FEEDBACK & E-MAILS from FANS

Here are some e-mails I have been sent regarding this site and other TVOntario shows. These people share many of the same fond memories I have. Some recall shows I didn't watch. Some need help trying to remember show titles. Others offer more links. Have a read and feel free to send me an e-mail

Feb 24/03 from Jessica:
I just saw a link from a friends website (chessthecat.com) and I have to tell you this is great! I had been looking for the old TVO shows and I came up with nothing. You truly made my entire day!

Feb 25/03 from Dan:
Some wonderful memories indeed!! Do you remember another TVO show that use to be shown after report canada and before inside/out. It was about a older fellow and a yound girl and their chase to catch a criminal mastermind. The show was all about early canadian and upper/lower canadian history and the 1812 war? Did you remeber this show and it's title?? This question has been bugging me for years!!! and your site reminded me of it! Thanks for the memories!

and

I would say the show aired in late 79 to early 80's, and was usually in the morning around 0730 or 0800 - the show usually took place inside a house / den / study area and the older fellow had some sort of computer / tv screen that they could look up the important points in history that they need to track the bad guy ... one line from the show that always stuck with me was " brock brock he's dead" in reference to isaac brock and the 1812 war (said in the vain of "knock knock who's there ...

(Does anyone know? The only 1812 reference I recall was from Read All About It - but this was not the show. I tried looking at some old TV Guides I had - but the TVO listings were spotty)

Feb 25/03 from Amy:
i didnt' see it on your page (which was great by the way), but do you remember ever seeing "Willow the Whisp"? i think that was the title. it was mostly animated in black, blues and white and had a cloud like narrator at the beginning, and an evil walking, talking typewriter i think. it was one of my favourites, along with Jeremy and the Green Forest.

(Will o' the wisp was a show I never watched...sounds interesting though....)

Feb 26/03 from Bryan:
hello there! love the site! i have many fond memories of TVO and you have doen an amazing job.
i have a few points that you might find useful: In Mathworks, Sydney's costume was a kangaroo, not a mouse.
A show that I used to love watching, usually at about 6 pm on weeknights, was Dr. Snuggles. Here is a link that has some info on the show. http://www.doctorsnuggles.com/
Another show that TVO ran was Barbapapa. Here is a link to a site was a lot of info: http://home.t-online.de/home/claus-wunderlich/barbaeng.htm
Here is alink to some history about TVO : http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/ccf/CCF_Listings_and_Histories/Television/Gta_Ontario_TV/CICATV_Toronto_History.html
and finally, here is a link to some more information about Read All About it. http://www.papmag.net/cgi-bin/frontend/frontend.pl?page=story&sid=73
Again, love the site, and hope that my comments and links prove helpful. Thank you for helping me relive some fond memories!

(I've added a bunch of your links where necessary. I will soon add a Barbapapa link - a show I was rather obsessed with. How could I make such a mistake with Sydney!)

Feb 27/03 from Ryan:

Timothy Pilgrim has been on my mind a lot lately, for whatever reason, and i've been desperately seeking vindication. And there it is - pictures and everything!! Phew! i'm not crazy. Though i have my doubts about the show creators ... ;)
i've got a brain full of memories for you and one weird experience to relate - wherein i began a correspondence with the creator of Dr. Snuggles, and he wanted me to try to sell the show back to TVOntario. He told me about one episode he wrote that was rejected by the censors because it appeared to be too drug-related ... so the episode they approved in its place was the one where Snuggles had to find Uncle Bill the explorer, who had changed into a butterfly after touching a giant magic mushroom (!!) Another piece of Snuggles lore is that Douglas Adams (the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) wrote the episode about aliens from an arid planet stealing cubes of water from the sea, making the river afraid to flow down and meet it. Douglas Adam's third Hitchhiker book, Life the Universe and Everything was apparently a rejected or unused episode of Dr. Who that he had written. Here's a list of some shows you're missing: - Dr. Snuggles ('natch)
Will O' the Wisp (starring Evil Edna the television) http://www.virtvic.freeserve.co.uk/img65.gif http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000050752
Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (drawn on heavily by Mike Myers)
Dear Aunt Agnes (with Heather Conkey)
Gran - Noddy - i forget the show, but it was a French learning program starring Ananas the pineapple - Safety Scouts - this came a little later. Puppets built by the Ananas people (same people built the puppets in Readalong and Under the Umbrella Tree) - The Ozlets (Ozlings? Might have been CBC anyway.) - Chorlton and the Wheelies http://www.chorltonandthewheelies.co.uk/ - Jamie and the Magic Torch http://freespace.virgin.net/greg.taylor1/watched_it/jamie.htm - Supergran (maybe CBC or Global) http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/supergran/ - Dr. Who - Paddington Bear There's one Brit show that i can't fully recall ... don't even know if it was animated or stop motion (probably stop motion), but it was one like Jamie and the Magic Torch where the British accents were so thick i couldn't understand a damn thing in the show. i just remember that the opening theme song included a male singer intoning "Go underground ..." It was very 60's, and obviously Yellow Submarine-inspired ... i think there may have even been a land submarine in it, with maybe a crazy inventor or trinket-collecting character. Do you know this one? That's all i can dredge up from my brain right now. Thanks for the wonderful site!

(Wow after reading this it seems like I missed out on a lot with this Dr. Snuggles show. And another Will O' the Wisp fan...another show I never watched...too bad. Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings is prehaps my favourite theme of all time - a great UK show! You indeed remember many great shows - thanks for the input!)

Feb 27/03 from Plumber:

THANK-YOU THANK-YOU THANK-YOU. Your website is incredible. Man, it brought back alot of memories. I didn't think i'd ever see some of those shows again. Keep up the good work!

Feb 27/03 from Marco:

Hi there- I happened to have stumbled upon your tribute page and was almost put into tears from what I witnessed; the pics and themes of all of these cartoons brought back so many fond memories. I can recallw atching most of them on tv back in the day when I was an innocent little child with no worries and responsibilities. Well,I'd like to say thankyou for doing such a wonderful job. Thanks. Also, off the top of my head, I can recall some additional cartoons and tv shows that you may want to include on this page(though, not sure if they were screened on TV Ontario): polka dot door sesame street barba poppa the little prince bella and sabastian dr snuggles voltron

(Barbapapa will soon be added. I don't think I will do anything for Polka Dot Door since there seems to be a lot out there already, likewise for Seasme Street - I'll have to see about the others)

March 14/03 from Thetis:

Wow. I just linked here from a friend's website and got the most incredible heart melting mushies. TVO was practically all I was allowed to watch as a child and I didn't realise I'd forgotten about so many of the shows! You really do need to check out Will O' the Wisp. There was a dog called "The Moog", Mavis Kruet the Fairy, Carwash the Cat and Evil Edna (a TV set). Ryan refers to a show with a song that intones "...go underground" that was very Yellow Submarinish. It was called The Secret Railroad. There was a man called Mr. Passenger, a black cat, and a girl with star shaped hair called Stella. Very psychedelic. Now that I have children I wish I could watch these shows with my kids... Thanks again for the great sight!

and

I just e-mailed, but upon more browsing remembered another show. It had organ music at the beginning, some classical piece, maybe? It's an animated show about history (mostly ancient) and the begininning of it shows the evolution of history and there's this weird little short man who is mostly covered in long white hair, a long white beard and moustache and may have two little antennae on his head... more info would be greatly appreciated if anyone remembers this show...

(Can anyone help on this one?)

March 14/03 from Gabor:

wow, does that ever bring back a lot of great memories. I was wondering if you or anyone else remembers a show that I'm pretty sure was on TVO back in the late 70's. It was a cartoon and it was basically about the history of the world. It followed the adventures of the same group of characters through time from cave men to rocket ships. Each show was introduced by an animated clock or something like that. From what I remember the animation style was either Japanese or French.

(Hmmmmm - I am stumped on this one too)

March 17/03 from Michael:

Just a quick note to say that I love your site.. it's been a blast looking at pics from some of these shows I've long since forgotten. Great job :)

March 19/93 from Jason:

I visited your website today. I have great fondness for shows such as All About You, Parlez- Moi and my favorite, Read All About It. I'd like to see those shows again. Are they available anywhere. I have one All About You episode, and perhaps one episode of Parlez-Moi. Thanks for bringing back some memories.

and

I live in New York State. I'll have to check the titles of the shows in my collection. Would you possibly have any material from the series Captain Kangaroo? I am in the process of writing a book about the program. On a side note, I first saw Read All About It in the fifth or sixth grade. It aired in this area at 2pm. As I lived a few blocks from school, I made a mad dash home to catch the last five minutes of most of the shows, but saw very few complete episodes. What was the name of the series that featured a secret agent who dressed in a kangaroo outfit, and whose boss was named "Mr. Big" (although only his arm was shown)? Was this a TVO show?

(Math Patrol of course!)

April 9/03 from Scott:

Wow, what a nice site you have! I came across it on a web search for Tony Salatan. I have always wanted to know what happened to him. I watched him during the early 70s. I was in 3rd and 4th grade and sometimes they would play his show on during school hours along with some other short educational shows. I always liked him and hope life went well for him. He introduced me to the music of Woody Guthrie and other folk music. I also remember every now and then , he had guest singers or someone who played an instrument like a dulcimer. Sometimes he showed the instruments himself. What a pleasant appearing fellow Tony Salatan was. I guess his show originated from Canada, as I learn from your site.

(Tony Salatan is indeed a man of mystery - google.com turns up very little on him!)

April 13/03 from Nick:

hi my name is nick and i loved your web site i was born in 1981 in cananda and i rember most of the shows

do you rember the ozlets, dr snuggles, cananda sesame street, the elephant show, the polka dot door

(most of these, I do....)

April 23/03 from Billy:

I just stumbled across our TV Ontario educational TV site and--amazingly enough--it just so happens that I've had the same subject on my mind as of late. Well, not exactly...different place. I live in central Ohio in the US, so I don't live too too far away from you. But anyhow, I am 29 years old, which put me in elementary school in the very early '80s, and so I too grew up with a whole plethora of '70s-era educational programs which seem to have all disappeared from the air by now. In my city they aired on what was normally a PBS station (WOSU Columbus, channel 34) but the time block from about 9am-4pm (except for an hour at midday for PBS's Sesame Street) the air time was given over to a combination of both a statewide educational network (Ohio Educational Broadcasting) and a local supplier of programs (Central Ohio Educational Television [COETV], later Instructional Technology Services of Central Ohio). Almost all of the programming was of the low-budget, 15-minute variety. On one end were relatively glossy shows produced by the likes of AIT that were made on film--things like Inside/Out, Thinkabout, Trade Offs, Finding Our Way, Ripples, etc.

At the other end were fairly cheap items made mostly on videotape by other public TV stations, with titles like Wordsmith, The Art Maker, Demonstrations in Physics (with the legendary Julius Sumner Miller!), The Letter People...I think All About You fell in this category too. I remember that one as well!

Many of the ones we saw here were produced by two other Ohio stations, WCET Cincinnati and WVIZ Cleveland. Several of these had a distinctly Ohio flavor, btw...Ohio history, Ohio politics/economics/culture circa the mid-'70s :-). Some of the titles of Ohio-produced shows were Roomnastics, Our History In Ohio, Shaping Our State, Studio M, and Explorers Inc.

In fact I think we had one or two TVO shows as well; don't remember what they were, but I distinctly remember that logo.

One thing that unified them all--and brings back such fond memories for me--was the funky '70s ambience of all these shows. Almost all the film had a 16mm, cheap, grainy look with bad sound, and the videotape shows looked like, well, early videotape--fuzzy picture, bad sound, inventive but cheapo special effects. I always thought they had a certain intriguingly mysterious, anonymous element as well, probably from the fact that they rarely had credits, and aside from the hosts none of the people involved were ever identified. As a professional graphic designer and commercial art/video/audio enthusiast I also still get a kick out of the nifty animated logos, titles, and especially those cool, primitive analog-synthesizer-music soundtracks that every darn one of those shows seemed to have (the Thinkabout theme music is still one of my all-time favorites!). I do miss those shows, especially now that they all seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth. They may have outlived their useful life as educational tools (or maybe not) but they certainly remain relics of a long-dead, highly innovative period in TV's history. It's hard for me to look at modern shows in a positive light compared to these modest old-timers...most of today's programming is high-tech crud. There was so much you could do with primitive videotape equipment and some imagination, something we seem to have forgotten how to do.

Anyhow, I know that the bulk of this email isn't really about TV Ontario programs, but I thought you might find my memories of our corresponding educational TV scene from around the same time interesting, and perhaps some of our shows aired up there as well (I know that at least three, maybe four, of the ones you listed aired here in Columbus). Please email me back with any thoughts, note-comparing, etc. Thanks, and if I forgot to mention it before, you have a nice site there! It's just about the only one I've been able to find on the subject, so thanks. :-)

(WOW! What an e-mail!)

April 24/03 from Greg:

Amazing...absolutely amazing!! Finding this site has made my day!! TVO was a staple in my TV diet when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's; I watched all of these shows. From time to time, I still think of these shows (their theme songs forever stuck in my head) and I would attempt to find some information on the net. Unfortunately, I always was met with little success. You've filled this void!!! Where did you find all of this information/pictures???? A petition should be sent to TVO, to try and convince them to put together a "Classic TVO Kids", where they designate some time period during the week and just air these old shows. After reading the feedback you've already received regarding the content on this site, this idea might be wildly popular!! I wish I could offer more insight into these shows. Unfortunately, it has been a while, and so many of these memories are fading fast. There was one "show" that was aired from time to time...really a 5 minute time filler (much like Write On!). I believe the show was called "What on Earth...", where a story or poem was recited by some narrator (although he had a very familiar voice...I always seemed to hear it in other contexts, such as in commercials) and it was illustrated using postal stamps from around the world. I can even remember a poem that was used...it was titled "The Jumblies" (it started out "They went to sea in a sieve..."). Anyway, it was just a short show that really didn't have a dedicated time slot. Anther show I remember was "Flower Stories", but I can't recall any further information.

and

Thanks for the reply! I wish I could be of more help with content, titles, etc., for all of these shows. Like I said, I used to watch them faithfully when I was a kid, so you'd think that one would be able to recall more. What you and I watched on TVO as a kid is markedly different than what is on today, as far as content geared towards kids is concerned. Not sure how...just different. I was discouraged to read in your last message about TVO losing the rights to these shows (although you can't blame them for releasing the rights...why own them if you have no intentions of airing them?) I did follow one of the links on your site to a page where someone was describing the cost to purchase these shows. Ouch! It's sort of sad in a way to think that these shows may never have another life, unlike "regular" TV shows that seem to find new homes on increasing numbers of specialty channels (how many more channels are going to rerun episodes of Roseanne?!?!?) Don't get discouraged with adding more and more content to your site. It's the ONLY one out there. I'm glad to hear that it's included as part of Google hits (it's how I found it, by the way); you'll only get more and more traffic, now. Over time, with more exposure, more information will leak in. You probably have considered (or even done) this, but how about contacting some of the people that were associated with some of these shows? Noreen Young, for example, must be a fountain of knowledge...she did so much of the puppetry on these shows. Maybe she has information that might be useful. Speaking of Noreen Young, do you remember these public service announcements they used to have on TV (not on TVO, but the CBC, I believe) that had these characters...two aliens, a shaggy dog and a villian with a monacle? These characters were Noreen Young puppets. Anyway, the PSAs dealt with teaching kids (or, I guess, people in general) the dangers of toxic materials you might find in your house, playing near hydro lines, etc, etc. Even back then I knew they were Noreen Young puppets based on what I used to watch on TVO!

and

This is another show that I remember watching on TVO. It was called "Gran". It was stop-motion animation (sorta like claymation, I guess). It was about this little boy that had this outrageous grandmother. It was a short show...15 minutes/episode, I believe. I can't believe I found this link, but here it is. It has a few freeze-frames and a brief description of the show.

http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Glade/1185/granuk.htm

(Thanks for all the great e-mails Greg)

April 25/03 from Angela:

Your site is so awesome. My husband and I were talking and he asked, "Do you remember that show with 'Boot' and 'Shoe'?" I could recall very little about the show, but your website brought it all back! You are the only website to include all of these classic TVO favorites. You Rock!

