Circle Square

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Circle Square was a Canadian children's television series that ran from 1974 to 1986. The series was produced by Crossroads Christian Communications in cooperation with the Circle Square network of Christian children's summer camps. (Circle Square Ranches, founded by Crossroads, are Christian based non-profit camps welcoming children of any faith and race.)

Mixing human actors — both youth and adult counselors — with puppets in a Sesame Street-like manner, the series was set at a Circle Square Library. Each episode taught a lesson in moral values and Christian faith.

The series was syndicated to Canada and the United States, and usually aired in a weekend slot on stations that also aired Crossroads' 100 Huntley Street.

1984-1986 reruns of Circle Square were formerly shown Saturday mornings on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).

In 2003 a pilot for a new version of Circle Square called Circle Square Network (CSN) was produced by Crossroads, but was never picked up.

Episodes of the original Circle Square program can be viewed on the Circle Square Ranch website.

[edit] Characters

Note: this list only includes main running characters, since they were the only ones who actually have personalities. The child actors weren't featured long enough individually to really give them personalities.

  • Durk (Reynold Rutledge): a kindly, grandfatherly-like figure. He is the library's maintenance man, and in every episode, the kids come to him with problems. Durk answers these problems with a story, which often features the real kid facing a similar problem.
  • Vince (puppet) (actor unknown): a furry white dog-like character with a straight, rounded nose and a little work hat. He is Durk's assistant and companion, and is frequently seen with him. Vince mostly speaks gibberish, but he can say short little words like "uh-oh" and "uh-huh". His original predecessor was a parrot named Polly.
  • Gert and Egbert (Blair Stewart and Sabrina Paul): the main puppet characters, Gert and Egbert (a librarian and her assistant, respectively) help provide questions and thoughts (but mostly comic relief) for the segments at the library with the kids. Gert is the scatter-brained, overly-worried, patronizing of the pair, while Egbert is childish, goofy, and dumb. Gert and Egbert's puppets originally had exaggerated features and silly looks during the show's starting season. But as Gert and Egbert started to mature (only a little bit), their puppets were replaced with new figures whose appearances were less silly and more basic. The old Gert puppet disappeared into oblivion, but the old Egbert puppet managed to spend the rest of his days as a puppet character for the stories.

[edit] Trivia

  • Canada AM news anchor Marci Ien got her television career started on Circle Square at age 10. [1]
  • Aaron Butler and Chris Rusher of the band Uncle Billy's Bathtub Funtime were both cast on the show during the second season. Aaron went by his real name while Chris went by A.J. (though it is not known why). Circle Square is largely credited as the start of the duo's singing career

[edit] External links

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