''Join In!'' was a Canadian educational children's television show which aired on

TVOntario TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...

between 1989 and 1995. It was created and produced by Jed MacKay, who also wrote all of the show's original songs.

Premise

Each episode had a number of elements woven into the plot line that invited its audience to "Join In!"; in games, songs, puzzles, or stories. The cast also broke the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

, talking to the camera, and thus the audience, as if they were right there on set. The songs broke away from the usual children's format, offering a wide variety of rhythm and styles. The cast also sang live on each show.

Characters

The series revolved around three adults named Jacob Bennett, Nikki, and Zack, who shared a studio loft together. After the second season, Nikki moved away and was replaced by Kia. In a typical episode, the three would be planning for some kind of play or production that would usually involve Nikki being in charge of music and sound, and Jacob and Zack would be in charge of the set, lighting, costumes, etc. when some form of problem would arise. The show also featured a toy wizard named Winston, his wife Emmelina, and their dog Abra, who lived on a windowsill in the loft.

Cast

* Marty Brier as Zack * Rudy Webb as Jacob Bennett * Pamela Sinha as Nikki (season 1) * Mishu Vellani as Kia (season 2-6) * Rob Cowan as Winston (voice), a toy wizard living on the trio's windowsill. * Maxine Miller as Emmelina (voice), a toy and Winston's wife. * Billy Van as Abra (voice), Winston and Emmelina's toy dog.

Crew

* Producer - Jed MacKay * Directors - Wayne Moss, Doug Williams * Composer - Jed MacKay * Music Director - Bruce Ley

Production

The show was filmed in

Lindsay, Ontario Lindsay is a community of 22,367 people ( 2021 census) on the Scugog River in the Kawartha Lakes region of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately west of Peterborough. It is located in the City of Kawartha Lakes, and is the hub for ...

. The first two seasons were directed by Doug Williams, and the next four by Wayne Moss. The cast was multi-racial, with two "minority" cast members.

Broadcast

''Join In!'' originally aired in Canada on

, and was sold for U.S. broadcast to the

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

network in October 1992 along with fellow production '' Bookmice''. Airing after the latter, it was the second series on TLC's preschool block, ''

Ready Set Learn! ''Ready Set Learn!'' is a defunct American television block broadcast from late 1992 until 2010 across the Discovery Communications-owned TLC and Discovery Kids networks. A cable competitor to PBS Kids, PBS's children's offerings, it broadcast t ...

'', on December 28. Previously, ''Join In!'' had aired on the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network from 1990 to 1993.

Reception

The series won the Alliance for Children and Television's Best Pre-school Program Award, and was also a finalist three times for the

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's English-language television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in t ...

for Best Pre-school Program.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0456101 TVO original programming 1989 Canadian television series debuts 1995 Canadian television series endings 1980s Canadian children's television series 1990s Canadian children's television series 1980s preschool education television series 1990s preschool education television series Canadian preschool education television series Canadian television shows featuring puppetry