“Fun” and “School” are two words that, many kids will attest, do not belong together – unless they happened to grow up in the New York area in the 70s. For those in proximity to the Big Apple, they had the chance to watch Joya’s Fun School, a place filled with puppets, music, art, stories and other fun activities led by resident teacher/host Ms. Joya Sherrill.

Local station WPIX-TV created and produced Joya’s Fun School (originally titled Time For Joya) in 1970 and began broadcasting weekly episodes each Friday morning, in place of the also popular The Magic Garden, which ran from Monday to Thursday. Featuring an entirely African-American cast, along with a few puppet helpers, Ms. Sherrill taught the joy of artistic expression to impressionable young tykes.

A regular character was her puppet pal, Seymour the Bookworm, who was usually in some sort of trouble. Thankfully, Joya was always there to come to his rescue. Recurring guests on the program included Mr. BB who, along with his storytelling prowess and puppet mastery, had the ability to quick-draw cartoons with lightning-fast technique. Another regular was a musician called “The Professor” who would play share his piano playing talents each week (and formidable they were, as “The Professor” was actually award winning broadway composer Luther Henderson.)

While kids in other parts of the nation never got to experience this wonderful example of children’s programming, Joya’s Fun School ran for a remarkable 12 years in the New York area and introduced millions of kids to the joys of learning and artistic creativity. Sadly, memories of the show exist solely in the memories of those who saw it first-hand, as no known video tapes of the series are known to exist.