The Magic Door (also known as The Magic Door Television Theatre) was a Jewish educational television series, aimed at providing kiruv (outreach) to Jewish children in the Chicago metropolitan area but intended to appeal to all children in the 5-to-9-age group. The show was produced by the Chicago Board of Rabbis, and premiered January 1, 1962. The show ran weekly until January 1, 1982. It aired at 9:00 AM every Sunday on WBBM-TV.
The main characters of the series included "Tiny Tov" (an actor reduced via special effects to appear as a kind of elf)
In addition to Tiny and Tina, there were puppet characters, including Bubbe Beaver, Icky Witch, Rabbi and Mrs. Moreh, Max the Mailbox, Rumplemyer Dragon, Bunny Rabbit, Buddy, Worthington Warlock, and many others.
In the early days of the series, Tiny Tov would travel back through time riding his Magic Feather. Later on the program evolved into presenting moral topics. There would be a "Hebrew Word of the Day" that related to whatever values were being taught. Each week, Tiny Tov would educate Jewish children on Jewish history, sharing stories from Torah and Jewish tradition. Every episode would include a brief Hebrew lesson, stepping through the Aleph-Bet (Hebrew alphabet).
The characters of Tiny Tov and his cousin Tina Tova were created by Irv Kaplan, who later moved to Israel and was instrumental in the creation of Israeli Educational Television. From 1970 to 1973, Tiny Tov was portrayed by Emmy-nominated actor Jerry (Jerome) Loeb. The second player was Charles Gerber, who also created the song lyrics. Rabbi Joe Black was the last Tiny Tov. Tina Tova was played by Fran (Uditsky) Moss. The first puppeteer was Helen Cirkle.
Beyond the Magic Door
Beyond The Magic Door was a children's television show on WBBM-TV in Chicago, Illinois in the early 1980s. The show was a sequel of sorts to the earlier program The Magic Door Television Theatre.
The theme song began with the following lyrics:
Rusty Steiger acted as the main puppeteer. Ken Raabe acted as a puppeteer. One of his characters included J. P. Potter, a disembodied hand wielding a cigar. David C. Waite was an ensemble cast member. Dan Castellaneta briefly played the role of Detective Farblonget, which was taken over by John Szostek. In 1984 Beyond The Magic Door won an Emmy Award in the category: Series for Children's Programming. Winning Station: WBBMTV, Mindy Soble, Producer; Allen Stecher, Producer.