Mathnet is a pastiche of Dragnet, in which the main characters are mathematicians who use their mathematical skills to solve various crimes and mysteries in the city, usually thefts, burglaries, frauds, and kidnappings.

Each segment of the series aired on one episode of Square One, a production of the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) aimed at teaching math skills to young viewers.

By the time production ended on the third season and its six episodes in 1989, Beverly Leech (Kate Monday) left, and was replaced by a new character named Pat Tuesday, played by Toni DiBuono.

It now houses the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian and is located at 1 Bowling Green.

"[7] At the conclusion of each episode, a title screen displays the Mathnet logo and motto against a blue background.

These versions were re-edited so that they would come in at just under an hour long, featured other segments from Square One TV as "commercials", and newly created end credits, among other differences.

Both Mathnet and Square One went off the air in 1994 (it was rerun until then after the final 1992 season was completed), reappearing from 1999 to 2003 on the cable television network Noggin, a joint venture of Nickelodeon and CTW.