Madison Square Mysteries is a web series created by Noggin for its website, Noggin.com. It was made up of motion comics, written stories, and one live-action short. The comics and stories were exclusive to Noggin.com, while the live-action short was shown on the Noggin channel in 1999.
The series is set in Madison Square in Manhattan. It follows a boy named Jake, who discovers the diaries of a detective from the 1850s who lived in his apartment a century before. Jake posted weekly updates to Noggin.com, showing pages from the diaries along with his own research.
Logline[]
The show's official summary from a Noggin press release:
- "When a boy named Jake moves into a pre-war Manhattan apartment, he discovers the diaries of a girl detective from the 1850's who lived there a century before. Jake posts the diaries on-line where the rich and historically accurate mystery unfolds week by week, with Noggin.com visitors reading and detecting along with the girls from Victorian New York. Covert lessons in Manhattan's history and culture lie beneath the spine-tingling mystery yarn, which encourages kids to use real world investigation and analysis and put their detective skills to work. Madison Square Mysteries is the first series developed primarily for the Noggin website, although the story of Jake and the diaries unfolds in a live action short on Noggin." (source)
History[]
The show was announced in June 1999, when the New York Post published an article about Noggin's upcoming projects. Noggin also published a press release about Madison Square Mysteries that talked about the series' goals and online features.
Characters[]
The main characters are Jake (the narrator) and Madison (the namesake of Jake's apartment who lived there in the 1850s, and only appears through her diaries and flashbacks).