- For his tenth birthday, Joe receives a mysterious blue book from his magician uncle and namesake, "Joe the Magnificent," known only as "The Book". Using a number of often unpredictable and/or unintentional voice and print cues, The Book frequently transports Joe and his friends, Fred and Sam, to a variety of places in history, like Ancient Egypt, the Old West and to the year 2105, where they meet their own great-granddaughters, Jodie, Samantha and Freddi. The only way they are able to return present-day Brooklyn, New York is to find The Book again within whatever time period they are in. Later in the series, Joe's evil uncle, Mad Jack, makes several attempts to capture the children and The Book with his crafty tricks, whether stranding them in Antarctica (where The Book doesn't work) or trying to make their new home in China (during the Tang Dynasty).—Peter Henderson
- When 10-year-old Joe (Mark Rendall) receives a mysterious book from his eccentric magician Uncle Joe (Tony Daniels), he has no idea the adventures that await him and his friends Sam (Darren Frost) and Fred (Scott McCord) . As it turns out, whenever the kids make a wish, the Book emits a glowing green mist and warps them back through time. Whether they want to go or not, they are thrust into an extraordinary adventure, in which they duel with gladiators in ancient Rome, march in battle with the samurai in Shogunate Japan, meet Blackbeard the pirate on the open seas, or ride on horseback into battle against the Tartars with a young Genghis Khan! Things get really interesting when the boys are accidentally warped into the future, where they meet their own great-granddaughters, Jodie (Tajja Isen), Samantha (Laurie Elliott), and Freddi (Sunday Muse), who live in the year 2105 and also go on adventures using the Book, which they have inherited. As they travel through time, the boys and girls are constantly bumping into each other and sometimes help each other out. Time Warp Trio brings history to life for kids of all ages and times, as the heroes use their skills and smarts to outwit the bad guys and figure out how to recover the Book and warp back home. Each episode is loaded with facts about real history, such as the word "Thursday" having evolved from a Viking named "Thor," as in "Thor's day"; native Americans such as Sacagawea having used bear grease in pre-hair mousse days to control the "frizzies"; or Mongolian nomads having sniffed each other as a greeting rather than shaking hands. Based on the book series of the same name by Jon Scieszka, the TV series was created by Boston PBS station WGBH in conjunction with digital animation studio Soup2Nuts.
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