Polka Dot Shorts is a Canadian children's television series produced and broadcast by TVOntario from 1994 to 1997. [1] It was created, produced, and edited by Jed MacKay. [2]
Approximately 180 episodes were produced, all directed by Michael McNamara.
The series is based on Polka Dot Door , and stars the characters Polkaroo, Humpty, Dumpty, Bear and Marigold. [2] The characters are portrayed by "physical theatre" actors in large costumes; Marigold's performer, for example, had a ballet and circus background. Unlike in Polka Dot Door, in which Polkaroo only ever vocalized his own name, [3] in Polka Dot Shorts he spoke full dialogue in English. [4]
The show's original concept had been to retain the characters while Polka Dot Door underwent a temporary production hiatus, [5] although ultimately Polka Dot Shorts continued and the original Polka Dot Door did not resume production. [4]
Originally, each episode started with a human host (Deborah Drakeford) introducing the episode to a gathering of children as she was about to read the story from a book. The stories themselves were dramatized by actors in large suits, playing the puppets from Polka Dot Door, while the reader provided the dialogue. A new character was added to the Polka Dot Door family: Polkaroo's pet, Bibble. Although Bibble was only capable of making sounds that loosely resembled "bibblebibblebibble", he did so in various tones which indicated his mood.
At one point in every episode, one or more of the characters would discover a large pair of polka dot shorts, and exclaim, "A great big pair of polka dot shorts! How did they get there?" Polkaroo's response would be, "I haven't the foggiest idea!" Some episodes were done entirely in rhyme, in which case the character who found the polka dot shorts would exclaim, "Polka dot shorts, a great big pair! How on earth did they get there?"
After the first two seasons the episodes were re-edited. The human hostess/storyteller was removed, and the show would begin immediately.
The series won a Gemini Award for Best Pre-School Program or Series at the 15th Gemini Awards in 2000, [6] and Charles P. Schott ("Bear") was a Gemini Award finalist for Best Performer in a Pre-School Series at the 17th Gemini Awards in 2002.