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
January 3/04 from Erin:
I love this site! Do you have any info on "Dear
Aunt Agnes"? My sister and I were talking about that show the other day.
I'm pretty sure it had Heather Conkie starring in it.
Keep up the good work!! I just wish they would start re-airing some of the old
favorites. It would be a great trip down memory lane for us and I have a feeling
the younger generation might appreciate it too.
(No info on Dear Aunt Agnes I am afraid - except what other people have posted here)
Jan 5/04 from Dan:
I'm looking for a pic of the skunk from that show. Can't find one anywhere. Closest I've got is your site.
I used to watch that show all the time. Was the source of a lot of interesting dreams I used to have.
For some reason, I liked the skunk. Can't remember him being in a lot of episodes, but he was on the intro.
Would *love* to have a nice picture of him, and maybe find out his name. :)
(Skunk images provided en masse!)
Jan 5/04 from John:
Someoneone showed me your page today after I was hunting down possibly the only two animated shows I couldn't remember from my childhood. I could remember them but not well enough. Well once I saw your page I went completely nostalgic. I was a huge viewer of TVO when I was very, very young back in early 80's when I was maybe 4. Oddly I have intact memories from back then including me watching some of these shows.
The two shows I couldn't remember were 'Fables of the
Green Forest' and 'The Little Prince'.
Fables is one of my favourite cartoons of all time and if I were a millionaire
Iw ould buy it. :-p Sadly the last time I watched it was in grade 2 when my
teacher brought in a copy for the class on a day we were going on a field trip.
Little Prince seems like it was on so long ago and I can't remember when it
was actually on TV. Do you know when these shows actually aired? I saw on IMDb.com
that 'The Little Prince' was made in 1979 as a movie? Anyways it also says it
was listed as a TV show in 1982. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287191/
As for the other shows, I saw a few. 'Today's Special' sticks in my mind well because I think it was still shown until the end of the decade in repeats. I find it creepy I know all of their names and the themesong and different episodes.
The show 'All About You' was a pleasant shock too. I had forgotten about that show! I remember it so well now and I haven't seen it since 1991 when I saw part of an episode in my grade 4 class.
Well anyways thanks for the site, it really helped. TVO cartoons were great back then. I would watch 'Today's Special', 'Fables of the Green Forest', 'Astroboy' and other shows on there when I was younger. All were great too...... except Sharon, Lois and Bram...... I only liked Elephant but my sisters liked that stuff. I was more into Polka Dot Door.
While I was trying to make a website like this you already had one!
(Thanks for your great memories)
Jan 6/04 from regular contributor Karasu:
This is becoming a habit, I think. I keep checking your
site's feedback when it's changed, and coming up with more information for the
people there.
Either I have no life, or my memory's all too good about these shows. Probably
more the first. ;) Incidentally, did you know you're linked off the
IMDB for 'Read All About It'? Happened to find that when I went looking for
series information. Congratulations!
Anyhow, for my first comment, I think the reason people
might be having so much trouble finding Barbrapapa stuff is that... well...
it's spelled wrong.
The show is (was?) titled 'Barbapapa'. It's right in the show-listing, though.
Amazon.co.uk has a little bit on it, but not a lot. However,
according to http://home.t-online.de/home/claus-wunderlich/barbaeng.htm,
there are some new shows out in a couple of places, and in others, it seems
it's still running. Maybe they would be help in finding some releases in Europe
as well.
I don't remember the show Julia (November 3) is talking
about right off the top of my head, but it _could_ be H.R. Pufinstuff. Boy,
witch magic flute;
it was the first thing that came to mind. I don't remember TVO airing this show,
though, so I may be way off base, this time.
I'm almost positive that Grahm is talking about a show
called 'Take Part', done by Lois Walker. I could very well be wrong, since it's
not just a craft
show and it seems to me that it's a bit more recent, but they do have crafts
on it, and the postman character is one of theirs. http://loiswalker.com/
is
her homepage. However, before you start posting her any mail, make sure you
check http://loiswalker.com/letter.html.
YTV had this show on their kids
schedule for some time, so it might still be around.
Anne (November 5) was wondering about the main character
on Dear Aunt Agnes. Well, the star was Heather Conkie as Aunt Agnes as reported
by the IMDB
(http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0088502/).
Definitely a famous Canadian!
If you're interested in themesongs, I've got a few of
them from the Theme Exchange that I can transcribe. Plus, I'm the local Google
pimp; I might
well be able to find the themes on the web, given some time. If you're interested,
drop me a line! And if there's any particular shows you want
more than others, drop those, too!
And for a final suggestion, have folks give 'www.amazon.co.uk'
and 'www.amazon.ca' a try for finding some of the things they're looking for.
Sometimes, you can find stuff in the UK and Canada Amazon listings that you
can't find elsewhere. For instance, Simon In The Land Of Chalk Drawings,
Will O' The Wisp, and Jamie And The Magic Torch can be found on amazon.co.uk.
They're in the PAL format, unfortunately, but wise folks can
work around that in one way or another.
P.S., for a very funny take on Jamie And The Magic Torch,
take a look at http://www.rathergood.com/jamie/
(WARNING: Not work-safe, though it's more
'naughty' than downright pornographic). It's very British humor (Jamie Theakston
was a public figure who was caught at an S&M place, just so you
know who the face is that they're using) but I find it amazingly funny.
(Great e-mail as always - thanks for the regular visits)
January 6/04 from Andrew:
Fantastic site, good work! Just thought you might want
to know that many of the shows you list were sold to other stations in other
provinces, as
this may help you find copies of things from video collectors in other parts
of the country. In my case, I grew up in Montreal where many of the
shows you list ran weekdays on CBMT 6, the local CBC station. In particular,
the CBMT weekday morning block used to include All About You,
Mathmakers/Math Patrol, Parlez-Moi, Read All About It, Readalong, Vision On,
and Write On.
(Always great to hear from other provinces other than Alberta and BC!)
January 9/04 from Duncan:
I dont know how many times i've had arguments in the
past trying to remember the TVO shows we grew up with in the 80s. One show i
didnt see listed on
your site is Willo the Wisp. Im positive this was shown on TVO, i included some
pics to maybe jog your memory... I almost forgot about this cartoon
until someone brought it up during another one of those heated TVO debates.
Thanks for 'solidifying' my memories, its a shame TVO
hasn't done much to 'remember' these shows with a tv special or something...
Hey! that could be
an idea for a documentary or something, i guess getting the rights to all the
shows (or tracking them down for that matter) would be pretty tricky...
oh well, just a thought.
(Great stuff!)
January 11/04 from Tracey:
Re: the question: 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?
I think the show she means is H.R. Puffinstuff. One of the many bizzaro kids
shows by the Krofft brothers. Though I don't think this was a TVO
show... it had the boy, witches and the talking magic flute! You can buy these
on video.
(Always great to get feedback and answers to questions)
January 12/04 from Tess:
A million thankyous for your wonderful TVO website. I
am writing in the hopes that you can settle a dispute twenty plus years in the
making. My cousin and I both remember a song from "Readalong", where
Mr. Bones is singing a song....... we agree as to most of the lyrics;
" I got the shakes, I got the shakes, because my _________ she bakes,
big, fat snakes for lunch!" ( I say Princess, she says girlfriend)
Can you settle this for us?
(Anyone???)
Janaury 13/04 from Peter:
Just stumbled upon your website while randomly searching
for information on the series "Timothy Pilgrim".
Very interesting information about the various shows that I too grew
up watching
up watching.
January 14/04 from Drew:
Hello, my name is Drew, and I live in Nashville, TN.
I really enjoyed your TV Ontario website. It was nice to come across another
addict of 70's and
80's public television! Some of my favorite shows were"Thinkabout","Mathmakers",
and "Readalong." My favorite show, however, was
"Today's Special". I think I've seen every episode of that show 100
times! There is a really good Today's Special website that you may be aware
of:
http://www.schuminweb.com/todays-special/main-page.htm
Also, I noticed you had an icon of "Safety Scouts".
I've seen that show on the PBS station in Nashville a few years ago. I don't
know if it was a
remake or not. The episode I saw discussed safety issues for rural environments.
They had a song, "Poison ivy, poison oak. Do you know which is
which? If you don't, prepare to ITCH!" One show I used to like was a science
show called "Take a Look". The theme song went "Take a look,
take a look,
there's much for you to see...don't remember all of it..but it ended with "right
here with Kate and me". There was an episode about plants where they
were eating peanut butter and sprouts sandwiches. I'm pretty sure this was produced
by TV Ontario, but it was probably late 80's early 90's.
(Always great to hear from people South of the Border)
January 15/04 from RJ:
Love the website! I was just remembering yesterday how much I used to love the show "Read All About It" when I was a kid, and decided to look for it on the internet. I was so glad to find your site with so many details. Thanks so much!!
January 18/04 from Shaun:
I have a TVO kids show memory to share that is maybe a little bit more bizarre than the others posted on your site. One of my absolute earliest memories in life involves Harriet's Magic Hats. I can still vividly remember a dream I had about the show when I was no older than 3 or 4 years old (I'm 23 now). In the dream I am standing on the front lawn of my house and a car pulls up and out of the car comes the young neice character from the show. She was there to see me and the two of us hold hands and skip across my lawn while the theme song to the show spontaneously starts playing in the air. It's not so much the dream that sticks in my memory, but the feeling associated with the deam. I remember feeling 'in love' during the dream. It was a feeling of having met a real close life-long friend. I did'nt necessarily have a crush on the girl from the show, she was just sort of the personification of the feeling of love, which was the basis of the dream I think. I was'nt particularly obsessed by this show at the time either, although I watched if fairly regularly (I was more a fan of Read All About It and Green Forest). I guess it was the first time I was consciously aware of the feeling of love for someone of the opposite sex (other than family). I think about this dream every once in a while and it just brings a smile to my face. When I do think about it I sing the theme song in my head, but all I've been able to remember is the line the chorus of kids sings, "Harriet's Magic Hats..." and then the little cheesy synthesized sound effects. So, when I found the link on your site to the theme songs page, it blew my mind to find the theme to "Harriet's..." which enabled me to figure out the rest of the words.
(I think at one time or another, we've all had a dream - or nightmare - about some of these shows)
January 19/04 from Scott:
I'm sure you're accustomed to getting e-mails regarding
"I'm a Bear called Jeremy" by now. Your site was a great find in my
search for more information on this childhood hero.
I am wondering if you know how I can get videos of Jeremy as I would love to
see him again.
(I have some Jeremy videos)
January 20/04 from Diana:
What a wonderful job you have done. Thank You very much. My favorites were Fables of the Green Forest, Jeremy and Simon in the land of chalk drawings. I find myself singing the theme songs to my two children as lullabies, I dont live in Canada, but in the azores now were I am married and have a family. But you cant take the TVO out of a canadian. I have just introduced my children to Raffi, and have done endless searches on the web to try and get Fables and Jeremy on video for them. I guess I can show my 4 year old your web site. Once again, thanks from the bottom of my canadian heart.
(Azores - nice!!!)
January 21/04 from J & M
My sister has a record with this name. On the back cover notes it says that Jan Rubes did this show in another country. I believe it was Czechoslovakia. have you checked this web site? http://www.northernstars.ca/actorspqr/rubes.html The program is listed there.
(Thanks for the info!)
January 24/04 from Garrett
WHere did you get all those screen shots. i, for the
longest time was trying to rememeber that french show that came on in the morning
(5 or 6am) on tvo as a kid and now i know it's parlez moi. was a huge fan of
jeremy anf fables of the green forest along with readalong.
I was just looking up some of the old cartoons as i just heard captain kangaroo
passed away.
(A sad day in indeed)
January 26/04 from Graham:
Oh My God,
MAJOR thanks to "Karasu" for answering my question, posed WAY back in November...YES it WAS Lois Walker and Take Part.
I CANNOT thank you enough.....and if the webmaster wishes to forward my email to you, as I have added it in this msg, feel free to contact me
(Glad I was able to help you)
January 26/04 from Kenny the Vampire Slayer:
Kenny here. I had lost your e-mail address and I had forgot to bookmark the site (dummy me) so that is why I have not e-mailed you in quite some time.
In case I never said thank you, THANK YOU for dubbing
me the 2 videos of Read All About It Series 1 and 2. I can't tell you how many
times my sister and I have
have wathced the tapes. And now I am happy to say that my 6 year old niece loves
the show as well. She likes Theta and Otto the best.
I also wanted to write again to respond to a letter
in the feeback section from back in August. It was from Jonathan. I too remember
Slim Goodbody and as you
already know, "The Electric Company" will forever be my fave. Sesame
Street, take a back seat. And he mentioned "ZOOM" as well. And yes,
I remember the
tri-colored PBS logo with music. It didn't scare me though, I was always mad
that they changed it!
And as for Aaron's e-mail from Sept, the only Spellbinder that I remember was from The Adventures of Letterman, also from "The Electric Company".
Also from Oct was an e-mail from SV asking about another
goody, "Vegatable Soup"! Bette Midler provided the voice of a cartoon
spot on the show Woody the
Spoon, she would have different recipies (spellcheck I know) to try all of the
time. It was produced by the New York State Dept of Education. Live actors,
puppets, cartoons, life lessions, it really was a good show. Another kids show
with a message. Why are they so hard to find now? Sad. I found a few volumes
of
Vegatable Soup on Ebay. I am 33 and I want to put SV's mind at ease, the show
was quite real!
Julia Nov, sounds like HR Puffinstuff from Sid and Marty Kroft.
I'm sorry that I have gone on so long but it has been
a long while since I have been here and I wanted to play catch up and hopefully
give some info and learn
something new. Keep up the great work and thank you a 1000 times for dubbing
me Read All About It. Bye for now.
(Excellent to hear from you as always - thanks for all the input - glad you like the tapes)
January 26/04 from Cindy:
Thanks for your website. My husband and I were just complaining
how everytime the weather is a little too cold, etc. they keep our kids in at
school and play the latest stupid Disney movie which I believe is an exploitive
commercial trap. When we were kids the only time we saw tv at school was when
they wheeled in the big TV to watch Readalong or something. So much for the
good old days.
Thanks for your effort
Cynthia, a grownup 70's kid who lived in the country and TVOntario was our favourite
channel (out of the six we got)
(Thanks)
Jan 26/04 from Michael:
Glad to see your website is up and running again! One
show I didn't see on your website (which I think was on TVO but I'm not 100%
sure) was called
"Oopsy Daisy". It was about a clown with that name who lived in a
town called Daisyville. Some of his friends were a postman, a milkman, and a
worm
called "Auntie Wiggleworm" That's about all I can remember from it
- maybe you'll know it!
(Oopsy Daisy I recall airing on Kitchener or Peterborough stations)
Jan 27/04 from Greg:
hi,..i have the 30 episodes of inside out on tape,...and
would be interested in perhaps trading for readalong. i would like the read
all about it 1&2
series as well,..but have nothing else to do any trading with.is there any other
way i could get copies of these series? i know you claim no rights to these
shows,..but i really want copies of them, and other great old educational shows
from tvo, and ait, and others. surely there is a way to work something out
for the "raai" series. well, thanks for your time, and for the great
site.
p.s. i would absolutely love a copy of the "thinkabout" series. any
leads on any of those?
(We'll talk)
Jan 28/04 from Giselle:
I was so happy to find your site! I remember so many
of those shows. Even ones people told me were figments of my imagination (!)
I was a big fan of
Vision-On.
I remember some stuff about the Guess What! show, if it helps...
They had an episode where Jan Rubes talked about how
people's last names come from the occupations of their ancestors (like Smith
was a blacksmith or
Livingstone was a lazy person). I remember he talked about how salt used to
be very valuable and expensive so it was bad luck to spill it. There was also
an episode
about early animation and they showed footage of a horse running. Unfortunately
that's all I remember. I liked Jan Rubes's accent.
Keep up the good work!
Oh yes..And I'm pretty sure Jan Rubes sang the theme
song of Guess What! It was sort of nonsensical. Like "guess what! rum pum
pum pum pum. Sort of
operatic sounding.
I remember the show "All About You" too. Now there was a twisted show! Here's what I remember:
A character called "Iris the Virus" A
picture of a really nasty looking, dirty face and them saying "this is
what happens if you never wash your face" The
host of the show eating Indian food with her hands and saying that not
everyone eats with a fork, but it's important to wash your hands. Maybe
it was a show to teach kids hygiene? I don't know, but I think it
turned me into a bidding hypochondriac.
Through hypnosis, I recall a few more shows that I didnt see mentioned on your site:
There was a French show in black and white with live talking animals (like Hammy Hamster). There was a duck with a tuxedo collar and bow tie.
I remember the Secret Railroad cartoon too. Only the girl with the Star shaped hair.
What was that show with the guy who told a story and drew it in pastels at the same time?
How about the 2,000 year old mouse?
(WOW! Thank YOU for the memory - I totally forgot that Guess What episode with the horses and the running and the pictures/movie they made!)
Jan 29/04 from Dean:
I was a huge fan of READ ALL ABOUT IT. I still have the
book and all of the news papers. The book and news papers were offered when
the series was first
put out by TVO. If it wasn't for READ ALL ABOUT IT I don't think I would have
read any books!!!
I am looking for series one on video. I have series two, all 20 episodes on
one tape(I taped them every Sunday at 11 for 20 weeks straight not missing one
episode!!!!)
If you could help me get the first series on VHS, I would really appricate it.
When I have kids I would love to show them what got me into reading.
Thanks for the great website and images.
(Always great to hear from the RAAI fans)
Feb 1/04 from James:
I saw your website and thought it was great. It's about
time someone gave credit to TVOntario and their children shows. After all, this
was my era (I
feel so old).
I'll give you what information I can remember or dig up.
Cucumber:
This series lasted 2 seasons. It was either 1974 &
75 or 1975 & 76. The
exact 2 years for it can be found in the John Candy biography "Laughing
on
the Outside". I don't have this book in my library anymore.
You will be suprised to learn that one of the news segments
on young
talented children was done on a young blind guitarist (I think he was 9
years old then) named Jeff Healey.
The adress I remember for the Cucumber club was:
Cucumber
c/o Station Q
2180 Yonge St.
Toronto, Ontario
M4T 2T1
Note: When you sent off a letter to Cucumber, there was
a chance they would
send you a badge (with moose and beaver on it) and a membership letter with
your name on it and a Cucumber letterhead. Both the badge and the membership
letter were green.
The opening theme song I beleive was:
Come and sing a song of the forest
come and sing a song about animal kind
water, trees and land spread out the forest
looking for some things, seeing what we can find
children's underground club of united moose and beaver
for enthusiastic
reporters
children's underground club of united moose and beaver for enthusiastic
reporters
(end song)
The Body Works:
According to the "Canadian Children's Film &
Video Directory" from "The
Children's Broadcast Institute"
The Body Works
40 episodes: 10 minutes: 1980
live action: information: english
6-12 year olds
Production Company: ACCESS Network & TVOntario
Distribution: TVOntario
Eureka:
30 eps: 5 mins: 1980
animation: information: english & french
6-12 year olds
Production Company: TVOntario
Producer: David Stansfield, Denise Boiteau
Distribution: TVOntario
These short programs are designed to present concepts
in physics, using
comic animation to illustrate the concepts.
