearst Entertainment Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televi ...

in the United States, and finally TVA International in Canada for the final episodes in 2000.

Broadcast

The series aired in

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

in the United States (including Hearst-owned television stations), before moving to moving to Discovery Kids on Saturday mornings by the program's final season in 2000. Re-runs of the show continued to air on many channels until 2008. It piloted on

BBC Kids BBC Kids is the international children's brand of BBC Studios, and has been applied to a number of TV services. It draws from the long history of children's programming on the BBC, and is strongly related to the CBBC channel in the United King ...

and Discovery Kids in Canada until December 31, 2009. After the closure of Discovery Kids Canada, BBC Kids stopped airing reruns in all countries except Canada. The reruns on BBC Kids in Canada ended on May 14, 2011. re-runs of the show continue to air on

Knowledge Network Knowledge Network, also branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network, is a Canadian publicly funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia. It is owned by the Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown cor ...

. In the United States, the show can currently be streamed on

Tubi Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

and

The Roku Channel The Roku Channel is an American over-the-top video streaming service owned and operated by Roku, Inc., which launched in September 2017. History In September 2017, Roku, Inc. launched a free, ad-supported streaming channel for its digital med ...

Home media

A number of VHS copies (and later, DVDs) have been released by Koch Vision and

E1 Entertainment E1, E01, E.I or E-1 may refer to: Transportation Aircraft * Azcárate E-1, a Mexican sesquiplane trainer * Fokker E.I, a German fighter aircraft * Grumman E-1 Tracer, an American airborne early warning aircraft * Hydra Technologies E1 Gavilá ...

. * ''Slither and Slime and Other Yucky Things'' * ''Radical Rockets and Other Cool Cruising Machines'' * ''Rip Roaring Rollercoasters and All Access to Fun'' * ''Gators, Dragons and Other Wild Beasts'' * ''Super Sea Creatures and Awesome Ocean Adventures'' * ''Lightning and Other Forces of Nature'' * ''X-Treme Rides'' * ''Roller Coasters'' * ''Firefighters and Other Lifesaving Heroes'' * ''Zoos'' * ''Garbage'' * ''Popular Mechanics For Kids: 4 DVD Box Set'' * ''Popular Mechanics For Kids: 6 DVD Box Set'' * ''Popular Mechanics For Kids: The Complete First Season'' * ''Popular Mechanics For Kids: The Complete Second Season'' * ''Popular Mechanics For Kids: The Complete Third Season'' * ''Popular Mechanics For Kids: The Complete Fourth Season'' * ''How Do They Build Bridges'' * ''How Do They Build Skyscrapers'' * ''How Do They Build Tunnels'' * ''How Do They Build Spaceships''

References

External links

* * {{Thetvdb, 76291 1997 Canadian television series debuts 2000 Canadian television series endings Canadian children's education television series Television shows filmed in Montreal First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Television shows based on magazines Science education television series Global Television Network original programming 1990s Canadian children's television series 2000s Canadian children's television series Television series about teenagers Television series by Entertainment One Television series by Corus Entertainment Canadian children's reality television series English-language television shows