''Puttnam's Prairie Emporium'' was a half-hour

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

which aired for two seasons, from 1988 to 1990, on CTV before being syndicated on YTV. The series was created and produced by Bruce Edwards, and a total of 51 episodes were taped at

CKCK-TV CKCK-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Eastgate Drive and Hig ...

in Regina,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, Canada, beginning in 1988. The series was centered on the titular emporium, a long-standing general store run by eccentric owner Mr. Puttnam (George Alexander), whose daughter Ellen (Coral Crum) and grandchildren Katy (Brandie Mickleborough) and Mark (Jeremy Drummond) have moved in with him. Although the emporium retained the look of an old-fashioned

five-and-dime A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, auto parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, furniture, and a selection of groceries. It usually sells th ...

(and the set for the store itself was virtually the only location seen throughout the show's run), there were "things there...you would not believe" and "new adventures all the time" (as mentioned in the show's theme song) which were often of a fantastical nature. The other-worldly aspects of the series were also reflected in the remainder of the regular cast, which included Ivan (Billy Morton), a

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

who developed a Time Closet in the confines of the store; Caldicott C. Catt (voiced by John Wilson), a

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

-playing

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

who lived in a basket on the store's counter; and Benjamin (voiced by Rosco Bell), a talking

beefalo Beefalo constitutes a hybrid offspring of domestic cattle (''Bos taurus''), usually a male in managed breeding programs, and the American bison (''Bison bison''), usually a female in managed breeding programs. The breed was created to combine ...

head hanging on the wall behind the counter. The characters would also frequently travel to alternate dimensions to battle

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

s, and

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

s. The aforementioned Time Closet was the catalyst for several episodes involving

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

, to and from both the past and the future. In these episodes, regular cast member George Alexander played Mr. Puttnam's grandfather in sepia-toned scenes set in the early 20th century as well as an older Mark in the future, who would eventually have a daughter named Leonard (who, in turn, travelled back in time to meet her father as a young man) and take over control of the emporium. (One such episode also revealed that at some point in the future, the

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had broken off from the mainland of

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and been renamed Trudeau Island.) Another intriguing aspect of the show—almost an "inside joke"—was the use of two "utility players" who appeared in each episode as different guest characters. Ian Paul, an actor with a flair for foreign accents, was one of the players through the series; Drew Snider, another character actor, left the series midway through Season One. They would play gangsters in one show, then battling comic book characters in another (Snider was Captain Marvellous and Paul the evil Doctor Venom). Snider also played Gene, a hippie genie whose bottle was lost at Woodstock and turned up at the Emporium, Insp. Hector Vector, Apollo and Albert Einstein. Paul's roles included a customer who bought cough drops that made him cough, and another (unnamed) superhero. A rare contribution to a Canadian national

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

from a prairie affiliate, ''Puttnam’s'' developed a small but highly enthusiastic following (which persists to this day) for its imaginative writing and quirky characters. Despite its ingenuity and following there are no known plans to broadcast the series again. A DVD release was rumoured for Q2 2008, but according to a posting on the X-Entertainment blog in June 2004 by "Puttnam's Lyrics Writer", the master tapes were likely destroyed years earlier. Some episodes have appeared on YouTube.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0331781, title=Puttnam's Prairie Emporium
Photograph of the principal set used in the seriesPuttnam's Central - Unofficial Site and discussion forum
1980s Canadian children's television series First-run syndicated television shows in Canada CTV Television Network original programming Television series by Bell Media YTV (Canadian TV channel) original programming Canadian television shows featuring puppetry Television shows set in Saskatchewan Television shows filmed in Regina, Saskatchewan 1990s Canadian children's television series Television series set in shops