Awards:
Honourable Mention - National Educational Film Festival
Red Ribbon - American Film Festival
Bronze Plaque - Columbus Film Festival
Electra Certificate for Best Math & Science Video - Birmingham Film Festival
International Council for Education Media Award
24 shows focus on exercise and 16 shows focus on fitness & nutrition.
Harriet's Magic Hats:
52 eps: 15 mins: 1980-1986
live action: information: english
preschool - 12 year olds
Production Company: ACCESS Network
Producer: David Flux
Distribution: ACCESS Network
This series provides children with information about
the community around
them - the people, their roles, lifestyles, occupations & workplaces.
Jessica Owen was then known as Jessica Schonenberg before
she was married.
The last lead child actress was Ashley Bristowe (I think).
Hope this helps.
If you ever consider tape trading, I wouldn't mind trading
for copies
of some of those shows. Just let me know what you're looking for.
(This info is going to go onto the various pages - thanks!)
Feb 1/04 from Paul:
I just wanted you to know that I'm very greatful for
making this website on the shows I grew up with. I couldn't believe my eyes
when I found myself on
your site. I told my cousin :" Sean, you have got to look this up ...it's
just Gold!"
The next day at work, I starting bringing up some of the names, most people
didn't remember (poor sheltered children) and one guy couldn't believe I was
bringing up all this. Then someone overheard us and said...oh my lord you're
bringin' back some old memories!
I was just wondering. Do you know of a place where I could find some old archived
videos? I'm in Toronto myself but grew up in Timmins. If you do
have an idea where I could get my hands on some of that stuff I'd be really
gratefull.
My favorite show was probably Doctor Snuggles, but Read All About It was a very
close second.
My sister used to hate the GreenForest but my little brother and I would take
the tv over when it came on. hehe
(It's always hit or miss with people - they either remember they shows vividly or have zero recollection)
Feb 4/04 from Greg:
hey! sorry it took so long to reply about a trade with
me, but between work and the flu,..ive pretty much stayed in bed the last few
weeks. im not sure how to
grade my tapes, as ive never really given it much thought. the tapes arent recycled,..but
arent brand new either. i mean,..they were only used for the
inside/out series i have on them,..but ive had them awhile. im going to rewatch
the tapes and make sure the audio and video are still in good shape, and to
tell you the quality of the tapes. i wouldnt want to send you tapes that didnt
work. i would like to tradefor the "readalong" series first,..and
then we can
work out something on the "read all about it", series one and two,
tapes. also,...i am currently talking to a guy who says he has "thinkabout"
on tape,...but im
not sure how many of those he has. i will keep you posted on that if you are
interested. this show was perhaps my favorite,..i would be completely mesmerized
from the opening notes of the theme to the fade out at the end of the show....lol.
i also have a reply to a post left on your site on dec. 23, 2003...
"cristina" wrote:
"do you know of a safety frog series or the letter people?"
well,..im not sure of the letter people, i dont think
ive ever seen it. but i think the other series you are referring to was "about
safety" which starred clyde
frog, and chronicled his experience with safety at school, and at home, and
on the playground, etc etc. clyde would come across dangerous situations, and
would make decisions about what to do in them. sometimes he came out of the
situation ok,..but others, he didnt do so well, and would pay the
consequences of making the wrong choice. other times the show would look at
clyde's ancestors,...such as phinneas frog,..who went around the world in a
balloon, using safety all the way,...and one, which i cant remember the name
used for clydes ancestor, was like the peary and edmunson race to the poles,
with
clydes relative donig the best he can to avoid danger in antarctica and be first
to the pole. all the frog characters were basically clyde, and he had other
"little kid" puppets to interact with in each episode. the would do
little skits like saftey at the water fountain,..or safety on the playground,...my
favorite
was safety on the school bus,..with clyde getting in trouble before making it
all the way onto the bus by slipping on the steps. many other mishaps occur
along
the trip to school,..but with everything coming out ok at the end of the show.
im not sure if it was a tv ontario show,...but then again,..i didnt know some
of
the others i liked so well then were either until recently. i would love to
find this show on tape somewhere. well,..i guess thats enough for now,..sorry
this letter is so long, and i hope the above information was of some help.
(Always appreciate having questions answered!)
Feb 8/04 from Rob:
I just wanted to take a second and say "great web site"! It brought
back all kinds of memories...especially of Adventures of Timorthy Pilgrim, and
more so, Read All About It. It's just too bad that these shows cannot be seen
or purchased, it'd be great to see them again for nostalgic reasons.Again, thanks
for creating the site, it did bring back lots of good memories.
(Glad to help)
Feb 11/04 from Andy:
Hi, I have about 20 episodes of Fables of the Green Forest
(TVO version) You mentioned in the TVO website that you will look into the VHS
tapes
"Peter Cottontail in the Green Forest", "Peter Cottontail, Summer
Fun", "Winter Fun", etc... I was wondering, do the tapes contain
the TVO version
of Fables of the Green Forest? I want to collect every episode of the show (TVO
version).
(Good Luck!)
Feb 11/04 from Sabina:
At work We were just talking about the show with talking
shoes and the skeleton... I "Googled" and up came your site with "my"
name. I guess it IS
possible that someone else has "my" name (I thought how do they know
who's searching the site?) You freaked me out!It's a great blast-from-the-past
site. As well as others, I remember Today's Special with the manikin (Jeff?)
and a girl that came to life once the store closed, I think there was a mouse
too?
(Too funny!)
Feb 12/04 from Sheila:
This site Rocks! I have been trying to find information about these shows forever. Just recently everyone at work thought I was losing it because nobody could remember a guy dressed in a Kangaroo suit doing math equations. Now I have proof!
Keep the shows coming!
(Math Patrol canmake anyone lose it)
Feb 14/04 from Mike:
Just wanted to thank-you for bringing back so many memories.
There's 2 childrens shows that I remember that go back to the days of the Little
Prince - but for the life of me I can't remember the names:
One is about an inventor that has a robot maid named Matilda, and I believe
a talking computer. (not animated)
And the other is about a boy and his dog that are searching everywhere for their
mother...Sebastian was the dogs name I believe. It was quite the cute animated
series.
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks much!
(Hope someone can help!)
Feb 15/04 from Judy:
You are one of the only sites I had ever found with info on those cute shows I remember watching....Readalong was my favorite!! Owl Tv was pretty good too! Don't forget the edison twins!
(Tom & Annie!!!)
Feb 16/04 from Jason:
Thanks for your site! I'm impressed at the Jeremy material!
So much so, in fact, that I went all the way and transcribed the episode guide
into plain text.
I'd like to make it available online, if you think I could...Here's
how it looks so far...
http://www.geocities.com/topspeed_jmv/jeremy/index.html
The 8 episodes of Jeremy you mention; how often do you get people asking for
copies of that?! I would love to get such a copy if at all possible...
Sorry I don't have any other footage to offer, though if you're going to be
in Paris next Wednesday, you can perhaps see three more...
http://www.forumdesimages.net/education/amde/progfevavr04.pdf
I do have a Colargol jigsaw puzzle and brochure...
Let me know what you think of my episode guide! I'd like to spiff it up eventually...
(That episode guide is amazing!!!)
Feb 18/04 from Heather:
HEllo :) I'm just writing to tell you how great your
website is.... All these shows are exactly what my childhood was made up of!
I too collect
tapes of all my favorite shows, but some are very hard to come by. One show
I'd REALLY like to get me hands on is "dear aunt agnes"... I'm sure
you
remember this tvo classic which I can't find anywhere!
Actually, I am most jealous of you because you own episodes
of "read all about it" and "jeremy"... Would you consider
making me a couple of copies?
I would pay you of course :) It's totally ok if you can't... Let me know!
(We'll talk)
Feb 20/04 from Robert:
I found your site thru google, looking up "Louise
McNamara". I enjoyed the site very much and remember watching "Vision
On" in early 70s here in the US
(I believe it was on the CBS network).
Would you happen to know if Ms McNamara had a previous
series relating tolearning the alphabet? Theme still sticks on my mind ("A
is for Apple and B
is for Bear..." and part of the lyric went "H is for Happy when I
am with you..."). Thanks again for the enjoyable site.
(I have no idea - I am sure someone out there would know!)
Feb 22/04 from Simon:
I just happened to stumble onto your site and it was a real walk down memory lane!! I had forgotten a few of the shows but as soon as I saw them it all came back to me. Does anyone remember a show on TVO called Monkey Bars? I have asked everyone I know my age (37) the same question and no one remembers. Keep up the great work with the site!!
(Anyone know it? I don't)
Feb 22/04 from Michelle:
Hello there!
First of all, I would like to commend you on putting
this site together! Very cool! I was laughing out loud at seeing some of the
images and reading
details that I had completely forgotten!
I was an AVID TVO watcher as a kid (I'm 29 now...) and
remember a lot of these shows like it was just yesterday. I thought I would
give you some
details and memories that I could dig out of my brain. I seem to remember a
lot of the music, hahaha. (I also still remember the TVO posal code: M4T
2T1, hehehe)
Okay, here goes:
ARTSCAPE: I thought this show had a bit of a scary feel to it. All I can remember is these kids trapped in what seemed to be a big, white maze. (?)
ALL ABOUT YOU: This show wasn't just about hygene, it
was a show that was on health in general. I remember this woman would often
refer to those
plastic models of organs etc., and I also seem to remember her including her
daughters in most (if not ALL) of the film footage she would cut to. The
woman's mannish look, gummy smile and toothy grin is unforgettable!
BARBAPAPA: I used to love these shape-shifting blobs!
(I liked the black scruffy/hairy looking one) I remember the end credits were
white on a blue
background, and a rapidly speaking male voice over would say: "There's
Barbapapa, Barbamama, Barbazoo, Barbalala, Barbatrick, Barbabeau,
Barbabelle, Barbabright and Baaaarbabravo! Did you miss that?" Then he
would repeat it until it faded to black.
THE BODY WORKS: We used to tune into this on those edu-TV's
at school when I was in grade 2, and do the exercises. I still remember the
warm-up
sequence (especially the knee thing...) I think there were words to the theme
song. (The Body Works, Let's see how your body works, You've got to
find the beat, get up and leave your seat, get up and move your feet its easy,just
repeat I'm on my feeet, and my body works!)
CUCUMBER: I too was a member of the Cucumber Club! I
remember John Candy vividly, singing in a really bummed out tone: "Whether
its sunny, or whether
it's not. Whether it's rainy, or terribly hot...."
JEREMY: I think this is how the theme went: "I'm
a bear called Jeremy, I can do most anything, I can play, and I can sing, little
tunes like
do-re-me. When I was a cub, my dear father said to me, these three words I say,
I do love you Jeremy, tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet...TWEET!" I
found this show VERY sad and heartbreaking when Jeremy was in the circus cage.
This is about when I stopped watching.
LET'S ALL SING: LOL! Good ol' Tony Salatan! I remember learning the "Ting-a-lay-o, come little donkey come..." song.
MATH PATROL: I think the lyrics for this one went something
like: "The Math Patrol, Oh The Math Patrol, Help Sydney solve the riddle
of the Math Patrol,
Come on hey, help us find the clue, the _______ needs someone and that someone
is you. The Math Patrol, The Math Patrol, The Math
Patro-o-o-o-ol......MATH PATROL!"
PARLEZ MOI: I loved this one too! I remember the music
and can do it on command. (Unfortunately I can't translate it into words as
it is more of
just a "Wah-wah" sound....)
READALONG: I remember the one little girl with the short
hair in one of the live-action shorts, and she was bouncing a ball. (I think
her name was
Samantha?)
THINK ABOUT IT: "....Through the Agency For Instructional
Television" This show and Inside Out always make me think of inner-city
kids in Brooklyn or
something....
VISION-ON: This show was pretty intense. I used to get seriously freaked out when that fuzzy red wormish thing would go flying around the set!
Here's a few more random thoughts:
THE LETTER PEOPLE: American made. Theme under animated
opening with a dog running around letters: "Come and meet the letter people,
come and visit the
fam-i-ly, Words are made of the letter people, A-B-C-D- follow me! Cheap and
freaky looking puppets talking about making words and their letter
sounds. The used to focus on two letters per episode. For example Mr T. was
a puppet letter t with tall teeth. Let's make the letter sound...tuh!
Tuh, like the letter sound that starts Tall Teeth.
THE PASTEL DRAWING/STORYTELLING GUY: I can't remember
what this one was called. I think the guy's name was Tony or Tim, and I can
TOTALLY remember
his voice. He would be stting at an easel in the intro, then we would be immersed
in a voice-over of him reading a story, and we would see a close up
of him drawing a picture along with the story. It was pretty cool.
PASSE-PARTOUT: This one was en francais, but I still
liked to watch it. There were a couple of puppet characters, and I specifically
remember a
woman, and a guy who had some sort of butterfly tie on.
LUDWIG: about 5 minutes in length. Opening was a British
male voice-over: "ahhh, Ludwig." It was an gemstone-like egg with
Brogues or saddleshoes on.
Some sort of man would be hiding in the bushed with a BIG pair binoculars, and
Beethoven played throughout.
WHEW. okay. I'm done. i think........
Take care and keep up the great site!!
(Thanks for the great memories on the various shows. Including Passe-Partout - I never could figure that show out!)
Feb 24/04 from Joanna:
I just wanted to give some feedback on your website about
the old children's programs. I agree that children's programs are way too commercialized
these days. I have a little one who watches Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer,
and Sesame Street. When you walk into a toy store, you see every toy imaginable
with these characters on them.
I am 27 years old and I watched the shows that you have on your website. I can
remember Readalong, Read All About It, and Parlez-Moi, among others. Read All
About It fascinated me when I was a child. I was so afraid of Duneedon, yet
I was glued to the set. It was definitely my favorite educational program as
a kid. And I don't remember ever having a Duneedon T-shirt or VHS tape or backpack
or lunch pail...
I remember watching Parlez-Moi and also being glued to the set. I never realized
until I read your site that Sol and Marc Favreau were the same person, ha ha.
I actually had forgotten all about that show until I read your site. It has
been such a long time.
Thanks for bringing back some of my wonderful childhood memories. I wish they
would put them back on tv so that I could watch them all over again with my
kids. (Are they on any cable channels?)
(We all wish these shows would come back!)
Feb 25/04 from Andy:
Hi! I watched Readalong in elementary school, and I loved the theme song. I just found the theme song to The Electric Company today, which I adore. Do you have the Readalong theme for download somewhere? I would love to hear it again.
Feb 26/04 from Steve:
I really like your TVO page! Some of those
old shows are classics. I miss them so much.
There was a certain cartoon which used to air on TVO in the 80's and it was
one that I never forgot. It was called "The Secret Railroad" dubbed
into english from its original french dialogue.
It was just great, man! Looking back, it must have been influenced by the Beatles'
Yellow Submarine cartoon. There was definitely some trippy-dippy stuff going
on in there. Do you remember this old cartoon, and do you know if it's still
out there somewhere?
(Anyone know? I think some people have mentioned this previously)
Feb 28/04 from Shana:
I think this is great what you are doing. I wanted to say I remember this show called Clyde Frog that I havent been able to find. It is a PBS show that was on around 1980. It came on there right along w/ "Read Along" If you find it great.
(Another show I am not familiar with - is anyone?)
Feb 29/04 from Jody:
I am looking for some readalong shows on vhs, how many episodes/seasons do you have and how much are they? I am also interested in Body works, please let me know if yu have these and have acquired any other PBS series.
Feb 29/04 from Michael:
I enjoyed the updates made to your website. There was
one show I remember that was a stop-motion show called "The New Adventures
Of Pinoacco" and it
started off with a song being sung by him and then I think it went to the workshop
where Gepetto would tell us that Pinocco was looking for the blue
fairy to turn him into a real boy. He would then tell us what had happened in
his adventures so far.
That's about all I remember. Hopefully this information is helpful!
(Every little bit helps)
Mar 2/04 from Bob:
I never realized how much TVO I watched as a kid, but
I remember with great fondness all of the shows listed on your website.
"Fables of the Green Forest" - I loved it. I remember colouring a
picture and sending it into Cucumber.
There is one show I don't see any reference to, and maybe you remember it also.
I'm reasonably certain it was Japanimation, and it was
an animated series about the history of the world. Each episode would feature
the same characters at different periods in history. The only real standout
I
remember is there was this old man (kind of like a white haired Cousin It) with
antennae. Sounds weird I know, but I swear I'm not making it up.
It was also dubbed into french because I'd see it on the french channels as
well. I'd love to try and track it down for my kids to watch.
Anyway, great site. Thanks for the memories.
(Japanimation I am not at all familiar with that)
Mar 6/04 from Matt:
Just a comment ... I used to watch "All About You"
when I was home sick from school in the very early 1980s.
I was vaguely frightened of Louise McNamara. She's probably a nice woman in
real life, but she reminded me of those longtime, jaded elementary teachers,
given to rebuking kids for no discernable reason. Characters like "Iris
the Virus" and "Dumb Dora(?)" didn't help much. I sensed contempt
radiating through the television screen.
And, seeing Ms. McNamara for the first time in more than 20 years, I'm still
somewhat intimidated! Like she'd yell at me for reaching upward to touch the
banjo on the shelf in the background. :)
That said, you've got a teriffic site, and one of the very few I've ever added
to my "favorites" list. I thought I was the only one who remembered
this stuff!
A lot of fond memories here.
(She did have that stern grade school teacher look about her - didn't she?)
Mar 6/04 from Justin:
hi there.. just letting you know there's a lot of information
about Today's Special you might be interested in, or at least provide a link
to, over here: http://www.schuminweb.com/todays-special/main-page.htm
Great site by the way.. still sifting through it. :)
(Thanks!)
Mar 9/04 from BJ:
I have been looking for alot of these programs. Brings back old memories. I remember most all of them. The All about You show cracks me up. I remember watching that all the time. Read all about it was awesome. Where can you find or buy if any of these shows? I doubt if any are available, but it would be interesting to see. Have a nice day!
Mar 9/04 from Jeremy:
Thank you for your TVO compedium. These shows defined
my childhood in Vermont as I would completely devour them when staying home
sick. Not only that, I recall an episode of either Inside/Out or Thinabout which
permanently freaked me out. Something about a plane crash.
In college I found several 16mm reels of Inside/Out in the basement of one of
the school's building's. I incorporated some of it into a film I was making.
It's still weird.
(I recall the Inside/Out could be a little mind warping)
Mar 12/04 from Katherine:
i don't know how long your website has been up, but a friend just alerted me to it, and WOW-- it's great! i have very fond memories of watching these kids' shows (Fables of the Green Forest, Jeremy, Cucumber, Today's Special, etc.) with my little sister and our neighbours. my sister and i grew up in a tv-free house, so we used to spend most of our time next door watching TVO and other parent-approved shows. sharon, lois, and bram were important figures in the formation of my personality. :)
thank you for the wonderful trip down memory lane, as they say, and best of luck with this project.
(Over one year now and still going strong!)
Mar 13/04 from Terry:
I loved these shows..especially read all about it and
readalong. Could I get VHS copies of the episodes of these shows? I would totally
pay for everything. There is such crap on TV today.
Whats funny is, i think i got as far as Samantha moving on Read All about it.
Id kill to find out what happend next.
(What a crucial point in the story to stop watching!)