Do any of you guys remember, although not on TVO, the great show Pinwheel. It was way cool, although sometimes scary. And what about The Letter People? I was scared to death of them.

(I haven't been I told I rock since the 80's! :-) Pinwheel...you got me!)

April 26/03 from Sam:

I stumbled across your TV Ontario kids show site this evening. I have been toying around with the idea of possibly compiling a book on the TV Ontario kids shows from the 70's and 80's. You site was wonderful because there were so many shows I forgot about (Body Works, Report Canada, Write On ect.) and a few that I couldn't remember very much of (I remember Timothy Pilgrim but could never tell you what it was called). I guess my question to you is if you were ever in touch with TV Ontario and if they are a very cooperative bunch to work with? I hope that they will help me with archive material as well as contact lists for interviews. I was also wondering if you might have any good sources that I might be able to talk to. Any help you can give me would be very helpful - I am only in the barest beginning planning stages right now.

and

I am planning on contacting TVO in the next week or so to see what they can do for me, but I feel I am going to have the same results as you. I recently checked out the TVO schedule that is on now and I was dissapointed to see that TVO doesn't make thier own kids shows anymore and most of thier lineup is importated from the US. How dissapointing is that! The shows that were made in the 70's are truely unique then and there is and will never be anything liek them. Depending how far I get with my research I may come ask for some help again/ Thanks for offering.

I'm also going into Ottawa in a few weeks and while there I am paying a visit to Boot, Pretty and Granny! How cool is that! Too bad Muffy the Mouse isn't on display.

(Best of Luck - hopefully you'll have success with TVO)

April 26/03 from Eldric:

You've probably gotten this sort of email before, but I figured it might be worth a shot. I watched the Read All About It series as a kid back in the early 1980's and have been looking for copies of it for my own kids. I've already emailed TVO but haven't received any response from them yet and so I was hoping you might have some information on where to find some copies of the series. Thanks in advance for your time and patience and I hope to hear from you soon.

(This series seems to be the most sought after of them all - if anyone has it...they are sitting on a gold mine!)

May 1/03 from Daniel:

Looking at you website brought back a lot of memories. However I do have a question I hope you can answer. In fables of the green forest what was the voice that was in the sky that would sing, something like sister breeze or something like that. Once again great website

(Great question - does anyone know?)

May 1/03 from Mike:

I recognize most of the shows on your site. I too grew up watching tvo in the late 70's early 80's. Some great shows! My question to you involves, fables of the green forest. That was my favourite show. So much so that I'm trying to aquire some episodes, with very little sucess. I contacted TV Ontario some time ago about the show. All they could give was the name of the distributor and nothing else. Actually, I found them quite rude, surprisingly. Anyway the distributor apparently does not exist anymore, or I just haven't had luck finding them. E bay once in a blue moon will have a copy, but it always seems to be the same episode believe it or not. I guess I just want to know if you know anything about geting some episodes of this fantastic series. Thank You.

May 2/03 from Steve:

Wow... great page :) It was like stepping back into my childhood... I loved all of those shows.

May 4/03 from HT:

Your page is wonderful! I really liked Read All About It, and I am currently digitizing my VHS tapes. So far, I am missing “Chapter 4: The Accidental Visitor”. Do you have it? If you do, I would really appreciate it if I may get a copy. In addition, I am wondering if I may use some of the descriptions you have for the episodes. I may have the other shows on tape as well; will you consider a page on Zardip’s Search for Healthy Wellness?

PS Emperor Titan was ruler of the planet Trivia; I believe he was not of Trialviron.

(You might be sitting on a gold mine with the RAAI series)

May 5/03 from Bill:

Hello There,

I also grew up in the 1980's watching programs on TVO, my favourite was always "Read All About it" I even got interested in the war of 1812 and
General Issac Brock due to this program, all at an age where I wasn't even able to read yet!

Recently I have been trying to find this series on Video, but have had no success...do you happen to have it available, or know where I could
get it? Also, do you happen to have "The adventures of Timothy Pilgrim" on Video as well?

Also, If this is of any interest, I have a book which is a full compilation of the first series written by Clive Endersby(Series Writer,
I believe) and published in 1981 by Methuen in co-operation with TVO. I happened to pick this book up for 25 cents at a sencond hand shop about
7 years ago. I've attached a scan of the cover for you to see(see below)(please feel free to post the picture on your site if you like).

Finally....I remember watching a cartoon program on I believe TVO where a young boy had adventures when he was supposed to be sleeping, and
pointed his flashlight at the floor and went to "another world" through the spot where the flashlight shone...after the adventures he always
ended up back in bed asleep.

Sorry for the vague details, but I remember loving the show, but I haven't the slightest idea of what it was called....can you help?

and

I was just reading through your feedback section and someone there mentions the show about the kid with the magic flashlight cartoon that I
emailed you about yesterday. Turns out it was called "Jamie and theMagic Torch" and this was a British Show see link:

http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/jamie/

Also, I noticed no one has mentioned the British Christmas Mini Series "The Box of Delights" This BBC production was aired on TVO in a series
of 15 min segments during Christmas 1984 and possibly later as well, I emailed TVO about it a couple of years ago to no avail. (Rather than me try to explain the plot, visit
the following link)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/box/

It is a fantastic show, although the plot is somewhat "sketchy" at times, but still one of my favourites!

(I do have Timothy Pilgrim and am working on getting RAAI, I will keep everyone posted)

May 5/03 from Andrew:

Hey there,

Alot of people might come across your website and think your totally insane - but then again, you provided a wealth of information and some great
memories.

While I was at work this afternoon, my co-worker and I got chatting about 'Read all about it'. All I could remember about the show was that it had a
freaky and frightened me for the most part. Sure enough, your site was #1 on Google.ca.
But your website had ALL the information we wanted! It was great! We also got taken down memory lane when we came across the 'Read Along' page. The
screenshots of the show actually triggered my head into remembering the ENTIRE theme song. That was stored up there about 20 years ago!

Cool site man, thanks again.

May 6/03 from Michael:

I was looking at your website and I used to watch some of the shows when I was a kid as well! One show that I think may have been on TVO was called
Harriet's Magic Hats (do you remember that one?) I have not seen it in years and can find no information on the Internet about it either! I was just
wondering if you had heard of it and had any info. Thanks!

and

Thanks for your reply. I noticed the Read All About It section and I recall having to watch most of the second series years ago in public school for
some assignment and would look forward to seeing the next episode! I was surprised when Samantha was written out as I thought she was one of the
best characters but was pleased to see her show up again in the final episode (I think she was the "unexpected visitor") I also thought Samantha's
costumes were interesting but I can't remember the one she had when she enters the house in the final episode and announces she's returned from B.C.
and the computer tells her that her friends are in trouble (any ideas?) Anyway, I'll keep checking out your website! Take care

(There should be some images on the page itself)

May 7/03 from Jason:

This site is absolutely priceless - it brings back so many found memories of watching TVOntario in the late 70s and early 80s as a child! I can't thank you enough
for bringing back the memories... I hope you will continue to update this site with more information.

Where did you get the videos for the screenshots of all those shows? I might of taped some shows on BETA when I was a kid back then but I don't know what
happened to them. I'm sure TVOntario still has some of the masters/tapes of the shows they produced.

Also in the same time period on TVOntario was "Artscape". This was a series where two kids started off in an art gallery with those audio tour guide
wands and I think they got sucked into a picture. They then had to somehow escape by solving a bunch of puzzles using art skills that the show taught. I think
it was about 10 episodes.

There was also this cartoon about the history of mankind. It showed the same family in different time periods and historic events. Most memoriable was the
grandpa who was completely covered with white hair/beard. It seemed like a French production. The opening theme song was Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D
Minor and it showed a man evolving from caveman to astronaut. I wish somebody could tell me the name of this cartoon!

Again thanks for creating this site and hope it continues to evolve!

Images from Artscape:

May 13/03 from Joseph:

It is great to finally find some stuff on these old tvo shows. I have tried to find info for these old shows several times, unsuccessfully till now. I
am 22 years old, so I was very young when I watched them. The reason I wanted to learn more about these programs is because I was plagued with
nightmares involving that clown from the show that I just learned the name of-"parlez moi". As well the show "read all about it". this show really
scared the crap out of me. I could only of been about 3 or 4 when these came on. This truly is a sort of cleansing of the whole matter. That clown
completely horrified me! And that big giant head from "read all about it". All i can remember from that show is these kids were some kind of haunted
house or something, then they would get teleported into like a xerox machine, then they would like slide in one this cart or something in front
of these satanic looking head! Just hearing the opening theme music from either of these shows would scare the heck out of me. Anywa, I'm just glad
to have stumbled across your site. Now I can put a name to these shows that were the source of great trauma in my pre-kindergarten years.

(Sol was scary, but kinda cool too!)

May 13/03 from Carly:

I had come across a memory the other day and seem to only remember a part of it. There was a show that I watched when I was small ( being born in 1979) so roughly the 80's.
All I can remember about the show is a few characters. Mrs. Van Oyster, Sharky Shark, a seahorse I don't know the name of and My husband seems to think that there is a snail in it. I looked up "The Adventures of Snelgrove Snail" but the characters that come up with that are different. The characters are puppets and the show was based underwater.

(Anyone? Ideas?)

May 16/03 from Terry:

What a great idea for a website!! You have brought up some shows that I haven't heard about in MANY years!! Zardip's search for healthy wellness??? My, my....There's one I almost forgot about!!!!

By the way....to answer David, from May 1/03....the name of the breeze was Sister Southwind. Hope my memory is right on that one.

Last thing......does anyone remember a math show that took place in a toy shop?? Every time the people would leave the store, the toys would start moving...real toys....like dump trucks and cranes?? I am stumped...NEED HELP!!! Thanks!!

(Hey we have success with a question - way cool. Of course Two Plus You is the other show you mention)

May 18/03 from John:

Hi .... interesting site! Do you actually have those Inside/Out episodes on video? If so, how did you obtain them? I'd like to have a few of them
for my library ... always enjoyed that show as a kid.

(It'd be a gem to get that show. Hopefully someone out there has some!)

May 20/03 from A.J.

Thanks for this fantastic archive..............if only to prove to others and to myself that I'm not crazy, and these shows actually did exist! I grew up (and still live) in Buffalo, New York and I watched these shows (specifically Read All About It) on PBS. Right now I"m an artist (painter) and I'm trying to get as much info as possible on these shows for my upcoming series of works about things learned as a child and their affects on an "adult" mind. Any more info would be greatly appreciated.

Tony Salatan scared the crap out of me as a kid.....he reminded me of a twisted combo of Kreskin and my pediatrician.......SCARY!!!

May 22/03 from Olivia

I stumbled upon your site after searching Google for "Read All About It" TVO. My fourth grade teacher used to show us the series for Language Arts
and I remember loving it. But that's all I really remember. If you could contact the last person on your Feedback site who claimed to be digitizing
his/her VHS copies of RAAI and let them know that I'm VERY interested in possibly purchasing the RAAI eps he/she has, I'd be very grateful. Jeremy is
also one of my favourites, but it's so difficult to find any information on it. The show Eureka was shown in my 7th, 8th, and 9th grade Science classes
(in French.)

(The list of RAAI video seekers grows....)

d emailing TVO for information about old shows but they give exc

May 23/03 from Mark:

Like so many others I stumbled across your website by accident and was almost brought to tears with all the memories flooding back. I've sent the link to everyone I know. I've had Timothy Pilgrim in particular gnawing at my brain for ages and can finally prove to everyone that it did exist and I'm not crazy. There is another show that TVO aired that I've been trying to remembr the name of. It was a British live action show that involved a number of children and a talking pheonix that would rise from the ashes in their fireplace at the end of every show. I also recall something about a secret door that would lead them to country garden. Do remember the name?

and

I know I just e-mailed you but I came across another fan on your feedback page that recalls a show that my friends and I have been trying to remember the name of for some time with no success. The e-mail from Thetis mentions the animated show that begins with organ music and is about the evolution of history. None of us can remember the name but we are all pretty sure the opening theme song is Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by J.S. Bach

(Can anyone help?)

May 26/03 from Bryan:

I e-mailed you a while ago after first discovering the site, and now it looks better than ever! The additions are fantastic! I have two questions for you or anyone who may remember....There was a show which I believe was called "The Phoenix and the Carpet". It was more than likely a BBC production, but I'm sure that TVO aired it. It was about kids going on journeys with a mystical Phoenix, riding on a magic carpet....any info you may find would be appreciated. The other question is about Snelgrove Snail. I remember the title, and vaguely, the concept, but none of the characters. Anyone?

(I am stumped on this one too :-( )

May 29/03 from Jason:

What a fantastic web site - I was absolutely delighted to come across it. I have very fond memories of all the programmes on your site, and it was
wonderful to see the pictures and read the episode synopses. I only wish I could see the programmes again. Do TVO still maintain any of the original
prints or tapes?

TVO kept me well entertained during the many days I was home sick from school as a child. The odd thing is, while today I find most of the
American cartoons I watched at the same time to be childish and uninteresting, I could still watch those old TVO shows all day long.

