The Secret City was a television program designed to teach children how to draw, starring Mark Kistler as as the fictional ‘Commander Mark’ who led viewers and in-studio club members through various drawing exercises in a sci-fi clubhouse setting full of fun, fantasy, and adventure.
While the show’s format essentially prioritizes instruction over narrative, ongoing ‘drama’ is created by the frequent addition of new key features to the emerging scenery of the giant Secret City mural. Often Special Guests would appear on the show to demonstrate other art forms or practical applications for drawing skills.
The show was created by John Price & Mark Kistler, based on Bruce McIntyre's AVDP. Much of the series was edited live in-camera and was shot in a somewhat semi-scripted format. It was produced at Maryland Public Television through private funding by Children's Video Associates, and intended for broadcast via national PBS syndication. It also aired on TVOntario.
The story begins on a tiny island called Morrowland, which has just enough space for a small palace, a train station and rails all around the island, a grocery store, a small house, a king, two subjects, a locomotive named Emma, and a locomotive engineer by the name of Luke.
A group of Indigenous children plan to combat the threat of a mysterious dust cloud before it destroys everything in its path by unlocking the power of the 'Thalu' to destroy it.
The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo is an animated television series based on Victor Hugo's novel Notre Dame de Paris. The show was produced by CinéGroupe, Télé-Images, and Astral Media. It aired in 1996. The series takes place in Paris, 1483. The three main characters are Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and François. They fight villains, stop sinister plots, and escape from traps. They often come face to face with their greatest enemy, Frollo.
Bojan the Bear is a painter who paints his own world with three colours. A friend of his enters the world, using two other colours - white and black - to paint glaciers.