Mar 14/04 from Sarah:
Hello I happened to come across your website by a link from a friend. I must say that my all time favourite children t.v shows are Today's Special and Polka Dot Door. However, I was wondering if you could help me remember the title of this one children's show that I used to love as well. This is what it was about: There we these three people in their 20's who all lived in an apartment together. Their names were Jabob (who was an painter), Zach, (who was an actor) and Nicki, (who was a musician). They always used to have this small toy train that would transport their juice from the kitchen to the balcony. And that's about all i really remember. But if you know which show I am talking about or if you could find out, I would be greatly thankful.
(Anyone know?)
Mar 15/04 from Clinton:
Information on question posted by Mike on Feb 14/04,
regarding a show about an inventor who had a robotic maid named Mathilda. The
show's name was, "Dr.
Snuggles". He had a rocketship built from what looked like a gigantic barrel,
but also travelled using his umbrella as a pogo stick that had a talking duck
head
for a handle. It was a really fun show, with a great imaginary world. But looking
back, one has to wonder what the creators/writers were smoking.... :-) The
only active web site that has information on the show I've found in English
is
http://www.geocities.com/drsnuggles_2001/english.htm
Great website you're running--brings back logs of fond
memories. I'm surprised that you don't have an entry for "Polkadot Door".
Although very few kids I knew
actually liked that show, I thought it was pretty good anywa, and almost always
watched it before dinner time, from 6:00-6:30pm in the afternoon.
Finally, I'd like to know the name, if any one knows,
of this show which was aired as short 5 minute clips in between other shows,
of these two claymation guys.
I believe one was yellow and the other was blue, and they would always get into
all sorts of adventures/troubles.
(I think Polka Dot Door already has a site ot two dedicated to it - hence why it's not here)
Mar 18/04 from Marlene:
My sister just found this site and I just wanted to say
that it's fantastic! Those shows were way better than anything produced nowadays.
Do you have anything on Jaime and the Magic Torch or Simon (the guy who liked
to do draw-rings)? Or does it not count because it wasn't educational
or produced by TVO (I don't know if it was or not)? Anything on the Reading
Rainbow?
If you're including non-educational shows that aired
on TVO (and if not, you should create another site for those!), do you know
of a trippy cartoon show
about an underground railroad, a guy with a top hat, and I think it had a girl
and cat in it as well. The cartoons were done a la Yellow Submarine 70s
style. There's also another one that used to air in the early morning. It was
large puppets on a black background that sort of glowed using backlight
(like the Famous Peoples Players). There was a skeleton and some other weird
things. It was pretty weird and only my sister and I seem to remember it.
Anyways, great site and keep up the good work!
(I have Jamie and the Magic Torch on DVD - I had never seen it before, until recently - quite entertaining)
Mar 18/04 from Juli:
Every so often I bring up the programs I remember on
TVO in discussion but rarely do I encounter anyone who remembers beyond Today's
Special and Polka Dot Door. One of my personal favourites was Read All About
It. My Grade 6 class was HOOKED on it. My teacher showed us the entire series
and never have you seen a room full of kids become so quiet and mesmerized!
I actually emailed TVO once and asked if they would air all the shows for nostalgia
but of course I received no response. It's really sad how when something has
had it's day it just disappears forever. I was just on Ebay in the hopes I could
find some episodes of anything and came across Today's Special so I bought the
first one. I want more though! I want to share all this with my kids one day.
About Barbapapa - I noticed most people think it's hard to come by but Ebay
is pretty good for stuff. I just bought slippers. Apparently it's pretty big
in Japan. They just love it!
I am happy I stumbled across your site. It brought back a lot of fond memories.
Thanks! I know that this stuff is really hard to come by
(Would grade 6 classes be mezmerized by this show now? I certainly hope so!)
Mar 19/04 from Kristina:
Great Site!! Thanks for bringing back some very cherished
memories. It's amazing how those shows actually influenced who I have became
(i.e.
Readalong, Read All About It and Write On were my favourite shows.... I went
on to get a degree in English and am now the director of communications for
a non-profit organization).
I'll send you what I can remember as I remember it, but
here's a song from "Let's All Sing" that is still stuck in my head
to this day.
http://www.kididdles.com/mouseum/t025.html
Thanks again for the great site! Keep up the good work!
(That is amazing!)
Mar 19/04 from Corinne:
I found your website while trying to get information on an old children's TV show. Back in the 60's, on Canadian Television (being in Detroit it would have been our channel 9 which is CBET CBC) I have asked several Canadians and many others and no one seems to remember it. It may not have been a show but may have been just a segment on another show. Anyway, the show was about a little mouse that used to pop up from a table top. The name of the mouse (forgive my spelling) was "Che Helen". This mose was some sort of puppet and there was an adult on the show also. Mind you this show was on in the early 60's so not many remember it, but any information you could give me would be appreciated (I'm going crazy).
(I hope someone can help - anyone?)
Mar 21/04 from Joe:
Hi. Do you remember Chatter the 1960's television monkey? He would get into all kinds of funny situations as he tried to immitate humans. In the theme song were the words "Chatter whats the matter with you?"
(Another request for help!)
Mar 22/04 from Anna:
I really like your website, it's good when you need to
take a walk down memory lane. However, I have something to ask you since you
seem very
resourceful. Do you ever remember a record (or plate maybe) whose name might
be Doobie, and he used to hold a fork and a spoon and hit them
together while singing some song. My friends don't remember this character at
all, and are convinced its just some figment of my imagination. I
remember the segment with this character was short, or maybe it was part of
another show. I've tried to look up Doo-bee on the internet, but all I get
is Doo-bee from Romper Room (but I'm not looking for that bee, I remember him
being a record). Either way, any help would be greatly appreciated.
(And still another)
Mar 22/03 from Daniela:
Hi there...at a Saturday night party, we started talking
about TVO shows we used to watch as kids...Out came the laptop and we all had
a laugh! Your
website was just what we needed to jog our memories about all our favourite
former shows.
We couldn't believe all these shows were so well categorized
with tons of info and links, but mostly that it was being update constantly
(something
which is never done on most web sites).
Keep up the good work! Thanks so much for bringing back all these great memories!
(Glad the site was enjoyed by so many people at one time!)
Mar 23/03 from Karen:
A friend of mine and I were having a discussion about
children's shows, and a show with a character named Mr. Bones came up. I remember
him best doing
the "foot bone connected to the leg bone..." song. I cannot for the
life of me remember what show it was. Going through your website, I found one
reference to Mr. Bones and talking shoes. THAT IS WHAT I AM THINKING OF, and
I cannot think of the name of that silly show! Can you please please
please help me? Thanks so much in advance.
(Readalong!)
Mar 25/04 from Alpha:
I found your site doing a search for the program Harriet's
Magic Hats, which I used to watch on my U.S. PBS station along with the shows
All About You, It Figures and Calling All Safety Scouts. There was another one
that I just can't figure out the name to. It was on around the late 80's early
90's era I'm thinking it aired on my U.S. PBS station more around 1989. It was
a show that opened with two puppets riding up to a mansion of some sorts in
a fancy carriage. The host of the show was a lady who wore a long lavender gown
and had her hair tied back in a bun. The only name I remember from the show
was the name of the bear puppet which was Bear Facts. I'd really like to find
out the name of this show. If you can help me out in any way I would really
appreciate it.
Your site brings back many nostalgic memories.
(More help needed here)
Mar 27/04 from Max:
Hi, I found your websie looking for a educational cartoon from the 70's called Vegatable Soup, About these kids with big hands in a spaceship. Any help on locating or any info would be awesome
(And still more help needed)
March 28/04 from Ted:
Great site! I grew up in the midwestern US and watched
tons of Canadian educational TV on our public broadcasting station, in the late
1970's and
early 1980's. For years I've been trying to remember the name of this show,
with the grammar and punctuation, and the newspaper editor... I finally
decided to search on the net this weekend. After an hour of searching, I found
up your site! I'm surprised to note how many other TVO shows I
remember from seeing their title cards!
I'll keep reading more on the site, but I wanted to thank you for having the site up at all, it answered a question that has been nagging me for ages!
(Write On! One of my favourites!)
March 29/04 from Simon:
Simon here to give a little more info on my question
about Monkey bars. It was a variety type show with 3 girls and 3 guys all in
their early teens or late pre-teens. They also had 4 supporting adults. It was
very simular to Kidstuff that aired a few years later on CTV.
I also have an answer for Max that was asking about Vegatable Soup. That was
a PBS produced show and Bette Middler did the voice of a singing spoon that
gave out easy recipies. I think the spoon's name was Woody! Does anyone else
remember this? I hope so! I am starting to think I was in a dreamworld in the
70's.
Great Site!! It is bringing so many memories to so many people. There was life
before the Smurfs!!!!
(So true!)
March 29/04 from Marc:
Hello there! I like this site very much! It certainly brings back my childhood into perspective! I watched and surely remember most of these shows! They were NOT only educational, but entertaining at the same time! I also recall a few more of these oldies like Dear Aunt Agnes(ALSO starring Heather Conkie), Dr. Snuggles(Dennis The Badger, Noby Mouse, Ms. Nettles, The Spaceship Dreamy Boom-Boom, etc.), of course, Polka Dot Door(Polkaroo and friends), Doctor Who(British show, did air on TVO at that time), Kidsbeat(with David Hatch) etc.! They SHOULD bring some of these shows back, on VHS/DVD, and, for TODAY'S younger generation of fans! If I think of any more of these classics, I'll surely let you know! Bye for now!
Hello again! I thought of a few more shows from this specific time period! I believe all of these shows were made in England, however, TVO was airing them as well when I was a young one! Oh, that seems so long ago now! They are Gran, Willo The Wisp, Paddington Bear, Noddy, Simon In the Land Of Chalk Drawings(Mike Myers skit-SNL!, 'Ello, my naime is Siimon, and, I like to dew drawrings! Very funny!) and Magic Shadows with the one and only Elwy Yost! Elwy's trademark series "Saturday Night At The Movies" just celebrated their 30th anniversary on TVO! Congrats Mr. Yost!
(Thanks for your memories)
March 30/04 from Daniel:
I remember those shows. They are what occupy most of my nightmares, these days. Especially, "Read All About It". That scared the crap out of me. The ambient, low-toned music, rustic set and Duneedon's face drove me insane. If it also scared my mother, imagine it's effect on a 4-5 year old. I caught it when it was on it's reruns ( I was born in 1980) *shakes*. At least now me can now spell good. Thank you "Read All About It" and your creepy approach to grammar and spelling.
(The makers of RAAI certainly scared their share of people)
April 1/04 from Carly:
i was wondering if you could tell me the name of a show
that i used ot watch in the 80's it had a little cottage that the windows for
the eyes and the door was the mouth....it also had a person dressed up as a
record player playing wooden spoons (perhaps in a band!!) i would really like
to know the name so please get back to me if you have a chance!!!
thanx!
(We Live Next Door is my guess, I could be wrong)
April 2/04 from Carla:
greetings from Australia!!!!
In the early 80's we had the tv program Read All ABout
it as well, on our channel 2 network "ABC". I loved that show but
didn't see the whole series
but a few here and there. We didn't have a video back then so I couldn't tape
it.
I rang the network and sadly they said it discontinued long ago.
I was wondering if you could help me, I'm after all the
episodes of read all about it, seasons 1 and 2. I can play your version of tapes
NTSC, but
just wondering what I could offer in return.
(RAAI tapes are making their way overseas!)
April 5/04 from Dwaine:
I just want to say that I think your site it really great.
I grew up in Ottawa to all those shows, and what memories come back when I see
all the information you've gathered.
It is almost Haunting to see some of the shows you have displayed. My favorites
were Jeremy, Read along, and Read all about it. As a matter of fact I remember
being scared of Read all About it. The opening music was very chilling back
then.
The only other show I watched that you haven't put in on TVO was Doctor Who...
but I suppose there are plenty of other site just dedicated to that. You have
some pretty rare stuff.
On several occasions I have sat with people from my place of work saying "
hey do you remember this show?" Well, next time I'll give out your web
site. Thanks Again.
(Glad I could help!)
April 7/04 from David:
I came across your website tonight as I was googling for "Read All About It"... Let me tell you, RAAI was hands-down my FAVOURITE tv show as a kid!!! I have been so desperate to watch the entire series again that I emailed TVOntario and then Tele-Film International to see if I could order a copy for personal viewing; of course, I was quoted $3270 which was just a bit ridiculous, especially considering that I'm still a University student!!
Anyways, I was incredibly excited to see that you have the complete set yourself!! What I have been dying to do is get my hands on a high-quality copy of the series so that I can convert it to a set of DVDs. Naturally it would amazing to get a copy that was dubbed from the masters, but I doubt anyone has shelled out the thousands of dollars to Tele-Film for a personal set of their own.
(Got to love International Telefilms!)
April 7/04 from Pat:
Please help us! My sisters and I watched a show in the 1970's on saturday morning with a strange magician like man in a tuxedo with a live audience and question marks. We are going crazy trying to figure out this show! This show played on a Canadian station (we are American) and are desperate to figure this out. Please help desperate Americans!
(Anyone know?)
April 11/04 from Peter:
Saw your TVO site; it's fantastic! I got all misty eyed about Timothy Pilgrim, I REALLY identified with it at the time.
I was actually on the Cucumber show! It was the episode
on advertising; the producers came to our school after my class had all paired
off to produce
little "TV commercial" skits. Although my skit wasn't chosen to be
filmed, I was picked with another boy to talk with Beaver. Imagine my surprise
in the studio
when Beaver took off it's head to reveal a woman inside! She said the costume
got hot. She was very friendly and it is a treasured memory; my Dad had an
early videotape and we still have a copy, along with my badge and letter of
acceptance into the club!
I'm sure I remember a short-lived show called something
like "Dr.Whom and the Case of the English Language" done as a tie-in
to Dr.Who. Any memories of
that one?
(So Beaver was a girl!)
April 11/04 from Rachelle:
First off, to answer Sarah's question on March 14, the show with the three people in the apartment was "Join In". I believe that series ran sometime in the early 90s.
Anywho, it's totally GREAT to see another TVOntario fan
page! I run a fan page for the TVO series Prisoners
of Gravity (a series aimed at adults that
ran from 1989 to 1994), so it rocks to know that there's other TVO fans out
there. Heh, you probably get feedback like that alot, but once more isn't going
to hurt. At least, I don't think it's going to hurt, unless your ego overinflates
to the point that it explodes.
Err... never mind. Once again, thank you so much for running this webpage. It brings back such wonderful memories.
(TVO..use to rule!)
April 11/04 from William:
No sir, there were 30 episodes in the ”All About You” series of 30 years ago. I happen to have all 30 titles:
ALL ABOUT YOU (Produced by WGBH/Boston for AIT, 1974)
(Episodes titles added to All About You page)
April 17/04 from Nick:
Love the website, Thanks for the memories...was wondering if maybe you could help. My Girlfriend remembers a Television show in which a house had windows for eyes...door for mouth etc.. But the main thing she remembers is a man dressed like a record playing wooden spoons...by the way its was a childrens show hehe.. any help would be appreciated.
April 18/04 from Anne:
I remember my son watching a show in the late 1980s with three main characters who were artists working out of an attic studio. The characters were a young woman named Nikki; Rudy, an older man who painted; and Zack who was an actor, I think. Can you provide the title of this show as no one in my family is able to remember?
(Anyone know?)
April 19/04 from Tim:
Awesome site...nice to put a name to all those shows
I half remember.
There is another cartoon that used to be on TVO I'm wondering if you know the
name of..
It used to be on in both English and French, and each episode took place in
different periods of history, from the stone age to modern times. One character
I remember was an old guy with a long white beard.
The opening theme music to the show was (I think) Brahm's Toccato and Fugue
(spelling?), and it had a caveman walking, who turned into a modern man, then
a roman age man, middle ages guy, and so on, all the way up to the present day
when he would get into a spaceship and take off and the earth exploded behind
him.
Also, do you remember a show called "The Secret Railroad"?
(The show is Once Upon A Time...Man (or Il Etait une Fois...L'homme)
April 20/04 from Valerie:
I was wondering if you have more information on the Music Box. Was that the show with the two women and they were in a garden and they sat on the swings and they had a trunk full of stuff and they would play the guitar? This was aired back in the seventies
(I have limited info on the Music Box)
April 23/04 from Lillian:
it was so great to look at your website. a floodgate
of memories opened while watching an episode of bbc's changing rooms and i heard
music which
sounded like something i had heard on vision on. i quickly went onliine and
later found your link.
now i'm sure you have loads of requests for episodes from your video library.
i understand that you probably can't sell them, so i am wondering
what you consider as "tradeable". what peaked my interest was jeremy.
anyway, thanks so much for the great memories.
(Thanks!)
April 30/04 from Day:
I have been trying to find the name of a show I used to watch for months. It was JEREMY!!!
(Glad to help!)
April 30/04 from Sara:
I posted a message on The Straight Dope Message Boards
(http://boards.straightdope.com)
hoping to find the name of that mystery show with the sentient typewriter....and
the responses sent me to your site - where a flood of memories instantly came
rushing back!
I remember screaming, pitching a fit when Read All About It went off the air.
I made my mother call the local station that was carrying it, ferchrissake.
I was devistated when it was over after two seasons. I absolutely credit that
show with giving me my taste for strange, eerie, sci-fi/noir asthetics.
I've only ever found one person that has ever heard of the show (previous to
finding your website). I had done countless searches for the show, but without
a title to go on, and just some hazy recollections, I never found any information.
(Not that there's really a lot out there to begin with...) When you search for
"PBS"
and "talking typewriter" you aren't going to get very far.
Anyway, thanks for all the memories. I would like a copy of RAAI's two seasons,
but I'm still looking for stuff to trade that you might be interested in. Give
me a few days and I'll write back, as I have a big box of old VHS tapes, 8-tracks,
Nintendo games,
etc. that my mom the pack rat kept from the 80's. I'll see if there are any
hidden treasures inside....
For the record, I remember watching All About You ( I always thought the lady
that did that show and Slim Goodboy were related), and Sharon Lois and Bram's
Elephant Show (but only the opening credits, the rest of the show was pretty
lame to my worldly 7 year old mind). I had mistakenly thought these shows were
on PBS, until I saw the TVOntario logo. Was the I the only one that thought
that image looked an awful lot like someone crawling on all fours? Ah, memories
of living across the border from Canada...
Anyway, thanks so much for all the work you've put into archiving these shows.
(Read All About it seems to be so many peoples favourite!)
May 2, 2004 from Lori:
Love your website.
I grew up in Hamilton (I'm 34) and was wondering if you remembered that kid's
show LET'S GO...? I believe it aired on Saturdays and it was on
CFTO (?)
I dig Chantal Kreviazuk (the Canadian singer) and I heard
she starred in it (circa 1980). The show featured a group of kids who put on
skits.
One adult (Janice?) was the leader.
Any info would be appreciated...even a little acknowledgment, as the memories are fading and it's driving me nuts!
(I vaguely remember this show - but it aired very early on Saturdays...to early for me to get up and watch)
May 4/04 from Steven:
First we should all thank the Webmaster for putting so much thought and time into this wonderful website for all of us to enjoy.
I loved the original Canadian educational programs that TVO created. I also loved some of the British imports as well.
Here are my top 10 TVO shows.