Thanks for taking the time, and keep up the great work!

(TVO lost all the rights to these shows years ago, so they tell me. Looks like International Telefilms owns all the rights.)

May 31/03 from Jamie:

I think I can answer Thetis', Gabor's, Jason's and Mark's question. The show is Once Upon A Time...Man (or Il Etait une Fois...L'homme),
made by Procidis in France. Their website is http://www.procidis.com/ CBC French occasionally has episodes from the Il Etait une Fois series.

June 3/03 from Michael:

I've enjoyed the updates made to your website. There was another show I remember (but I'm not sure it aired on TVO) and I think it was called
"Magical Music Box" with Heather Conkie. About all I can remember from the show was that there was a music box that talked with Heather Conkie and
explained about music, I think. Hope this is helpful!

(Any info I do not have or know is always helpful - keep it coming)

June 5/03 from Gabriel:

http://www.wgbhalumni.org/reunion/saletan.htm -- Tony Saletan's web page (I noticed a reference to the show on your TVO tribute page, just though I'd send it along). :)

(A spelling mistake on my part is what made all the difference. No wonder I couldn't find any info on him!)

June 6/03 from Michael:

I grew up far from Ontario--in Kansas City, Missouri, to be exact--but I have quite vivid memories of a show you profile on your site: Read All About
It. I came across your site after describing it to some friends tonight and then thinking to myself, "I wonder what ever happened to that show??" The
Internet again proved useful...but only up to a point. You see, I have the best memories of this exceedingly bizarre show, which my teachers showed in
class when I was in kindergarten and first grade--roughly 1982-1984. How they (in the midwest US) got a hold of this show (from Ontario), I have no
idea, but I'd really love to see it again. It seems, however, that there are no copies to be found (at least without paying the $1290 the website you
link to --http://www.papmag.net/cgi-bin/frontend/frontend.pl?page=story&sid=73 --suggests. I suppose my only consolation is that those are likely Canadian
dollars...!).

So, if you have any information or ideas about how to recapture this (slightly demented) part of my childhood, I would be thrilled. If not, I'm
pleased to have discovered that someone else remembers this show with fondness, or at least bemusement.

(I sort of have 95% of series one now - but am working on getting it upgraded)

June 9/03 from Andrea:

What a great web site.For some strange reason today i just started to think about shows I used to watch on TVO in the early 80's and the one you don't
have listed is TODAYS SPECIAL. I did a quick search through Google and came across this website.
http://www.schuminweb.com/todays-special/main-page.htm
I found the name of that show Dr Snuggles, thank goodness becasue I could not think of the name, thanks to your website I found it. The internet is a
great thing!!!

(Seems to be lots of Dr. Snuggles fans out there!)

June 9/03 from Jay:

I think in the show with the "old guy and his granddaughter" the old guy was Pierre Berton.

(Pierre Burton as the old guy - I love it!)

June 10/03 from Greg:

I see from your feedback column there's a lot of interest in acquiring copies of these shows (and rightly so!). I came across this website:

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/sd/dropped_programs.htm

I'm not entirely sure of the content, but I believe it is a list of educational shows (through the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction!!) that are available for purchase. Shows such as Read All About It, Readalong, All About You, and many others, are listed, along with what I believe are purchase prices. I don't know if these are available to the open public or just to educational institutions, however it at least shows that these programs ARE out there.

(I shall try to contact them....)

June 11/03 from Michael:

Thanks for your reply. I stumbled across another show that I didn't see on your page that was produced by TVO (according to the website). It is called
"Today's Special" and I think it ran in the early 1980's. Jeff Hyslop was one of the stars, I believe. I remember watching a couple of episodes when I
was little and really enjoyed them. I thought you might know the show. Hope this information is helpful!

(Lots of Today's Special fans out there too....)

June 17/03 from Lynda:

I am absolutely dumbfounded with this page. I was born in 1976 and grew up with these programs that I thought the Earth had forgotten! Thanks
for letting me see some of the images/names/characters of the great dynasty of TVO circa 1975-82. This is terrific. What a group! Read All
About It!!!! lolololololol!

(Another Read All About IT fan....and the list grows!)

June 20/03 from Alan:

Hey, thanks for the trip back to memory lane!!!
All those shows rocked (nothing like faking sick and staying home from school while watching show after show on channel 2!).
PBS also showed some classic "peculiar" kid shows, like "The Letter People".
Do you have any idea where one can get access to Read All About it shows? I have one episode on tape back home in Toronto that I've been thinking about hosting online; do you think I may run into trouble?
Have you ever visited TVO headquarters in Toronto (yonge and eglington)?

(I don't think there would be any issues hosting it online. Seems like TVO doesn't care much about anything from this era. I have 19 of 20 episodes from series one and one episode from series two. Faking sick....me??? lol!)

June 21/03 from David:

Just saw your tribute to the old shows on TVO. "Parlez-moi" with SOL is available on video through the school boards and many core french students are still watching the occasional episode...timeless!

(That's great to hear. Sol lives!)

June 22/03 from Jason:

Having grown up with shows like Read All About It, Parlez-Moi, Green Forest and Readalong, it was a definite pleasure to find your site
(while looking for Boot and Pretty on the web after seeing them in storage at the Museum of Civilization). It was nice to see those screen
shots of yours! Brings back a lot of memories. I know you've probably been asked a hundred times, but you or someone else wouldn't have
digitized the videos by any chance? Watching a video of Read All About It (Artscape too) would be a joyous event!

Thanks for the nostalgia trip, at the very least!

(Digitized videos....maybe....well...yes...just the audio and video are off by about 3-4 seconds)

June 23/03 from Steve:

Could you please let me know if i can get tapes of the RAAI show? I can still remember the theme song. The show gave me nightmares as a young child. I remember the queen of hearts....and they all worked at the herbertville press, or something like that. There was part 1 and 2.....let me know anything. thanks.

(This program seems to be the most popular request!)

June 23/03 from Jeff:

WOW!! What a great site! For years I was trying to figure out the name of the silly art show with that crazy worm - "VISION ON". Looking at your site has brought back outrageaous memories from my childhood when i only went to school for half days and couldn't wait to get home to watch the ultimate TVO lineup. The show about the children and the phoenix was called "The Phoenix and The Carpet". I don't remember them going into a country garden but there was a show called "Tom's Midnight Garden" based on the book of the same name that encountered a young boy having to live with his aunt so he wouldn't get measles from his little brother. There was a grandfather clock in the house and when it chimed 13 Tom would walk out the back door and into a beautiful garden. One show I can't find any info on is one that I thought was called "Walnut Street" or maybe that was just where they lived? The only character I remember was Squirrel and i used to think it had quite a Read-a-long flair to it. Anybody know what I'm thinking of? Its too bad that all of these great shows have been lost, I would spend a fortune buying copies of them. Thankfully I finally came across a Dr. Snuggles website that sells the 13hr set!! Great site!

(Anyone know this program?)

June 25/03 from gcf:

I'm 27, and I grew up with those shows. I cant thank you enough for the memories on your site. I wish you had more info on Eureka! A co-worker says
she used to live down the street from Billy Van, who was the narrator of the show. If she's able to contact him, i'll pass the info on to you. He would
be a terrific resourse. Also, do you remember "bits and bytes". It was a very early computer-related educational show, where billy would learn
computer tasks on an early 80's commodore pet?

(I know Bits and Bytes well. Luba Goya was also on the show. Sadly, I think Billy Van died earlier this year)

June 25/03 from Mark:

Do you know where I can get episodes (possibly even the entire set) of FOTGF?

(I have two episodes, no idea if more exist out there)

June 25/03 from Annilee:

Ah - all the Ontario TV shows from the 70's were fantastic! I stumbled upon this site a few days ago when my sister reminded me that we used to watch a
show called Barbapapa! I couldn't stop laughing, so I looked it up! This site has info on the characters and writers!
http://www.naughtykitty.org/barbapapa/barbameet.html

Also, I didn't see mention of another show we watched called Battle of the Planets. Anyone remember G-Force? To us it will always be classic TV from
our childhood!

Any ideas where I might find any more information on the Fables of the Green Forest?

(Two Fables e-mails in one day...weird.....)

June 29/03 from Tamara:

I just stumbled across your website this evening and I wanted to thank you so much for the trip down memory lane. I was born Dec. 29 1971 so I grew up watching all of the shows you have on your site. Some of them I haven't thought about in 20 years (Like The Barbapappas, lol) It was so wonderful to think about those shows again.

I also have a question for you. I've been trying to remember the name of a cartoon that aired on TVO, it's been driving me crazy as I can't seem to remember much. I think it aired either before or after Tales from the Green Forest. I may have been in french originally. The story revolved around a professor/inventor or something like that. He had a bunch of different friends, I think there may have been some inanimate objects made animate. He flew in a balloon/spacecrafty thing I believe. The only episode I really remember was one in which an alien race (?) stole all of Earths water and he had to get it back. What is most vivid it that the water was cut from the oceans in giant cubes. Do you have any idea what this elusive show may be?

Thanks again for the wonderful site, I will be back again.

(I only recall Polka Dot Door airing before Fables, and Doctor Who/Magic Shadows airing after - anyone else have a better memory?)

July 02/03 from Jeff:

i thought i was the only one who loved those "lame" shows. maybe it's the realization i'm getting old. those shows have a certain quality that you don't see anymore in modern tv. I'm currently downloading dr. who shows. we gotta be the same age
I'm 28 but most of those shows were a major part of my upbringing.... you know the cathode ray tube babysitter. It's just nice to know that other people have the same interests. But ya know, there's something about tv in that era that just has a certain feel. Today's television is missing that. I'm currently downloading shows off kazaa. One of the main ones is Dr. Who from the 1975-84 era and Dr. Snuggles. Kind of like collector items. I'm wondering if there were enough of us to share media files like that. (I mean within the local area) I'm from Ottawa by the way. I think your website is onto something and people in our age bracket is searching for this stuff. Your website is a rare find and you might want to take advantage of that. I also have my own website and was thinking about dedicating a section with information similar to yours. If there were enough people interested and have tapes or whatever of these old shows, I would be willing to try and stream them with realvideo on your site. I think it would be really neat. Anyhow, I'm rambling on... trying to recapture my youth...

(This all sounds good - once I get the RAAI series - we'll figure something out - cool website you have)

July 03/03 from Paul:

I was so happy to see a site such as yours while searching around the net. I have been looking for these shows or any information on them, if maybe just to prove they had existed. My wife is ten years my junior and grew up in Manitoba with no memory of any of these fine programs.
It is my belief that T.V has taken a turn for the worse over the last 15 years.
The available programs today are largely made up of sales venues and less education & information freely available.
I am happy there are people like you out there to help us remember what possibilities have existed in television, along with the old shows I have loved and miss.
Maybe it all seems less jaded in these older shows.
I'm just glad to be able to reference them and know that someone else cares to remember.
Excellent work.
By the way, I was in the middle of looking for ' Science International ' - "what will they think of next? ", with joseph Campanella and Tiu leek, of which I can find nothing.
I believe it was on global, i'm not sure.
If you ever come across any info, please let me know. Apparently you have some kind of majic at coming up with this information, that I must be lacking.
Thanks again. Paul.

(What Will They Think of Next - Global TV Thursday nights I think - another classic show. I totally agree with you about programming these days - I think one of the first things I say on the site is how everything these days is geared towards selling a product!)

July 06/03 from Kenny:

HEY YOU GUUUUYYYSSS!!!! Sorry, I was just having an Electric Company flashback courtesy of Rita Morano!

I just had to e-mail you as I came across your site looking for tapes/info on Read All About It and what do I find? This wonderful, faboo site all about those
classic TVO shows that I used to love. I was a fan of Louise McNamara as I thought that it was cool that she was on more thatn one show. All About You and another
which I think was called Word's Incorporated. It had that fun theme song, A is for apple and B is for bear, C is for candy and D is for deer, E is for
easy and F is for fun...that's all I can remember unitl Y is for yell, YELL! What comes next, won't you tell us...Z is for Zebra that's right. Please say that
you remember that as well.
But to have a site to go to for these shows and memories is just to much to ask for. Thank you a 1000 times over. I don't think that these are TVO but how
about Vegetable Soup with Bette Midler as the voice of Woody the spoon or The Big Blue Marble or ZOOM. Come on and Zoom. The Banana Splits was another good one. I
am keeping my fingers crossed that I get a positive answer back from TVO about if I can get my hands on some tapes of Read All About It, the best TVO show of
them all. I had Lego's and I made Theta and Otto when I was a kid. I wanted them so bad. Last but not least, anyone remember Number's Game?
She would go forward or backward on her game board and I think I cried when she got to the end of the board, the show was over. She had that train, Clickety-Clack
was the song as the little train was on the screen.

Ok. I am going to go now, I've gone on to long but I am so happy that I found your site. Keep up the great work and please let us know if Read All About It
becomes available as it seems that I am not the only one who thinks that the show was all that and then some! Bye for now, you rule.

Kenny C. aka "Easy Reader". Another Electric Company reference. My all time fave non TVO show.

(Electric Company I think was shown on TVO but not that often. Seems there is alot of RAAI fans out there...why do I keep saying that!!!)

July 07/03 from Lucinda:

I am a big fan of TV Ontario and am always complaining about kids TV these days and how I would love to start a station of retro children shows. I AM A HUGE FAN of Todays Special and am franitcly looking for the tapes of all of their shows of a leat 100 episodes. Jeff, Muffy, Sam, the computer and even the mime are great influences in my life even Norien Virgins pick pant suit gives me warm fuzzy memories. If you know where I can get tapes let me know!!

(I hope someone can help!)

July 08/03 from James:

I found your site searching for old shows I used to watch as a kid and your site is great!
I didn't see a few shows that I remember. I'm pretty sure that they were on TVO.
Let me know if you remember them and maybe you could let me know if there is information about them somewhere.
The first is a cartoon of a boy named Simon. He would draw the story with his chalk.
Next is also a chalk drawing of a character that didn't speak actual words I don't think. Every so often you would see a hand enter
the screen and change the character around. I remember he kind of sounded like Elmo from S. Street.
Finaly I remember short clips of two playdo characters. They could change shapes and create things from themselves. It's hard to
remember exactly what the show was about.

(Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings - great theme song, La Linea from Great Space Coaster, I am not sure)

July 10/03 from Ian:

Just writing to say good site on the shows from my childhood, on TVO anyways. I'm thirty so I pretty much remember all of them, and how I thought
they were so cheap and crappy at the time. However, there really was nothing else to watch at 6pm when then news came on every other station. So over to
the "Green Forest" watch some "Jeremy"(which I think is brilliant, think back, that show is so trippy) and "Dr. Snuggles" (which I think is
brilliant, think back, that show is so trippy). I would give my left nut to be a "Barbapapa". If I had the day-off or sick, not much choice between soap
operas and the other shows on in the afternoons, and the fact I never had "first choice", or any of the super channels....TVO it would be. "Write on"
and "Parlez-moi" (I sucked at french) I hated those shows, but I still watched them."The Body Works", how about those shorts they wore? better
stop....check your pulse. I liked "Read all about it" and Timithy Pilgram, and I had totally forgotten about "Cucumber" and a few others, so thanks for
the memories, I miss those crappy shows.

Ian

ps...readalong....somebody give Boot a boot for me....he always annoyed me ...liked his girl though...she was a hottie.

(Hey watch what you say about Boot - I liked him :-) and Pretty totally!)

July 12/03 from Jay:

I cannot believe just how many Read All About It fans/seekers there are out there. I don't know where you're located (I assume Canada) but it would be hilarious and fun to have a big public screening of these. Or perhaps a live webcast and post-chat. Everyone seems to have been freaked out in one way or another by this show! My sister and I would watch, poised and ready to run out of the room the second Duneedon would come one the screen. And even as an adult, I was still a little uneasy at the sight of his face when I discovered it on your website. But thanks! This is the best info source for RAAI and many other lost shows! Like the others I too have been searching for this great show and hope you'll post it at some point. I would happily offer my limited services- (audio/video post stuff- making a DVD of the set, say).

As far as "All About You" I have two specific memories of this show. One was the theme song played on flute and acoustic guitar...maybe harpsichord also. It was very 'pbs' if I recall. I can still play it on the piano. The other one is a specific segment that my sister and I remember. The host would often talk to the audience and intentionally leave pauses for them to 'answer,' after which she'd respond. In one episode she was dropping raisins into a see-thru plastic model of the human digestive system and said something like, "Now what are we putting in his mouth," to which we gleefully responded, "DOOOOODIE!!!!" To our disbelief, her scripted response was "No...that's silly stuff." At ages 6 and 4, we could not believe it.

Any recollection of the phrase "Palabra Jot?" from a late 70's / early 80's show? Don't know if it was TVO or not. I grew up in New York- PBS here picked up shows from all sorts of unknown locations.

(An All About You memory and a hilarious one to boot - funny stuff!)

July 15/03 from Dimitris:

This is without a doubt one of the best pages out there! I can't believe you got so many screenshots for these shows! Do you ever remember seeing a show called HattyTown Tales on TVO? Another classic. Do you update your page? I remember a lot of other TVO shows, like "Hattytown Tales" (which you're right, featured a donkey with a carrot tied to his hat). The whole show was about this town where everyone was a giant hat - so the baker wore this big chef's hat, and the detective wore this big detective hat. The donkey and his cowboy friend were the main characters, though. There was also "Polka Dot Door," "Dear Aunt Agnes (starring Heather Conkie, of other TVO shows)," and "Artscape," among others.

(I vaguely remember Hattytown Tales - I actually had an HTML page ready to be posted for it - but cut it out due to lack of info)

Either way, this page should definitely be kept up. It's probably the best collection of old TVO shows I've ever seen

July 15/03 from Alice:

I'm a film student at Penn State who grew up around here, and our PBS affiliate brought us all of the shows that you had on your website. I remember being
scared to DEATH of "Read All About It," and I remembered very little of it aside from the computer named Otto and Duneedon (I thought it was Dunreadin').
I almost started crying when I saw your page...it WASN'T cooked up in my imagination!! I also remember Thinkabout and Inside/Out, and the weird theme music
from both of them. I was really confused as a kid with the difference between "zed" and "zee"...and to this day I can't spell anything the American way - it looks
incorrect to me. I have obscure Canadian children's programming to thank for that. I couldn't stand Sol, though. The whole clown thing terrified me more than
Duneedon.

I was especially happy to see Boot and Miss Pretty and Granny from Readalong, too - I hadn't seen them in at LEAST 15 years; I watched that show every day up
until I was in grade 2 (I'm 25 now). No one else my age remembers these shows, because, apparently, no one watched PBS during the day. We also got Harriet's
Magic Hats, which I'm trying desperately to find. I think that was produced in Alberta, though. The only people I know who remember that are Canadian.

I remember a little more about All About You. The theme music was this sort of insipid flutey thing. She had a model of the human body. There wasn't much to
the show, but I vividly remember one episode where she demonstrated how you digest food and she ate an apple or something, and pointed to the model showing where
the apple would travel. I could never figure out how the title sequences fit with the show, because there was never a circus. I remember another episode where
she had a model of the human heart and she talked about different parts of it.

I am so happy that I found your page!!! These shows have shaped my entire life and it's good to see that I'm not the only one remembering them.

(Always so cool to hear from fans south of the border!)

July 16/03 from Kurasu:

Yes. Another TVO fan, here. I came across your website looking for information on the Ozlets (which, by the way, was picked up by YTV some time
later. Maybe you can find information on it there), and found an absolute wealth of old memories. Shows that I had thought were dead and gone
apparently live on right here, such as Read All About it (yes, chalk up YET ANOTHER fan), Jamie And The Magic Torch (I used to do _anything_ to see this
one), Simon In The Land Of Chalk Drawings (you wouldn't *BELIEVE* how long I'd been trying to find this title!), and Cucumber (I tried to become a
member of the club, but never got an answer. The letter apparently got lost in transit. But I still remember the address). I also seem to recall a
couple of other shows which may or may not have played on TVO. I could swear that the first place I watched Circle Square, for instance, was on TVO.

Going through your letters column, by the way, I can answer a couple of the questions about the shows. The one with the Phoenix, I watched quite a few
times. I _think_, in fact, that it was just titled 'Phoenix', though I could be wrong. They had found an egg, and accidently dropped it in the fire,
whereas it had... well, hatched out into a phoenix. I don't recall all the adventures they were on, unfortunately, but I do recall the flying carpet,
and world-wide travel. It had a feel very much like Read All About It to it (without the creepiness), and it wouldn't surprise me if it was made by the
same people.

The cartoon that 'Tamara' was talking about is Dr. Snuggles, I do believe. They had an episode of water-stealing with cubes. If it's not, then I'm
afraid I'm as lost as you.

Carly's description is _not_ Snelgrove Snail (I can confirm that finding). Rather, it was called Waterville. The seahorse's name (incidentally) was
Frenchie. And here's some quick information on the show:
http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/networks/CTV_Television_Program_Details/WatervilleGang.html.

As for the one on the evolution of history... about all I can do is confirm the old man with the HUGE beard and antennae, but not much else. I remember
seeing it, but that's about all I can remember of it.

Anyhow, keep up the good work! I hope you can get more information on those shows! And I'll keep an eye open for whatever I can.

(Thanks for helping to answer some of the questions!)

July 16/03 from Larry:

What a fantastic site. I've been searching for the Read All About It series for a while. TVO is far from helpful, just telling me that they lost the rights, don't have any copies, no masters etc.

I understand by reading your comments that you have 19 episodes. Any chance on sharing? I'm happy to pay for them, perhaps the funds could go to supporting your website.

Again, great site, please keep it up, it's the only one out there.

(Soon....very soon....)

July 17/03 from Emma:

I love your website! I've been waiting a long time to find more info on these shows - especially Read All About It! Nobody I know remembers this show! Duneedon
terrified me and seeing him again on your website in close-up almost scared the hell out of me.

I think I have an answer to the last e-mail in June from Tamara. I'm pretty sure she's referring to Dr.Snuggles - in fact, I seem to recall that episode.
For awhile last year, the show played on TVO, but I'm not sure that it still plays anymore.

I remember "Music Box" with Heather Conkie. She used to talk to a victrola that used to talk back to her.
Here's a page on it: http://www.visualed.com/VEC/lcl_tvo_musicbox1-2.html

Do you have info on Harriet's Magic Hats? And I was wondering if you have any info on French children's programs on TVOntario? I used to watch the French
block on Sunday afternoons, but I can't remember any of the shows' names and it's driving me crazy. There was one with a lady who lived in the clouds, I think,
and she had a hot air balloon. There was another show where there were people living in a science lab of some sort, and there was a model or apparatus of some
sort in the middle of the lab covered in a plastic dome. Every so often, they'd shift from the lab and do puppet segments, and there was this one weird
puppet that looked like a very fluffy white worm.

BTW, Barbapapa is extremely popular. There's tons of stuff on the internet, especially since it used to play in French as well.

Thanks for the memories. Great site!

(Screen shots of Harriet's have been sent. Dunreadin' would make sense as his name!)

July 18/03 from Alyssa:

Your page is great! I'm sure hoping you can help me. I grew up in Ottawa in the 1970's (born in 1968) and I remember a kids show that started with a bunch of people who looked like gypsys or hippies all singing along to a folky song and trying to jump onto this wagon/cart that was pulled by a horse. I think they told stories or something. It might have had a religious or moral message to it - not sure about that though. Anyways, I'm trying to remember the name of the song they sang at the start.

Does this sound at all familiar to you?? Nobody knows what I'm talking about!

It's been driving me nuts for like 20 years!! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(Keeping my fingers crossed that someone will know!)

July 18/03 from Electro:

I just want to say, ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been searching and searching and searching to find info on these great shows from the days of yore and you have finally done it. Thank you very much. I too, like many who have written you, cherish the days when I had a PD day or was home sick from school to watch those shows. Unfortunately, nothing that TVOntario has now can compare with those great shows. I managed to tape all the episodes of Sol at about 4AM over a 2 week period about 7 years ago, I believe they were running them for teachers to tape as teaching aids. ALL of the episodes are available for purchase along with the Eureka collection through the TVO teaching aid websites. It would seem that TVO is no longer interested in discussing or providing information dealing with these groundbreaking educational programs from any contact I have had with them. It is truly disappointing. We should never forget the past and the early days.

I do have some shows to mention that I have not seen listed as of yet. The first being, I think it was called Computer Room. I believe that one was from the early 80's, good synth music on it. The other was a craft show hosted by a long haired blond lady, that had an opening with a boy on stilts called Get it Together.

I do recall one other show which I loved dearly, but cannot remember too much about it, I think it was called Ludwig? There was a mechanical egg of some sorts and a character dressed as Sherlock Holmes, I believe it was maybe a 5 minute animated show. Does anyone recall this one. I believe it had some sort of Bach Flute piece for the theme music. Oh yes, another one, called the Adventures of Black Beauty.

See, now after looking over the website I am having many flashbacks. There is one more show, I believe it was always taking place in a Den or Living room, I can remember the red velvet curtains and the gray walls. The only other things I can recall is that for some reason the charaters kept looking at something mounted on the wall, a moose head or grapes or something. Someone else's email seems to have stirred something in my memory. And I believe the infamous Canadian actor Colin Fox was on this show. For those of you not familiar with his work, he was on the Gothic Soap Opera Strange Paradise, and often played people like Sir John A MacDonald in historical things.

Well, as the email is getting fairly lengthy, kudos to you for such an OUTSTANDING and ABSOLUTLEY SPECTACULAR website of childhood dreams. I just came across another show I cannot remember what it was about. I can remember the promotional 10 second add that would come on for it, in between shows, that oh too familiar voice, "... coming up next on, We live Next Door..." or better yet ".......You are watching TVOntario, channel 7 in Penatanguishene, channel 13 in Chatham..." oh boy, do I miss those days, what a shame. Does anyone know what this show was about?Be seeing you.

(Must....get....Sol....episodes....from...you.....HA HA HA thanks for the Channel number ID memory - I had totally forgot about that!)

July 23, 2003 from Kenny (again):

First, I wanted to say thank you for putting my letter on your awesome site, but I also wanted to respond to Jay from July 12th. I too remember the phrase Palabra Jot. I don't remember the entire show, but I do remember we had to say the phrase twice, sort of a club password. The character was a green grasshopper with glasses on. He always has a pencil in his "hand". Also, I don't think that I mentioned Simon and the Chalkdrawings. That was great too. Also someone mentioned The Great Space Coaster! Another classic. If only Nickelodeon or TVLand would wake up and put some of these shows back on. They are true gems. And the day that I can get my hands on Read All About It, I am so taking a day off from work! I can't wait. Well, I guess that's all for now, but I hope that you can let Jay know he is not the only one that remembers Palabra Jot. And keep up the great work too. You rule forever.

(This is always great - getting feedback/answers on comments from other people - keep it coming!)

July 25, 2003 from Kevin:

Great job with the website. You bring back a lot of fantastic memories of when television programming was at its best. I am an elementary school teacher. A couple of years ago, I discovered that my school board had the entire Readalong series on tape. My grade one class couldn't wait for when I would show them an episode once a week. They loved singing along to the theme song! After looking at your website, I'm now going to check into some "new" old shows that might be on tape that I can use with my grade five's.

(Read All About It still being used in the classroom - THAT IS EXCELLENT NEWS!!!!!)

July 28, 2003 from Mark:

There was a children's TV show on (I think) afternoons on a station from Toronto or Hamilton. Was likely in 1979, but could have been 1978-1980. Who remembers!?!?! Very sketchy details....sorry! It had a live man in the lead role, with puppets to support him, and I believe there were cartoons included as well. One of the puppets was a soft spoken bear named Brisbane Bear. The opening theme had a bizarre futuristic sound to it. Was he 'Commander' or 'Captain' something? Ouch...brain already hurting from deep thought!

(Anyone????)

July 29, 2003 from Danny:

every now and again I look for more information about Jeremy the Bear on the net, and I came across your ultra-cool site. Huge endeavour to try and get info. about all those old tv shows!

I'm always on the lookout for episodes of Jeremy the Bear that I don't have.

(A Jeremy fan - welcome aboard!!!)

July 29, 2003 from Piers:

Hope this finds you well today! I am trying to find the name of an actor who was on PBS in the 70's starring as "grandpa" and am litterally at my wits end. Suffice to say i've spent much time looking around the net and asking others on general message boards; no avail! Anyway, here is a synopsis of messages i've written on the IGN boards, the responses to which range from Famous Amos to Morgan Freeman, though this actor wasn't that famous, imo. One person does recall who I'm speaking about and agrees they haven't a clue who it is or how to find their name. So, if you can help or know anyone from the era who would know i'd appreciate it. Thanks!!

