Circle Square
Circle Square is a Canadian children'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.
Overview
Mixing human actors—both youth and adult counsellors—with puppets in a Sesame Street-like manner, the series was set at a Circle Square Ranch library. Each episode taught a lesson in moral values.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, grandfather-like 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.