Polka Dot Door
Polka Dot Door was a
children's television series produced and broadcast by
TVOntario from
1971 until
1993. The music was played, written, and directed by Canadian pianist John Arpin.
The show, which aired Monday to Friday, was set in a large playhouse. Each episode had two human hosts, always one man and one woman, although there were many different human hosts over the course of the series. The same pair would host the show for a week; the next week would bring a new pair of hosts.
The hosts would lead children in songs and stories, and interact with stuffed animal characters Humpty, Dumpty, Marigold and Bear. They would often peer through the Polka Dot Door to witness a video of some sort, showing, for instance, how
crayons are made. They would also visit Storytime Mouse, who would emerge from a tall clock to help the hosts tell the time. Oftentimes the show would feature the music director John Arpin as well as musicians such as
Peter Appleyard and
Henry Cuesta for a round of songs.
Hosts of
Polka Dot Door included
Denis Simpson,
Gloria Reuben,
Tonya Lee Williams,
Taborah Johnson,
Cindy Cook,
Catherine Bruhier,
Rex Hagon,
Johnie Chase,
Nerene Virgin and
Nina Keogh. In the show's first decade the most frequent host was
Alex Laurier.
Each day's episode had a particular theme. On "Imagination Day", the character Polkaroo appeared. The actor playing Polkaroo donned a tall, green plush costume that resembled a
kangaroo. In its mended, yellow and multi-coloured polka-dot
muumuu, the creature never spoke other than the occasional exclamation of its own name. Polkaroo appeared only to one host while the other was away, performing a
pantomime whose meaning was guessed by the audience. The missing host would return upon Polkaroo's departure, habitually exclaiming, "Aw, I missed him again." (Although there is a common belief that the absent host was
in the Polkaroo costume, this has never been confirmed by anyone associated with the show.)
Because of the
irony laden in this sentence, Polkaroo has become something of a cultural icon to the generation raised on
Polka Dot Door, and the
catchphrase "Aw, I missed him again" may often be employed for humorous effect.
Polkaroo generally appeared once a week in the show's early years, although due to the character's popularity he began appearing more frequently toward the end of the show's run. In the late
1990s, TVOntario capitalized on the success of Polkaroo by placing him and the other animal characters in a new series,
Polka Dot Shorts.
* The '80s Canadian sketch-comedy show
Smith & Smith, starring real-life husband and wife team
Steve and
Morag Smith, used to parody the
Polka Dot Door with a reoccurring sketch called "The Kids Show", with male and female hosts who loathed each other and bickered their way through the sketch. The sketches also featured the "Jerkaroo", played by Steve Smith with a paper bag over his head.
* A Canadian sketch type educational TV show called
Bod TV, which focuses on nutrition education and is also produced by
TV Ontario, has a parody of Polka Dot Door called
Polka Dot House as one of its sketches. The sketch plays as a combination of the TV show with reality TV show
Big Brother. In it, one of the hosts gets tired of Bear repeatedly making honey sandwiches for everyone day in day out, and schemes with Marigold to get Bear out of the kitchen so she can prepare a meal that provides a more balanced diet.
* The series also aired on
PBS stations in the
USA between
1982 and
1988.
*
TVO theme songs