Messages to describe actor:

"In the 70's there was a black actor who worked on (or had his own show) some PBS educational kids show. He was maybe in his 40's or 50's and talked really quiet and well, taught you stuff. Anyway, can anyone help me find out who this is? Sorry I can't be more descriptive, thanks for any help! also saw him recently on In the Heat of the Night tv show but had to leave so couldn't catch the credits. Argg, this is bugging me who is it!? Ahhhhh Nah, more of a kind old man face, not really a famous actor etc. The show was along the lines of (or when) like New Zoo Review was on and School House Rock and such. Grr, I dunno. It's like he'd be on the TV and looking at you (sorta Mr. Roger's-esque) and helping you to oh I dunno tie your shoe or plant a vegetable On his PBS educational show (it may have even been only a 1 min. *intermission* type thing?) he was Uncle something I think. In fact now that I think about it more he referred to himself as Grandpa and you'd see him and there'd be a kid's voice but you never see the kid. He had a beard and was greying hair in both head and beared. Smiled a lot, etc. Like I said, not an actor exactly, maybe a bit actor (like on In the Heat of the Night) where he did that guest spot. Ok guys, I did check into Reading Rainbow but nope it's not Jordie This guy was old in the 70's as I said, around 45 or even close to 60 years old. In the Heat of the Night tv show was in 1988 and that was where I saw him last week as a guest star and he'd have been in 60's for sure, maybe 70's. This sucks, it really sucks!!!! I almost want to say he had blue eyes or maybe light light brown? Nope, i'd thought of him. This guy was a lighter color as well, had a few more pounds on him. And the hair had a touch more white. I think this is a lost cause

(Surely....someone out there must know.....)

August 3, 2003 from Phil:

Sorry, I didn't catch your name on the website. When I stumbled across it, while looking for info on 'The Adventures of Timothy Pilgrim', I thought
"Finally!!". Up until this time, I've only been able to find little bits and pieces of info on those TVO programs here and there. Not only do you
mention programs that I totally forgot about, like 'Cucumber Club', but you also have images and a link to a page where I could download the themes!

I remember about 95% of the shows you mention. It's too bad that TVO hasn't re-purchased the rights to air these classic shows. I guess they ran their
course back in the day. Someone should put together a cable channel that is kind of a retro public broadcast station with all of these programs around
the clock!

I was a kid through the late 70's to the early 80's, so I remember some other programs you didn't mention. Remember 'Kidsworld'? It was a weekly
news magazine on TVO by kids for kids. Another program I remember was 'Big Blue Marble'. All I remember about that show is that it featured stories
about kids from around the world and the beginning of the show had children saying 'hello' and 'goodbye' at the end, all in different languages.

Other shows that I recall watching included Dr Snuggles, Willow The Wisp (I actually found an episode of this on one of my tapes from the early 90's -
it must have still been playing), and Simon In the Land of Chalk Drawing (TVO played these recently at around 10.30am every morning). I also recall
seeing Noddy back then when it was done all in British accents. And remember Paddington Bear, that plasticine bear with the raincoat (they made
fun of it on an episode of MAD TV a number of years ago), or Ludwig, that Egg with legs and hands that played the violin?

I've occasionally gotten into nostalgic rants with friends and co-workers who remember the above shows. I know this is off-topic, but do you remember
programs from Global Television, CFTO, or Channel 29 before it became Fox 29 (assuming you live in Southern Ontario)?

On Global: 'Battle of The Planets' (which is on DVD right now); 'Tales From The Riverbank' AKA 'Hammy Hamster'; and 'Secret Railroad':
http://www.emissions.ca/media.asp?Emission=13&Media=I

On CFTO: 'Uncle Bobby'

On Channel 29: 'New Zoo Revue'; 'Great Space Coaster'

Anway, that's enough of my ranting. Again, keep those program names, and if possible, pictures, coming. And thanks for the memories.

(I was on Kidsworld once....shhhhh....)

August 4, 2003 from Naseem:

I came across your site while trying to find a particular TVO show....
There was a posting on your site (July 08/03 from James) that had the same question as I do...
He asked about two shows-- one was correctly identified as Simon and the Land of Chalk drawings...
And the other has not been identified...I'm going to tell everyone more details about the show in the hopes
that someone might know more about it....

The show invovled an outline of a chalk-man...I think that he wore a hat but my brothers insist that he didn't.
He would speak roughly in gibberish and yell at the cartoonist-- telling him to change things around in the picture that
he was drawing. The cartoonist would get irritated by the chalk-man and do things like erase the ground of the picture
so that the chalk-man would fall through. It was a short...Maybe about 3-5 minutes per episode.

Your site is amazing! I think it's really important to have something like that around!

(La Linea! Was the show - many people are stumped on this one)

August 6, 2003 from Tim:

i am a TVOntario reminiscer from richmond, virginia. i grew up just across the lake from Toronto, outside a small town in western new york.

i remember turning our television antennae rotary towards the northeast every evening, for channel 19, and sitting on the living room floor to watch the
green forest, polka dot door, today's special, et al.

one of my teachers would even record "read all about it" and show it to the class once weekly. i barely remember the show, but i remember being very
weirded-out and at the same time, completely enthralled by it.

anyway, really enjoyed your site.

i wonder if anyone at TVOntario has considered digging these shows from their vaults and doing the dvd thing. not that they would probably make piles of
money from the effort, but there is enough nostalgia, i think, not to mention that the old viewers are getting to have kids of their own now, who'd be bound
to enjoy them.

(Always great to hear from US fans!)

August 8, 2003 from James:

This is a wonderful website, bringing back such memories. Would you happen to have any of these episodes on tape? I would love to go down memory lane
again.

Vision On was coproduced between the BBC and TVO, I believe, possibly related to the same relationship that got TVO "Doctor Who" back in the
1970s. Remember that show on Saturday nights?

Anyway, there's another "Doctor Who" connection. One of the characters on "Vision On", who lived in Backwards world, and did everything backwards, was
referred to as "Sylvester". He was, in fact, Sylvester McCoy, who would go on to play the seventh Doctor on "Doctor Who". The Daleks also made an
appearance on an episode of "Vision On" (After Tony Hart drew one on the parking lot pavement).

I loved the show, and I loved the art on the show. I vaguely recall a sequence where, photos would be shown, extreme closeups of something,
accompanied by somewhat freaky music. There was no voiceover or anything, you were supposed to guess what you were looking at. The camera would
eventually pull back and reveal the whole picture...

(Thanks James - Glad you like the site - your TTC site is much apprecaited by me)

August 8, 2003 from Graig:

just came across your TVO Kids show site and I must say I'm not just impressed but completely overwhelmed with the flooding of memories.
My friends and I have taken great pleasure in recalling these programs over the past decade or so (I think it started when my friend whipped out
his Cucumber Club memebership card in grade 12 back in '93).
I don't know if Willo th' Whisp (sp?) or Dr Snuggles (voiced by Canadian Thespian Peter Ustinov iirc) fit into whatever timeline you're working
with, but it'd be great to see what you can come up with on them as well...

(A Cucumber Club Card Carrying member....I AM SO JEALOUS!!!)

August 16, 2003 from Becky:

Just writing to say that your page is truly awesome! But I'm sure you've heard that a thousand times! Anyways, thanks for letting me reminisce :)

(I still love to hear from everybody - it makes the site so worthwhile to maintain!)

August 17, 2003 from Andy:

Just a quick note to say that I enjoyed your website...
I too watched a lot of these shows!

Did you every see Dr. Snuggles? I still sing the theme around the house and I know the names of most of the characters. Now THAT was a good show!

(Another Dr. Snuggles fan...there are so many of you!)

August 17, 2003 from Laila:

Just to let you know Harriet's Magic Hats was about an Aunt who had quite an interesting collection of hats. Each episode one of her four nieces would put on a hat and then be transported into an adventure where they would learn about a profession for whatever hat they had on. Like if they put on a hard hat, they might learn about construction work.

and

"One show I adored was called "Harriet's Magic Hats," produced by TVOntario. It was about this girl named Susan who had this weird aunt Harriet, whose hobby, it seemed, was to take hats from various workplaces and stick them in her trunk, guarded by her puppet parrot, Ralph, who sounded a little like Tobey Maguire doing an impression of Alastair Cooke. Anyway, Susan would burrow through Harriet's trunk, stick on a hat, and get magically beamed to whatever workplace the hat suited. Pretty simple concept....and although low-budget, I liked it as a kid and didn't notice anything. "

Recently I remembered a show from my childhood that used to be on TV. Except I cannot remember the name of it, and it's driving me crazy. I know it used to be on in Manitoba and Ontario, and it was possibly filmed in Winnipeg somewhere on a lake. It was set at a cottage and there was a woman who lead most of the activities. Crafts, singing, little skits. I remember in the crafts segment the woman would always remind us to use children's scissors, not the pointy ones. And I remember them singing the song BINGO with a dog puppet of some kind.

(I'll add your info to the HMT site - hope someone can help you out with your question)

August 18, 2003 from David:

Love the webpage. Lot's of cool memories from the shows that I grew up with.

I was wondering if you remember the name of an old short cartoon show that I think must have been on TVO during the early to mid 1980s. It was about a
kid who late at night in his room would shine some kind of a special flashlight on the ground creating a portal which he would jump into. Can't
remember much more than that but that was the major premise of the show. If you have any info on that it'd be great to see on the site.

Once again, great job with the site.

(Jamie and the Magic Torch)

August 18, 2003 from Miles:

wow i rembber the body works and other show thats all i could get when i lived up north but there is two shows i cant name.
1.. i rember a show where a boy would go in a trunk and come out a nother trunk in the wood where a man with a wagan was i dont remmber much

2 anothere show was like a arts and crafts show they would do arts and crafts and othes neet stuff and there was a miorror there and when you went in it everthig was backwards i think it was from england

(Timothy Pilgrim and maybe Vision On)

August 18, 2003 from Todd:

Oh, man, I thought I was the last person alive who remembered Fables of the Green Forest. It's affecting just seeing those stills up on your site.

I moved to Hamilton from Halifax when I was 12 in 1980, and it was a rough year for me in school. It's a little sad, I know, but I can hardly express how much I looked forward to that show every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30. It was my lifeline. I pulled myself through day to day waiting for my Forest 'fix' like Tarzan swinging vine to vine. I would just lose myself in the freedom of the show, the music, the characters. I don't know why, but I had this vague sensation that the show was kind of about northern Ontario in the 60s like The Forest Rangers was (remember that show?), so I felt geographically plugged into it as well.

I adored the show. It seemed to me like TVO was going to run it forever. I got lazy and never bothered to tape the series... they must have played it continually till I was 20. Then, BANG! it was gone, just like that. The more time passes, the more I wish I could see that show again. I'd give just about anything to have a complete set of the episodes, but it's sounding to me like that's not going to happen. Oh, but it's just so great to know someone else out there remembers the show, and remembers it fondly!

You're right; TVO had a bang-on set of shows those years. Or maybe we all just think so because we were kids then, and whatever was on when you were a kid was what was "right" for kids, you know? Could be everything's subjective. But maybe not. Maybe we were really blessed.

I remember Sol from Parlez-Moi well. My grade nine French teacher used to show those, and Sol became kind of an icon for us. Some of the guys and I entered our high school's amateur film contest with a bit we made up called "Sol Trek". It was exceedingly bad, but we had a blast making it. :)

...To Ryan: the "Go underground" show you remember... I think you're thinking of The Secret Railroad, with Simon, Mr. Passenger, and Stella. I can't remember Mr. Passenger's cat's name just at the moment... was it Melanie? Oh, never mind, somebody already answered this one. :)

Ah! Got one! Thetis is thinking of an animated show about world history. It was made in France, I think, and translated into English. I can't remember the name of the show, but I remember they had a recurring set of characters who were present all the way down through history... the character Thetis is thinking of was named "Maestro", I think... an old guy with full-length white hair, button eyes and a big nose. There was Bert, his friend Lerch, and Bert's girlfriend/wife Pierrette, among others. There was also this anthropomorphic little slot-machine dealie with arms and eyes whose spinning tumblers would display the current year or epoch. I think Gabor is talking about exactly the same show, by the way. I remember that the opening music for the show was a truly moving rendition of "Toccota and Fugue in D Minor" by Bach... I think. Oh, cool, somebody else just mentioned that… you can tell I’m answering stuff as I read down the page. :)

Carly is thinking of a show called "The Waterville Gang", but that was on CTV, I believe.

Daniel: the singing wind you remember from Fables of the Green Forest was alternately referred to as “Sister Breeze”, “Gentle Breeze”, and “Sister South Wind”.

Tamara is taking about Dr. Snuggles! Remember the episode where the river was afraid to go to the ocean because big chunks of it (literally — leaving holes like ice cubes would!) were disappearing? Snuggles took the Dreamy Boom-Boom rocket to recover the water from aliens made of water. Boy, the things you remember when you forget not to remember them. :)

Alyssa is thinking of “Story Theatre”. I’m not 100% sure of the words, but I seem to recall the theme song going something like, “Why don’t we sing the song all together / Open our heads and out pictures come / And if we open our minds together / Then we will see where we all come from. / Pictures of us through the steamy haze / Pictures of us painted in our gaze / Why don’t we sing the song all together / Open our heads and out pictures come / And if we open our mind together / Then we will see where we all come from.” I remember Alan Alda being on one of the episodes. I remember seeing it on ATV back in Nova Scotia; they were part of the CTV network, so odds are it was on CTV in Ontario. You can find out about it at (http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/ccf/networks/networks_CTV_Television_Programming.html)... it's under the year "1971".

Your site is an inspiration, and thanks for maintaining it. :) If anyone knows how to get hold of Fables of the Green Forest, I sure hope they’ll let us know!

(Wow - it seems someone who watched more TV than me growing up is out there! What a great message. I am sure you answered a lot of peoples questions! Thanks for all the info and I do have 2 episodes of Fables)

August 21, 2003 from Paul:

Brilliant site, I was prompted to search old TVO kids shows as I saw the clown from parlez-moi on TV when I was in Montreal recently and couldn't
remember the name of the show. Another show nobody has mentioned was "The Ghosts of Motley Hall", which I believe was airing in the late
70's. Although it was made on a shoestring I remember it being very funny, also I recall a historically themed animated show that had Bach's
tuccatta fugue as a theme. Anyone recall that show?

(Sounds like a cool show...I am afraid I don't know it)

August 23, 2003 from John:

OH MY GOD!!!!!

You almost made me cry!

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker about all the great old shows we used to watch on TVO (we even started singing the theme songs that we could remember ...."join us here on Readalong, you and you and you and you and you") lol, but seeing this site REALLY brings back the memories! I loved shows like Fables of the Green Forest, Jeremy, Harriet's Magic Hats and Readalong. I totally forgot about Timothy Pilgrim, all I could remember was someone getting out of an old trunk. I too, loved Read All About It, even though the music and characters like Duneedon freaked me out, though that didn't scare me as much as Sol! I never did well in French, so I always thought he was some drunk hobo, lol. I also read through the feedback section to remember more shows like Jamie and the Magic Torch, and The Secret Railroad, all I could remember from that show was the girl's starfish shaped hair, and the fact that I never understood what was going on.

