''Join In!'' was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

educational children's

television show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

which aired on

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

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

Alliance for Children and Television Quality television (also quality TV or quality artistic television) is a term used by television scholars, television critics, and broadcasting advocacy groups to describe a genre or style of television programming that they argue is of higher qua ...

'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 television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States ...

for Best Pre-school Program. Every program 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 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. From the 16th cen ...

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

Lindsay, Ontario Lindsay is a community of 22 367 people (2021 Canadian Census, 2021 census) on the Scugog River in the Kawartha Lakes (Ontario), Kawartha Lakes region of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately west of Peterborough, Ontario, Peterboro ...

. In the United States, ''Join In!'' aired on the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network from 1990 to 1993 and

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 As ...

's Ready Set Learn block from 1992 to 1995.

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

* Zack - Marty Brier * Nikki - Pamela Sinha * Jacob Bennett - Rudy Webb * Kia - Mishu Vellani * Winston (voice) - Rob Cowan * Emmelina (voice) -

Maxine Miller Maxine Miller (born June 18, 1928) is a Canadian actress who appeared in the first three seasons of ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''. In the 1980s, she voiced True Heart Bear in '' The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation'' (1986) and appeared ...

* Abra (voice) - Billy Van

Crew

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

References

External links

''Join In!''
on the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

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 Canadian preschool education television series Canadian television shows featuring puppetry {{Canada-kids-tv-prog-stub