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Q: Do you have any background info about a kids' show on PBS in the early '80s titled "Strawberry Square"?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

I do now, but it took a bit of digging.

There's almost no reference to the show anywhere anymore, other than a lot of people online asking if anyone else remembers it, so I had to go straight to the source.

Chet Kincaid is a senior producer with Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, Nebraska's PBS station, based out of Lincoln. However, 30 years ago she was "a lowly production assistant" on "Strawberry Square."

"It was like 'Sesame Street,' only about music," she explains of the series. The titular square featured a music shop, a pet shop, and a bunch of buoyant, inquisitive kids and other residents.

The show was aimed at kids in kindergarten and Grade 1, quite specifically. It was actually produced by the Nebraska Department of Education for use in classrooms. It's still used there today, she says, but you won't find it on TV. "We were airing it because that was the easiest way," Kincaid said, though now the show is available for free on iTunes. A handful of episodes are also available in full on YouTube.

A little more than 60 episodes were produced in total, airing at first from 1980 to 1983, and when asked if that was a big undertaking for a state public broadcaster, Kincaid laughed. "It was huge."

"We worked really long hours. We were kind of like a family we were there so much."

 

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