1) DR.WHO
2) Read All About IT
3) Jeremy
4) DR. Snuggles
5) The Adventures of Timothy the Pilgrim
6) The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (TVO aired it as a series)
7) The Phoenix and the Carpet
8) Barbapapa
9) Today's Special
10) The Prince and the Pauper
Other shows I liked included: Once upon a time, Math
Patrol, Mathmakers, Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, Write On, Artscape,
Harriet's Magic
Hats, Kidsworld, Readalong, The Ghost of Motley Hall, and Fables of the Green
Forest
(Thanks for the Top 10 list - it'd be quite hard for me to pick my favourite ten)
May 4/04 from Brian:
I was wondering if you recall a French cartoon, or at least the little boy and girl spoke French; that aired on Nickelodeon in the late '70's and early '80's. They were kinda live action figures, the little boy alwyas wore blue and the little girl pink. Would really appreciate any info, this is driving me nuts!!!!!!!!!!
(Anyone?)
May 5/04 from Amy:
I came upon your website by mare chance, but it brought back so many good memories. I was looking for websites that would help me with my own children when I typed in the word "Math Patrol", And your site was the one that came up. I grew up watching most of the shows on your web site and it was great to be able to see those great pictures. Its like seeing a part of my youth again. I give a lot of credit to shows like "Readalong" to have shown me how to read and it gave me the love of books I have today. Not to mention Math Patrol that was one of my favorite shows when I was growing up. I wish there were shows like that still around full of education for the kids. I didn't even know that these shows were from Canada, anyway thanks for those lost memories that you helped me find
(These shows have Canada written all over them!)
May 8/04 from Peter:
need info and pics of the show i think was called kideo those three guys dress in red blue and green and they were like rockers.
(Terrible show that aired on Global. That's all I remember)
May 8/04 from Gretchen:
My name is Gretchen A. Graham and in the 1980's I was one of three original hosts of the original KIDSWORLD News show. At that time it was produced by Bob and Betsy Behrens out of Miami, Florida. I was just amazed to see anything on the Internet at all because there was no Internet when the show first started. I am now a Mother and have only my copy of the TV guide, that we appeared on to show my daughter as proof. Do you have any idea on how I could get a copy of the original show. I was your Andrea Davis but with long hair. Our names were Kent Hip, Janet Wu and Gretchen A. Graham.
(Hoping to get the scan of the TV guide to ad to the site)
May 11/04 from Septimiu:
I found your website when I was searching (just for curiosity) the net for the "Green Forest" series. Originally from Romania I was delighted (as a child) watching those cartoons in late 70s. Do you think I could still find the VHS to rent from a Blockbuster?
(I've never looked, but I doubt it)
May 12/04 from Alisha:
i've really enjoyed your site...esp the pics. i've been looking for some parlez-moi, and have had a real hard time finding anything at all. i don't even know anyone that even knows what i'm talking about!!! i think i was very young (like3-4) when i last saw Parlez-moi, and i desperately want to see it again. my parents used to record EVERYTHING when we were young, and i'm sure i can find something your intrested in. we don't have any tv shows, but some old, hard to find movies...please write back with any info. thank you!!
(Sol for Prime Minister!)
May 13/04 from a public library user in Cleveland:
Except for "Here's How!" (which will go off
the air here May 28, the people of Cleveland have no recollection of the great
ITV series that emerged from TVO. Nor do they have re-airing of Cleveland's
own ITV legends from the distant past of WVIZ. Mark my words, your service is
needed.
Before I go, I'd like to know if you remember what year TVO debuted "Read
All About It!" The site may suggest Sept. 1983, but can we be sure?
(I think it was produced between 1979-1982)
May 16/04 from Dave:
Just wanted to let you know that your page brought back
a lot of memories of what i used to watch as a kid. I am a 26 year old adult
now but, i wish i could
still go back and watch, math patrol and Jeremy. Its weird cause my friends
and i were talking about all the old tvo shows we used to watch, and i completly
forgot about 70 percent of them, but as soon as they were mentioned, its like
a whole bunch of dusty old photographs exploded in my brain.
Thanks for devoting a web page to these great shows, i was wondering if you
know where i can get all these episodes and others, like pee wees playhouse
and
degrassi street. I miss em, and i also want them to show my kids when i have
them. Its saddens me to know that they will grow up, watching these completely
self
indulgent commercialized crap thats on t.v now. Are there even cartoons worth
watching anymore other then the simpsons? anyway, i should end this rant and
just
say thanks..
(Today's TV is quite lacking)
May 16/04 from Jay:
I stumbled across your TVO page and I couldn't help but
notice a few program titles that I haven't seen in a long time. One of them
was Eureka. I saw a few episodes of this a couple years ago in science class.
They had a series of programs about basic chemistry. I recall each program began
with an episode number displayed on the screen, then some geeky-sounding person
would say, "Eureka!" The whole thing was a rather funny cartoon. Also
I noticed your screen pic of Telefrancais. I remember watching that in French
class back in grade 3 or 4. My teacher from that time loved Telefrancais and
would show it to the class now and again. I remember the start of the theme
included "Telefrancais! Telefrancais!"
Another item you might be interested in including on your site is the TVOvernight
programming from the 1980s. During the middle of the night, TVO would air educational
programs that teachers could tape and then show to their class. There was a
wide variety of shows produced. One series dealt with electricity and magnetism,
and was completely computer generated. Since the series was produced in 1984,
it was probably one of the very first computer-generated animated programs ever.
It was actually fairly good quality, and was in 3-D, as opposed to Atari or
Intellivision graphics of the time. Later on, TVO had a series called Paroles
D'Echanges, which was produced in 1989 and was broadcast during TVOvernight.
It was in French and was a dealt with kids from Ontario going on exhange trips
to Quebec (fictional, but realistic). The first two episodes took place in the
heart of Quebec City, and the third one was in a rural area. The theme of these
programs was the best part, and if you can get your hands on that theme it would
be so cool.
I invite you to check out my Yahoo! Ontario Television discussion group. A couple
of us were talking about TVO today and one of them gave me the link to your
site. The discussion group can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onttelevision/.
New members are always welcome.
(Thanks for the link!)
May 17/04 from Mark:
I recently found your TVO tribute site and just love
what you have done. I grew up watching TVO as well and remember most of the
shows you have
listed. In particular, I liked ... I started listing them and have found that
I am basically listing almost all of the shows you have on your site.
I just wanted to add that there were a few more on TVO that liked as well.
The Phoenix and the Carpet
Doctor Snuggles.
I too have started to collect a few shows (when I can
find them) and have The Phoenix and the Carpet on VHS and will probably put
it on DVD sometime
soon. I have only recently started collecting VHS tapes and have noticed that
a number of shows are available on DVD. For example, Three's Company
has recently come out on DVD so you might even find Three's a Crowd out sometime.
But TVO stuff is definitely hard to find. I was wondering
where you got a copy of Read All About it from? I would be interested in seeing
that again. I was thinking about seeing if the local library could
get it in but just haven't had time to check. I remember that a lot of shows
such as Read All About it and Eureka were used in public school and
that various Boards of Education actually still have these videos sitting on
shelves somewhere - but again I do not know what it would take to
access them.
(I still need to make it out to the library one of these days!)
May 23/04 from Shilo:
Do you have any information on Electric Company? Or Big
blue Marble? (big shows for me when i was a kid. )
I also really enjoyed The Barbapapas, thats great that you have the song/lyrics
on your site.
I recall a show from very early 70's (maybe late 60s?) called Nik and Pik i
think. They were two little mice that went up in a hot air balloon... could
never nail down the actual title of the show, We watched these shows here in
vancouver , on the knowledge network maybe? Darn, I wish my memory was better,
lol.
(There should be a lot out there for Electirc Company...at least)
May 24/04 from Joe:
Hey there, just came across your web site on TVO in the
70's. Do you know if it is possible to buy old episodes off of TVO? Do you know
if anything has be rereleased on VHS/DVD?
Great site, its good that its out there. Thanks
(I am afraid not)
May 26/04 from M:
Well, I was getting wistful tonight so I started tooling
around old Nickelodeon sites and lo and behold, I came across your site looking
for something on Read
All About It (which I remember watching in 5th grade and that alien guy was
really creepy). Anyway, I want to thank you for a great site and ask if you
remember a show about a kid with magic gloves (probably welding gloves with
silver glitter) who rode a stationary bicycle (I think he put goggles on too)
into some kind of fantasy land where there were these bad guys always trying
to get his gloves or cause mischief or something. I remember the kid was kind
of
fat and not the typical kids show protagonist. Just curious as to whether you
have any ideas. Might not have been TVO or Canadian at all. Thanks.
(Anyone have an idea?)
May 29/04 from Jason:
Just wanted to thank you! I have been looking forever for info on this show(read all about it). I had no idea that it was a Canadian show. We used to have this program shown to us in my elementry school in Florida. Every week they would roll a tv and vcr into the libary and show us an episode.Years passed and I never gave the show much thought..Then I started looking for info on it, on the net..with no luck.. and finally found it.
June 3/04 from Lisa:
I found your website was a wonderful blast from the past. I had almost forgotten about Write On, and Readalong..lol such wonderful memories.
I was hoping you would help me with a name of a show. I remember very little of it.. It was a father and daughter mystery kind of show. She was a teenager andthere was mystery man named I think Mr. Big. It is vague memory of watching it on TV Ontario. But I keep recalling it...lol. Can you help??
(I can't - hopefully someone else can!)
June 4/04 from Kenneth:
Kenny here and it has been a while, once again, but I am very happy to see your
site is still going strong.
I am e-mailing to respond to a couple of prior e-mails
that I read. Robert from Feb asked about another great Louise McNamara show.
It was called
"Words Incorporated" It had that great 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. I don't remember
what G was for but then the next line was H is for happy when I am with you.
Y is for yell..YELL!! What comes next won't you tell us? Z is
for zebra that's right! It was a really fun show as well with a segment called
Rhyme Time. She hosted the show with a guy but I so don't remember his name.
The
alphabet would go flying across the screen and the door would close at the end
of the theme song and the shows title "Words Incorporated" was on
the door. I
think I mentioned this show in my very 1st e-mail to your wonderful site.
Next was an e-mail from Max in March. About Vegtable
Soup. I talked about that show in my e-mail from January. There was a segment
on the show called
Outerscope and then Outerscope 2. It featured puppet kids and they did have
some big hands! They built there own spaceship to travel around in. I am sure
this is what Max remembers.
No one else has ever mentioned "Number's Game".
It was show where the woman host would roll dice or something and she would
back or forward. My sisters
always liked when she went back because when she went forward, it close to the
end of the show. She finally got to the end and the show was over. I remember
us
being very sad when it ended. Anyone else for "Number's Game"? How
about 3-2-1 Contact and "The Bloodhound Gang"! I would love to get
episodes of that
show!
Well that's all for now but I am always glad to help where I can and to the Vegetable Soup fans, I have found tapes on EBAY so happy hunting!!
(As always good to hear from you Kenny!)
June 4/04 from Melanie:
I forget what I was looking for when I found your website,
but it is great!! I used to live in Ottawa but now I live in the US. Everytime
my friend and I mention old TV shows I ALWAYS brought up "Read All about
it" and how scary Deneedon was, but of course no one had any idea what
I was talking about.
I looked up Today's Special and I found this link http://www.schuminweb.com/todays-special/main-page.htm
hope this helps! (BTW I still get that song "Hurry Jody, get there you
have to get before 9, 9 , 9, 9!" in my head everytime I am running late
for something).
I just wanted to thank you for such a great site and the memories.
(Thanks!)
June 11/04 from Heather:
Heather Conkie sat a green desk. On the wall behind her
was a big green and blue map of Canada. I seem to remember her pointing out
on the map where the kids who would send stuff in lived. I also remember the
theme song behing slightly different that what was posted. I remember part of
it being, "Report Canada discover who you are. (repeated)
Thanks for all of the information. I was almost in tears remember some of this
stuff!
(Thanks for the Report Canada info!)
June 16/04 from Liz:
iI came across your site looking for info about Telefrancais...I watched it in French class when I was in high school and a bunch of my friends and I were just reminiscing about t and we wanted to find more info....even just a pic of Ananas :) So I was just wondering if you have had any luck finding any info about Telefrancais. I enjoyed your site even though I am in the US and didnt watch any of the shows. it was fun to look at anyway :)
(Ananas picture sent)
June 16/04 from Holly:
Hi..I'm so glad I found someone who remembers Jeremy.
Everyone I know has no clue what show I'm talking about!! I've been trying to
remember this show - it was either on TVO or CBC, maybe from Quebec - it could
have been an hour long show I'm not sure - it was on in the 70's - there was
a team of
artists or craftpeople in this huge house (not sure if it was a house or just
a huge studio) and they created amazing pieces of arts, music played behind
everything - there was no dialogue at all. I can't find anyone who remembers
this show - do you?? I remember the head of the team
had white blond hair, but that's it. The show also featured a weird squiggly
logo. I know it sounds strange, but the show really did exist!!! Let me know
if you remember it!!!
(Vision On!)
June 17/04 from Bill:
Nice site! I've been trying to find the name of an old
show, and you may have given me my answer. The show was about some kids who
went different
places, one of those places I believe was Puerto Rico. I thought they build
a flying machine of sorts to get there, but your description of "What If"
makes me think maybe that was the show.
(Not sure)
June 24/04 from Mike:
I stumbled upon your TVO website and loved it! Total
flashbacks..
I noticed that you had some vhs copies of the shows. I was thinking it would
be great to transfer them to a
digital format - either dvd or vcd. I already have every episode of Simon in
the Land of Chalk Drawings
in divx format, and 25 episodes of "La Linea" would you be interested
in either copying or lending
me the tapes for a transfer, I would then return the tapes to you with a copy
of the digital transfer by the way, I'm in Montreal
(Working on it)
June 24 from Mark:
Im from Adelaide, South
Australia. Like many others, i just want to sincerely say thank you for your
site. It fills in so many
blanks, and restores a lot of forgotten memories for me. I'm a huge fan of childrens
television from the 70s/80s and was/am an avid watcher of our ABC,
which broadcast many TVO productions in the 80s/90s when i was a child. I'm
actually rather surprised by how many of these programmes we got down here.
The ABC provided us with a rather healthy diet of Canadian, American, English
and Australian childrens programmes. It's an absolute thrill to find
someone devoted to making a site, and providing a forum for discussion, about
this treasured nostalgia that many have forgotten about.
'Read All About It' has got to be one of the most incredibly
interesting, genuinely unique and disturbingly scary children's programmes ever
produced.
I recall watching it when i was home sick from school and hiding behind our
couch when Duneedon appeared. The theme music alone used to creep me out. Im
in the same boat as fellow Aussie Carla was, who emailed you recently. I was
also told by the ABC that they sadly no longer have rights to the program.
I would really love to get a copy of the entire series, both seasons 1 and 2.
I dont know what your policy is on these things, and i dont really have
anything to offer you.
(Cool to hear RAAI played in Australia!)
June 27/04 from Denise:
I just came from your website and I can remember some of the shows mentioned.But my fav was Today's Special, You Can't Do That On Television,Pinwheel,Eurekas Castle,Dusty's Treehouse(different Network seen here in California)Romper Room,The Great Space Coaster. I know there is a lot more shows I want to comment about,but can't remember at this time.I know there was a weird cartoon that was on Pinwheel about a boy named Tommy or Charlie that was always up in the tree and I guess he lived with his Grandpa it was weird cuz it was all narrated they never even talked.A lot of Pinwheels cartoons were like that but I really enjoyed the shows back then.I have 3 children and I am so tired of seeing the same thing over and over.Rugrats,Jimmy Neutron,Jenny the Teenage Robot,Spongebob,The Fairly Oddparents,All Grown Up, Amanda Show,Danny Phantom Etc...By the way I your site you put together, it is so nice to see the input of other fans and know that I am not the only one that misses all of those long lost episodes that we will never be able to see again.Thanks for taking the time to hear me
(So many agree!)
July 5/04 from Mr. E:
Just got word back directly from TVO Sales department, after asking about Bits And Bytes' availability. Gone. All gone.
So, now what?
Does anyone.....A N Y O N E .....out there have access
to this show??? I HATE when something like this goes into oblivion, forever
to
be forgotten. Just because the information is out of date doesn't mean it means
nothing to people. This show got me into computers in the
first place.
Google is pretty much useless for this topic, and I've even tried getting hold of Luba Goy!! (No luck so far, although, I doubt she'd be even if she got back to me.)
Thanx for what you've done with the surviving shows on your site. Let's see if we can't squeeze a few more out of the general population, hmmm??
(All I could find was this: http://kgf.swiki.net/10 )
July 6/04 from Heather:
So excited to find your site today. I'm sitting at my
computer procrastinating at work, and there is was! Great stuff. I was a huge
TVO fan too, and it was great to see shows like "Write On" and "Report
Canada" that I had forgotten about. (can't get the theme
to report canada out of my head at the moment though...:P)
Question: what is Artscape about? I remember a show that
was a craft show of sorts, and there was a segment where a guy would walk through
a mirror and end up in another place (usually outside on a lawn) walking backwards.
Is is this show? It's driving me nuts.
(Not sure)
July 7/04 from Kris:
WOW - your site just blew my mind (you must read that in all your emails)
Whatever I would say has probably been said by zillions of folks already so I will keep this short . . .
I am writing in at the request of the people asking about
the Secret Railroad. I don't remember the show ever being shown on TVO, I recall
it on Global at about 6 in the morning, every morning. The main character was
a boy named Simon who discovered a room in the basement
of his apartment building which was full of boxes and junk, when he stumbled
through them, and cleared them out he found a train. Not a big
train, it had a locomotive which was open at the back, two or three passenger
cars (also open on the top) and a caboose.
When he would don his tall blue Engineer's hat and drive through the wall he
would be traveling on a track, but nothing else around it, just
open space. After traveling a bit he would see a little house on the right with
a man standing near it. This was Mr. Passenger. He sported a long white beard,
past his knees and wore a very tall grey top-hat, and his black cat would usually
sit or sleep on top. I don't remember what the cat was named.
This is how every episode started. Whatever their adventure
was that episode they would invariably come across a girl named Stella whose
hair was shaped like a star. She was a vague character who would play different
roles in each adventure. For instance I recall they once came
across Dracula's castle, and Stella was a victim, and in another it was a Star
Wars rip off with a weird Darth Vader clone, and Stella was
dressed as Princess Leia, but with her regular star-shaped hair.
That memory has just paused me, because I was certain that the show dated from at least 1973, so its weird that they would have a Star Wars reference, but there you go.
The animation was identical to a version of The Sorcerer's
Apprentice I saw when I was young narrated by Vincent Price, in fact the Apprentice
in that show was drawn exactly the same as Simon from Secret Railroad.
Hope this might help someone . . .
Dear Aunt Agnes
I saw someone was asking about the theme song lyrics, so here they are if no one has given them to you yet (from the best of my memory)
Dear Aunt Agnes, remember
you said you'd help me out if you could
well my job has taken me far away
to move the children just wouldn't be good
if you would say you would come and stay
you'd be the best friend(aunt?) a girl ever had
Dear Aunt Agnes
Dear Aunt Agnes, won't you come and stay?
Dear Aunt Agnes
Dear Aunt Agnes, won't you come and staaaaaaay?
I would be my life Heather Conkie sang the theme song.
And I dont know if anyone mentioned this, but Dear Aunt Agnes was a spin-off
of the
Magical Music Box which Heather Conkie also starred in, as (i think) herself.
