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Ernie Coombs as Mr. Dressup, along with Casey and Finnegan.
Ernie Coombs (1927-2001) was the host of this simple CBC show (1967–96) as Mr. Dressup for 30 minutes. With his puppet friends, originally Casey and his dog Finnegan, he taught pre-school subjects with games, music and simple activities. To add to the fun, Mr. Dressup would always open up his tickle trunk, which contained any costume for any role he wanted.
Although it was a show for children, Coombs never had children on the show, only puppets and occasionally teenagers. This was due to the fact that Coombs disliked being around children himself, and show business has a long history of children doing unpredictable things.
Mr. Dressup is a Canadian icon. Seriously, show some aspect of the program to any Canadian who grew up with a television set in the time period of its airing, and you'll get a boatload of heartfelt memories of watching it. Among its fans was Mike Myers, who, in a skit at the 1992 Gemini Awards, listed Mr. Dressup as one of his five favourite things about Canada - higher even than Hockey Night in Canada!
Ironically, Coombs was American-born, achieving Canadian citizenship later in life.
This show provides examples of:[]
- Ambiguous Gender: Casey.
- Infinite Supplies: The tickle trunk never ran out of costumes and props even if they were never put back in.
- Long Runners: Nearly 30 years!
- The Voiceless: Finnegan.
- North of the Border Equivalent: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Justified as Coombs worked with Fred Rogers in an early precursor to both shows.
- Periphery Demographic: While it was never shown on U.S. TV, Mr. Dressup is fondly remembered by some Americans in border areas who managed to watch it on CBC.
- Put on a Bus: After several years of being phased out, Casey and Finnegan were retired in the early '90s, after their puppeteer, Judith Lawrence, left the show (though reruns featuring the characters continued to air for a time). In-universe, it was explained that Casey was now going to nursery school.