une ae Greg Potter ~ H SPECIAL oe SPOTLIGHT FEATURE LUNG IA Greek Souvlaki ®5°> S THE surrogate par- ents of television’s ‘Atocddier set, West “Vancouver's Lois and Herb Walker have managed to parlay their passion for pro- ducing informative and interactive children’s shows into profit via their award- winning, YTV-broadcast series, Puppcarn Place, Lois Walker's Take Part for Kids, Tell-A-Tale Town and Hands Up! Hands On!" . ; : “We were both teachers,” says Herb, who joined his wife Lois in _the endeavor iri 1979 after she’d already begun forging a career’ as a-popular children’s storyteller a few years earlier. “But we're still teachers. We've happened ‘to have been very lucky in that we’ve had “things happen and opportunities arose for us,” » Having been laid off as instructors at Nelson’s Notre ‘Dame University in the late ‘70s after more than a decade-and-a- half after a change in the institu- tion’s management and direction (he an English literature prof, ‘she a theatre prof), the pair headed east to Ontario with their three sons. ; ; . “We said that we'd give it six months to make money, other- wise we'd go back into the real world,” he says of their work geared towards five- to 10-year- olds... ‘They didn’t have to. The show, originally launched by Lois in 1980 as Puppcorn _ Place on MCTV, was a 13- episode series of 15-minute. pro- ductions geared towards pre- schoolers. From there, the idea skyrock- eted into a syndicated, half-hour NEWS photo Terry Petera JOINING TELEVISION'S Lois Walker is her sidekick and pup- pet, Marvin. Lois and husband Herb have established a formi- dable production company catering to kids’ education. series based on Lois’ furry, friendly puppet stars. And a lucrative one at that — in fact, one of the largest independent Canadian-based production com- panies working in the genre, alongside the likes of such rug-rat requisites as Shari Lewis, Raffi, Fred Penner, and Sharon, Lois and Bram. “The reason we're successful,” says Lois, reclining in the Mondrian-ish, forest-nestled liv- ing room of their endearing West Van digs, “is because we're fru- gal. “We work at the low-end of the financial scale, the grassroots level. That's the way we learned how to do it.” And a million-plus fans can’t be wrong. So far, the couple have received more than 125,000 pieces of fan mail from tykes across the country and into regions such as Saudi Arabia and Singapore (an overwhelming response that has led to the Take Part fan club). “The focus is on the process of producing art,” says Lois. “The execution is much more impor- tant than the final product.” These days, a merchandizing contract is in the works, a pub- lishing deal is paying off, new shows (including Hey Kids What's Cookin’? and The Crazy Mister Twister Show) are being developed and the pair plan to continue their mission of-making learning fun, “The overall umbrella is edu- cation,” says Herb, “and these days everything kind of runs by itself, “It almost has a life of its own.” Geyser Peak ’90 stole the show From page 27 familiar forward user-friendly style by state-of-the-art winemak- ing techniques, what they’ve done is create the kind of supremely elegant, complex wines previously only achieved by patient buying and cellaring of the best vintages of Bordeaux. Drinkable less than half a decade from the vintage (no waiting 20 years), these wines are going to usurp the Bordelais if they don’t watch out. The Geyser Peak 1996 Reserve Alexandre (Meritage) was the star wine of the Festival; a complex monster that could take three falls and the match from Bordeaux 20 years senior. The Estancia Meritage 1992 was 2 close second; only the Clos Du Bois was a bit shallow and disap- pointing. In the $30 range, these wines are going to change the world wine-map. Purists will screech that they’re the equivalent of Tasters’ Choice cappuccino crystals, but the option they offer is irre- sistible: spend $30 on a fabulous wine you can take home for din- ner this evening, or one you'll have to wait two decades to get your money's worth out of. The major marketing gaffe with these wines is the “mer- itage” designation, which sounds like some totally bogus classifica- tion the B.C. wine industry might have tried to float 20 years ago. The name was chosen from a State-wide contest, apparently entered only by drinkers of Bud Lite who should all be rounded up and forced to drink Gallo Hearty Burgundy or Sebastiani Mountain Red until further notice, Still doing our damindest to confuse our sensory apparati, we tried the Italians, Ruffino and Rocca Delle Macie, to sample their unique 50-50 cabernet/san- giovese blends, Cabreo and Roccato respectively. These two grapes, both stal- warts of different cultures, by all logic ought not to go together, yet when Antinori paired them for its experimental Tignanello, the wine skyrocketed from $17 to more than $40 in no time. Take your pick: French char- acter combined with Italian ele- gance or French elegance mar- riéd to tralian character, these wines are the practical solution to the dilemma that has bedev- illed the halian wine industry for a decade. includes rice, potatoe, sou LOWEST RAT Chicken/Beet/Lamb also serving ' Greek & ftalian Specialtie "mention this ad for 10% discount off reg. menu" 1126 Lonsdale Ave., N.Van. p, salad S$ specialty orders available... ES. for your holiday getaway — Costa Rica | Mexico. Hawaii also Britain and Europe en 987-5244 TROY MUSIC on Lonsdale 1985 Lonsdale Ave. $85-6612