Late every weekday afternoon,
TVO (Channel 19) invites kids
into a clubhouse of programs built out of solid bricks like Polka Dot Door, Eureeka's Castle, Art Attack and Bill Nye The Science Guy.
What may go unnoticed is the mortar that keeps the bricks in place - the vitality and exuberance of hosts Patty Sullivan and Joe Motiki.
The challenge they face is finding some way of giving familiarity and continuity to the hefty chunk of programming that starts after school at 3:30 and winds up on the edge of pre-primetime at 7.
Though known collectively as TVO Kids, that 3 1/2-hour block is really a mosaic of different shows that can run anywhere from five minutes (Bananas In Pyjamas) to half an hour (Wishbone).
And it's up to Sullivan and Motiki to string the shows into a single fluid sequence through birthday greetings, skits, fan mail, contests, puzzles and promo spots for the afternoon's features.
Sometimes they get as much as five minutes to play an on-air game of unscramble-the-letters or hangman with a young viewer on the phone. More often, they've only got a minute or two at the top or bottom of the hour to greet the audience and introduce the next show.
Which means Sullivan and Motiki have to make their presence felt instantly, deliver their material or play their games at an efficient clip and, hardest of all, never give the impression they're on a relentless conveyor belt.
Sometimes a flurry of dizzying activity can't be avoided. Birthdays are celebrated by having parents, relatives or friends of the birthday child mail in homemade cards which are shown and read on the air. So many greetings have to be announced that the hosts blaze through dozens of items in a couple of minutes, giving each card only a second or two of camera time.
But that's the exception. TVO Kids skips along smoothly because Sullivan and Motiki create the feeling that they're genuinely interested in their audience and excited by the shows in their lineup. Even if time is tight, their speed seems less like haste than sheer enthusiasm.
For the most part, TVO Kids seems anything but breathless. When a viewer calls in to play a game, the hosts are cheerfully patient, even if it means several seconds of dead air. If necessary, they carefully hint at the answer without making the caller feel foolish for not guessing right.
Equally important, there's an obvious chemistry and an easy-going give-and-take with the hosts.
The key is that Sullivan and Motiki see themselves as older-than-average TVO kids. That's why fans tune in knowing the invitation comes not from a program to its audience, but from one set of friends to another.
THE TORONTO STAR Channel Surfing Henry Mietkiewicz October 1995
