Polka Dot Door

I see a number of commentors over the year have felt the need to lambaste this perfectly innocent program. The central themes were about playing fair and making believe, and if it seems to be a simple premise, I'd like to hear where a sophisticated premise was used for a children's show that succeeded. The age group this show was created for was essentially preschool to kindergarten, and managed to coexist with the likes of Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street for decades, so it couldn't have been that gawdawful.

I seem to remember the show was a sweetly naive little half hour of kindergarten teacher types directing 'children' who were really toys how to behave together. This may regarded as insidious socialization, but it was created and ran through the very liberal 70s, so that claim is paranoid anti-government nonsense.

As for this show having no child actors, the toys made perfect surrogates, both because they were portrayed as childlike and because they reinforced the notion of abstraction necessary to allow children to see themselves in the same position. That level of abstraction was a necessary ingredient to instructing children to use their imagination.

As well, shows that primarily feature children often ran afoul of one of two problems with child stars: amateurs and professionals. The amateurs couldn't be relied upon to react properly to the puppets and toys, and the professionals come off so rehearsed and plastic as to be offensively unbelievable.

In the end, it's an argument over which philosophy for child education yields the best results. Personally, I don't think children's shows have been improved upon appreciably since the 70s, when at least diversity and imagination were openly encouraged, and the moral lessons were delivered a little more clearly without the obsequious and nauseating touchy feelie performances modern children's shows tend to use in lieu of actually explaining things to children. The assumption that children cannot or should not be told anything not relevant to playing in the schoolyard is utter nonsense.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer that The Polka Dot Door was actually a wonderful preschool children's show which hasn't been improved on by the likes of The Teletubbies.

This show was great, maybe someone can't appreciate it because they're used to nonstop crap being pummeled at them through their countries shows. I found this site searching for the seasons to buy, for my 3 kids. This show made kids use their minds and imaginations as opposed to most of the cartoon or mind numbing shows that are on now. And it was from Canada - but how can it compare with jewels like KFed and Brit from your great country, I guess. Loved this show when I was a kid, I know lots of other people did too. I wish I could find some toys and memorabilia to buy, all of the shows that were on when I was little were so much better than the majority of stuff now.

The show was hosted by two, dreary Ontario civil servants and a series of stuffed animals who neither moved nor spoke -- and yet played the starring roles. Much like the Ontario government.

Polka Dot Door, like other Ontario government shows such as the Math Patrol, Body Works or Sol, had that unmistakably bland 'do-as-we-say, is-good-for-you-no-questions' taint to it. But in a smiling, artless, stir-up-no-trouble-children way. The Canadian way.

The hosts never lasted long in their jobs. This timid little children's show would chew them up at an alarming rate.

Events in each episode were scheduled to the second, like the unionized ministry office TVO is. Our hosts would dutifully read children's stories at an exact time, monitored by a monolithic clock at centre stage. Each day had a different 'theme' and the hosts were forced to march in a small circle, often holding one of the stuffed animals, chanting inspirational songs about the day's theme. Like characters out of a Kafka tale, our civil servants would never leave the pink room or their slavery to the clock and woud babble incoherently about the polka dot door and the world beyond, glimpsed in short filmed sequences where the outside was shown (usually a shoe factory or a farm).

Periodically, everyone would hallucinate an apparition named 'Polkaroo.' Polkaroo would do mischieveous things like flip up Marigold's skirt, take a crap in the bookcase or hide his stash in Dumpty's pants.

Incidentally, I saw Dennis (one of the longer-running hosts) in a production of Godspell playing John the Baptist. He was pretty good.

The people who dislike the Polkaroo (and/or the show in general) haven't a clue what they are talking about. I watched this show all the time as a child, and my unbelievable memory is even today still capable of pulling up a memory of seeing the Polkaroo on stage when I was only 1 or 2 years old. I was being extremely annoying that day, wanting to be moved CONSTANTLY, either because of restlessness or because the Polkaroo was constantly escaping my limited field of vision. But I digress. Even though I am having trouble finding reruns of it on TV, and I must resort to watching YouTube clips permanently downloaded on my computer, they are enough to drown me in childhood memories and also memories of that silly Polkaroo. I am 18 going on 19 in February 2010, and also I am autistic, but this show was the GREATEST kids' show EVER MADE. LONG LIVE POLKA DOT DOOR AND THE "POLKAROO!"

Back in the days when budgets were spent on good writing and not special effects, Polka Dot Door was produced by TV Ontario and was a children's television series that aired 5 days a week in ½ hour episodes. It ran from 1971 – 1993. Polka Dot Door is a fun interactive kids show that features three main stuffed animals, Marigold, Humpty and Dumpty and Bear. The hosts would interact with these stuffies to teach children fun facts and even advocate for each stuffy by providing a voice to make them come alive. Another main attraction of Polka Dot Door is Polkaroo, an elusive kangaroo that would only appear to one of the two hosts of the episode and then the other host would be dismayed that he or she missed Polkaroo again. Children simply love Polkaroo with his colourful spots and he would always be so cute saying Polkaroo, Polkaroo, and would came out every so often so there was anticipation building up to see when Polkaroo would pop in.

There would be different themes for each day of the week for each episode. Monday would be Treasure Day, Tuesday was Dress-Up Day, Wednesday was Animal Day, Thursday was Imagination Day and Friday was Finding-Out Day. The series is fun and interactive, and encourages children's imaginations while including a social aspect by taking them through the Polka Dot Door and into the real world. Cast includes Cindy Cook (host), Jim Codrington (host), Gloria Reuben (host) and Alex Laurier (Host). This is a must-see children's series and inspires creativity and imagination.