Mr. Dressup to Degrassi: 42 Years of Legendary Toronto Kids TV. Museum of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. May 24 – September 24, 2023. Curated by Ed Conroy

This past fall, an exhibition space in the basement of the 401 Richmond Centre in Toronto, Ontario, was transformed into a time machine that took attendees back into the colourful past of Toronto children’s television programming. Judging by the enthusiasm and excitement of my fellow attendees, the exhibit scratched a nostalgic itch. I saw many people who looked to be in their 40s or 30s gleefully reminiscing with each other about the television shows of their childhoods. Beyond the nostalgia, there was a message about the importance of audiovisual archival materials in understanding our history and who we are. Museum of Toronto’s exhibition Mr. Dressup to Degrassi: 42 Years of Legendary Toronto Kids TV brought together audiovisual and ephemeral archival materials with contextual writing and contemporary oral histories to transport attendees into a nostalgic space full of Toronto cultural content. The exhibit was infused with a sense of fun and nostalgia and had lots of interactive activities for attendees. The materials were displayed chronologically, drawing attention to their historical context, and the exhibit put audiovisual archival material and ephemera front and centre, making a solid case for giving these records of cultural productions targeting children an integral place in documenting Toronto’s past. The exhibit was curated by Ed Conroy, who runs the Retrontario project. With a few notable exceptions, most of the material in the exhibit was drawn from Retrontario’s digital and physical collections. Retrontario is primarily an online digital archive, although it does hold some physical assets. It seeks to preserve, celebrate, and research recent Ontario history and popular culture, primarily by posting digitized Ontario television content on its website and various social media channels. Most of Retrontario’s content “is sourced from located or donated VHS and Betamax tapes that contained material recorded off television in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.” Thus, Retrontario presents an opportunity for Ontarians to play a part in documenting their television history by contributing material – which in some cases could be the only copies – to the collection. The exhibit featured clips from a wide variety of shows, such as Mr. Dressup, Today’s Special, and the various iterations of Degrassi; the between-show clips from the YTV channel; and videos of contemporary interviews with performers such as Phil Guerrero (“PJ Phil” of YTV) and Nerene Virgin (Jodie on Today’s Special). These were accompanied by photos and artifacts. Viewed together, the materials built a comprehensive snapshot of the children’s television industry in the latter half of the 20th century. There were also interactive components that asked attendees to write their reactions and thoughts as well as opportunities for attendees to pose for pictures interacting with replica puppets. Each section of the exhibit covered a different decade. The sections were marked by large, stacked cardboard blocks that mimicked children’s building blocks. Contextual information about political and socio-cultural issues and television shows from each decade was printed on the sides of the blocks. The blocks representing the 1950s located Toronto as a hub for children’s television, beginning in 1952, with the launch of CBC Television’s flagship Ontario English-language television service, CBLT-DT; described the demographic make-up of Toronto, including how many Torontonians owned televisions; and discussed the show Mr. Dressup in detail. The blocks representing the 1970s described the increasingly diverse cultural context both in Toronto and in the kinds of television stations and programming produced; and discussed educational programming such as Polka Dot Door, Tell Me a Story, Read All About It!, and The Body Works. The information on these blocks demonstrated how programming geared for children was both …