Circle Square was a Canadianchildren's television series that ran from 1974 to 1986. Crossroads Christian Communications produced the series in cooperation with its Circle Square Ranch network of summer camps for children. Circle Square Ranches, founded by Crossroads, are Christian-based non-profit camps welcoming children of any faith and race. The first ranch was based at Severn Bridge, Ontario. Mixing human actors—both youth and adult counsellors—with puppets in a Sesame Street-like manner, the series was set at a Circle Square Hotel library. Each episode taught a lesson in moral values. The series was syndicated to television stations in Canada, the United States and Jamaica, often airing in a weekend slot on stations that also aired Crossroads' 100 Huntley Street. Reruns of Circle Square were shown Saturday mornings on the TrinityBroadcasting Network until late 2005 or early 2006, and episodes of the original Circle Square program can be viewed on the Circle Square Ranch website. In 2003 a pilot for a new version of Circle Square called Circle Square Network was produced by Crossroads, but was never picked up. Canadian journalist and talk show hostMarci Ien of The Social appeared on Circle Square as a child actress at age 10.
Characters
These were the main ongoing characters in the series; the children featured on the show tended to rotate through too quickly to establish an ongoing presences on the show.
Durk : a kindly, grandfatherlike figure. He is the library's maintenance man, and in every episode, the kids come to him with problems. Durk answers these problems with a story, which often features the real kid facing a similar problem.
Vince : a furry white dog-like puppet character with a straight, rounded nose and a little work hat. He is Durk's assistant and companion, and is frequently seen with him. Vince mostly speaks gibberish, but he can say short little words like "uh-oh" and "uh-huh". His predecessor was a parrot named Polly.
Gert and Egbert : the main puppet characters, Gert and Egbert help provide questions and thoughts for the segments at the library with the kids. Gert is the scatter-brained, overly-worried, patronizing of the pair, while Egbert is childish, goofy, and dumb. Gert and Egbert's puppets had exaggerated features and silly looks during the show's starting season. But as Gert and Egbert started to mature, their puppets were replaced with new figures whose appearances were less silly and more basic. The old Gert puppet disappeared into oblivion, but the old Egbert puppet managed to spend the rest of his days as a puppet character for the stories.
