Mr. Microchip facts for kids
Mr. Microchip was a cool TV show for kids that taught them all about computers! It was made when home computers were pretty new and exciting, back in the 1980s. You could see lots of different old computers in the show, like the Apple II, Commodore, Atari, and Tandy brands. The show first aired in Canada on the CBC from 1983 to 1985. Later, kids in the U.K., Australia, and South Africa also got to watch it.
Making the Show
This fun show was created by a Canadian company called Nelvana. Nelvana is famous for making lots of cartoons and TV shows, like Inspector Gadget and The Edison Twins. They made 13 episodes of Mr. Microchip.
What's really interesting is that they used the same scripts to make another 13 episodes in French! This French version was called M. Micropuce and had different actors. So, in total, 26 episodes were made between 1982 and 1984.
The show was created by Skip Lumley and Michael Hirsh. Michael Hirsh also produced it, and Peter Jennings directed the episodes.
What Was It About?
Mr. Microchip was made to help students aged 9 to 15 learn the basics of computers. The show featured Skip Lumley, who was a computer expert. He had two young neighbors, 12-year-old Stevie Grosfield and his 10-year-old sister Dayna Simon.
Stevie and Dayna would visit Skip's workshop. There, they learned about computers by trying things out themselves. Skip explained complex ideas in a clear way, often using simple examples. They were also joined by a smart computer named Lumley and a robot called Hero.
Episode List
- Episode 1 - "Information please"
- Episode 2 - "Bits of programming"
- Episode 3 - "Memory is made of this"
- Episode 4 - "The computer has a code"
- Episode 5 - "Problems, problems, problems"
- Episode 6 - "You can count on computers"
- Episode 7 - "Flights of fancy"
- Episode 8 - "A pixel is worth a thousand words"
- Episode 9 - "Music on key"
- Episode 10 - "Does that compute?"
- Episode 11 - "Games computers play"
- Episode 12 - "Ask the teacher"
- Episode 13 - "Computers don't do windows"
