Not much info on Pinwheel

Being that it was the show that launched the Nickelodeon empire, not to mention cable television in general. There's very little info(not to mention archive footage) on this show. I'm already aware of the numerous clips on youtube and wikipedia page. But something about this show still remains a mystery to me.
Here are a few facts I think I would like to know..

Why did they stop production in 1982 and rerun until 1989? The show took up the entire Nickelodeon morning schedule throughout the 80s!

Did the original Pinwheel channel become Nickelodeon in 1979, or did the channel shut down when Pinwheel became an individual show then Nickelodeon was launched separately in 1979?

What was programming like on the original Pinwheel network on Qube(77-79)

What was it like on the set(cast and crew) of Pinwheel?

What were the actual episode air dates as well as production dates(1977-82)?

What did the human actors do once the series ended? There isn't much info on them at all.

Where were the episodes filmed?