Polka Dot Door is a Canadian children's television series which was produced by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority (later known as TVOntario) from 1971 to 1993.

Another feature of the show was "looking through the polka-dot-door", usually on "Finding-Out Day", when the camera would zoom in to a special dot on the door, which would open up to reveal a short educational film.

Polka Dot Door was created and developed by a team of employees from TVOntario, hired and led by original series producer and director Peggy Liptrott.

[1] Significant contributors to the creation and development of the series in 1971 included executive producer Vera Good,[2] who laid the conceptual foundation of the show, educational supervisor Marnie Patrick Roberts, educational consultant L. Ted Coneybeare, script writers and composers Pat Patterson and Dodi Robb, animator Dick Derhodge (who designed the familiar opening/closing animation) and Dr. Ada Schermann, a professor at the prestigious Institute of Child Study in Toronto who was consulted in the early stages of Polka Dot Door's development and is responsible for giving the show its name.

[3][4] New episodes of Polka Dot Door originally aired on TVOntario Monday to Friday beginning in the fall of 1971 until the show's cancellation in 1993, with reruns running in constant rotation both on weekdays and weekends well into the 1990s.

[5] Dodi Robb helped distinguish Polka Dot Door with her creation and addition of the Polkaroo, combining the show's title with the word kangaroo.

During the course of the series' run, Polka Dot Door had three producers who significantly contributed to the development of the show: original producer-director Peggy Liptrott (1971), L. Ted Coneybeare (1972–1984), and Jed MacKay (1985–1993).

The accompanying background music throughout the show was played "live to tape" by Canadian pianists Herbie Helbig (1971–1984) and John Arpin (1985–1993).

Many aspiring Canadian actors and actresses got their start on Polka Dot Door, and went on to do notable work in North American television, film, and theatre.

This involved the host teaching and telling the time on a large, oversized blue (later pink) grandfather clock and featured the appearance of a small stuffed animal named "Storytime Mouse".

The hosts would stop whatever activity they were doing and go to the grandfather clock to tell the time and then read a story in an adjacent rocking chair specifically used for this purpose on the show.

On certain theme days the hosts would invite the audience to peer through the Polka Dot Door to witness an educational video of some sort, showing, for instance, how crayons are made.

In its mended, yellow and multi-coloured polka-dot muumuu, the creature spoke using various repeated exclamations of its own name accompanied by elaborate gestures.

Petrova also created 24 puppets, including Charlie Horse and Lionel for Shari Lewis, as well as costumes for Ontario Place theme park, Eaton's (for example, Glump) and other events and attractions.

In 2018, a rally in Toronto's Trinity Bellwoods Park to celebrate the legalization of cannabis in Canada saw the appearance of "Tokaroo", a marijuana-smoking parody of Polkaroo.

[10] Tokaroo was created by Mark Scott, an actor who had once been directly employed by TVOntario to play Polkaroo in live promotional appearances, and the network threatened him with legal action.