Hey... this is my first post.  My name is Matt.  I'm 26 years old and from the Philadelphia area.  I apologize in advance for the length of this post already, believe me.

For easily five years now, I've been trying to find someone (anyone!) who remembered Starstuff, and I've been completely unsuccessful until now.  Doing a quick Google newsgroup search, I found a few posts over the past several years at least mentioning it in passing.  I also found an old post here regarding The Candy Apple News Company.

Here is what I recall about the show as well as what I've been able to glean from scouring the Internet:

It was shown on WCAU-TV (CBS Philadelphia) early on Saturday mornings, around the same time Candy Apple News Company was shown.  Photon, possibly, as well.  Dr. Fad, maybe?  Chief Halftown, too?  I'm stretching it here. It was written by Professor Dorothy Louise (dlouise@fandm.edu), and there were 18 episodes total.  Mark Ritts (mritts@earthlink.net) was the lead puppeteer for Starstuff, and Candy Apple News Company as well.

The premise was that a kid with dark brown hair with bangs named Chris was able to communicate through his computer (Commodore Vic-20? Apple IIe?) to a girl named Ingrid, played by Johanna Hickey(?), from the future who was in a spaceship.  He would show her Laurel & Hardy movies via cassette (8 track?) into his computer to show her what life was like on Earth before she was born.  He would show her other educational films as well.  Chris was only shown in his bedroom.  Some older black guy would come visit him sometimes.  I think he was a family friend. Chris's conversations with Ingrid were a secret, and whenever the black guy would come over, he'd have to say bye to Ingrid really quick and turn the monitor off before the black guy would open the bedroom door.  The bedroom walls were standard 80's-style wood panel (I think?).  Sometimes you'd hear Chris's mother's voice from outside the bedroom door, but you'd never see her. I do not recall his father being a presence.

Ingrid would show Chris videos of the way they grow plants in the future by way of 7" records(?).  She also had a diary, which was a globe on a pedastal that would glow when it would talk.  She would consult the diary when she had problems or questions.  The diary, I think, spoke in a computer-monotone voice.  Her parents were on the spaceship with her, and they were shown somewhat often.

I would guesstimate that Chris was about 12 and Ingrid was about 14.

There would be a mini-skit in the middle of Starstuff called "The Edge Of Space" where it would show these muppet creatures named Krickles and Zornad that lived on the moon in a crater, or something like that.  I did not remember the names of the muppet creatures until I saw someone else mention their names in a previous post years ago.  "The Edge Of Space" was a continuing story.

The last episode's plot revolved around Chris having to move, and worrying if he'll ever be able to hook up to his connection with Ingrid at the new location.

Mark Ritts link mentioning Starstuff and The Candy Apple News Company:
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/4567/ritts.html

Dorothy Louise link mentioning Starstuff:
http://www.fandm.edu/departments/tdf/louise.html

Thought I'd throw this information out in the hopes that anyone remembers these shows as well.  Ultimately, I'm looking for VHS copies of some episodes...

Born, raised and still live in that pit. Is wasn't bad growing up. In fact, it was great living in Philly. It got alot worse real fast. Now it's a pit. Sorry had to vent. Anyway, I don't remember those shows.

Tim
RATT-n-ROLL

I remember those shows.  Chris' parents were divorced, that swhy you never got to see the father (it was mentioned about every 3 shows).  and i remember seeing the mother about twice.  Those puppet robots were pretty funny if i remember correctly.

Candy apple news company...all i remember was the evil thing that lived in the basement and everyone was scared to go down there.

Wow, I finally found someone else that remembers those shows.

Rev Zack