Today's Special (1982)
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.
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Episode 1 - Songs
Release Date:The store is having a song-writing contest and the prize is $1000. So Jeff, Jodie, Sam and Muffy decide to each write their own song to enter the contest. But after Sam's loud-speaker goes out of control, The whole store can hear the ""Yo Hee Ho"" playing. Muffy thinks that Sam did that on purpose to distract the others. So She distracts him by playing a tape of the ""Rockin' Rodents"" using a huge speaker, and this escalates. But problems get worse when Muffy tries one of Waldo's magic spells that make everyone exchange voices, and in the end they decide to work together in writing a song.
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Episode 2 - Daisies
Release Date:Jeff and Jodie receive the daisies for the display. But Greedy O'Grady, a thief wants to get those daisies so he can ransom them back to everyone. So Sam lets him in the store after O'Grady tells him he's from Frankfurter's flowers but Mrs. P knows who he is and locks him in a box. He manages to escape, steals Sam's uniform and the daisies and hides them on the roof. When he is pegged, he decided to change and be nice from now on.
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Episode 3 - Jeans
Release Date:The store is having big sale for jeans and Jeff seems to be into the style of wearing them, but Muffy will only wear the fashionable ""Mr. Mouster's"" jeans, but the store hasn't ordered any. She is even more upset when she learns that her cousin Mort is coming for a visit and Muffy thinks he won't play with her if she isn't wearing Mr. Mouster's jeans. But Mrs. Pennypacker and the other try and convince her that ""It's what's inside that counts."" Later on, the director of Mr. Mouster's jeans commercial comes to the store and wants to use Muffy, Jodie, Sam and Jim. I mean Jeff in his commercial, until he has a look at Mort's new jeans that may put Mr. Mouster out of style.
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Episode 4 - Hello Friend
Release Date:A friend of Jodie's, Levy, a handicap who can't walk and only speaks in ""Bliss symbols"" visits the store. We learn about Blyss symbols but when Jeff, Jodie and Muffy get trapped in the elevator, Levy manages to send a message to Sam to get them out.
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Episode 5 - Waldo's Hat
Release Date:Waldo the Magnificent arrives at the store but gets trapped in his own hat after his rabbit stole his wand and bewitched his hat, and anyone who touches it falls in. Jeff has already fallen in the hat but TXL warns the others not to touch the hat. Now, Jodie, Muffy and Sam search the store until they find the rabbit, which turns into a kangaroo and old shoe, and manage to get Waldo's wand back and break the spell.
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Episode 6 - Letters
Release Date:Jeff is writing a letter to Wanda Willoby about stuff that has happened the last few days. Muffy got popcorn all in her mouse hole, after all that was straightened out, they end up chasing toads around the store.
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Episode 7 - Heroes
Release Date:Muffy is upset when she can't help the others with their work since she is small and she begins to hate being small. But after the other tell her a story about a mouse named Androcles who helped a fierce lion in distress, So she decides to becomes ""Mega Mouse"" and tries doing heroic things - but also dangerous things to show everybody that she can be important.
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Episode 8 - Grandmothers
Release Date:Muffy's 88 year old Granny Sweet visits the store and is quite a surprise: She can ride a motorcycle like a wild mouse, she plays the bagpipes and she likes hot-chili pepper. But she's a true grandmother underneath. The gang later does a play for her: ""Little 'blue' riding hood.""
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Episode 9 - Being Alone
Release Date:Jeff is alone in the store when Jodie is off to her nephew's birthday party, Sam goes fishing, and Muffy goes golfing. Jeff is a bit afraid but gets better. However, Jodie, Sam and Muffy get worried about him and decide to return to the store.
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Episode 10 - Help!
Release Date:While playing catch with Jeff, Muffy hurts her toe after Jeff throws the ball. So after getting back from the doctor, Jeff volunteers to do anything for Muffy and becomes her servant - but ends up taking advantage of him, when he could be helping Jodie move a whole bunch of boxes.
