Puttnam's Prairie Emporium facts for kids

Puttnam's Prairie Emporium was a fun Canadian children's television series. It aired for two seasons, from 1988 to 1990. The show first appeared on CTV and then on YTV. Bruce Edwards created and produced the series. A total of 51 episodes were filmed in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Filming started in 1988 at CKCK-TV.

What Was Puttnam's Prairie Emporium?

The show was set in an old-fashioned general store called Puttnam's Prairie Emporium. Mr. Puttnam (played by George Alexander) owned the store. He was a bit quirky and fun. His daughter Ellen (Coral Crum) and her children, Katy (Brandie Mickleborough) and Mark (Jeremy Drummond), lived with him.

The store looked like an old "five-and-dime" shop. It was almost the only place you saw in the show. But the theme song said there were "things there...you would not believe." It also promised "new adventures all the time." These adventures were often very magical and unusual.

Who Were the Characters?

The characters in the show were also quite unique. They added to the magical feel of the series.

• Ivan (Billy Morton) was a scientist. He built a special Time Closet right inside the store.
• Caldicott C. Catt (voiced by John Wilson) was a saxophone-playing cat. He lived in a basket on the store's counter.
• Benjamin (voiced by Rosco Bell) was a talking beefalo head. He hung on the wall behind the counter.

The characters often traveled to other dimensions. There, they would battle dinosaurs, zombies, and robots.

What Was the Time Closet?

The Time Closet was a very important part of the show. It was the main reason for many episodes about time travel. Characters could travel to the past or the future.

In these episodes, George Alexander, who played Mr. Puttnam, also played other roles. He played Mr. Puttnam's grandfather in old-looking, brownish scenes set in the early 1900s. He also played an older Mark in the future. This future Mark would have a daughter named Leonard. She would travel back in time to meet her young father. The older Mark would eventually take over the emporium.

One episode even showed a funny future event. The Province of California had broken off from North America. It was renamed Trudeau Island.

Fun Facts About the Show

A cool part of the show was how two actors played many different characters. These actors were called "utility players." They appeared in every episode as new guest characters.

• Ian Paul was one of these actors. He was very good at doing different voices and accents.
• Drew Snider was the other actor. He left the series partway through the first season.

These actors might play gangsters in one show. Then, in another, they would be battling comic book characters. Drew Snider played Captain Marvellous, and Ian Paul played the evil Doctor Venom. Snider also played Gene, a hippie genie. His bottle was lost at Woodstock and found at the Emporium. He also played Insp. Hector Vector, Apollo, and Albert Einstein. Paul's roles included a customer who bought cough drops that made him cough. He also played another unnamed superhero.

Where Is the Show Now?

Puttnam's Prairie Emporium was special because it came from a smaller city in Canada. It was unusual for a show from a smaller city to be on a big national network. The show gained a small but very loyal group of fans, even today. People loved its clever ideas and unique characters.

Even with its cleverness and fans, there are no plans to broadcast the series again. People thought it might come out on DVD in 2008. But a blog post from 2004 said the original recordings were probably lost years earlier. Some episodes have appeared on YouTube.