I'm also trying to remember two shows that I'm pretty sure aired on TVO (though possibly CBC), one starred real life hamsters or gerbils that lived on a riverbank (I think one of their name's was Matty?), the other show was French, so I'm not sure what it was called (sounded something like Passe-pac tu or something like that, it starred a man and two women, the man wore stripped burgundy pants, one woman wore a yellow outfit with diamond patches and the other a lilac dress with circular patches)

PLEASE keep up the good work, anything relating to these wonderful shows must be saved!

(Another soul who was freaked out by Sol! Welcome to the club)

August 26/03 from CitizenSmurf:

Found your web site and I love it. Brought back a lot of memories from childhood, especially 'Jeremy the Bear'. I would love to get a hold of episodes of Jeremy, mostly to find out what the hell happened. I vividly remember a story arc that was in perpetual re-run mode. The last part of the story I remember is Jeremy and his friends walking into what I recall as the mountains (?), then the next episode aired would be the beginning. Drove me nuts as a kid. I understand it was originally produced in France as Barnaby the Bear, but I would love to get the English version of it so I can follow the story.

Anyway, I recently got a hold of several Harriet's Magic Hat's tapes from a kindergarten cleaning out it's junk. I know I sound like a total loser for even remembering this show, but my wife really likes it (and Little House On The Prairie). Seems like the tapes were licensed for educational purposes from Access (in Alberta) in the early 80's, and have been collecting dust for a while. Since you seem to share my obsession for obscurities, I'll get together an episode list for your site, and when I have time I might transfer them to VCD, but that will be when I'm really bored. If you put this on your feedback page, I'd be into trading copies of these shows for some Jeremy the Bear, write me at citizensmurf@hotmail.com

Also I have a really vague memory of another maybe TVO show that doesn't seem to match any description I can find on your site. All I recall is an organ, and what seemed to be a trailer, or portable school room with the organ, a few kids and an adult. Pretty vague, but I caught the end of the show once when I was young, and have been wondering what it was since. Thanks for the great site.

(I was always a little confused too by the sequence of Jeremy...maybe there are some so-called 'lost' episodes out there)

August 28/03 from Avi:

I have spent the last 5-10 years of my life looking for that TVO history cartoon and its theme music. Thank you Jamie!!! I have their website
(http://www.procidis.com/) open and listening to their rendition of Bach over and over and over again.

August 31/03 from Jonathan:

I am a 19 year old fan of retro educational programming. I found your site after typing in the word 'Palabra Jot' on my search engine. All of the programs on your site I remember as if it were yesterday. These shows would be shown I remember in 3rd grade. First, the show "The Write Channel" would come on. It's my favorite show of them all and it was about a little green worm named R.B. Bugg I think and he would proofread paragraphs and sentences for a newscaster named Red. After fixing the papers, it would go to a screen that would have a man saying 'the write club' followed by a song and something to do with 'palabra jot'. The worm would watch Red do a newscast and then beautiful shots of a cityscape would be shown. That is all I remember about that show and I love it. I wish I had a copy of that show without having to pay that big price. The same goes for "Read All About It". That show would come on before we home from school. It seemed really normal at first until the final episodes when Duneedon would appear. I was literally freaked when that episode came on along with that scary moog music hehe. I was like 'this is soooo weird!' I would love to have my own copy of that series one day. Along with those 2 programs, I remember some other classics like "Slim Goodbody", "The Electric Company", "Today's Special" and "Zoom". I live in the US and the only classics I ever see on PBS are "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and new episodes of "Sesame Street". Thanks for a wonderful website!
P.S. Do you remember the tri-colored PBS logo with the scary moog synthesizer music? I would run from the room when that would come on haha.

(So Palabra Jot got you....kudos to the feedback section for bringing you to the site)

September 1/03 from Tiffany:

I just found your wonderful website about Canadian children's shows of the 70's. I also noticed you have all the episodes of Read all about it. I would love to
buy copies of the episodes. I use to have all of them too but the tapes got ruined. I'm a child of the 80's and grew up watching the reruns.How ever I was in
Kindergarten when season 2 aired. I'm from Atlanta Ga and our local PBS (PBA) would air the show two a day. I remember playing sick from school in order to watch,
Read along, Read all about it, All about you, And Body works. There were other shows too I think they were from other parts of Canada or the US.

(Always cool to hear from fans in the USA)

September 2/03 from Stephane:

I have been looking for "Body Works" for well over 5 years now. I stumbled across your site - you don't know how many phone calls / e-mails even
personal visits I have paid to TVO on Yonge Street - they finally told me that the old tapes of these shows have since been erased (!) and re-used.
Thank-you so much for your site + hard work and for the much appreciated Theme Exchange link. Do you have any more original (disco / funk) music from
the actual program?

(TVO if they only knew the goldmine they had!)

September 3/03 from Bryan:

I haven't contacted you since last February when I gave you some links for Dr. Snuggles and Barbapapa, but I still visit the site often. It looks great! All the additions are fantastic, and I'm amazed at how many things other people remember that I have forgotten.

While I was looking at the site, my mind was jogged, for some reason, to a TVO show called "The Phoenix and The Carpet". It was a British show, and was on in the late seventies. After doing a search, and finding many links relating to the book and a 1995 movie of the same name, I finally found the following link:

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/tombstone/890/

This site has an amazing amount of info on children's shows, many of them British, some American. There is a wealth of information on "The Phoenix and the Carpet", and also "Simon in the Land Of Chalk Drawings". Some of the other shows may have aired on TVO, but I did not recognize them.

I hope this helps others who vaguely remember the Phoenix, and again, thank you for maintaining such a wonderful site.

(Thanks for visiting again)

September 3/03 from Andrew:

holy cow, i've been trying to track down info on all these old show forever!!! thank you thank you thank you....aahhhh my childhood. do
you remember this old cartoon..late 70's i think...the show began with cavemen i think and 'evolved' to a rocket....the show (eurpean i think)
was a cartoon about different stages in human history...cavemen discovering fire and such...the theme music was bach's 'tocata en fugue' i think.

thank you so much! keep the site running!!

(I think we've discussed this one before...anyone remember?)

September 6/03 from Robert:

I love the website. I live in Montreal and I was just reminicing about all these shows. My favorite show was Read all about it.

(Another RAAI fan!)

September 8/03 from Vijay:

my name's vijay from india and thot i'll jot down some words..

i was looking for info on barbapapa just out of personal interest.

i'm 25 right now and used to watch this cartoon in our local TV channel when i was 5 or 6 years old.

it is curious to note that u've spent much time in creating a webpage for the children's TV show u used to watch.

i cudnt recognise any of the other TV shows as in india u dont get to watch much of english stuff.

but as a child barbapapa was my favorite cartoon show and used to never miss it.
looking back it really is a nostalgia which makes me smile.

even i feel nowadays kids are missing a lot on information and entertainment.

(A fan of the site from India....welcome!)

September 12/03 from m:

wow, such an awesome website you have. a friend who lives in toronto now pointed me at it when I was complaining about being nostalgic for old shows
that I hadn't seen since I was little. my problem is that I moved around alot when I was in my formative years (living in different parts of toronto,
vancouver, and the west coast). I've moved down to chicago now actually for university, as fate would have it. i just wanted to tell you that your
little site really means a lot to the people who visit it, and I strongly strongly encourage you not only to keep the site up, but to continue your
great historical work! The ones I remembered:

Read All About It!
always with a suspenseful story, this one I recall having lots of cliffhangers and being kind of scary for me as a little kid.

Jeremy
I remember this character having problems with this pilgrim looking character with a caravan who was trying to give Jeremy a hard time whenever
they were together. Maybe this was the leader of the circus?

All About You
don't remember anything in particular about this one, but I definitely watched it growing up.

Fables of the Green Forest
I think I may have watched this one when I was very small, as I scarcely remember the show at all but vaguely recognize some of the characters

Jeremy I was very excited to find out about as that was one I've been searching for info on for a long time. Another old one I found out about
via the Knowledge Network was Belle & Sebastian, which I recall airing around the same period.

Finally, my cry for help question is that I'm looking for another old show about a little boy who moved into a house haunted by the ghost of a girl
who used to live there. I think the title is something like [boy's name] and [girl's name] but I don't remember for sure. I remember she would
materialize and tell him things. And the ending sequence was her swing just rocking as the credits rolled, I think. If any of that sounds
familiar or you can point me at any other resources, I would be most appreciative.

(The show was Elly & Jools as was sent to me in a followup e-mail)

September 15/03 from Amanda:

I love your site.. no one would believe me about the fables of the green forest and you have helped me prove it! There is one that I'm trying to remember... it was a moose and a beaver.. they were kind of like polka roo, they had a fort kind of place and a huge trunk... I think you would call them mascots... please let me know if I'm losing it or if you remember.. it was from the early 80's!

(Cucumber!!!!)

September 18/03 from Stephanie:

I just love your site! My little brother sent it to me and I've passed it along to all the girls I work with. Next thing you know, we're walking
around singing the theme song to "the green forest" and saying "clickity click! Barbara trick!" Thanks for the trip down memory lane. There are some
shows here I forgot that I'd even watched until I saw the photos!

(Can I come work where you do? If I'd tried singing at work - people might do bad stuff to me!)

September 18/03 from Travis:

You have an AMAZING web site! Do you ever sell any of the episodes of the TVO shows you have? How did you get them on tape anyways? Does TVO have an archive of all their shows. It would be wild to see an original episode of the Polka Dot Door. From my recollection the opening was likely kept the same for the entire series - I remember it 'looking old' when I watched in the 80's. Do you remember when Dr. Who aired on TVO. I think it aired @ 7PM after Today's Special. Speaking of Today's Special, you should add that to your site. I have all of Series One (81-84) and Series Two (84-86) on VHS. I think I am missing maybe one episode. For some of these shows, I know Clive Vanderburgh was the mastermind behind them. I think he's still around. His biggest claim to fame was Today's Special which, next to Polka Dot Door is argulbly the most popular TVO kids show of the 80's

(I seriously should add a Today's Special section to the site shouldn't I?)

September 21/03 from Curtis:

Hey there, I just wanted to say 'Great job' on your TVO kids shows site.

A friend and I were discussing some old shows (Harriets Magic Hats etc.,) online, and we came across your site. We could barely contain our glee! Oh the nostalgia! It was great fun, and we have you to thank for it.

So many classic shows, I thought they were lost for all time, but now we have some pictures and information thanks to you! I wish you the best of luck with your site, and will visit it more, and refer it to others.

Did you ever think of contacting TVO? Maybe they would be willing to help you out, or hell, even with some petition work (which I KNOW every kid from the 80s would sign) which would bring some of these shows out of storage (they ARE keeping them in storage? Right?)

Anyways, once more, great job, and keep up the good work!

= D

(Thanks for the feedback!)

September 22/03 from Sara:

Everyone has already said this, but your site is awesome! Every once in a while I do a search for Artscape to see if there's any info about it,
but never found anything....so when I came across those screen shots I almost died! Where did you get them? Do you have any plans for a page
about it?
Your site also solved the mystery of my life...I could never remember which show the guy in the kangaroo suit came from, and it was driving me
insane. Thank you so much!

(Another Artscape fan - I really should find out more info on that show)

September 23/03 from Bo:

Thank you so much for your time time in putting this site together. Truly I have had one of THE MOST BLISSFUL mornings of my life!! Thank you so much for this. For the fun of it I put in Jeremy, Hammy the hamster and fables of the green forest and barbapapas into the search engine (all my favorites) to see what would come up...and there was your site! Really, I am sure that you have and will continue to touch the hearts of may people who view your site. I for one will be telling everyone I know about it.
Do you know if they will ever replay these? Where could one find a copy to purchase? Thank you sooo much again. Bye they may..my nick name was Jeremy when I was younger..LOL!!! Many Blessings to you.

(The look on your face must have been priceless when you actually got a result using those words - cool!)

September 23/03 from Richard:

The actor was Whitman Mayo, whom is probably most remembered as "Grady" on "Sanford and Son". I saw this show as a kid, but it is not listed at IMDb.com. It may have been a small part of a wholly different named show, but I remember it as "That's Cat", and here are some other people who do as well.
http://www.tvparty2.com/wwwboard/messages/2429.html

(Yet again readers of the site - come thru with answers - excellent!)

September 24/03 from Michelle:

Thank you for providing a site that reminded me of many more of my favorite shows from my youth! I totally forgot about a lot of them, but somehow they were all still there in my head...

As you can tell by my email subject, my most favorite was probably Fables of the Green Forest. I too have come across the startling unavailability of this program! I found one VHS cassette at my local Blockbuster, and recorded the four episodes from it onto my own tape. Sadly, they are so old the quality is not what the TV original was, and because it was sold as a "full-length" feature, they edited and spliced the four episodes together. BUT, at least it wasn't the cruddy altered version YTV aired in the mid to late 90s (music with a calypso theme, terrible voices and altered stories).

In fact, it was actually a much older release labelled "Peter Cottontail and Friends", with a hokey, southern country theme-song. It was packaged in 1979 I believe, not long after the original versio
n of the show (Yama Nezumi Rokky Chyakku--"Rocky Chuck the Mountain Rat") aired in Japan. It's the strangest version of the show (title credits, song and episode edits) that I have ever seen. The unedited content was exactly the same as the TVO airings however.

I have indeed found more episodes in a highly unusual place. Though I too have seen the occasional eBay listings of the original tapes, the tape I found locally led me to seek out other "related" titles and names it might be found under. Sure enough, more recently (eg. the 90s onward) Rhino video repackaged several episodes (almost half the 54 episode series) under 'Peter Cottontail in the Green Forest". These videos are subtitled with various names, including: Autumn Fun, Autumn in the Green Forest, Winter Fun, Winter in the Green Forest, (same for Spring and Summer), and at least one or two others (don't recall the subtitles), each containing up to three eps.

I am not certain which version of the show this will be.
..the southern country-themed Peter Cottontail tales I have, the cruddy YTV re-airing, or the TVO version. I certainly hope it's the latter! While I have yet to find more than one or two vendors who have them in stock (supposedly), I hope to buy one soon and find out what it contains! I will be sure to let everyone know my findings!

Also, I will eventually digitize my recordings of any episodes I find and make them available to people who want them. ^_^ Wish me luck!

Sorry this message is so long...but I am sure someone will find the info helpful!

