On Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival, a documentary on Ernie Coombs will make it’s debut. You may not know him as Ernie. You might know him as Mr. Dressup.
Ernie Coombs was certainly one of the greats of Canadian television and kids television worldwide, and deserves all the recognition we could give him. He certainly was one of the longest running children’s entertainers in the world, and probably taught most of us a thing or two about hoe to use out imaginations.
I liked Mr. Dressup. Although I always thought Finnegan was the best actor of the bunch. And I’m old enough I can remember his beginnings on Butternut Square, which was a show I loved. It di9dn’t last very long. I hear it may have been budget cuts that did it in, but it did lead to a show of his own for Mr. Dressup, so I guess it worked out.
But really, there were a lot of great shows for kids on Canadian television. The Friendly Giant was probably my favourite, but I will not deny that I had some basic French abilities when I was younger, all because of Chez Helene.
Just the thought of some of these shows brings back some great memories. Hopefully I can get a chance to see the film. It would be fun to visit the treehouse once again.