The Magic Door (also known as The Magic Door Television Theatre) was a Jewish educational television series, aimed at providing kiruv (outreach) to Jewish children in the Chicago metropolitan area but intended to appeal to all children in the 5-to-9-age group.
"[3] The main characters of the series included "Tiny Tov" (an actor reduced via special effects to appear as a kind of elf)[2] and his cousin "Tina Tova".
"[4]In addition to Tiny and Tina, there were puppet characters, including Bubbe Beaver, Icky Witch, Rabbi and Mrs. Moreh, Max the Mailbox, Rumplemyer Dragon, Bunny Rabbit, Buddy, Worthington Warlock, and many others.
In the early days of the series, Tiny Tov would travel back through time riding his Magic Feather.
The characters of Tiny Tov and his cousin Tina Tova were created by Irv Kaplan, who later moved to Israel and was instrumental in the creation of Israeli Educational Television.
[6] Beyond The Magic Door was a children's television show on WBBM-TV in Chicago, Illinois in the early 1980s.
The show was a sequel of sorts[clarification needed] to the earlier program The Magic Door Television Theatre.
The theme song began with the following lyrics: If your mind is open And free to explore I know a place called Dreidl It lies beyond the magic door It's over the rainbow, through the mighty seas,... Come follow me, through the magic door Rusty Steiger acted as the main puppeteer.