(This will be added to the Fables section - solid info to say the least!)

September 24/03 from Tim:

Jeez. You know, I haven't seen those programs in ages. When I was in high school (about 7 yars ago), the audio-visual technician and I used to borrow
old films and videos from the school board and watch them in his office. As such, I believe that the York Region District School Board has copies of
"Parlez-moi", "Eureka", and possibly "read all about it". I know they had a bunch of TVO kids stuff. Mind you, when they came, they were on Beta tapes.
The board destroyed their Beta collection in 1999. I don't know how many of the program titles were renewed. Have you ever looked for them in the
Toronto public library system?

(I keep meaning to go to the library)

September 26/03 from Diddy:

I'm really after any info on Willow of the Whisp!!!You see I'm dressing up as Mavis Cruit (the little fat fairy that couldn't fly!) from there & could do with a
picture!!!!!
It all started off as a family joke but now I'm doing it to raise money for a childrens charity!!!!
PLEASE HELP!!!

(Hope someone can help!)

September 26/03 from Aaron:

Great site! I stumbed across it while looking for more information about "The Secret Railroad". I found more than I bargained for -- your
site reawakened long-buried memories of other TVO programmes.

Speaking of vague memories, I dimly remember a short animated film that was occasionally broadcast during the late 70's or early 80's. The
style of animation was similar to that of The Secret Railroad, and it may have even used the same narrator. The film was about a boy who is
the servant or slave of an evil wizard named Spellbinder. He teaches himself magic on the sly, bests Spellbinder in a duel, and escapes with
the wizard's daughter. Does anyone remember this film?

(Anyone?)

September 29/03 from Tammy:

Great Website! I was just wondering if anyone remembered the show "Dear Aunt Agnes," I can still remember the theme song in my head...."Dear Aunt Agnes, Remember....You said you'd help us out if you could...." I can't really remember the details only that Aunt Agnes is this old woman that moves in with these 3 kids? Am I dreaming this?

(I never watched the show - can anyone help?)

September 30/03 from Heather:

I've just scanned your site quickly and thought I would ask if you know where I can actually get either tapes or dvds of old CBC episodes. I'm looking for The Friendly Giant and Mr.Dressup, and any other preschool/kindergarten type shows. Others I'm looking for are Seseme street and The Muppet Show. I haven't tried Kaza yet.

I only recognized a couple of the ones you had on your site, but maybe B.C. had different shows.

(Seems like Alberta had a lot of these, but BC maybe not)

October 1/03 from James:

THANK YOU THANK THANK YOU
I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT A FEW OF THESE SHOWS...
I SURFED IN PARTICULARLY TO SEE YOUR STUFF ON JEREMY...GOD DAMN I LOVED THAT SHOW.
AND ONE THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN THAT I REALLY REALLY ENJOYED SEEING HERE WAS THE TIMOTHY PILGRIM SHOW.
I WAS COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH THAT FOR AWHILE.
AND YET I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT UNTIL RIGHT NOW.

I SAW IT THE FIRST TIME IN SCHOOL...OUT TEACHER SHOWED US AN EPISODE AND WE ALL LOVED IT...MYSELF IN PARTICULAR...AND WE REQUESTED THAT WE GET TO SEE THE REST....

IF YOU EVER FIND ANY OTHER INFO ON JEREMY PLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL....WHAT I WOULDN'T DO TO GET MY HANDS ON AN EPISODE.

THANKS AGAIN...YOU MADE MY DAY

(The Timothy Pilgrim fans are few - but passionate!)

October 2/03 from Tanis:

I had given up on finding Jeremy the Bear stuff online a couple of years ago! It totally tripped me out to see the stills on your website, and I checked out the theme song on the link you provided. UNREAL!

Does anyone remember a show that must have been on VERY early in the morning, maybe even on Sunday's... I was really little, but all I remember is it was kind of an Addams Family type of rip off. I remember the big fat hunchback type of lackey character guy who was covered in green makeup and bald, and I'm pretty sure there was some kind of Dracula-esque kind of guy as well. And everything was usually set in some dark castle or basement lab type of set up. Not a cartoon, it was actors. Am I high, or does anyone else remember this? Would have been early 1980's.

THANKS, and keep up the good work!

(Hilarious House of Frankenstein - thanks to the many who e-mailed to tell me the show)

October 5/03 from Katie:

Your page is wonderful, i have been trying to remember the show with the boot for a while now, and you have done it for me! Thanks so much!!!

My question is about a show which may not have been a TVO show, but i am pretty sure it was. When first learning french in grade 4, we watched a show
called Tele Francais, it had a pineapple...... his name of course; L'ananas. He was a puppet, but i don't know much about the rest of the show, if
someone could find a webpage for this show it would be super! It is Sunday and i have been searching since Wednesday afternoon!!! I am relentless.
Please help me! I am going nuts here!

(Pics of the pineapple have been sent - hope you like them)

October 7/03 from Allison:

What a crazy flashback time warp you put my friends through. I seriously felt like I was HIGH when I looked at your site. Thanks to Greg for
helping me remember the GRAN show too, that was one of my favorite stop action animated shows for sure.

One show I am truly stumped about is one that Jeff alluded to as "Walnut Street". It looked like it had a lot of the same puppets as in READALONG
(boot and pretty making appearances??) - it was a safety show that used to feature a squirrel that was put in a lot of horribly dangerous
situations. I seem to recall her getting electrocuted/run over off her bike..pretty gruesome stuff. My friend Kevin remembers her always saying
the line "better safe than sorry". Does this ring a bell to anyone? Anyone else remember details about it, or have a definite name?

(Could be Calling All Safety Scouts)

October 7/03 from Kurasu:

Hi! Remember me? Probably not, but I'm one of the many adore-ers of your website. I happened to pop back in to check out the changes, and noticed the
newer questions put into the feedback section. I can't guarantee either of these answers are right, but I do believe that:

Laila (August 27th) was asking about Size Small. I remember the 'Bingo' rendition. I don't recall if TVO ever played it (I really don't think so),
but I absolutely adored this show. The music is still in my head after this many years. They also had a 'Size Small Island' and 'Size Small Country'. I
liked the country the best. Anyhow, here's some info on the show:
http://www.hsionline.com/products/ecbuilder2/item7171.htm

Tanis (October 2) was almost definitely talking about The Hilarious House Of Frightenstine. One of Billy Van's best works, and with the voice talents of
the infamous Vincent Price. It's got a massive website:
http://www.frightenstein.com/.

And you, yourself, was asking about Dear Aunt Agnes, since you didn't remember much about it. The basic story is told directly in the themesong.
But the basic idea is that the mother had something going on, and couldn't care for the children. So since Aunt Agnes said that she'd help out, she let
her take care of them. It's a tale about learning, since Agnes is a _very_ different individual, introducing them to such things as unusual foods and
games ("It's a blood orange. It tastes like a regular orange, only sweeter!" ... an oddly memorable line for me.)

Going over some information, I happened to find this site on Today's Special. It's a US site, unfortunately, but the information seems good.
Maybe you can get in touch with them and get a link from their site to a Today's Special area. Not that I'd be suggesting anything, of course. Not
me, a rabidToday's Special fan. ;)

http://www.schuminweb.com/todays-special/main-page.htm

(As always great to hear from you - you always provide valuable info)

October 10/03 from Joe:

I just visited your site. This was exactly what I was looking for. I have a bunch of memories from the early 80's of TVO shows and you have
summarized them on one web site. Your site is bringing back a lot of memories.

I'm not sure if you remember, but I'm looking for one show in particular. I don't even know the name. All I remember is that the show was about a
pencil drawing of the outline of a man. The show usually started out with him and a horizontal line representing the ground. He would go left or
right and run into things. Sometimes he would get mad at the artist (you only would see his hand). There was not talking other then incoherent
mumbles. I think the show was French because at the end it would say "FIN".

(YEAH! Another La Linea fan!)

October 10/03 from Lauren:

Okay, if you or anyone has an information on a show that was on in the late 70's early 80's I think, there was a woman who spoke French, a mouse, and a mime whom I am pretty sure was named Merci. Do you know what I'm talking about? lol. My mom and I used to watch this program. I wasn't born until 1980, so I was pretty young when I watched it and probably by then it was reruns, but I forget the name of it!

(Hope someone else knows)

October 11/03 from Gerry:

I recall watching a TV cartoon series in the Kitchen-Waterloo area, likely during the mid eighties but cannot remember it's name. It had characters such as twin singing and dancing platypus type creatures, a stoic but wise young Indian man, an alien princess dressed in white I think, pirates and a flying sailboat. It seemed they were trying to return the princess to some planet. Does anyone know what the show might have been called or where there would be info on it?

(Anyone?)

October 12/03 from Tim:

I found out where you can get some sol stuff:
http://www.analekta.com/site/bio.e/favreau(sol)_ma.html

(Sol is a legend!)

October 13/03 from The Shining Wizard:

What about all the little 5-minute shows that aired at the end of the longer shows, in order to fill the 1/2 hrs because of no commercials...? I remember lots of those

There were:

1) The Wombles....I believe that it was a British Import. The Wombles were little guys who kind of resembled so odd little rat/wombat rodent things but they wore clothes. They lived underground and they collected garbage that 'everyday folks leave behind'. Everyone was very British and the show was done using stop-animation.

2)Will-O-the-Wisp.....This was an animated show that took place in a spooky dark forest. Wil-o-the-wisp is a little ghost thing living in a forest with other crazy spooky things. I dont remember much other than i was disturbed as a child by it

3)Wheelie World......Another stop animation one with little car type characters that went around. I cant remember the song exactly but i remember it was kind of cool

4) The Bubblies.....ah yes, the BUbblies. Once again, Bristh,but it was crappy marionettes! THis was about a group of "people" in a town who were also a band....THE BUBBLIES! There was this girl who came down from a rainbow and they would resolve minor disputes and then play a song. The theme song when:

Come back, Come back
Come Back to Bubbly-Town
Seems such a long time since you were around
While you've been away
We've waited for the day
When you'd come back, come back
Come back to Bubblytown

Okay, so many of these are 80s....but you should expand man!

(One of these days I'd like to expand the site - thanks for the suggestion)

October 14/03 from kp:

I was searching for Jeremy tvo and came across your site. Great work!
Interestingly, I had more memories reading the feedback then anywhere else. I believe Tanis (Oct 2/03) is thinking of Hilarious House Of Frightenstein (Billy Van Rules!), one of my favourites. I am surprised that so many people seem to remember Read All About It, when Jeremy came up at work the other day I tried describing it (RAAI) to my co-workers, but couldn't remember the name, and none of them could remember it. There is a brief mention in the feedback about "Tom's Midnight Garden" (Jeff, June 23/03, BTW this was made into a feature film in '99, original was better though, seventies atmosphere and all), which I also tried to describe to my co-workers and just got blank stares (I can never remember the names of these shows ;-))
I was born in '71 and grew up in London, but I have never heard of Dr. Snuggles, seems like everybody else has though.
They used to show All About You in school, as well as body works etc., but do you remember "Tom Grattens War"? Not sure if it was TVO or not, but they showed it in school as well. Another show someone mentioned that I loved was The Ghosts Of Motley Hall
This site has brought up some memories of some non-TVO shows from that era too, like Kroft Superstars (I think that is what it was called, it had various mini shows in it like Land Of The Lost and some freaky show about a dune-buggy that was alive and would help solve crimes just like KITT!)
Anyhoo, what I really wanted to ask is if you knew of a site where I could download the FULL ENGLISH VERSION of the Barbapapa theme song?

(Thanks for all the info - hope you come across the theme you are looking for)

October 15/03 from Carnell:

I was just doing a nonchalant search on Fables Of The Green Forest when I came across your website. I must also say that in the 5 years that I've been online that I have never EVER emailed a webmaster to tell them about their website. But this time it was impossible for me to resist. Your site has brought back great memories fom "back in the day". It also uncovered memories about certain shows that I had all but completely forgotten about. Excellent job! Just one quick question: Have you ever thought about setting up a message board so that visitors can help each other by posting questions and answers about their favourite TVO shows? I'm sure people don't honestly expect you to know everything! Thanks again and keep up the good work.

(A message board might not be a bad idea - maybe a Yahoo Group could be created)

October 17/03 from Melissa:

Well, I'm not sure if anyone out there remembers these because they weren't full episodes but... here goes! The premise was: a real hand sketching a white stick-drawing figure and its environment on a green background. The hand would draw obstacles, water, animals etc... to impede the progress of the stick figure. There were no words, but a lot of "gibberish", and music in the background ("be-doum, be-doum" -- which is what my family always called the show in general). I think it was a French show because, if I recall correctly, the show would end with "LA FIN" (all in smallcaps). It played during the 80's and was (and still is) my absolute favourite cartoon! I've spoken to a few people around my age and oler (25-30) and all of us remember watching the cartoon, but none of us have any clue as to its name! I am hoping to find out at least the name of the short and if possible the production company. HELP ME!

(Another La Linea fan - and I am told she now has the guy as her wallpaper on her PC - cool!)

October 18/03 from SV:

I only saw one reference to Vegetable Soup in the posts, therefore I am still not sure where to find it--is it Canadian? Truthfully it was a pleasure to simply see it mentioned because my borther and I (I am 32) thought we imagined it because no-one else seems to remember it. Thank you for a walk down memory lane

(Not sure myself)

October 19/03 from Milton:

Just a quick note to thank you for this site. I was producer, director, writer of several of the shows produced by the Children's Department at
TVOntario. Your site -- and the urging of another fan -- has spurred me to look through my collection of tapes and try to recover them before
they disintegrate forever.

For your info, my shows included: The Science Alliance, The Body Works, Kidsworld, Artscape, It's Your World, The Computer Room, Take a Look,
Habitat, Voyageurs, and Nature Watch Digest.

I left TVO in 1996 at which time they stopped producing series and began to buy them from other sources. The only orignal productions at
that time were TVO Kids which introduced the bought shows and Polka Dot Shorts.

(Thank You for everything - your hard work was much appreciated)

October 20/03 from Trevor:

I saw your site, and it is great!! I was wondering if you might actually have any pictures or clips from the shows "Magic Shadows" or "Tales from the Crystal Blue"? Both TVO productions

(Hope to get it one of these days)

October 20/03 from Tracey:

For some strange reason I never seem to have forgotten the stupid theme song from this show. I seem to remember it maybe having a different title though I
can't recall what. Anyway the theme song was as follows:

"Round the corner, down the lane,
let's go see Mr. Bean again.
Mr. Bean plus Eric makes two,
Two plus You (and you and you).

Pretty sure that's accurate.