Her name was Heather on it, anyway. Agnes Peabody was her
upstairs neighbour, and I believe landlady. She was a somewhat cranky, if loveable
old lady who was very eccentric. She kept a stuffed parrot
she called Gertrude, which she would speak to. She also had a bust of Elvis
on her piano. I recall on Dear Aunt Agnes she was very confused
by their cordless phone and would often lose where she left it, sometimes in
the freezer.
hope some of this helps too. Whatever happened to Heather Conkie?
(This is some great info on both accounts. I am sure many people, myself included, find it very useful!)
July 7/04 from Joshua:
I beleive you missed out on one very important TVO show which I loved. Safety Scouts! There was a squirl that always needed the audiences imput.The theme: Be a sefety scout,(calling all safety scouts) I have quite a memory for these shows, so if you have unanswered questions, please ask me.
BTW The dreadful "Kideo" show was called 'Kids can Rock and Roll"
(Kids can Rock and Roll - yes, that show was beyond dreadful!)
July 7/04 from CC:
My brothers and sisters (and in-laws ... how old we have
gotten) were remembering all the great shows that we used to watch as kids ....
WHAT A
TRIP down memory lane. This is the only site that I have found that shows all
the ones that we remembered (and lots that I had forgotten). I wish that
some of them were available on DVD for my kids to enjoy. Keep doing a great
job! I will be sending more of my old friends to your site!!
July 8/04 from Jeremy:
was actually looking around the web for anything related to "The Green Forest" I was happy to find your page and so many other pages of childhood memories. I basically watched 90% of these shows out in Calgary on public access. Good times Good times.
In coming across your page I found that you had copies of Jeremy the Bear in your collection. I am guessing you get asked this a lot but I was wondering if you make copies of these for people. I have actually been looking for episodes for about the last year on and off and you are the only person I have found who actually has any. And you have 8 to boot. I would be only happy to cover any expenses you incur and additional funds if you have rates for doing this kind of thing. Anyways, my name is Jeremy and my nickname is Jer-Bear... loosely based on the show and it would be excellent to be able to show all of these people who have never experienced the likes of Jeremy the Bear and his fantastic suitcase.
Anyways, thanks for your help if you can make a copy. If not thanks for putting up the site and putting a smile on my face.
(How can I say no to someone named Jeremy?)
July 13/04 from David:
What an awesome walk down memory lane!!! Thank you so much for all your hard work in finding all of those shows, I remember then all. My favorites were Vision On, Jeremy, Read-a-long, and Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings. They just don’t make them like that anymore.
I’ve been trying to find out where I can get copies of the Read-a-long shows to show my kids. They may be old but still very educational. If I find a source(s) I’ll email you with the info.
Thanks again for the great trip.
July 14/04 from an Ohio Library User:
Reading your fan's request on "Vegetable Soup"
got me thinking. I remember the show's heyday, back in 1982, when it aired on
PBS, commercial stations, Nickelodeon, and TBS. That in itself is an achievement
unmatched in children's television today.
I also remember more elements of "Vegetable Soup" because of this
multiple availability. It was more than "Outerscope." There were the
time travelers, The Big Game Hunt, the animated spoon giving recipes, The Big
Job Hunt, Nigel the boa, and I believe Professor Emeritus.
All of the "Vegeteable Soup" series - 78 programs worth - was produced
by the Bureau of Mass Communications, New York State EducationDepartment. I
have recently written to them, hoping they have info on the series. You may
do the same. Send correspondence to:
New York State - Education Dept, Cultural Education Ctr, State Archives Reception
Main Desk
3 Red Lane Drive, Albany, NY 12211
(518) 474-8955
(Thanks for the info)
July 16/04 from Jennifer:
All About You taught different aspects of healthy and
safe living. The was an episode on skin, and teeth, and one about safety.
I know you have the logos from some shows you don't feature do you have any
info on them? I'd really like to know more about The Science Alliance, Owl TV
and You Can Write Anything. I vaguely remember watching those show on PBS when
I was younger.
July 25/04 from Jenna:
Do you recall a show on TVO that was done in stop-motion
photography and involved a lot of characters made out of plants (i.e. "nightshade").
I'm
sorry, that's an odd question to randomly ask someone, but I seriously think
I'm going crazy, nobody remembers this show, I'm sure it existed. Maybe a
different station? I don't know. Sorry for bothering you lol, nice site.
(Anyone?)
July 28/04 Library User:
I am the one from Ohio who told you about "Vegetable
Soup" airing four ways simultaneously in 1982. At the same time, a group
in Virginia started a
16-part series called "Powerhouse," which, at one time, aired on PBS
and Nickelodeon. Only today did I discover a news item on "Powerhouse"
at
http://pages.prodigy.net/mbgels/page5.html. There could be other sites, but
this is the best of them. It includes pictures of the cast, of which the
only name I could nail down was Sandra Bowie (she played Brenda Gaines, the
centerpiece of the series). Bowie also had bit roles in episodes of
"ThinkAbout" and the short-lived "Tax Whys: Understanding Taxes,"
intended only for the U.S.
and
We learned late in our lives (i.e., after production
of "Harriet's Magic Hats" stopped) that Lynne Thornton played Aunt
Harriet in Series Three and
Four. I do not think Lynne was there for the first two series of "Harriet's
Magic Hats." You need to run through the credits of a show from the first
two series that featured Aunt Harriet (beyond the titles) and find her name
in the crawl. That way, you can add this name to Lynne Thornton who, as I
typed earlier, played Aunt Harriet in Series Three and Four.
BTW: Carrie was the last of Aunt Harriet's nieces, fronting Series Four. Stay
alert and a Clevelander will provide a scanned photo of Carrie and
Ralph the Parrot. Also BTW: you probably know there were two Ralph the Parrots.
Frank C. Turner was Ralph in Series One and Two. The other Ralph,
from Series Three and Four, was performed by Ronnie Burkett. from Cleveland
(As always thanks for the info!)
July 30/04 from Carl:
Hi, great site. I was just wondering if you had any info
or video or anything at all on a show by AIT called Ripples. I have been searching
the
net for years for info on this show with absolutely no luck. No one seems to
remember it. Thanks for any help.
(Ripples anyone?)
July 30/04 from Cindy:
I came across your site looking for info about Telefrancais.
I grew up in Northern Ontario and used to watch it all the time. Anyways a bunch
of my
friends and I were just reminiscing about it and we wanted to find a pic of
Ananas. I've search Hi and low on the Internet and I haven't been able to
find any pics. So I was just wondering if you know of any where I can find pictures
of Ananas of Les Squellettes. Great site B.T.W!!
July 31/04 from Dave:
Thank you for this site. I have great memories of these shows as a kid growing up in New England. I would watch these on days when I was home sick from school. They were always in in the afternoon...They kept me entertained for hours. I remember a show called Mulligan Stew, and The Letter People. The Letter People were actually used in my kindergarten class as well. Many fond memories...thanks
August 1/04 from Bobby:
Are you familiar with Alphabet Soup. A show about children muppets who build a treehouse space ship, go to outerspace and have trouble getting home.
(Read over the feedback - lots of comments on this show)
August 4/04 from David:
Your site is wonderful! I thought I was the only personthat
remembered these shows. Whenever I asked my husband about them he thought I
was nuts! It's
nice to know I'm not the only nut out there!
August 5/04 from Jessica:
Since moving to California 5 years, ago, I often feel
sad when I think that I might be loosing touch with my upbringing and culture.
I grew up in Toronto
in the late 70's/early 80's...
I stumbled on your site today while looking for pictures
on the internet of Barbapoppa. I muttered something about it in a meeting at
work and
everyone looked at me as if I were an alien. I was planning to arm myself with
proof for tomorrow...
Two shows I can remember that I don't think have been mentioned yet:
PINGU- this was a clay-mation penguin which they would
air between shows in 1 minute spots or so. I recall that it would always be
shown before or after
JEREMY THE BEAR.
PASSE PARTOUT- this French show starred a guy and a girl wearing silly clothes, in particular I recall the guy had a bow tie which was shaped like a butterfly.
(Lots of sites for Pingu out there. Pingu is cool!)
August 6/04 from Mich:
I am looking for any info you might be able to find about some old shows that I remember watching in the late 80's on TV Ontario and they were How do You Do? All I remember about this show was that it was about this robot named Chips and the other show I would like some info on is Will The Duck I think it was cald. Also if you could please try to dig some info up on another show cald The Micanickels that would be grate as well. I also remember another show cald Tales from The Blue Crystal if you could please find out some info on that show as well as another show cald Dear Ant Agnes I would also like any info on that show you can dig up on that show as well please. I would really appreciate it if you could find out any info on the shows that I have listed and weather any of them would be avaible to perches on DVD or VHS Tape? I would only perches them for the sake of watching them again to bring back some old memories. I was born in 1983 so I would have been watching these shows around probably the laight 80's like 1988 or so. I hope that helps. I look forward to hearing from you soon. from Mich Verrier in Elk Lake Ontario O Ya and another show that I remember watching was Yereaka's Castle. If you could please find some info on that show that would be grate.
(I am stumped with almost all these shows!)
August 7/04 from Jessica:
Hey There!
What a great web site !!! Last year my brother and I had a long conversation
about the shows we used to watch as kids in Elementary school. We spoke of Read
Along and Read All About It. What great and educational shows to grow up with!
I had searched long and hard on the internet for any clues or leads on sites
about these and other shows and was very unsuccessful until now!!! The web site
is amazing and brings back floods of memories!
Do you have any information on the following shows ?
Square One (I vaguely remember this one, but it had various skits in it including
one skit called MathNet)
The Edison Twins
Today's Special
(Square One TV was by PBS. Mathnet was the 5 part segment at the end of the show. Edison Twins was by Nelvana. Today's Special was a TVO show)
August 9 from John:
Wow! What a site! So many memories returning to me as
I browse through your pages. Added to my favorites right away. Some interesting
memories related to TVO from my childhood in the 80's: That floating head in
"Read all about it" scared the crap out of me. I
must have been about three or four years old when I watched this show and I
can remember running from the living room to cry to my mom about
the scary head.
And what about those yearly phone-in fundraiser's where two people from the
TVO network would try to convince your family to donate money so
that all the great shows would keep airing. They would show shots of volunteers
sitting in front of telephones and talking to the viewers
who had called to make a donation. (Do they still do this on TVO?) As a kid,
this time was always really annoying; I can remember begging my
mom to call so that Dr. Who would come on. These telephone fundraiser sessions
would last a long time and I think I watched the entire thing
just so I wouldn't miss a single minute of Dr. Who
(Another RAAI fan - great to see. The Fundraiser are still and always will be around!)
August 9/04 from "Jeremy":
my name is jeremy . i am 23 years old and i live in ontario canada. i am writing you this message asking you for the biggest favor i could ever ask someone. for my entire life i have been know to EVERYONE as bear. this is because when i was a baby my dad would sing me the theme song to Jeremy Bear. the called me jeremy the bear, the bear, and now bear. i have been known as bear by everyone from my grade 1 teacher to my college professors to my friends and even my grandparents and family members. i recently came across this site and nearly fell out of my seat. it was absolutly amazing to see the old pics of Jeremy. i was wondering if you could please tell me how i could go about getting a stuffed jeremy bear. this would be the ultimate gift since this one little stuffed bear has had such a HUGE impact on my entire life. i would also like to know if there would be any T-shirts or ANYTHING i could possibly get my hands on that deal with Jeremy. could you please help me out in any way. you are my only hope. it would me a great deal more then you would ever know if you helped me out in any way.
(All I have are Jeremy videos)
August 10/04 from Shannon:
Hi! I just wanted to drop a line and tell you how much
I love your website. Like many of the people who've emailed you I too have spend
a great amount
of time racking my brain over which shows I used to watch as a kid and even
more time trying to hunt down info on the internet. I remembered bits a
pieces here and there but never names which made searching impossible. Your
screen shots have helped out so much. My favorites were Read all about it
(denedon was soooo scary), Today's Special and Body Works (the towel part was
the best).
This might be helpful. I had a professor in the broadcasting
programme at Ryerson, Clive Vanderburg who was the creator, director, composer
of Today's
Special, Cucumber Club and a whole bunch of other TVO shows. It was a real treat
to hear his stories.
Does anyone remember a show that had a guy on it dressed
up in a suit of the human body, it looked sorta like he was naked but the suit
had all the
organs, bones etc on it.??? I remember he had big big hair and sorta resembled
Jeff from Todays Special...just with a 'Fro. His show was sorta
like All about you in that he taught about the different parts of the body.
I didn't like it very much but its stuck in the minds of me and my friends.
Also anyone remember Sigmund and the Sea Monsters? It
was a sid and marty Krofft show that no one seems to remember. It was about
a little green
monster who ran away from his mean family and was befriended by a bunch of teenagers.
The whole show focused on hiding him from their parents in their
club house. Krofft also did Land of the Lost which I loved. A family got stuck
in a time warp and was forced to live with dinosaurs. We're talkin'
top notch green screen effects!!!
Anyway thanks for posting such a great site. My friends
and I will continue to enjoy it. Any chance that you'll be posting clips soon?
I would LOVE to
see Read all about it...(I haven't been able to get the song out of my head
for days!!!)
(I think I would have a million questions for Clive!)
August 10/04 from Jeff:
I remember they used to have a show (I think it was short
like 15 minutes long) detailing a chess game. Except the pieces would move by
themselves, kind of a
stop motion photography thing.
(Anyone?)
August 11/04 from Bill:
My name is Bill Skolnik.
I composed the musical themes for a number of TVO shows including The Body Works,
Science Alliance and the TVO version of Kidsworld.
In fact I did all the original music for The Body Works series. A little over
half of the "exercise music" was commissioned. The rest was
what is termed "needle drop".
Anyway, in your credits for The Body Works I am listed as operating the camera.
So I thought you might like to know that if I had been the one
looking after the camera there is no way the show would have ever been completed.
I sure enjoy and appreciate your site. It brings back many
memories. I love the comments. I knew several of the folks who worked on the
shows.
Please keep up your important work.
(Correction made - thanks for the support!)
August 11/04 from Me:
-- The show is called "Join In!" There's nothing
about this show on the net at all!!! I've been searching for it for about 3
years and still nothing
except a site only about one of the Actors who played Nikki - because she's
done other canadian tv shows since then. The site isnt even Canadian, and
the author of the site just thinks it's some TLC kids show. Anyways, her name
is "Pamela Sinha". I wish i could remember the other cast members
real
names but i can't. That show had it's credits run with the actor's pix at the
beginging of every episode. I only remmeber they had really weird last
names, but i could point them out in a crowd anywhere because i remember their
faces.
K first the characters...The first couple of seasons
(i really don't know how much episodes there were, but you could see they aged
a bit at the end
of it's run) There were three human characters: One girl named Niki who always
wore scarves and cool outfits - mostly cool sweatshirts or sweaters
and leggins, and she was short and indian and worked with audio/video in a section
of the studio near the balcony. She was young, about exactly 20.
Another character was named Jaccob - not Rudy. He was almost entirely bald...and
the oldest there. He looked late 30's, early 40s, and had black
glasses. The baldness it was only on all of the top of his head. The sides and
back had hair lol. He was a painter, but that's not all he did. He was
also like the "fixer". He created things and i remember him having
to fix a couple things. He wore paint splatter white overalls most of the time
with
various shirts. The other character was named zack. I had a crush on him. Every
girl had a crush on him. I can't remember when the show first aired,
but i know it was late 80s for sure. It ran until the early 90s then dissapeared
forever. Anyways back to Zack. He had light brown hair, tall,
skinny, brown eyes, huge adams apple. He was just hot - literally everyone wanted
to marry him. He had this signature hop...where he would zigzag
around while jumping - it was like the thing to do LOL. It was really educational.
Now there were also other characters...they were little wodden
toys made by Jaccob. It was a wife and husband and they had a dog. Now...The
husband was a wizard, and the wife also had magic. They were like the
causers of all the problems in the apartment. I don't know why they were magic...it
was never explained. But anyways the couple's names are on the
tip of my tounge, but i know the dog's name was "abra" like in "abra
cadabra" - it didn't talk, it barked and also pulled magical stunts. The
wizard was short, he was painted blue, and had yarn like brown hair under his
blue wizard hat. The wife was tall, i remember she had parts of green in
her wardrobe and was in a dress, and she had white hair. The dog was brown.
They were all wooden but they moved, thanks to probably stop-animation. It
was like flawless movement and they talked, and argued, but no one knew they
were magical and only the viewers saw what was going on. Anyways after the
Actor who played Nikki left - probably to persue her career more - a character
named Keya came. I don't know if that's how it's spelt but its pronounced "key"
as in keychain, and "ah", so key-ah. There was an explanation how
Keya was related to Nikki, but i forget. It was a whole
episode based on that. The guys were pissed cuz Nikki was gone and Keya was
different and they were like saying "Well Nikki never made our sandwiches
like that" ect. Keya was indian, but looked very different from Nikki.
She was taller - still short, but taller and thin. Nikki was kinda chubby. Keya
just dressed casual, no special scarves ect. Just normal clothes, no signiture
ones liek Jaccob and Zack and Nikki. O yes, Zack had signiture
clothes. He always had jeans, cuffed at the ankle and those shoes - ah the name
escapes me. They had white circles at the sides and white fronts and
laces and were kind of like cloth and kind of tall and came in all different
colors - red yellow black pink green, and Zack had them all - except pink.
He also wore suspenders with his really tight straight legged jeans, cuffed
at the bottom, and cool shirts. Doesnt seem very "hot" right now though
but
at the time i thought he was to die for and i don't think i was even 5 yet,
the first time i saw the show. Zack really did not have a job...he sang a
song once about having no job. "I'm feeling low, low low. I just wanna
cry...and that is why, I'm feeling low, low low." there's more to the song
but i can't remember it all, it was basically about him having no job, and money.
Everyone else had a specific job. He was just...living at the place -
i dont think he was an artist. He rode a bike though...and always brought people
up to the apartment, guests but they always had something educational
to say or do. They did shows on safety, and what to do when there's a stranger
ect, there was a cop, there was a robot who sang and stuff, and I
can go on forever. I just don't know the titles of the episodes. The tv guide
never really said what episode it was, it was always just "Join In!".
In every episode though, they would sing alot of relevant songs to the theme
of that particular show, in the early shows they used to tell stories, read
them, or act them out. Or the wizards who lived on the shelf would. Now there
was a train that ran from the kitchen to the balcony. Zack would abuse
it's powers and put juice and food on it ect, or yell from the balcony and ask
someone to put sum juice on the train for him. He looked about...20
something. No more than 24. If someone were to look at the show today he'd proabbly
look younger by the kiddish way he dressed - suspenders...bright
shirts, colored shoes.... naive. There were always things to learn, Zack would
do most of the learning. He was really naive about alot of things.
Zack could have been an actor but...he never really did anything?? He was always
in the dam apartment being lazy, or singing, or bringing guests. The
only time they followed him outside was when he went to get mail, or when he
had to deliver things or when he had to pick things up, or go to the
library, and he had his little fanny pack, bike hemlet, bike and tight spandex
bike shorts. Maybe he was a starving actor. They never really
focused on his career like Jacob and Nikki and Keya. Keya basically took over
Nikki's audio/video stuff but concentrated mostly on music. The video
stuff just kinda dissapeared after a couple eps. But they had a bunch of equipment,
tv keyboard, ect.
