Read All About It! (TV series)

Read All About It!
Created by Clive Endersby
Developed by Jeremy Pollock
Country of origin Canada
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 40
Production
Running time 15 minutes
Release
Original network TVOntario
Picture format SDTV
Audio format Dolby Surround
Original release 1979 – 1983

Read All About It! was a Canadian educational television series that was produced from 1979 to 1983 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 educate viewers in reading, writing and history. Each episode ran for approximately 15 minutes. Eric Robertson composed the music for the show.

Premise

The show is set in the fictitious town of Herbertville, where Chris inherited his uncle Derek's coach house after a mysterious disappearance. 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 its 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.

Episodes

Read All About It! episodes are presented as "chapters" as in a book.

Season 1

Season 2

Lack of DVD release

There are no plans for a DVD release. According to writer Clive Endersby:

"Unfortunately, as far as I know there are no plans to do anything with them [Read All About It and Polka Dot Door]. Due to special 'educational' arrangements (ie: lower fees) that channels like TVOntario had with the various unions (Writers, actors, directors, musicians) renewals of clearance rights and royalties had to be paid in advance for a set number of years — rather than an after-payment of a percentage of sales as is normal for commercial programs.

"Because of the cutbacks (or lack of growth) in funding for these types of stations, they cannot afford to renew these clearances 'up front' which would decimate their program budgets in any one year. Both TVO and the various union members would dearly love to switch these contracts to a 'percentage of a sales' system but the law is the law and neither side can change an existing contract without agreement from all who signed it."[1]

References

  1. ↑ "Read All About It". rickstv.com.
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