''The Magic Door'' (also known as ''The Magic Door Television Theatre'') was a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

educational television series, aimed at providing

kiruv Orthodox Jewish outreach, often referred to as ''Kiruv'' or ''Qiruv'' ( he, קירוב "bringing close"), is the collective work or movement of Orthodox Judaism that reaches out to non-observant Jews to encourage belief in God and life accord ...

(outreach) to Jewish children in the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

metropolitan area but intended to appeal to all children in the 5-to-9-age group.The Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal: "The Magic Door" TV Show, a part of Chicagoland's Sunday Morning Programming
/ref>Chicago Tribune: Magic Door Stresses Morals Found in Bible Stories (July 25, 1964)
/ref> The show was produced by the Chicago Board of Rabbis, and premiered January 1, 1962. The show ran weekly until January 1, 1982. It aired at 9:00 AM every Sunday on

WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Stre ...

. There were two main theme songs for ''The Magic Door''. The first, "A Room Zoom Zoom", was based on the children's song "

A Ram Sam Sam "A Ram Sam Sam (A rum sum sum)" is a popular Moroccan children's song and game, that gained popularity around the world, other variants were used like "Aram" instead of "A Ram" and "Zam Zam" instead of "Sam Sam". Lyrics, movements and meaning ...

". The second, written by Charles Gerber, was set to a melody from Beethoven's "Pastorale" Symphony No. 6: The main characters of the series included "Tiny Tov" (an actor reduced via

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

to appear as a kind of

elf An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

) and his cousin "Tina Tova". Tiny lived in a house that was made out of an

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...

; the entrance was the Magic Door. Before entering the Magic Door to reach the town of Torahville, Tiny would sing a tune with the lyrics, In addition to Tiny and Tina, there were

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...

characters, including Bubbe Beaver, Icky

Witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...

, Rabbi and Mrs. Moreh, Max the Mailbox, Rumplemyer

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

, Bunny

Rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

, Buddy, Worthington

Warlock A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft. Etymology and terminology The most commonly accepted etymology derives ''warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver" and was given special applicatio ...

, and many others. In the early days of the series, Tiny Tov would travel back through time riding his Magic Feather. Later on the program evolved into presenting

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...

topics. There would be a "

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Word of the Day" that related to whatever values were being taught. Each week, Tiny Tov would educate Jewish children on

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...

, sharing stories from

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

and

Jewish tradition Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

. Every episode would include a brief

lesson, stepping through the

Aleph-Bet The Hebrew alphabet ( he, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewis ...

(Hebrew alphabet). The characters of Tiny Tov and his cousin Tina Tova were created by Irv Kaplan, who later moved to Israel and was instrumental in the creation of

Israeli Educational Television The Israeli Educational Television (also known as IETV, he, הטלוויזיה החינוכית הישראלית, ''HaŦelevizia HaKhinuchít HaIsraelit'' or just ''חינוכית'' - ''Hinuchit'') was a state-owned public terrestrial televisio ...

. There were four Tiny Tov actors in all. At the show's start, Irv Kaplan played the role.Museum of Broadcast Communications: Chicago Tribune TV Week (July 25, 1964)
/ref> From 1970 to 1973, Tiny Tov was portrayed by Emmy-nominated actor Jerry (Jerome) Loeb. The second player was Charles Gerber, who also created the song lyrics. Rabbi Joe Black was the last Tiny Tov. Tina Tova was played by Fran (Uditsky) Moss. The first puppeteer was Helen Cirkle. Another outreach children's program of the same name was produced and aired by WMAL-TV (now

WJLA WJLA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (alongside dual Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF hannel 45in Baltimore), and is also sister to ...

) in Washington, D.C. from 1969 to 1976, though it has no connection other than the name. In the 1980s, a follow-up series was produced, ''

Beyond the Magic Door ''The Magic Door'' (also known as ''The Magic Door Television Theatre'') was a Jewish educational television series, aimed at providing kiruv (outreach) to Jewish children in the Chicago metropolitan area but intended to appeal to all children i ...

''. Actor

Dan Castellaneta Daniel Louis Castellaneta (; born October 29, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series ''The Simpsons'' (as well as other characters on the show such as Abraham "Grampa" ...

(the voice of

Homer Simpson Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared, along with the rest of his family, in ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' short "G ...

and other characters on ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'' television series) was a semi-regular performer on ''The Magic Door'' and its spinoff, ''

'', from 1981 until 1984.Dan Castellaneta on characters he developed on ''The Magic Door'' at WBBM
/ref>

Beyond the Magic Door

''Beyond The Magic Door'' was a children's

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

show on

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in the early 1980s. The show was a sequel of sorts to the earlier program '' The Magic Door Television Theatre''. The theme song began with the following lyrics: Rusty Steiger acted as the main puppeteer. Ken Raabe acted as a puppeteer. One of his characters included J. P. Potter, a disembodied hand wielding a cigar. David C. Waite was an ensemble cast member.

briefly played the role of Detective Farblonget, which was taken over by John Szostek. In 1984 ''Beyond The Magic Door'' won an Emmy Award in the category: Series for Children's Programming. Winning Station: WBBMTV, Mindy Soble, Producer; Allen Stecher, Producer.

References

External links

* * ** {{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Door Jews and Judaism in Chicago Jewish outreach Television series about Jews and Judaism 1962 American television series debuts 1982 American television series endings 1960s American children's television series 1970s American children's television series 1980s American children's television series Local children's television programming in the United States American television shows featuring puppetry Religious educational television series Chicago television shows American children's education television series