The Best TV Shows on TVOntario

Ella is a spirited little girl elephant with a big heart, bigger imagination and a magic hat that can transform into almost anything. Every day, there's a fantastic new adventure as Ella and her friends, Frankie, Belinda and Tiki, get themselves into some tricky situations.

Corduroy and his friend Lisa experience the world from the point-of-view of an urban child, with the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations of a big, bustling, vibrant city. Lisa and Corduroy’s world is one where diverse people and cultures live together in a contemporary community.

Today's Special was a Canadian children's television show produced by Clive VanderBurgh at TVOntario from 1981 to 1987. It also ran on Nickelodeon and the Faith and Values Channel/Odyssey as well as many PBS stations throughout the United States. It was set in a department store, based on the flagship location of the now defunct Simpson's in Toronto. Many sequences for it were shot at the Queen Street West and Yonge Street store after hours.

Doki's a dog with a lot of questions about science and nature, and he and his explorer friends travel the globe and beyond to get the answers.

Dana, a paleontologist in training, and her sister Emily embark on a series of adventures with dinosaurs.

Read All About It! was a Canadian educational television series that was produced from 1979 to 1983 by TVOntario that aired during the early to mid-1980s; It also aired in repeats in the 1990s. It starred David Craig Collard as Chris, Lydia Zajc as Lynne, Stacey Arnold as Samantha, and Sean Hewitt as Duneedon, ruler of the galaxy Trialviron. In the second season Michael Dwyer joined the cast as Alex. The main goal of the show was to educate viewers in reading, writing and history. Each episode ran for approximately 15 minutes. Eric Robertson composed the music for the show.

Martha, a beloved family dog, is accidentally fed alphabet soup — this gives her the power of speech and the chance to speak her mind to anyone that will listen.

Elliot Moose is a Canadian children's live-action and animated series which was aired on TVOntario in Canada and PBS in the United States as part of the PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch until it was cancelled. Currently, the series airs on the TV station Qubo in the United States. Based on a series of children's books by Andrea Beck, its 104 episodes show the adventures of a young moose named Elliot who lives in a place called "The Big House", and shares adventures while having lots of fun with his friends; Beaverton, Lionel, Socks, and Paisley. The series was produced by Nelvana, then later on Corus Entertainment. The series was developed by Jed MacKay and produced by Marianne Culbert. The series was unique in that half of the stories were animated, and half were live action; reflecting children's real world of play and their imaginary world. The music was composed by Bruce Ley and Jed MacKay.

Follows a diverse group of students navigating their way through a four-year adventure in the most challenging medical training program in the world.

George Shrinks is a French-Canadian/American/Chinese animated television series. It is based on the children's book by William Joyce, produced in China by Jade Animation and in Canada by Nelvana, in association with Public Broadcasting Service. It tells the story of a ten-year-old boy named George who, one night dreams that he is three inches tall, only to wake up and discover that it is true. The show details his adventures with his friends and family going all through his adventures on his mini machine's that George and his musical father have created.

Zoboomafoo is an American children's television series that aired from January 25, 1999, to April 28, 2001, and is still shown today in syndication depending on the area, and it is regularly shown on PBS Kids Sprout. A total of 65 episodes were aired. A creation of the Kratt Brothers, it features a talking Coquerel's Sifaka, a type of lemur, named Zoboomafoo, or Zoboo for short, and a collection of repeat animal guests. Every episode begins with the Kratt brothers in "Animal Junction", a peculiar place in which the rules of nature change and wild animals come to visit and play. After January 16, 2004, the show was pulled from its weekday airing on most PBS stations, though some continue to air the show.

Anne: The Animated Series was a half-hour animated television show produced by Sullivan Entertainment and created by writer/director/producer Kevin Sullivan. The series was developed for PBS and each episode contained an educational aspect. Each show had a problem for one or more of the show’s characters to face and solve. In conjunction with these problems, PBS “Ready-to-Learn” guides were created for teachers in America to use in the classrooms. The educational objectives of the show support a child’s development of his/her identity, reinforced through lateral thinking and the use of a child’s magnitude to absorb daily challenges, and it also appeared on some VHS tapes from Lyrick Studios, HiT Entertainment and Nest Family Entertainment. More recently, Sullivan Entertainment has re-written the “Ready-to-Learn” educational guides for the not-for-profit organization Free the Children. Free the Children will implement these Anne Lesson Plans in the Kenyan Schools they have built and hope to take them to other countries they work in around the world.

After years of sailing the sea, Noah Tomten, a retired sea captain, owns an antique toy store called Notions Oddities Doodads and Delights of Yesterday, a variety of toys, from a weasel living inside of a jack in the box to a dog pretending to be a superhero, along with his pet lobster. Two of his grandkids, Kate and Truman, as well as Kate's friend DJ, come to visit him from time to time.

Join paleontologist-in-training Dan Henderson as he takes kids on a Jurassic journey to the land where lizards were as long as three school buses and terrifying T-Rex’s ruled.

Prisoners of Gravity was a Canadian public broadcasting television news magazine program that explored speculative fiction — science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic books — and its relation to various thematic and social issues. Produced by TVOntario, the show was the brainchild of former comic retail manager Mark Askwith and writer Daniel Richler, and was hosted by Rick Green. The series aired 139 episodes over 5 seasons from 1989 to 1994.

Members of the Sparks' Crew -- Lucita Sky, AJ Gadgets, Sara Snap and Benny Bubbles -- work with their teacher, Mr. Sparks, to help people and solve problems.

Aboriginal hip-hop artist Jack Sinclair and his best friend Zoey Jones established an underground ezine called renegadepress.com. What started as a pet project soon took on a life of its own pushing Jack, Zoey and their crew of renegade reporters to deliver the goods on what's really going on in the lives of today's teens.

The Stationary Ark was a documentary television miniseries hosted by zoologist Gerald Durrell on location at his Jersey Zoological Park in the United Kingdom. It was based on his 1976 book of the same name. The series was produced by Canadian company Nielsen-Ferns and aired from September to December 1975 on CBC Television and TVOntario. Ark on the Move, a follow-up TV series, was also hosted by Gerald Durrell.

Eureka! is a Canadian educational television series which was produced and broadcast by TVOntario in 1980. The series was narrated by Billy Van, and featured a series of animated vignettes which taught physics lessons to children. It is currently available online. Eureka! was also broadcast on some PBS stations in the United States.

Katie and Orbie is a Canadian animated television series aimed at preschoolers, originally broadcast in Canada from June 2, 1997 by Family Channel and later aired in the United States on PBS from June 2, 1997 and on Disney Channel from June 2, 1997–December 31, 1999. In Canada, the series aired uninterruptedly on Family Channel and (beginning on 2007) Disney Junior (formerly called Playhouse Disney) until December 31, 2012. The series has also aired in several countries around the world.