Now the theme song - i can't even find that but i do
know the lyrics. there's clapping in them though: "Join in! Cast your cares
away. Join in!
Fun in coming you way! Join in. It's a brand new day. Join in! And get ready
to play... Join in! (clap clap), Join in, (clap clap), join in (clap clap),
join in (clap clap), join in (clap clap), join in (clap clap) join in!"
A bit repetitive but if you heard the tune they dont say "join in"
the same
way through out it. "Get ready to play" never made sense to me at
all. I never played...well atleast i didn't. Maybe someone else can clarify
that
part. But i'm pretty sure it was "And get ready to play". What else...
there were many songs that got stuck in my head from that show. Usually after
i
sing them people are like "OH YEA, i remember that show!!!!!!!!!".
Usually they think i'm crazy if i just explain it. Hopefully you can find a
pic for
this show...or the other actor's names. I know they must be out there....The
guy who played zack appeared on TVO kids-crawlspace when it was first
created..1994/1995 i think. But after it never came on any channel again.
On another note, TVO kids even repeated Read All About
It in 1996, or 1997. One of those years for sure because i remember coming home
from grade 5 just
to watch those reruns - even though i hated the new TVO. If they had my reruns
i was fine. Treehouse use to show today's special when it first came
out as a new channel in 1998 or 1999. But I never heard about it again. Today's
special placed with all those stupid new kid shows didn't make any
sense but i was greatful to watch to reruns. Though i had to endure some pretty
lame treehouse intermissions. Today's special is at librarys though
on video and theres tons of stuff about it on the net. I wish that was the case
for Join in. There's NOTHING. And i never taped anything because i
always retaped over things anyways. I wish someone knew something. I remember
when that lady named Patty from TVO kids - the crawl space was sort
of interviewing the character named Zack, like 1995. Maybe if anyone can get
in touch with her and ask what his name is. She's gone to CBC though now. I
saw her on there when flicking through channels. She probably won't even remember.
He changed alot though when that aired...he had long oily looking
black hair.....and was in all leather...not something i wanted to see him as.
He was not hot at all. He's probably in his late 30s right now.
I also cant remember the name of a show with a bunch
of kids and a clubhouse....maybe it was just a hide out, but they met there
and i remember
there was an alien for sure. i was kind of confused about that person's gender...it
could have been a guy it could have been a girl. I remember it
wore a hat and had either no hair or short hair...i couldnt figure out their
gender then - they were in pink and stuff but yet it could have been a boy
because of the frame, but they werent even at puberty yet so i was so confused.
But anyways they would try and teach this alien about humans - the
kids. The alien was a kid. They looked like 11 or 12 year olds. Maybe they were
older. It reminded me of read all about it, but it wasnt as old, and
there were more kids, plus an alien involved. They had to deal with ppl over
a screen from space. It was a little strange. RAAI was better though.
Duneedon never scared me though...i was soo into that show. But i was born in
'87, so i only caught reruns of it. That show inspired me to start
writing. All the shows on your site were playing on tvo like since i started
watching tvo which was bascailly in '88. I was so upset when stupid tvokids
came 1995. All those cool shows were gone. In grade one, all the kids use to
go into a classroom and they would show read all about it and we'd do all
these activities along with the kids. Parlez moi i watched in music class when
i was in kindergrarden and gr. 1. Everything else i saw at home on tvo
every day. I wish there was some more info on Music box, it was a good show,
people thought i was nuts, talking about a talking music box with a man's
voice, and a lady who sang ect.
Well i hope i answered those people's questions about "Join in!" I wish there was actual pix. There has to be someone out there lol. Hope i helped.
(WOW!)
August 13/04 from Rico:
I came across your website and the memories just flooded
back of my childhood when I watched these shows.
I noticed that some were talking about the computer series "Bits and Bytes"
with Luba Goy & the late Billy Van (1981-82); the program which usually
followed it was "The Computer Academy" which featured Jim Butterfield
(sideburns and all) who was actually a consultant for "Bits and Bytes".
Although not a children's series, it actually skyrocketed my interest in computers
& math (thanks to Math Patrol & Mathmakers) to a point that I got Bachelors
of Math & Computer Science at the U of Waterloo.
I still remember programming on my Apple IIe & VIC-20 thanks to the series.
(I have now added a Bits and Bytes section)
August 16/04 from Jen:
I live in Michigan, the motor city area, and as a child
of the 80's I seem to remember a live action show for kids,which may be Canadian,
because we picked up Canadian television in my area, or it could be domestic
show, with human and puppet actors. I remember very little about the show, so
bear with me please. It had a talking boot, a pink shoe, I think a stone lion,
although I may be wrong about that, a Dragon er maybe it was a giraffe. A castle
and a cave.
2nd it may have contained a skit about a kid (puppet or live) in a wheel chair
getting injured at a park. Does any of this ring a bell to you?
Any info or leads would be appreciated.
(Anyone know this one?)
August 18/04 from Steph:
Hey, I used to watch a show when I was younger and there
were 2 (3?) guys and 1 girl who lived in this condo/apartment thing. And one
of the guys was
a musician and the other was a carpenter? They had a toy train that went from
inside out onto the deck and they put drinks on it and stuff. And they
also had a phone that I thought was super cool at the time. It was transparent
and you could see all the colourful cords inside.
Some people have said it was called Join In, I've tried
googling it, but no luck. The description seems quite vague, but that's all
I remember. I am
pretty sure it was a Canadian show, but not sure if it was on TVO. Thanks :)
(Join In is the show - here are some images:)
August 19/04 from Maura:
I love the website! I'm a science teacher originally
from Bflo NY and grew up watching canandian tv- i'm wondering if you know where
i can buy any of
the videos - especially the eureka! videos to use in my class!
(Always glad to help out a class!)
August 23/04 from Andrew:
This late night I was surfing the 'net, playing around really with the www.imdb.com seeing who was who in some of the old shows. I brought up Heather Conkie and was surprised she actually is listed. One thing I did not see was a show I remember her hosting that I used to watch in school. I decided to do a search on the yahoo.ca search engine and came across your website. You mention "Report Canada" which she hosted and I also see you mentioned that she did "Report Metric". Correct me if I'm wrong, but was the show not called "Think Metric" with the theme lyrics something like, "Think metric today...think metric today...think metric it's for everyone.....etc." (I forget the rest). Perhaps "Think Metric" was one that she hosted that was before the two shows that you mention. The show would come on in the early afternoon and we'd all be seated on the floor looking up at the television on it's tall stand with the folding doors that opened to display the screen. (Boy, I hated that!!!) Anyways, just thought I'd take a moment and send an email your way.
(You are probably correct. I only know of Report Canada and am basing the Metric info on details sent to me)
August 25/04 from Megan:
HELP!! I've had an on going problem trying to remember
the show that had the brown boot and the pink shoe!! It was a puppet showThat
also had an old bag
lady and a house? PLEASE! What was the name of the boot and the shoe?
(Readalong)
August 31/04 from Kim:
What an amazing site you have! To say it made my day
wouldn't be exagerating! Just looking at all the logos of all the different
shows brought back so many memories...
I vaguely remember a show where kids ran around in a museam type setting, holding
a baton of some sort... Is this show "Artscape"? Am I even close?
Keep up the good work! I'll be checking your site regularly to see if you've
added any info on "The Edison Twins"... And what about "Dr. Snuggles"?
Remember him?
(I never really watched Artscape - you could be right. I am thinking of adding a non-TVO section - so that we could finally pay homage to Edison Twins!)
September 2/04 from Matthew:
Great site about TVO kids shows! I’ve been checking it out for the last few months and it’s amazing to see someone else who loved the old TVO shows as much as I do.
I was on the site today and reading the comments and though that it would be great if you could set up a message board so that people could talk about the shows more. It would probably be easier for you too since you wouldn’t have to post up the feedback messages for people who are searching for info about a show they saw before. If you don’t have the capabilities or webspace let me know and I might be able to help you out. I have tons of webspace so I could possibly host it. Also I know there’s tons of free ones on the net as well (with ads unfortunately). Anyways, just though I’d throw the suggestion up in the air.
I recently bought home made DVDs of read all about it off ebay. I have a TV card and I‘m thinking of putting a few low res episodes on the net so people can download them. When I get around to it I’ll send you a link. Unfortunately the seller I bought from only had the first season, but through emails with him he told me that he’s thinking of doing the same thing with the second season so if it works out I’ll try to put the whole series up for download. Hopefully, it’ll be cheaper for the second one, I end up paying close to $80 Canadian for the first one! But oh well, you can’t get the series anywhere so it’s better than nothing.
Thanks again for the work you put into your site. Me and every other TVO fan is very grateful.
(A message board, downloaded episodes - very cool ideas)
September 2/04 from Rick:
I was pleasantly surprised to be led to your site by searching “The World of BJ Vibes”. The show was produced by Sincinkin Ltd., contact persons George Pastic and Andrew Welsh who produced the series. Paul Hoffert of Lighthouse did the music and my partner Michael Paul and myself wrote the series. I believe we did 9 segments, each on a different aspect of music, Timbre, Rhythm, etc. I don’t know if TVO has anything in their archives but I know it was sold to several PBS stations in the US and Europe. Maybe Paul Hoffert has some episodes. He is still living in Toronto and is now a prof at York University as well as doing many other things. Best of luck in your quest for the programs we remember so fondly and thanks for your fabulous website.
(Thank you for the great e-mail!)
September 2/04 from Angie:
I remember flipping through the channels a few years
ago and watching this kids workout show that was really cute..only I have NO
recollection of what
it was called..i'm sure it was on TV Ontario..can you help me figure out what
it was?I've tried to look on the net and have come up empty.
(I think it might have been Come Fly with Me - early 90's)
September 2/04 from Marianneke:
My brother just showed me your website tonight - it was
like a vault of my brain had been opened. I didn't realize how much TVO I used
to watch (especially in school)! I live in the States now, and I managed to
get Elephant Show videos at our local library, that's the best I can do (although
they might start to think that a 25 year old in the kids' section is a bit creepy....).
Also, thanks for reassuring me that I am not crazy. For years I have been trying
to find proof that there was in fact a Cucumber Club and a bear called Jeremy,
but no one else could remember.....alas, there is! Thanks so much! Any luck
on finding pics for Cucumber Club?
One thing I regret though....the image of Sol from Parlez-Moi - that clown has
haunted my nightmares for years....and I just refreshed it! That show was crazy...and
unsettling!
Keep up the great work, you are now on my favourites list!!
(I think between Sol and Dunedun - kids of our generation are disturbed for life!)
September 3/04 from Sheryl:
I am trying to locate info on an old show that I used to watch called Harrigan! I think it was done out of Kingston! Any Idea or Info?
(Was it a clown - did the theme song spell out his name?)
September 8/04 from Daniel:
Many of these shows were so good. So much better than
the junk that is entertaining our children today. I only wish I knew where I
could tune in to watch the re-runs (if any) or where I could purchase them on
tape or DVD.
Of course I remember Readalong, Read All About It, Simon, and Today's Special.
I also remember this one show where a man would sit at his art desk and draw
a picture while he was reading a story to you. I have to say that his show is
probably the one I remember best. I only wish I knew what that show was called.
Any help?
By far, these shows made up the significant part of my TV watching when I was
young. It's amazing how now that I am well past 30, that characters like Boot
and Pretty still linger in my mind. I found the "Readalong" theme
song online in MP3 format, and when I dowloaded it, then listened to it, it
was amazing. It only took hearing those first few notes to carry me back to
my living room as a child, wearing my footed PJ's and bouncing up and down singing
along "You and you and you and you and YOU!!"
Thanks for the site and the memories!
(Can anyone help ID these shows?)
Sepember 8/04 from Bonnie:
First of all I have to say just like everyone else, I
love your website! When I stumbled on to it last year I was completely amazed
that I wasn't the only one who had all these great memories too. I grew up in
Alberta watching access network which I think carried TVO.
There are a couple of shows that I would really like to know about. I know the
one show is called "Magic Ring". The two children in the show would
put on a magic ring from the cookie jar and the magic ring would take them to
different places such as zoo's and constructions sites. I know the young boy
had a puppet dog and there was a robot named Matilda. Do you have any memories
from this show? Or do you know where I could get a hold of some episodes?
The second show is a little more obscure. The episodes were quite short and
they were not in english. I think they were some type of Eastern European folk
tales, I absolutley loved them. They were some what frightening because the
actors were often dressed up as animals (like the fox). If you have any ideas
about this show or any one else has these memories, I would love to hear about
it.
(Anyone?)
September 10/04 from Josh:
just wanted to say, you're like the only person who remembers
"read all about it" and gives it the credit it deserves. i was so
young watching
that show, being open minded about the ideas it put forth, i can't say enough
about it. it was such a creepy, atmospheric show, but in a good
way. just to check, did you love "dr. snuggles" or "dr. who"
or "fraggle rock?" cuz they all kicked ass. props to you my friend.
fingers crossed for re-runs.
but that french-clown-who's a bum show too? you and i
grew up together, for real. i still remember the theme song. these are all
things i bring up to reminisce with people but get zero response. i thought
i had imagined it all until now, thank you for saving me much
money in therapy.
(Between Dunedun and Sol - shrinks will be treating people of our generation for years to come!)
September 10/04 from Mike:
I was on your site, and it was like memory lane!! I instantly
remembered most of these shows. One show I could not find info on was a show
done in Britain called "The Bubblies". All I remember were these Bubble
characters and there was this female fairy-type character who would come down
from the sky on a rainbow (I think that's accurate, you'll have to excuse me
I 'haven't seen these shows in YEARS!).
I remember part of the lyrics to the opening theme going something like:
Come back
Come back
Come back to Bubbly Town.
That's all I know. Is there any way you could find out some info for me and
maybe an mp3 of the theme song?
PS You also omitted "Wilo the Wisp", but there is a site for it. http://www.willothewisp.co.uk/
(Thanks for the info not sure where the theme song would exist I am afraid!)
September 12/04 from William:
Rick, I found that your link to "MathMakers"
has expired. The replacement page is at http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf69.
Second, I am amazed you cannot find the name of the show Daniel was looking
for. He was thinking of John Robbins, who I discovered a web page about just
a few days ago. The site is http://www.lib.ecu.edu/SpclColl/Archives/pr349.html#jr
from Robbins' alma mater, East Carolina University.
John Robbins left a teaching post to become a TV producer/host at WETA, just
across the Potomac River in Arlington, VA. He explains (as you will read in
the link biography) that his magnum opus, "Cover to Cover," grew out
of a long-forgotten series titled "Exploring Our Language." The result
was the first of what I believe to be 192 Cover to Cover programs. These have
run under various headings, among them "More Books from Cover to Cover"
(1987), "Books from Cover to Cover (1988), and "Read On: Cover to
Cover" (1994). These three, plus the 1996 "Cover to Cover" series,
are available through PBS Video in Alexandria, Virginia.
Robbins took the "Cover to Cover" concept on the road after he left
WETA temporarily in the late 70s. Robbins was part of a group that would become
Children's Television International (CTI). For them he produced, wrote, drew,
and starred in "The Book Bird" (1979) and "Storybound" (1980).
As for the whereabouts of these, well, I was able to get in touch with Tim Gladfelter,
son of these two shows' executive producer and the current president of CTI.
Tim is trying to get these and other CTI shows, which he has in many other formats,
onto online videostreams.
What neither Tim nor I have yet found is the coveted Ark of "Cover to Cover"
show titles John Robbins produced from 1965 to 1975. What I remember from a
telephone conversation with a WETA rep was, the first two "Cover to Cover"
series were shot in black and white. The premise was very simple: Robbins would
introduce a book and allow a narrator to read an extract while Robbinsdraw a
scene from it, plus use about fifteen drawings from another artist. "Cover
to Cover" began color shows in 1973, when the future CTI was formed.
One other "Cover to Cover" child has been on your TVO Kids Shows Tribute
Page all along: "Readit with John Robbins." This came out in 1982,
when Robbins began his own company, the now-defunct Positive Image Productions.
But people think so little about "Readit with John Robbins." One short-sighted
PBS station decided in 1998 to begin producing book plugs under the two-word
title "Read It!" Immediately I burst out, "Now you know they
stole that [title] from a John Robbins project!"
I hope that answers Daniel's question. John Robbins was the man who introduced
and illustrated books under the titles "Cover to Cover," "The
Book Bird," "Storybound," "Readit with John Robbins,"
"More Books from Cover to Cover," "Books from Cover to Cover,"
and "Read On: Cover to Cover." Whatever I can pull up on these seven
series, I will let you know.
(William, some very solid info as always!)
September 20/04 from Steve:
I was directed to your TVO site while doing a little
research on Clive Endersby (the writer of "Read All About It"). Nice
work.
I can confirm that "Read . . ." was broadcast down here, in Georgia
USA, in the early Eighties over the Public Television System. I had a five year
old nephew who found the program fascinating (he was always transfixed by the
writing on the window) and who would always interrupt my work at the typewriter
on Friday afternoons so that he could watch "the writing show."
Now he's a deputy sheriff with his own five year old, whom, I'm sure, would
be just as mesmerized by the series as his father was if it were still being
shown in this area. My short stop at your site brought back some happy memories.
September 21/04 from Marianneke:
I was reading the feedback online, and thought I would
offer a little info for one of the questions listed.
A Sept 4 post from Sheryl asked about the show Harrigan.
From what I recall Harrigan was about a leprachaun and the theme song was his
name "H-A-Double R-I-G-A-N". She mentioned Kingston - I lived there
for a few years while in university and rumour had it (a rumour heard from a
variety of sources) was that Harrigan now owns a pizza joint in Kingston. I
also heard that he was dead and that he was mean (maybe not in that order).
Who knows if they are true or not, but it's fun to think of a leprachaun working
at the Pizza Pizza. I know this is not TVO-related, but I also heard that Wheels
from Degrassi works in a Money Mart in downtown Hamilton.
Another show I would like to see on your site: Zardip's Search For Healthy Wellness.
It was a late 80s or early 90s show I used to watch on PD Days, I recall thinking
it was pretty lousy. It featured an alien in a green tracksuit sent to earth
to research nutrition. I believe the actor that played Zardip also appeared
on Ready or Not as a member of Busy's band.
(Zardip scares me)
September 21/04 from Tyler:
I absolutely love your TVO site! Bringing back so many
great memories. Thanks so much for your work on the site.
I originally came to the site in hopes of finding info about Join In, but can't
find too much. Just wondering if you or anyone knows of a link or anything about
this show. The only things I remember (as mentioned by someone already) are
the cool phone and train, and oddly enough the fact that the carpenter wore
sandals. It's funny what we remember. I think, but am not sure, that Pamela
Sinha played the female.
(Lots of info on this show further up in the feedback)
September 22/04 from Asha:
just found your website and it's so great. My sisters
and I grew up watching these educational Canadian shows, and I remember being
scared to
death of Read All About It's computers, and The Read along house. I totally
remember Jeremy and Owl TV. Tele Francais was watched at school -
remember Ananas? I'm going to tell my friends about your site.
Thanks for putting such a lot of work into your site. What ever happened to the info on the Edison Twins?
