Joya's Fun School

Host Joya Sherrill would engage viewers in games, craft-making, hobby segments, and storytelling. There were comedy skits with the puppet Seymour the Bookworm, created and manipulated by cartoonist Brumsic Brandon, Jr., a.k.a. Mr. B.B., and songs with musical accompaniment by the show's musical director, Luther Henderson a.k.a. the Professor. The series also included informational segments and interviews with guest personalities.

In 1969, Joya Sherrill, a former vocalist with Duke Ellington's Jazz Band, suggested to her manager that she was interested in pursuing her own television program. At the time, WPIX-TV in New York City was seeking a woman to host a children's television show.{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1979/05/25/archives/a-blues-singer-looks-back-left-band-to-marry-in-46-joyas-time-for.html | title=A Blues Singer Looks Back| author-link=John S. Wilson (music critic)| first=John S.|last=Wilson| work =The New York Times |date=May 25, 1979| page= C30| accessdate= June 18, 2015}} Abstract; full article requires payment.

An initial iteration of the program, Time For Joya, premiered as a Sunday-morning program on March 29, 1970, and ran through October 3, 1971.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} One guest on a 1970 episode was bandleader Duke Ellington, who, in one of his final TV appearances, played music and told stories and jokes.{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/arts/music/09sherrill.html | title=Joya Sherrill, Who Sang With Ellington and Goodman, Is Dead at 85 | first=Peter | last= Keepnews | work=The New York Times| date= July 9, 2010|accessdate= June 20, 2015}}

In 1973, the half-hour educational series Joya's Fun School ran Fridays at noonSee, for example: {{cite news| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DEFDC133DEF32A25754C0A9679C946290D6CF |title= Television This Week > Friday, January 12| work =The New York Times| date= January 7, 1973 | page= D22}} Also {{cite news| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9405EED6143DE73ABC4C52DFB7668388669EDE |title= Television This Week > Friday, January 19| work =The New York Times| date= January 14, 1973 | page= D20 | accessdate= June 20, 2015}} Abstracts; full articles require payment. from January 3 to March 30, 1973, by which time it aired at 3 p.m.{{cite news| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9905E7DE1531EF34BC4D53DFB7668388669EDE | work=The New York Times | title= Television [listings] | page = 63 | date=January 3, 1973 | accessdate= June 20, 2015}} Abstract; full article requires payment.{{cite news | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E02EFDF1530E63ABC4850DFB5668388669EDE | work=The New York Times | title= Television This Week > Friday, March 30| page = D22 | date=March 25, 1973 | accessdate= June 20, 2015}} Abstract; full article requires payment. After a brief hiatus, it returned on Friday, April 20,{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/15/archives/television-this-week-cable-tv-evening-morning-afternoon-leading.html | work=The New York Times | title= Television This Week > Friday, April 20 | page=D20 | date= April 15, 1973 | accessdate= June 20, 2015}} Abstract; full article requires payment. though it is unclear if the episodes beginning here were new or rerun. The show taped 26 episodes per year for an unspecified duration.

It ran through at least Friday, May 22, 1981, in its original noon timeslot,{{cite news| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9uUCAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22magic+garden+fri%2FJoya%27s%22&pg=PA138| title=Television|work=New York| date= May 25, 1981 |quote= 12 Noon > Channel 11 > Mon-Thu/Magic Garden; Fri/Joya's Fun School | page=138}} and through Friday, October 1, 1982, at 2 p.m.{{cite news|work=TV Guide| publisher= New York Edition|title= [Television listings] | date= September 25 – October 1, 1982|quote= Joya's Fun School: Friday, October 1, 1982, 2 p.m.}} Big Blue Marble took over the timeslot the following week. Joya's Fun School then ran for a short time on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m., from October 9 to November 13, 1982.{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-ICAAAAMBAJ&dq=Weekend%2C+Oct.+9-10+joya%27s&pg=PA134 | title=Television|work=New York| date= October 11, 1982 |quote= Sat., Oct. 9 > 6 a.m. > Channel 11 > Joya's Fun School | page=134}}Television Listings, November 20, 1982, The Morning Call / The Weekender, page 78. There is a section on the page that says Program Changes: Jack Anderson Confidential replaces Joya's Fun School on that day at 6am. So the last airing of Joya's Fun School was the week prior, Saturday, November 13, 1982 @ 6am. Here is the link:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/283039331/?terms=Joya's Fun School&match=1

After accompanying her husband to Iran in 1976, where he supervised construction of a residential complex, Sherrill produced and hosted a children's television show on one of the national networks, which broadcast in English. She recalled in 1979, after having returned to the U.S., that in Iran

{{blockquote|Except for news, they got all their programs from the United States and England. So my live show was a big production. I told stories and made projects with the kids. Most of my fans were Iranian. I did English lessons for the Americans and Persian lessons for the Iranians.}}

Some footage is available on YouTube.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpvs5_juYPc "Joya's Fun School"], published January 24, 2014; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qA_-oPw-qU "Time for Joya, Joya Sherrill"], published July 20, 2010; and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2OR_-Y8c2A "Time for Joya [featuring Brandon Brumsic Jr.]"], published July 20, 2010, on YouTube.

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Category:1970s American children's comedy television series

Category:1980s American children's comedy television series

Category:1970s American musical comedy television series

Category:1980s American musical comedy television series

Category:1970s American sketch comedy television series

Category:1980s American sketch comedy television series

Category:1970 American television series debuts

Category:1982 American television series endings

Category:American children's education television series

Category:American children's musical television series

Category:American television shows featuring puppetry

Category:Children's sketch comedy

Category:Local children's television programming in the United States