P.S. Something to do with a Rockinghorse in the title? Or am I thinking of a different show?

(Thanks for the theme!)

October 21/03 from Laura:

What about the Magical Music Box with Heather Conkie? The Music box (victrola) would teach you about rhythm and beat etc.

I grew up in Buffalo NY, with all these shows.. I loved.. "Read all about it". It was so spooky.

Moose and Beaver.. man they're all coming back to me now.

(I was never too big into music - but I do recall the show)

October 26/03 from Davin:

Thank you for putting your TVO kids programming page together! My friends and I have been trying to find any information on what we only
remembered as "the show with the kid and the magic trunk".

To finally see your page for Timothy Pilgrim and see a few frames from the show was amazing!

(Timothy is a classic - many people remember it indeed - but have vague memories of it)

October 27/03 from John A:

i must say this site jogs the mind !! very cool

where did you ever get these still images of these shows ?

they are very clear considering the age of these shows.

and when will they ever release barbrapapa on dvd ?

(I am sure Barbrapapa must be on DVD somewhere in Europe)

Novermber 1/03 from Mike:

I had read that you have information on getting some fables of the green forest tapes. If so could let me know. I too was a huge fan of the
series. Also like you find it extremely difficult to find any episodes.

(Another Fables fan - welcome!)

November 2/03 from Christine:

For years I have wondered what that show was with the talking boot. I found your site and you have a little information. However I can't seem to find any other site or any more information on the show. Do you know if it is sold on VHS or DVD or if it airs anymore? Any information would be helpful

(Readalong unfortuneatly like every other program on this site, is not commercially available - the only copies that exist is if someone taped them personally)

November 3/03 from Julia:

Thank God for you

I lived in Ontario for twenty something years now in the US.

I would love to get my hands on some eposides of barbapapa? Or jeremy My son would just love them!

also there use to be a show l use to watch with a boy, witches and a magic flute do you remember it?

(Not sure - anyone know?)

November 4/03 from Jamie:

This is great! I'm 28 years old, so I know ALL about these shows. But there's one in particular that I can't seem to find anywhere other than Sweedish sites: Dr. Snuggles. I don't know if it was on TVO, but I know I used to watch it a long time ago, and I KNOW my family never had cable tv until all the kids were at least 13 years old and older. Any comments or directions would be welcome.

Earlier someone had mentioned http://www.doctorsnuggles.com that should have everything you are looking for

November 5/03 from Graham:

well, after going through your entire site, I've been transported back 18 years to being a fresh faced four year old in my alligator polo shirts, and
Osh Gosh pants. I cant BELEIVE I remember all these sohws so long after.

One thing that has stumped me was a series of shows, either on TVO, or CJOH (A CTV affiliate here in Ottawa). all casted by a husband/wife team, and all
their co hosts were puppets made by them. It was a craft show, and you could see the puppets were made in that "craft" motif (modified shoebox postman,
ect.).

If you got any info on this series, it would be greatly appreciated.

(I hope someone can help you out - I do not know)

November 5/03 from Anne:

My friend and I were having a huge discussion about the shows we used to watch and prompted me to do a search. She remembers the theme song to 'Dear Aunt Agnes' and can sing it to me, but this is one memory that is unfortunately lurking in the back of my head and won't come to the surface. (Although I can remember all the words to The Edison Twins, go figure!) She says the aunt was a famous female Canadian and can't remember her name. Thought you might know more. I need reminding! I think it was on TVO. Your website is a gas, makes me nostalgic, keep it up!

(Theme song lyrics are always appreciated)

November 6/03 from Helene:

Hi, there's one that I remember watching: DR. Snuggles...but can't remember if it was on TVO...though I think it was. I remember also: The Polka Dot Door

Hi again...another show that I remember watching while I was young: Today's Special

November 16/03 from Keith:

I am trying to remember the 70's kids show with a troupe of travelling minstrels. There was usually some moral message and the opening song was a Stones song.
You wouldn't happen to know the name of it?

(Nope - hope someone else does though)

November 18/03 from Luis:

I was just directed towards your site for info on old TVO shows but I can't get to it. I used google's cached method to see what was there before and it looks like you had a lot of great stuff. The site said that you last updated on Oct. 3, 2003 just a little over a month ago but yet your site is not available. I hope that you are in the middle of upgrading becasue it would be a shame to loose a great site. Please let me know on it's condition.

(My ISP Rogers deleted my site - I had to rebuild it)

November 20/03 from Carnell:

Maintenance? Was it shut down? What happened?

(My ISP Rogers deleted my site for no good reason)

November 28/03 from Sara:

What's happened to your website? Is it gone for good or just temporarily?

(Bad ISP Rogers - they deleted the site)

December 16/03 from Michael:

I was glad to find your website back up and that it was not shut down (as I thought it might have been after being down for so long.)
I actually rememberd one show that I'd like to pass along as I did not see it on your website. It was a cartoon version of "The Wizard Of Oz" and I
think it might have been called "The Many Adventures Of The Wizard Of Oz" The Tinman, Lion, and Scarecrow all had names. I think the Tinman's name was
Rusty and the lion's name was Dandy. I can remember a bit of the theme:

"Oh, the world of Oz is a very funny place
Where everyone wears a funny, funny, face
All the streets are paved with gold
And no one ever grows old
In that funny place lives the Wizard Of Oz"

Hopefully you remember this show. Take care!

(Thanks for the theme words - I always like to get those)

December 18/03 from Mopa:

Yes I remember this show and song (July 18 Alyssa) , I can't recall the show name but it started with a tune from the rolling stones (come and lets sings a song
toghter...) but yes I remember the sow, also dose any one recall finger mouse, "what on earth", big blue marble, These was also a cartoon about
history ( I loved it) with the same cast of charters witch had the old man in the long beard, I remember a lot of TVO, and of course OECA, I also
remember a show called I think HG mystery theatre, tom grattosn war, I love a lot of the French programming like "Pass Partout", god I have so many
memories of TVo, I used to be a Member of The cucumber club, I also loved doctor who, all the metric programming, I remember when the who king tut
thing was happening they used to run a program on king kigs treasures, magic shadows was great and I remember they used to play. I loved sol to, I
learned a lot of French from Watching TVO ( I guess it worked), I loved Timothy Pilgrim too.
I also remember they used to have a lot of bbc and or "Thames" productions (dr who, Magnus pike dude) and I remember a show one time they did on music,
and it hosted music videos, I had a close up of a dj I guess or announcer, but all you saw was his mouth and I think the cigarette he smoked, they
played videos from the boon town rats, Bram-Tchkoskie, xtc, and i think susie quattor, and whys this show was cool beuase they went in-depth to the
reasoning behind the songs ( i.e. they talked about the song I don't like Mondays and the girl who the song was written about ( she shot of here
Scholl yard in the uk a long time ago) as well I remember a show, series of a German family during ww2, one son was in the air fore and used to fly over
his mothers house and drop flowers, the other was in a propaganda company and filmed stuff, the cool thing about the film was that it was film in
black and white m but when something happened ( i.e. the sun dropping flowers from the play) it would briefly go back to colour and fad back to
balk and white, good I saw some really great programming on TVO, I think as a child it really opened up my head a lot, I wont even go into some of the
documentaries used to on history, I love it all and was glued to the station ( and latter PBS) as a kid.

(Magnus Pike of course was the host of Don't Ask Me and also appeared in the Thomas Dolby video She Blinded me with Science)

December 19/03 from Brian:

While watching television last night for some reason "Timothy Pilgrim" popped into my head and of course I had to leap to the computer and
look it up, which obviously led to your site. As has been said, your site is fantastic. I had so many of the
experiences that have been talked about by your visitors...
Memories of staying home sick in Don Mills in the mid-to-late '70's are fused with the morning TVO schedule. I wrote in to Cucumber once, a
really lame letter about the John Candy episode...I can still remember it perfectly, he talked with a kind of lisp...anyhow, they sent me the
green club member letter and also the green button and it's killing me that I don't know where they are right now. Time to scour the basement
shelves.
Around the same time I wrote in to Zoom and they sent me back a recipe to make a volcano using baking soda and vinegar.
I also remember our class being walked (quietly!) into the library, (or "resource centre" or whatever they called it in a 1970's open-concept
school) at the same time every day to watch Math Patrol.

A few years ago I worked at a clothing store downtown and Heather Conkie gave me her credit card to pay for her teenaged daughter's stuff
and I just had to tell her about watching Report Canada back then, and that my memories of her are linked with barfing from the flu.

I had some remembrances about a few shows that were in that morning schedule on a regular basis. Both of them involved people telling
stories and both of them were kind of boring...like you would switch over to The Price is Right until they were over (remember when the
actual retail price of a car was around $3000?).
The first show, I think, was called "Tell Me a Story" and I only remember it because the music is burned into my brain...it was really
trippy instrumental music over the opening credits which consisted of an animated book opening and then kind of turning all psychedelic and
3D. I think there was even some mushrooms in there somewhere. Then usually a lady came on and told a story.
The second show's name escapes me but it was always the same guy, and he would tell a story while the camera showed him illustrating the
story on a big page, in pastels. By the time he finished telling the story, the picture was done too.

Some more disjointed memories that your site prompted:

-I have a vintage Barbapapa t-shirt that I bought at Value Village about 10 years ago and it kills me that I can't wear it because it's
really small. But it's so cool I can't get rid of it.

-My friend's father wrote the theme music for the Polka Dot Door and also for those Hinterland Who's Who commercials. He died many years
ago.

Anyhow, sorry for the long-winded letter. Thanks for letting me bask in this nostalgia.

(A celebrity spotting of Heather Conkie very cool. And a very neat Value Village find. Good stuff!)

December 23/03 from Cristina:

I grew up in the US in the mid 80's watching many of these shows. It is such a sense of comfort and happiness to find out info. on these shows that
I loved. I use to watch these shows at my grandmother's house in the summers. I firmly believe that these shows struck my interests and assisted
me in becoming an educator. I am now a teacher.
Can you purchase the Read all About it series?
Do you know of a Safety Frog series? (This frog was a puppet) or the Letter People?
Do these shows still come on? I want my children to experience these shows/Love to chat about these programs.
I remember in Read All About it being terrified, but also learning couplets.

(I wonder if we should create a Yahoo group)

December 24/03 from Faith:

I too have the birds scream etched into my mind and the music. it's so weird how no one remembers it!!! It' was one of the best! I'm SO glad
that I finally found proof that it existed! I have been looking for a few years now! I was starting to think I imagined the whole thing!
I'm glad you have proof that the Little Prince existed too, although that is not hard to find. THat was a fabulous cartoon as well. They
still show it on the international channel. Do you also remember "Fred Penners Place"? Wow, all the best shows were canadian when I was a kid!
I used to watch them on the canadian channel from Detroit, Michigan.

(Trouble Trouble)

December 28/03 from Tim:

I grew up in Meadville, Pennsylvania and got several of these programs, very fuzzy, from CFPL in London, Ontario. I distinctly remember The Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup and The Hillarious House of Frightenstein.(that was, I think the name of the psychadelic show with Grizelda, a Wolfman Jack-type character who danced in front of a wild screen, and a whole slew of other characters.)

I'm writing because I cannot believe that nobody mentioned You Can't Do That on Television. I know that Nickelodeon got greedy even thought it was a Canadian produced show. I know that the show was way more popular in the US than in Canada, but unless I missed it, nobody mentioned it. I was just curious if anyone else was as addicted to that show as I was. If you were go to www.ycdtotv.com

And lastly, this site rocks! I can't believe how much of the programming is educational! I'm now a TV Production Teacher in Orlando, Florida and I will definately have my students do a review on this site.

(CBC had some fine programs too - that can't be denied)

December 28/03 from Monique:

Thanks for proving I am not on glue and there really was a show about a bear named Jeremy. It was also great to finally find out the name of the show "All
about You" I loved that show, but could never describe it enough.

I watched most of these shows here in Alberta on Access http://www.accesstv.ca. They have an online catalog, but you need to be a
teacher to access it.

Don't forget about the Edison Twins.

(Seems like Ontario and Alberta were the lucky provinces)

December 30/03 from Graeme:

I too have had many, many fond memories of family programming on TVO stirred by looking at your great site. Seeing the Timothy Pilgrim pictures in particular was fantastic. I'd give anything to see those again.

Your Feb 25/03 letter from Dan asks about a show about a girl and a grown-up tracking down a criminal mastermind. I remember it too, but, aggravatingly, not the title. The criminal was called Mr. Big I think. It mainly taught geography--I remember learning about the Canadian Shield from it--though I suppose a part of it was that they learned about the history of places too. They'd track Mr Big on a map and learn about the places as they tried to find him. I remember watching it in the mornings around 7ish in 1977-78.

The world was a very different place in the late 70s. TVO had programming from 6-8 pm that transitioned from 'children's' to 'family' brilliantly: Polka-Dot Door at 6, a variety of children's shows (Readalong, Green Forest, Jeremy, eventually Today's Special at 6:30). Then at 7:00 there was more family-devoted fare ranging from Doctor Who to the British science show "Don't Ask Me" (which I used to love) and then Magic Shadows at 7:30. My parents never watched the news, so the TV was on TVO most years for those two hours.

I took my then-9 year-old Goddaughter to a TVO Kids event at Harbourfront in Toronto a couple of years ago and she got the autographs of the current people. But I saw in one of the play areas Storytime Clock from Polka-Dot Door. It desperately needed repair (I think it was missing a hand!) and I remember that I almost wept when I saw it-- it was like seeing a childhood friend in desperate need.

Great site. Thanks for putting it together!

PS: No one seems to have mentioned this, but Dear Aunt Agnes was of course none other than Heather Conkie in a grey wig and granny glasses! She wrote the show and sang the theme song, I seem to recall.

(Seems like you have that evening schedule memorized much like I still do)

BACK TO HOME

<p><font color="#000000"> Shows on this site: TVOntario TVO TV Ontario PBS AIT All About You Barbapapa The Body
Works Bits and Bytes Cucumber Eureka Fables of the Green Forest Guess What?
(With Jan Rubes) Harriet's Magic Hats Jeremy Kidsworld Let's All Sing(with Tony
Saletan) Mathmakers Math Patrol Parlez-Moi Read All About It Readalong Report
(with Heather Conkie) The Adventures of Timothy PilgrimTwo Plus You! Vision
On(with Tony Hart) What If...(starring Billy Van)World of B.J. Vibes Write On
AIT Programming PBS Programming (In Other Words, Math Wise, It Figures, Thinkabout,
Inside/Out, High Feather, Dragons, Wagons & Wax) Edison Twins, Just Like Mom,
Camp Cariboo, YTV's Rec Room) </font></p>