(Edison Twins was only recently added - I will be updating it more shortly)
September 24/04 from Kathy:
Hello, I just wanted to say that I am extremely fond
of the television show, Telefrancais, which had brought us pleasure for so many
years. Watching it as a child, it sparked my first interest in speaking the
French language as an adult. My sister and I would watch it on public television
and we were reminiscing about it the other day. Unfortunately, we can't find
much information on the show on the web. Would you be able to suggest where
we may be able to look to find information on the program or perhaps even purchase
old videos of the show?
If it isn't too much to ask, my sister would love to see a picture of Ananas
, the little pineapple. Would you be able to send us a picture?
(Ananas seems to have a cult following!)
September 25/04 from Kristin:
My sister and I just remember some show they used to
make us watch at school. It was called 'Mulligan Stew' I can't remember anything
about it
other than I think that there were 4-5 kids on it. If you can remember anything
or have any info which would help me start tracking it down I would greatly
appreciate it.
(I think a few people have discussed it on the feedback sections)
September 28/04 from David:
Hi,stumbled across your web site,great site!! Hoping
you may be able to help,i'm trying to get the name of this kids show that was
on PBS in the
late 70's or early 80's,can't remember the name,driving me nuts!! All I remember
is that the opening credits had a kid riding by on a horse (I
think) through what looked like an old-west town.2nd thing I remember was one
of the segments they showed was about these 2 kids making their
own 16mm film version of Logans Run,showing them filming scenes,and how they
did some special effects,like scratching the film w/a pin,then
coloring it in w/a colored felt pen,so it would look like a laser when projected.It's
not 321-Contact,or Square-One TV,it wasn't an
education/math type show,more like Zoom.Not sure if it was Canadian in origin,may
be,but not sure.Any of this sound familiar to you?? Any
clues? Please lmk if you get any ideas about what show this might be.
(Anyone know?)
September 29/04 from Kris:
I'm one of the people who emailed you with memories over
the summer, and I have been checking in periodically to see if anything new
has
been added. I was the guy who recounted the lyrics to the Dear Aunt Agnes show
. . .
Anyway my point for writing this time was to help out
the person who couldn't remember the show about the alien who pretended to be
a child
to learn about humans.
It was called "Zardip's Search For Healthy Wellness"
- Zardip's people had sent him to Earth to learn how to be nutritious, although
I think
the show also veered into other ares too.
Zardip did indeed seem a tad androgynous, but was played
by a male named Keram Malicki-Sanchez, who went on to Play Johnny Kamden on
the
YTV show "Catwalk".
(Zardip scares me)
October 8/04 from Kristy:
I'm not sure of the dates for these shows but you might also want to include "Reading Rainbow" (the host of this show is the guy who plays Jordi on Star Trek Next Gen. and it weird to see him sans visor), "Mr. Dressup" and "The Elephant Show" I think these might have been after the time that you are focused on but I remember them well....
I don't have any info to give you about them (only that I went to school with one of the cast from the Elephant Show back in the day)...
Maybe someone can give you some info on these!
(I think there is lots of info out there on these more popular shows)
October 11/04 from Ryan:
I remeber all the shows listed on your site plus alot more...Dr Snuggles, Green Forest, Hammy the Hampster and polkadot door... just love the site!
October 11/04 from Tony:
Great looking website. Well done! Brought back memories of watching children's TV shows with my son
October 11/04 from Jason:
i cmae upone your website and was most excited when i found eureka on it. i used to watch that when i was younger and was really impressed on how much i learned from it. it's very well done and most entertaining. therefore i was wondering if you know of where i can get them on video. although, i must confess, i have not watch tvo for quite some time, i wonder if they are still on, if not i would like to have them for my children. if you could please let me know, i would forever appreciate it. Me and my kids will thank you.
(Eureka was a fantastic educational series!)
October 12/04 from Sg:
do you know any sites that has old canadian cartoon and shows? like magic ring and romona.
(I am afraid I do not)
October 13/04 from Fred:
What a pleasant surprise! I stumbled across your web
site by accident. I have very pleasant memories of this series which marked
the beginning
of my association and friendship with Denise Boiteau and David Stansfield which
has lasted through the years and numerous series. I
went on to narrate Miracle Planet, Origins, The Global Family and continued
for more than two hundred and twenty episodes with Stu
Beecroft who became one of my closest friends and collaborators. Needless to
say the late Billy van and Luba were a joy to work withh
and so many others who performed various important tasks to make TVO programs
of consistently high standards.
The Global Family series was ahead of its time and constitutes a body of work
which has transformed my life and my perception.
It is a great tragedy that it is buried in the middle of the night with no promotion
and that it has ended at a time when its messages are
sorely needed.
We are well past the eleventh hour as regards our conduct toward the natural
environment.
Thanks for you good work.
(We must all do our part for the Environment)
October 14/04 from Luis:
Hey hows it going? I can't believe I stumbled upon your
site, I was just digging around for old tv shows that I used to watch back in
the day when I
was younger like today's special and I came upon your website, Its amazing!!!!
I can't believe it...brings back so many memories and you even
have shows listed that I had watched but had completely forgot about! Those
were the good old days, Shows were shows, TV Ontario had all kinds of them
that i'll never forget about. Can't even compare the shows on tv these days...pathetic
and don't even come close. I sent the link to my sister who
remembers a lot of them as well but she's older (she's 33 and i'm 23) but she
baby sat me for years so she can relate as well, Anyways keep up the
great work,
(The shows were indeed classics!)
October 16/04 from Anonymous:
"Tell Me A Story" – 5 min. filler feat. Rex Hagon (w/ Shelley Duvall) reading from a book w/ lovely voice characterizations. (Wishing to again hear beautiful opening theme since 1983…)
"Get It Together" – basic 'make-it/craft' show
"How It's Made" – instrumental 'how' films; seen w/ and w/o bilingual credits
"Alice In Wonderland" (a.k.a. "Fushigi no kuni no Alice")
Read www.davidstringer.ca ('NOT Another Science Show', ACME Workshop, etc.)
Answers:
"Does anyone remember a show that had a guy on it dressed up in a suit of the human body?" —"The Story Of Your Body feat. Slim Goodbody", 1981 WI Educational TV.
"Do you recall a show on TVO that was done in stop-motion photography and involved a lot of characters made out of plants (i.e. "nightshade")?" — "Windfalls".
"I remember was one of the segments they showed was about these 2 kids making their own 16mm film version of Logan's Run." -nods- Try infoplease@canada.com -- may also know other stuff.
"One show I could not find info on was a show done in Britain called "The Bubblies". All I remember were these Bubble characters and there was this female fairy-type character who would come down from the sky on a rainbow" Yes, her name was Melody; also played a harp. Another character was a turtle-like creature (name long forgotten) – that spoke in musical notes. "What did he say?" usually followed – Melody always knew. "I remember part of the lyrics to the opening theme" Last lyrics: "sunny blue sky / and the wind in the trees" Opening theme in key of A-flat.
Recalled/Noticed:
Pre-1980 'Polka Dot Door' "Host Meets Polkaroo" episodes unaired after 1982.
'Gran' theme heard on TVO in key A-flat; www.themeexchange.com key = A
Passé Partout theme heard F-minor, www.themexchange.com version key = E-minor
'Polka Dot Door' episode feat. studio pianist Herbie Helbig unaired after 1985.
Chuck 'Neighbor' Aber hosted 'Polka Dot Door' while on 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'
Older 'Polka Dot Door' hosts wore plain clothes – newer (post 1996/7) wear logo shirts.
Rex Hagon seen in many different shows, c. 1980-83
All aired (c. 1984-89) 'Thomas The Tank Engine' episodes narrated by Ringo Starr
(Thanks for the info)
October 17/04 from Carol:
hi i have been searching for many years for jeremy could you please tell me where i can purchase all the episodes that was made
(I have 8 episodes, son't know if anyone out there has anymore)
October 20/04 from Justin:
hey my names justin . I'm 20 and i was wondering if you
had ever seen the show "size small " i believe the name changed to
size small country
and or island . Anyways what im getting at is i have looked every where on the
net . And i can't find any trace that it ever existed except for
imdb.com
well at the very least i would like to track down the
theme to the show or get some screen shots of the creepy guy who whore a giant
record costume and had wooden spoons that he would then tap together and sing
"tap tap tap ... tap tap tap"( yes i know it was very disturbing)
.
Im not sure if you even got it on tv back east . I live
in victoria bc so i think the only networks that would have carried it would
have been
either CBC or the knowledge network im leaning towards the CBC though .
Also do you know if the theme exchange is going to come
online again cuz i recently switched computers and i can't get the themes off
my old
one to put them on my mac . And i can't live with out those themes .
(Thanks for the info on The Theme Exchange not sure what happened to it. Size Small - I vaguely recall it)
October 25/04 from Doug:
Hey dude. This is a bookmark I'll be keeping for awhile.
Got a question...which one of those shows was it that had 'Sing This
Altogether' by the Stones as its theme? It's the first tune on 'Their Satanic
Majesties Request'. It goes "Why don't we sing this song altogether,
open our heads let the pictures come...and if we sing this song altogether than
we will se where we all come from..."
Ring a bell?
I think it was one opf those InsideOut type shows.
Also, I got some grand Billy Van & Bob Homme stories,
having phone both of them at home on separate occasions. One while I was still
in college,
the other a few years later. Got some awesome photos and memeories to last a
lifetime.
Thanks for the site. Everyone who ever stayed home sick from school between 1977 and 1985 will understand your genius. Take a bow.
(Satanic Majesties ....I am lost on that one)
October 26/04 from Design Boy:
Hi!.... I just saw your site in passing while I was trying
to research an old TVO show that a friend and I were trying to remember the
other day, we
could remember the characters in detail, but could not remember the name of
the show....here's the description from what we remember...it was a show
that had a kid with a shoe shine box (he shined shoes) that he also kept his
pet frog in it, he time traveled in an old trunk back into the early 1800's
or 1900's...I recall it was red with yellow ornamental designs on it, he always
had this adult friend he met up with who had a traveling medicine or
magic show.....see what you can come up with we're both stumped??.....many of
the old TVO shows have now become cult favorites amongst a lot of people
I know, someone I know even did a whole art show based on Jeremy the bear....I
would love if someone would release a box set or something of the
old TVO shows like Jeremy....and others like Dr. Snuggles or Barbapapa!!!...that
would awesome!!
Thanks and keep up the good work these shows are very
important to Canadian television history, I hope the program master tapes don't
end up like they
did in old days at BBC, once the series is done they get destroyed, Doctor Who
(my favorite) lost I think 120 episodes or so from the early 60's, but
now there is a broadcasting law or something they passed an that was stopped
really fast, they finally realized that they were nuts to do such a
thing!!!, and started to realize how important television programs are.
(Adventures of Timothy Pilgrim - a true gem!)
October 27/04 from Stephanie:
As a child who grew up watching TVO shows in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I can remember older shows like "Read All About It!," "Fables of the Green Forest," "Today's Special," "Parlez-Moi," "Read Along," and "Write On."
I'm wondering if people remember TVO's "Zardip's Search For Healthy Wellness," the alien boy who came to earth to learn about healthy wellness? He had one green eye and one blue eye. I've been searching for that video for a long time. It's one of my favourite shows shown in school and TVO.
I loved the Edison Twins when I was younger. They used to show it on Showcase in the early 1990s. Another great show was Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High. Too bad they don't show Degrassi Steet anymore.
Also, a great childhood YTV show was "Take Part!" with Lois Walker who made puppets. I always wanted to make a puppet like her, but never could. There was also the silent man on the bike who made things magically with things around the household. That's was so cool.
Anyway, keep up the good work on the site. I love coming back to the site to check the updates.
(A Zardip fan! I think you are a first!)
October 31 from The Coopers:
i love your site so much! so many memories. you may know this but i happened upon a site that had dvd's and vhs's of fables of the green forest, www.buyindies.com . more specifically i was at http://www.buyindies.com/listings/3/0/AIMS-3000.html . it looked like the 'good' version and was not the later version.
(Thanks for the link - the shows are a bit pricey - but for the true fan - how could you not go for it!)
November 9/04 from RR:
Many Quebec passerby may know this one...
During the familiar morning stretch of Canadian educational
programming (which consisted of Readalong, Thinkabout and other shows discussed
here), the shows
would be followed by these curious "Please Stand By"-style logo interludes:
Just a still image of "MEQ" or "Quebec School Telecasts"
in bold over a painted
background, while bizarre synth music played in the soundtrack. (I'm sure there
was something like this in Ontario too.)
Somebody must know who wrote those quirky little tunes. Anybody?
In fact, there must have been some popular collection
of stock music in the 70s/early 80s, as a peculiar set of familiar ditties would
pop up in everything from
safety films at school to late-night movie promos on CFCF-12.
Case in point: (approximation created in fruilyloops)
http://geocities.com/raff_montreal/bkground.mp3
I remember hearing this used in both Jamie And The Magic
Torch (created in the UK) and Hobbledehoy (created in Montreal). I doubt it
was written by Joe
Griffiths, who is the only music credit on Jamie; if it was, I'd love to know
how the licensing was worked out...
(Hope someone knows)
November 10/04 from Nathan:
WHOLE **** MAN! i am 23 i remeber i was very little growing up with this show i seen most of them on ur site. wow man
November 11/04 from Marianneke:
I just wanted to add some input in regards to Stephanie's
Oct 27 post.
The show "Take Part" (with Hal and Lois Walker) appeared on YTV. The
silent bike man was Markie...he had a recycling post and a really sweet theme
song that still sticks in my head ("recycle cycle, comin' down the road...").
Another awesome character on that show with a sweet theme song, Mr. Twister.
This old red-haired man that would dress in different costumes creating different
characters ("one day he's an Englishman or Vita-Man too, crazy Mr. Twister,
he's he for you!"). The rest of the show was pretty lame, but my friend
and I watched it constantly (followed Snelgrove Snail, I believe). Lois did
make some pretty cool puppets out of bleach bottles and such. There was also
this lady that would teach you how to draw - she had a weird buzzcut.
Perhaps we should have a YTV chapter on this site. They had some sweet shows
too, and I loved the PJs and Grogs (Anyone else remember Warren? Rosencrantz?).
Keep up the great site! I love reading other people's feedback - it brings back so many memories!
(PJ Jazzy Jan was the BEST!!!!!!!)
Novermber 12/04 from Nat:
My name is Natalie, and I ran across your TVO information
by looking up some old TVO shows of my youth.I was so gladdened someone actually
had these rarities, and I wasn't the only child back then who witness some of
these wonderful oddities!
I don't know if I will ever see some of these shows again.
Now, here is another question.... There was a show, about writing I believe, where kids would watch a stop-motion-animation bug talk about how to write stories and such.I do not recall his name, but I vividly recall him saying the word,' Palabrajot', over and over, because it stood for something related to the show.Do you have any idea what show this is, or if you have it?
(I seem to recall people talking about this Palabrajot show awhile ago....)
Novermber 15/04 from Stuart:
I'm a first year undergrad at the University of Guelph.
My friends and I have all been trying to remember the title of our old
favorite show, and we believe it was on TVO. From what we can remember, there
were 2 guys (one possibly named Rudy) and a girl who lived in sort of a loft
(with brick on the inside). I remember a computer/sound recording system in
one corner of the room, and the most distinctive feature was the toy train that
ran
from the inside, through a tunnel, and came out onto the balcony. They would
often put a glass of juice on the train. The specifics beyond that are fuzzy,
but I seem to remember an episode where one of the men was trying to become
a magician, and that in the opening credits the woman walked up a
fire-escape-looking stairway outside the building. If any of this makes sense
would you please tell us the title of the show. We've been trying to figure
it
out for a solid two weeks now
(Is it Join In? Anyone confirm?)
Novermber 15/04 from Bob:
Just an update to my email of Mar 2, 2004. I have finally
located a DVD copy of that great TVO series on the history of
mankind called Once Upon A Time...Man.
After an extensive internet search, I found that this item is only available
for purchase in France through Sony Music & Video Distribution. I made
my
purchase of the 6 DVD collection from Amazon.fr. I can't wait to give it to
my kids at Christmas.
I can't tell you how long I've been looking for this
televsion show! I would have never been able to locate this collection if it
weren't for this
site, in particular your response to an email of April 19th.
There you identified the name of the program - Once Upon A Time...Man (or Il
Etait une Fois...L'homme), and this started the chain of events in progress
that ultimately led to my finding and ordering the DVD's.
Thanks so much, and good luck to everyone out there trying to recapture the gems that made up the TVO programming days of our youth.
(The Power of the Internet!)
Novermber 15/04 from C.S.:
Refresh my memory please, as its driving me mad. Was this the show where the guy told the story and an older lady drew it using charcoal?
(From William: There are actually two series of that
kind: one was from CTI; the other from AIT.
CTI produced "Gather 'Round" in 1978. In it, Paul Lally told traditional
fairy tales and folk stories such as The Princess and the Pea, Brer Rabbit and
the Pied Piper. One show, featuring The Fisherman and His Wife, had Paul talking
to artist Rae Owings. She explained how she uses special chalk (too delicate
for a chalkboard) on brown wrapping paper. I have all 16 of the "Gather
'Round" shows. Still trying to get through to the son of the executive
producer.
The follow-up series was "Teletales" from 1984. AIT had that show,
courtesy of John Robbins' old production company. "Teletales" had
Rae and Paul doing more obscure folk tales, such as Fiddy Wow Wow and Caliph
Stork. Paul Lally and Rae Owings were also principals for many other John Robbins
shows, such as the eight "Cover to Cover" series, "The Book Bird,"
"Storybound," and "Readit." That should help a great deal.)
November 16/04 from Amy:
I came upon your website by doing a search at Google.com for info about the old educational program called Vegetable Soup. I suddenly had a flashback to it tonight when someone on TV looked like his hands were too big for his body. I think there were some puppets on Vegetable Soup who had very large hands. They had a spaceship shaped like a tepee and would take it up into space. I grew up in Texas and we watched this program at school occasionally (in the 80's). I remember that we really enjoyed it and the theme song was very catchy (although I can't remember who it goes now). Do you know if there are any other sites with info about this show? Thanks for putting your site together. It is very interesting!
(Not sure about this one....)
November 17/04 from Joanne:
That was a great web-site you have re children's shows
of the 1970s. It was a nice tour down memory lane. I'm trying to remember the
name of a show that I think
broadcast on Channel 11, with spooky characters. There was a witch named Griselda,
and an ogre named Igor. I think Vincent Price was even on it sometimes.
Do you remember that? My sister and I were talking about it, but couldnt' remember.
(Hilarious House of Frightenstein with Billy Van)
November 19/04 from Steven:
The webmaster has done it again not only bringing back
memories from TVO but also nostalgia from Canada's now long forgotten TV shows.
We should be
thankful that someone out there is preserving Canada's television heritage.
I was wondering if any one out there remembers the following
shows.
CTV 8 - Professor Kitzel, Uncle Bobby, The Wizard of Oz, and Pinocchio
cartoon
CHCH 11 - The Hilarious House of Frightenstein
Global 3 - Hercules, Wait Til Your Father Gets Home, and the Secret Railroad
City 57 - Rocket Robinhood
(Uncle Bobby (Ash)....ahhhh good memories)
November 20/04 from Miles:
hey there i think i found out what that show that everones
look for you know the one with the shrt guy with a long white beard well t dosent
lokk the same as i rembber it this is a cartoon verision of it but the music
sounds the same heres the link anyway .the show is Once upon a time man http://www.procidis.com/gb/debut.html
heres some more info that i could find i know it will help a lot of people who
were racking there brains to find out what this show was call hope it helps
ONCE UPON A TIME... MAN (1978-the 80s)
PRETENTIOUSLY-TITLED FRENCH oddity, aiming to encapsulate all of human history
in now-serious, now-jokey cartoon form. Educational value somewhat in doubt,
as regular characters throughout history, according to this show, included a
hyperactive monkey, an old bloke with a white beard that covered his entire
body, and a calendar with limbs and eyes... something must have been lost in
the translation. Credits, marginally more effectively, showed evolution of life
from amoebas to the destruction of earth.
