''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 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. 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". 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 to appear as a kind of elf) 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 Yiddish words used in the English language include both words that have been assimilated into Englishused by both Yiddish and English speakersand many that have not. An English sentence that uses either may be described by some as Yinglish (or H ...

Beaver, Icky Witch, 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, 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 Word of the Day" that related to whatever values were being taught. Each week, Tiny Tov would educate Jewish children on Jewish history, sharing stories from Torah and Jewish tradition. Every episode would include a brief Hebrew lesson, stepping through the Aleph-Bet (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. 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) 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''. Actor Dan Castellaneta (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'' television series) was a semi-regular performer on ''The Magic Door'' and its spinoff, '' Beyond the Magic Door'', 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 show on WBBM-TV in Chicago, Illinois 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. Dan Castellaneta 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.

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* * ** {{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