Twitch Mr. Rogers Marathon

[A Black Falcon]

"Sometimes people are good, and they do just what they should, but the very same people who are good sometimes are the very same people who are bad sometimes" is how his song (in the '68 episodes they're still playing) begins, on a subject relating to what you said. It then continues to Maybe he could make the "and you should try to be good" part of the message stronger, but it is there -- 'everyone does bad things sometimes, but generally try to be good' is the subtext I think. Remember, the target audience is, like, 3-8 year olds or such. I'm sure his message would be quite different for adults, but for little kids it works fine as it is. There was an arc earlier (like, about episode 40 or 50?) where the factory in the land of make-believe caught fire and burned down. The story continues through the whole week of episodes, as the guy who owned the factory was very sad, King Friday uselessly commanded the fire to stop since he was afraid, Mr. Rogers tells children not to play with fire, and such, initially... but then there is a happy ending, as it gets rebuilt nicer looking than before. So the series does occasionally cover issues more serious than the usual stuff like what that song I reference at the start of this paragraph does -- the next line after that one is like 'sometimes you get wet, and your parents get upset', and such; not exactly the worst kind of behavior, but just the right kind of thing for the target audience.


On another note... Yes I'm watching the stream now, and I love the time stuff. Like, 'I will see you again in 187 1/4 seconds"... heh. :) Or when Handyman Negri asked for "9" as a payment for some work, so he was given... a round piece of paper or wood or something with a 9 written on it, which he accepted. It's good stuff.

The kinds of subjects in the episodes from '68 are sometimes weird as well. Sometimes it's Mister Rogers playing with finger paints or toy trucks, or helping teach the alphabet or basic addition... but other times there are guests doing things such as interpretive dance segments (and there are more than a few of these), gymnastics, tap dancing, glass blowing... it's weird stuff, but what should you expect from the '60s? The series' very first story, from the first five or so episodes, is interesting stuff as well. Presumably inspired by fear about the Vietnam War, it is an arc in the land of make-believe about how the king is scared and trying to wall off the kingdom and has put barbed wire on the castle battlements. To try to fix the situation Lady Aberlin comes up with a plan for a peace party (like a party party, not a political party), and to float balloons with peace messages over the castle. After initial fear --King Friday sees them and says 'paratroopers! man the cannons!' -- once he is shown what they are, King Friday likes it and gives up on the whole barbed-wire thing. It is quite a fantasy in that real wars don't end so easily, but it's a nice aspirational message at least!

Another thing... while right from the beginning he sings the same song at the beginning of each episode, mid-series the ending song changed. In much of the first series it's a song called "Tomorrow", which is catchy stuff. Also it's only midway through the first season when he starts changing his shoes at the beginning and end of each episode -- at first he only changes from coat to cardigan, that's it. I noticed very quickly when starting watching this stream that the shoe-changing bit wasn't in the early episodes, going from outdoor shoes to house shoes, but he added it fairly early.

I also love Sesame Street, but in recent years that one has kinda lost the way. Original Sesame Street stories would be about one of the muppets trying to help fix a window they broke, but lately we're getting completely nonsensical stories like "how to make sure you recite the spell's incantation correctly lest the magicks fail in unpredictable ways". I mean, that's important too I guess, but only for magical fairy muppets, not for us really real people watching the show.

I haven't watched Sesame Street in a very long time, but sure, while Mister Rogers was a lot better, I thought it was good. That does sound like they've upped the weird, but hasn't Sesame Street always had weird stuff in it?

(Remember though, I didn't watch these shows nearly as often as many kids -- I mean, when I was little we didn't have a TV at home so I could only watch any of this stuff occasionally, and once we did get a TV and were in the US I was 9 and probably did watch them sometimes, but not as much as you would when you are younger.)

Regardless, I definitely can enjoy this Mister Rogers stream as an adult, but I don't know if I would feel similarly about a Sesame Street one. I'd probably watch a lot less of it.