Join In!


Join In! was a Canadian educational children's television show which aired on TLC between 1989 and 1995. It was created and produced by Jed MacKay, who also wrote all of the show's original songs. The first two seasons were directed by Doug Williams. The next four seasons were directed by Wayne Moss. It won the Alliance for Children and Television's Best Pre-school Program Award and was also a finalist three times for the Gemini Award for Best Pre-school Program. Although the cast was racially integrated, with two "minority" cast members and one "majority" member, this fact was never mentioned by the characters. Their shared humanity was the implicit focus. Every program had a number of elements woven into the plot line that invited its audience to "Join In!"; in games, songs, puzzles, or stories. The cast also broke the fourth wall, talking to the camera, and thus the audience, as if they were right there on set. The songs broke away from the usual children's format, offering a wide variety of rhythm and styles. The cast also sang live on each show.
The series revolved around three adults named Jacob Bennett, Nikki, and Zack, who shared a studio loft together. After the second season, Nikki moved away and was replaced by Kia. In a typical episode, the three would be planning for some kind of play or production that would usually involve Nikki being in charge of music and sound, and Jacob and Zack would be in charge of the set, lighting, costumes, etc. when some form of problem would arise. The show also featured a toy wizard named Winston, his wife Emmelina, and their dog Abra, who lived on a windowsill in the loft. The show was filmed in Lindsay, Ontario.

Cast