Network: CBC Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1976 to 1979
Broadcast Medium: Television
Aired Friday afternoons, after school from September to December, 1976; aired Tuesday afternoons, after school, from October 1977 to March 1979.
This half hour program for children was for the most part written by children. Produced in Ottawa, hundreds of stories were from local students, short-listed and then adapted to television. About six stories made the show each week.
Noreen Young, a puppeteer and producer of the series, used to work on Hi Diddle Day, a successful kids’ show with people and puppets. Young made a major contribution with her puppets, Bolo Bat, Clara Cactus, Stubby Pencil, Miffy Skunk and Webster, the dictionary.
The productions involved a wide range of techniques, including puppets, mime, masks, and animation. Actors performed in black limbo sets and were electronically chromakeyed into sets representing the creations of schoolchildren. Most of the stories, which came mostly from kids aged 8 to 12, ran only a couple of pages. They involved ghosts and monsters and disasters, but others combined elements of the ordinary with the extraordinary.
Rudy Cooper coordinated the show’s design, Jewel Graham was costume designer, and Philip Craig designed the sets. The show’s writer was Julie Voyer and its producer was Rod Holmes. For the 1978 season, Pencil Box was aired as part of the weekday program package, For Kids Only.
Written by John Corcelli – September, 2005