Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Time Travel for Kids!!










Read All About It! was a Canadian educational television series created by TVOntario that aired during the early to mid 1980s; It also aired in repeats in the 1990s. It starred David Craig Collard as Chris, Lydia Zajc as Lynne, Stacey Arnold as Samantha, and Sean Hewitt as Duneedon, ruler of the galaxy Trialviron. In the second season Michael Dwyer joined the cast as Alex. The main goal of the show was to try and teach viewers about skills such as reading and writing & history in the midst of an entertaining program. Each episode ran for approximately 15 minutes.
Read All About It! focused on Chris who inherited his uncle Derek's coach house after his mysterious disappearance. The show took place in the fictitious town of Herbertville, where Chris and his friends Lynne and Samantha started a newspaper called The Herbertville Chronicle in uncle Derek's coach house. The coach house contained two
artificially intelligent robots: Otto, a device which communicated by printing it's thoughts on paper; and Theta, a talking computer with an integrated monitor. The coach house also held a transporter which allowed teleportation to and from the galaxy of Trialviron, as well as transporting many literary characters like the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Merlin the Magician from King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable, and Captain Hook from Peter Pan into the coach house. The first season focused on the newspaper uncovering a conspiracy by mayor Don Eden (the alter ego of Duneedon, the ruler of the galaxy Trialvaron) who wants to claim King's Park as his own to get a rare mineral he needs to invade Earth. The second season revolved around various storylines: Samantha moves away, but the group meets a new friend; the kids engage in battle with General Isaac Brock during the War of 1812 (with a notable appearance of Graham Greene); they have to stop the Book Destroyer; and have a final confrontation with Duneedon.






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