(Thanks!)
November 23/04 from Molly:
I stumbled upon your website looking for the name of
a show that I used to watch when I was younger. I was born in 1986, to give
you an idea of when I
was watching TV. I was wondering if you could tell me the name of a show that
I believe was on TVO that had 2 men and one women as hosts and they all
came to a loft. The loft had a train that they used to transport food and drinks
to the balcony. If this rings any bells let me know
Thank you for your time
(I am pretty sure this is Join In)
November 24/04 from Dallas:
Your website is great. Do you have any information about the show "Dear Aunt Agnes"?
Also there was a cartoon that I used to love I think that it was on TVO and it was called "Dr. Snuggles" any info on that one?
(Check the feedback - I am sure there is lots of info on these shows)
November 26/04 from Liz:
I just happened upon your site last night, and could
not believe my eyes. I watched all those shows as a very young child. Years
later, I'm constantly
trying to remember titles, and explains plot lines, but to no avail. People
have literally looked at me like I was crazy when I tell them about what I
have recently learned was "Read All About It."
How did you gather such information about the old TVO shows, as well as those on YTV (I'm a huge fan of Camp Cariboo and the Edison Twins)?
(My memory and various people who have found this site - have aided in posting info on the content)
December 3/04 from William:
A few months ago, you printed falsely that Ronnie Burkett
is from Cleveland (see "Harriet's Magic Hats"). In fact, Burkett is
in Canada, back on the children's television circuit. The man who had played
Ralph the Parrot on the last two seasons of "Harriet's Magic Hats"
is now going to work on a new YTV series called "Mr. Ramsbottom."
Allow me to extract from a press release:
Created by Jim Goodall and developed by David Reilly (Farzzle's World, The Incredible
Voyage), the Ramsbottom team also boasts the involvement of internationally-acclaimed
director/producer/puppeteer master Ronnie Burkett. Best known for his stage
shows Tinka's New Dress, Street of Blood and Happy, he is world-reknowned for
his ability to make and manipulate marionettes with an eerie sense of life likeness.
Ronnie Burkett's unique character designs and construction will breathe life
into the strings of the cast of Mr. Ramsbottom.
The complete press release is available from http://www.radsheep.com/ramspress.html
So clear up, if you may, the misnomer about Ronnie Burkett being a Clevelander.
and
Tell Amy there is a Vegetable Soup gallery on the Web,
with a lot of images that can't be right-clicked. It is called http://www.artstomp.com/vsgallery.html
BTW: here are the lyrics to the theme, cutting down on the redundant stuff:
Come on along and join us
Come on along
We're gonna have some fun
Come on along and join us
In a little bowl of Vegetable Soup
It takes all kinds of vegetables
All kinds of vegetables
All kinds of vegetables
To make a Vegetable Soup
(Thanks as always for your valuable input William!)
December 5/04 from Alex:
You guys are doing a great job on your site.
I moved to Florida back in 1986 but born and raised in Toronto and it was like
a trip down memory lane with your site. I was born in '72 so it's right up my
alley.
I had forgotten some shows even!
December 5/04 from Chris:
I also remember a few other canadian tv kid's shows.
They were: pencil box, homemade television, starlost and nic/pic. We used to
love these shows when we were kids.
You have a good list, although I only remember a few of them.
(Homemade Television sounds interesting....)
December 6/04 from Travis:
i came across the tvo website where people were talking about shows they had loved so much from early years and i was wondering if you can send me any pictures you have from telefrancias especially any of ananas.
(Sent and also some of him included earlier in the feedback)
December 6/04 from Irene:
I came across your website in my quest to find old episodes of "Jeremy the Bear", an old TVO series. I think that your website is fantastic!!
December 7/04 from Monica:
I am absolutely facinated by the shows on your site. I was wondering what ever happened to them and you have helped me find them It all started when I thought about You Can't Do That On Television, I know tht is YTV not TVO, but then it got me thinking about Telefrancais and Read All About It and Dr. Who. I am trying to find out if the show Music Box, is the name of the show I am trying to figure out in my head. If you have any pics from the show, it would be greatly appreciated if you could send them my way. Once again, what a site, you are amazing for bringing back such happy and nostalgic memories. Keep up the amazing investigative work on these wonderful shows.
(Pics of Music Box sent - enjoy!)
December 8/04 from David:
Sorry for the unsolicited email, but I noticed something on your site that interests me.
I grew up in the 70's watching many of the TVO kids shows
you list on your site. It kinda frightens me
that I can recall the TVO postal code from memory, M4T 2T1. And Boot from Readalong
used to scare the crap out of me! It's really too bad that childrens
programming isn't what it used to be. :)
One show stands out in particular; Bits and Bytes. That
show is the biggest reason I got into computers in the first place. I was 10
when it first aired and I
got my first computer before the series finished. Sinclair ZX80, and I still
have it!
I attempted to locate a dub of the series a few years
ago through TVOntario but they said the masters had been destroyed! I couldn't
believe my ears! Then
Billy Van died which made this even more tragic.
(TVO is not very helpful in tracking down any of these classic series)
December 8/04 from Leanne:
oh my god...i love your site. thank you so much for maintaining
it.
i'm 28 years old and, as i sat here looking through the old shows, i started
to cry with this huge stupid smile on my face...
i watched report canada, loved fables of the green forest and obsessed over
cucumber. i still have a badge.
anyway, i remember Just Like Mom. My friend was on the show and I, in the audience...with
my stupid cabbage patch kid doll.
i can totally help you with that...the grand prize of a trip to Camp Onandoga
and the horrible bake-offs.
again, thank you so, so, so much for creating this site...allows me to go back
to when i was young and innocent as opposed to being old and bitter..hahah
(Camp Onandoga - how I wish I could go there)
December 9/04 from Lisa:
What about Aunt Agnes?
(Search the feedback for now - until I can get my hands of some video, I am afraid that's all I can provide)
December 9/04 from Ken:
Amazing site! I've just re-discovered it.
I'm so glad someone out there is doing something like this. I've just made your site my default homepage.
I'll try to help whenever I can!
(Always appreciate input from people like you)
December 10/04 from Ilana:
We are trying to track down footage from Kidsworld programs. Any idea when the show ran and if there is anything info on the web about it?
(Kidsworld almost seems like it didn't exist - impossible to find and info out there on it)
December 10/04 from Chris:
Thank you for your excellent website. It really is a
dream come true for me and my friends, all of whom grew up watching those insane
programs. You have done the world a great service.
I can provide a little more info about Vision On. It was produced for deaf children,
that is why there was almost no talking in the show, just visuals and incredible
music. When they would introduce parts of the show, they would sign the announcement
simultaneously. There was a section called The Gallery, where kids would send
in artwork which would be shown in slow, lingering closeups, always set to the
same wonderful jazz theme played on vibraphone.
Another recurring segment was - Tony Hart would make a giant-size piece of art
in the middle of a concrete playing field or something, using a machine like
the ones they use to put the lines in the road. First they would show him drawing
out the lines, pushing this cart/machine, then it would cut to a topshot to
show you the whole picture of what he was drawing.
In addition to Write On, there were two other 5-minute shows on TVO - one consisting
entirely of closeups of Canadian stamps, and one profiling various animal species
("The Woodchuck" etc - it had an incredibly memorable themesong too).
Do you happen to remember anything about a 1970s CBC kids show called Homemade
Television? It had these crazy songs, comedy skits, fake commercials... shot
on video, very low budget-looking, but funny.
(Another Homemade Television fan - strange....)
December 11/04 from Jay:
Well I decided to check on your website, it's coming
along quite nicely! One show I don't think I have found on your site that aired
on TVO for a few years was called Bookmice. I think most of the episodes were
produced in 1989, and it was about 3 mice that lived in a vent inside a library
in Toronto. The librarian always wanted the mice to hide whenever there were
patrons in the library. Outside shots of the library always include a TTC Keele
streetcar driving by.
I also couldn't help but notice Camp Cariboo on your site. That was a good show.
They had a little song in the show where the two hosts would sing "I've
got a head like a ping-pong ball" three times, then "ping, like a
ping-pong ball". I saw this show on YTV in the late 90s, when it was broadcast
at 12:30 PM, and surprisingly had quite a following at my elementary school
- everyone knew the ping-pong ball song. It seems to me from the credits in
the show that at least the outdoor parts of it were produced at a campground
near Guelph, Ontario.
If you want I have a clip of CKCO's 50th anniversary special "50 Great
Years: A CKCO Celebration" broadcast on 3 April 2004 that has this song
in it. Also some clips of some of CKCO's other great locally produced shows
in the 70s and 80s. I miss the days when CKCO was a real local station.
(Camp Cariboo was strange, yet fun!)
December 14/04 from Jesse:
Hi there - I sent my friend your website, I was so impressed
with it and was happy to know he wrote you about it and got a
reply. I was so happy to find your site. I love the net. I look for these sorts
of things sometimes, just to see if it's out there, and it is.
How did you (or your friend, rather) have the foresight
to tape all this stuff? Do you guys have a man on the inside at TVO or were
these
just grabbed off the airwaves? I was talking to someone who works over there
as to why they don't rerun this stuff (like late at night, the
way the Noggin channel in the states runs old 'Sesame Street' and 'Electric
Company' episodes) and he says no one feels strongly enough
about their old programming to re-air it - maybe their hands are tied in terms
of their educational mandate, or maybe they're slightly
embarrassed about it all now. I wish I knew someone over there who could be
lobbied.
A side note - I was obsessed with the show 'Guess What?'
with Jan Rubes when I was a kid, and a few years ago I was in Montreal vinyl
hunting
and I found a shrink-wrapped copy of the soundtrack to the show for 49 cents,
complete with the old OECA logo. Maybe I can scan you the cover
art or something to help with your inventory of info.
I run a screening series called Telekino and I would
drool at the prospect of showing a few of these old shows to the public one
evening.
Someone can let me know if interested. Here's my website - www.telekinoworld.com
- soon to be updated.
In February I'm having a screening of a compilation of
strange moments from infomercials I've taped over the years, at the Royal theatre
in
Toronto. Maybe you might be interested.
Anyway thank you so much for your fine work - I've sent the site around to friends.
(Please send the scan of the vinyl)
Dec 14/04 from James:
I just found you website... thanks so much for putting that together... really good stuff man...
Where's "Today's Special"? ... or is that too late?
What about "Secret Railroad" or whatever it was called with the chick with the star head.
www.canarymine.com and www.wackmcs.com is what I do
(Today's Special was a bit after my time....)
December 16/04 from Emily:
Did you know the show "High Feather"? It was
on PBS and NBC in the 70's...an educational show for kids? Dying to find copies
of it as I was in
it!!
(I have added pictures onto the webpage)
December 17/04 from Jennifer:
I can not thank you enough for creating your tvo web
page. What a wonderful and worth while way to spend
your time. As a child of the 80's I absolutely love all the shows that are on
the web page. One other one
that my sister and I really loved was Dr. Snuggles. He was on Wednedsays but
sometimes was preempted by
the Green Forest which I also loved. I am so happy that you are doing this page.
Keep up the great work!
One other show that aired on TVO (it was a Christmas
special actually) was called the little match stick
girl. It was a claymation movie and I have been desperately trying to find some
info or a copy of it
somewhere. Do you know anything about this show? I would appreciate any info
you may have.
(Can anyone help?)
December 20/04 from Lily:
was absolutely thrilled to find your site--thank you!
Since I had my first baby a few months ago, the theme songs to many of these
TVO shows have automatically popped up into my daily playtime with him-- I often
find myself singing the theme to Jeremy to my 10-month-old and especially the
theme to that show, GUESS WHAT? I can honestly say I have never been able to
find anyone that actually remembers that show! Here's what I remember of Jan's
nonsensical (but obviously memorable) tune....
Hop lopa diggy dum
Diggy-diggy doo,
Here is a question just for you
(more nonsense)
Guess what? (two beats)
Guess what? (two beats)
Guess what? Pa pa pa pa pa pa-pum
Paaaaaaaaa-RRRRUM!
I also have a distinct memory of a Halloween episode where Jan dresses up as
a headless man carrying his own head. I remember thinking...what a great idea!
I have two questions...was he in a cabin or an attic loft?and whatever became
of that distinguished actor?
(I have added the theme song to the webpage. Not sure what he lived in)
Dec 21/04 from Richard:
I was wondering if you could help me, I am looking for
the name of a show that use to be on after school. All I remember about it is
the show took place in a tv network enviroment, and if the kids said the word
no they would be slimed. Also it was full of short skits, and at the end on
the show it was knock knock jokes in lockers.
a co-worker and myself were talking about it the other day, and it is driving
me nuts not knowing the name of it. I believe it aired late seventies or early
eighties.
Any hhelp would be appreciated, thank you.
(You Can't Do That on Television)
Dec 22/04 from Dylan:
First let me tell you what a THRILL it was for me to
have found your TV Ontario website (through ask.com) and to see the contents
displayed in such a thoughtful manner. Since going online in mid nineties I
have been looking for information on the shows I saw as a child circa 1981-1984
in public grade school via KET (Kentucky Educational Television), to no success
until this morning.
First is a show about a pre teen girl with blonde hair, pigtails, overalls,
and a backpack who is lost in a giant museum and can't find either her school
group or her parents. She keeps going back to a central location where a machine
of some sort (?) gives her a clue on a piece of paper (?) that directs her to
a museum exhibit where she and the viewer learn about "the symphony"
or whatever. I think her name was "Penny", but maybe that's because
she looks like the claymation "Penny" with penny-eyes on Pee-Wee's
Playhouse which aired on CBS in the late 80's. Another show is "About Safety"
with the marionette "Clyde the Safety Frog" in the starring role.
The music was sort of Sesame Street-ish and the opening montage had him falling
off of a bicycle and falling off of a stack of books and chairs he was using
to reach something on a shelf. The "Halloween Safety" episode sticks
out in my mind. Come to think of it, you've probably had requests for "About
Safety" already, considering the character of "Clyde Frog" has
been referenced on Comedy Central's "South Park." Another show I think
you left out was either a special or a series where a puppet with a beard and
sunglasses (?) in a dark basement (?) dressed up like a pilgrim and another
puppet keeps coming in and out. This program was about Thanksgiving obviously.
Yet another program was "Zoo Zoo Zoo" which was basically an animal
program shot at a big zoo somewhere (USA?) with primarily voiceovers. Finally,
there was a show about grammar and punctuation about a bookworm-ish green, spectacled
bug character that interacted with people in libraries and so on. I recall that
the end of each episode had the bug asleep in front of a TV late at night as
the broadcast day is ending and the national anthem (?) is playing. This may
not have been TVO but it definitely fits in to the time period and production
values. Finally, I remember a math-oriented program that you may have posted
but I'm not sure if what I'm thinking of applies. Three things stick out in
my mind: a weird sci-fi orange lit up room with teenagers lounging around talking
about math; a child sitting at a kitchen table working out things on a calculator
as an adult supervises (I know, RANDOM); and finally a reoccuring character,
male 40s-50s with white hair and a younger woman running up and down stairs
against a black screen (not blue screen, but the same effect) calling out for
each other because they are lost. I'm pretty sure the last scenario took place
in a haunted house but of course TVO couldn't spring for the set so they shot
them against a black screen, besides it was supposed to be about math, right?
I would like to know if "Read It with John Robbins" is the show where
the narrator is the illustrator as well. I saw a couple of synopses you wrote
where they were two different people and I recall a program where the illustrator
and narrator were one and the same. In addition, I have some information about
"The Body Works" that you left out, or that I'm just wrong about,
regarding the inclusion of an animated hippopotamus. From what I remember one
or two people in animal costumes would come out and do excersises with the children.
I also remember the music as funky and bass-driven, denoting the time period
of taping.
Speaking of taping, I desperately would like copies of some of the shows you
have, if only a sampler tape of the shows I remember. For trade, other than
a bunch of rare episodes of the 50's Richard Greene "Robin Hood" program,
and the '74 TVM "Bad Ronald" I don't know if I have anything you would
want as far as video is concerned. I do have a couple of "Slim Goodbody"
records from the early 80s in pristine condition that I could put on CD and
provide the scans of the artwork for you if you were interested.
If any of this information is helpful, or absolutely incorrect, please let me
know, and thank you again for, through your TVO website, providing me with an
invaluable textual and pictoral link to a childhood spent far too long in front
of a television set.
(I hope someone out there knows the shows you speak of - they all sound most interesting, but I can't say I've ver heard of them)
Dec 22/04 from Suzi:
Just though you'd like to know, Marc Favreau is still
around and he is still playing Sol! Mr. Favreau has a french language stand-up
comedy act where he
plays Sol, and he tours around Canada (though mostly in Quebec). A book was
also released that had the best of Sol's monologues.
Anyway, thanks for your web page. Even though I was born
in the 70's, many of these shows were still running in the 80's when I grew
up. You've brought
back a lot of memories, as well as answered a few puzzling questions.
I came to your web site was to try to determine the true
orgins "Fables of the Green Forest". I dida little searching with
the Japanese name "Yama nezumi Rokkiy Chakku", and I
think it can be safely concluded that the show is indeed an anime from Japan.
See for yourself: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408436/ and http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/cartoon.cgi?film=67547
(Sol, though scary at times, was quite interesting. I always thought Green Forest was European)
December 25/04 from Steven:
Hi... I was on your site, hoping you would have the Telefrancais theme posted. you didnt, so I was hoping that if you had it, you would send it to me. Do you have it? if so, can you send it to me? thanks.
(I will work on getting the theme)
December 29/04 from Heather:
Hello! I love your site, and I was just wondering if
you (or anyone) remembers the first "Dudley the Dragon" show, which
was a special all about
conserving evergy. A greedy prince was using Dudley for his "dragon power",
and a princess helped him escape. It was a short movie put out by the
provincial energy conservation people (Or whatever it's called), and there were
songs and all sorts of puppets and actors.
I know the new shows still have the same character of
Dudley the Dragon, but this show would have been put out in the early 80s, well
before the newer
series of "the adventures of Dudley the Dragon". Do you remember this
special?
(He vaguely sounds familiar)
December 29/04 from Wendy:
It is so Wonderful to have a website that is available for Canadian Television Shows that no longer air, I was browsing through and saw some pictures of televison shows that were just mind boggling, shows that I remember watching when I was 5 years old. If possible, could u please let me know if any of these shows are available on DVD, I'm also looking for one called Dear Aunt Agnes.
(No Aunt Agnes exists, much like every other classic TVO show - but many people have mentioned how much they like the show)
December 31/04 from Nicole:
My first time at your website....I was looking for info on Vegetable Soup. I call the puppets were almost creepy...and their space craft looked dangerous to travel in :)
(Vegetable Soup is in the PBS/AIT sention - it was
recently added, thanks for checking it out)
<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>