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Episode 11 - Buttons
Release Date:Waldo shows up in the store with his latest ""wishing machine"", and with the touch of a button, Jeff, Jodie, Sam, Muffy and Waldo take a whirl to a monkey maze, the moon, a clay castle, Storybook Land, and a button factory before cracking the code of the wishing machine that Waldo hadn't completely perfected.
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Episode 12 - Sam's Speech
Release Date:Sam has been chosen to give a speech at the Royal Naval Academy and he must do it the next day. So he has a hard time figuring out what to say and remembering. So the other try and help him. The Academy turns out to be just children.
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Episode 13 - Dancing Shoes
Release Date:Jeff and Jodie got some new tap-shoes and practice tap dancing in the Children's Department. But Sam and Muffy are tired and annoyed with all the tapping noise so Jeff and Jodie try tapping in the stock room, but Mrs. P is busy hammering off beat. They then try the roof, but it starts raining. Finally they go back to the children's department but Sam and Muffy have had quite enough. So they lock Jeff and Jodie's feet in a giant boot but end up feeling too guilty about it.
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Episode 14 - Storybooks
Release Date:Waldo shows up in the store looking for a ""Robin Hood"" storybook that has a terrible spell in it. Muffy happens to be reading it and accidentally activates the magic spell and ends up in the land of make-believe thinking she's Robin Hood. So Jeff, Jodie, Sam and Waldo go to the land of make believe to protect her until the spell wore off facing the evil sheriff.
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Episode 15 - Going Out
Release Date:When Jeff and Muffy hear about Jodie going to a dance with some prince, they fear that she will become a princess and leave the store to live in a palace. So When Jodie need a dance lesson from Jeff, He shows her a dance that will make a fool out of her so that they will laugh at her, But he later feels guilty about it and Sam tells him that she may leave the store one day and that they have to let her do what makes her happy. But it turns out that Jodie is only going to a costume dance with a young boy.
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Episode 16 - Fun
Release Date:When all the nighttime work is done, Jeff, Sam, Jodie and Muffy decide to have some fun. Mort arrives too, and they play a lot of tricks, they sing songs, and Sam makes donuts that keep mysteriously disappearing. And they think there is a ""donut thief"" in the store who turns out to be Mrs. Pennypacker.
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Episode 17 - Jeff
Release Date:Jeff is alone in the store and he talks with us as we see clips from when he first came to the store, going to the haunted castle and learning to roller skate. But the local trouble happens when the balls he is playing with end up in front of the store window and he has trouble getting them back without being seen by pretending to be a mannequin, which he is, more or less.
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Episode 18 - Jodie
Release Date:On Jodie's day off, We join her at her apartment and take a trip to the laundromat. She has been offered a better job as a store manager somewhere else and is debating on whether or not to take it. She keep remembering all the good times such as visiting the laundromat with Sam, when she saved the store from being torn down. She ends up turning down the new job because she is happy where she is.
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Episode 19 - Muffy
Release Date:Muffy is visiting Mort's farm and is trying to write her life story ""The Story of Muffy."" She writes about how she came to the store, when she met the alien from space, having her tonsils out, and being captured by Herman T. Horrible. As she is writing, she is having trouble finding a quite place to write.
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Episode 20 - Sam
Release Date:On Sam's day off, he is on his friend Kevin O'Reilly's houseboat fishing. Kevin wants Sam to retire and stay with him on the boat. But he starts remembering old times like when him, Jeff, Jodie and Muffy dressed up in costumes, His donut incident with Mrs. P, the ""Three Bears"" opera, and when he went flying. As Sam goes through a boat loch, he figures he can't retire.
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Episode 21 - Live on Stage
Release Date:Jodie, Sam and Muffy are getting ready to leave for the theatre for the ""Today's Special"" live on stage performance. Jeff can't go since he can't leave the store, but he decides to take a chance and hides in a box that is about to be sent to the theatre. When the others arrive to the theatre, they go on stage and the costume box arrives with Jeff in it - but he's a mannequin and his magic hat won't work. So they call Waldo who arrives to help Jeff on this occasion. When Jeff comes to life, they have a great performance.