YouTube Spotlight: Mister Rogers Meets Aresnio Hall

One of the clips in this week's video playlist is just a little outside our usual timeframe, but we hope you forgive us for including a bit of Mister Rogers Meets Arsenio Hall, which was dramatized in the Tom hanks feature film a couple years ago:

This was an event almost on par with Abbott & Costello Meeting Captain Kidd, with The Bowery Boys Meeting the Monsters, dare I say even with Kiss Meeting the Phantom of the Park!

You might expect this to be played as a gag (as I sort of just did), but in fact Arsenio gives Fred Rogers all due respect. Hey, the Neighborhood featured all kinds of pairings that might be considered unusual and made everyone feel united without losing their uniqueness. After the initial joke, the two sit down and have a serious conversation, and Rogers doesn't seem out of place.

I think this is a really cool clip (originally airing in January 1993) that shows both men at their best. Maybe it's not so unusual when you consider that several years earlier, Rogers described himself as a cross between Albert Schweitzer and Arsenio Hall!