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!

Power Rankings Friday: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood!

This week we celebrate our latest podcast episode by ranking the denizens of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood! Note that some of the show favorites like Chef Brockett, Mr. McFeely, and even ol' Freddie Ro himself are not eligible since this list focuses on the "fictional" part of the program and the characters who were only seen in that portion:

1) X the Owl: I said on the podcast that X was the most appealing character in the Make-Believe. I like the way he looks and his enigmatic nature. Is he a representative of the undefinable crossover between knowledge and imagination?

Or maybe he's just an owl. But he's cool. And I love that his name is just "X."

2) King Friday: Mike once described His Majesty's nature as "mercurial," and that says it best, though Friday is rather subdued in the episode we discuss on the podcast. Let's be honest here: Friday is sometimes, well, a bit of a jerk. Does the land of Make-Believe even need a king? What is his lineage, anyway?

I'm just asking questions here. As a character, King Friday shakes things up and makes good television, so I don't want to see him go anywhere.

3) Lady Aberlin: Her interactions with Daniel Tiger remind me of what they used to say about Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire: She gave him class, and he gave her broad philosophical questions that were impossible to resolve in a single 10-minute segment.

4) Handyman Negri: He's just so darned amiable that you got to love him. And besides, I could use someone to help with some grout repair.

Do they even have grout in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe?

5) Henrietta Pussycat: Her speech patters, meow, can be a little, meow, annoying, meow, yet also, meow, kind of fascinating. Meow.

Not ranked but also receiving consideration: Neighbor Aber (mainly just for the name, I admit), the controversial Lady Elaine, Queen Sarah, Henrietta, Prince Tuesday, Daniel Tiger

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 10-2: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

*The video playlist for this episode is now live! See promos, clips, and Fred Rogers in action, plus SCTV,  Ben Franklin, and Wayland Flowers & Madam! All this and more when you click below:

Remember to hit our official YouTube page for past episodes of the podcast and episode-specific video playlists for each one!

*Mister Rogers' Neighborhood aired for 31 seasons and over 900 episodes according to Wikipedia. It had various pre-incarnations before becoming a national daily broadcast on NET (later PBS) in 1968.

*New episodes lasted until 2001, most taped at PBS member station WQED in Pittsburgh. The series took a production break for several years in the mid Seventies.

*Episodes are streaming various places, including a rotating assortment each week at the series' official site at https://www.misterrogers.org/.

*Props to Johnny Costa, who Mike mentions on the podcast. Costa was the show's longtime musical director and performed much of the music in the episodes.

*Morgan Neville's documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor premiered in theaters in 2018, the 50th anniversary of the debut on PBS. That same year, PBS stations aired Mister Rogers: It's You I Like, an hourlong presentation hosted by Michael Keaton.

*According to this site, the episode we discuss, "What Is Love?" is numbered 1309 and premiered Thursday, April 26, 1973 on most PBS stations.

*Elsie Neal, the proprietor of the craft shop, should not be confused with actress Elise Neal.

*Warning to sensitive listeners/viewers: Here is the scary PBS logo indent, also contained (but just barely) in our playlist this week:

We feel that by sharing this clip and confronting it, we can all grow and get past our crippling fear of it.

*Mike and I think you're are special, and we love you just the way you are (and not just because you listen, but we appreciate that, too)/

Ep. 10-2: Mister Rogers' Neighorhood

This week, we once again cater to the 2-11-year-old demographic and discuss the venerable child "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Mister Rogers takes on Speedy Delivery duties for a vacationing Mr. McFeely and plays with elaborate masks. In the Neighborhood of Make Believe, Lady Aberlin wrestles with the eternal question "What is love?"

#podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #misterrogers #misterrogersneighborhood #fredrogers

Check out this episode!

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...

 

This Day (yesterday) in TV History: The end of two eras on ABC

On  April 25, 1992, 30 years ago tonight--er, last night--two memorable sitcoms ended their runs on ABC, proving that the network was committed to destroying the American family!

OK, not really. To be honest, if you want to know what we thought of these programs--well, let's just say in 1992 they weren't part of my regular rotation (You can listen to our Growing Pains episode here, and as for Boss, we haven't gotten to it yet). Millions of viewers did watch and enjoy them, though, so it was a big deal for the shows, even past their primes, to end on the same night. Each show got a two-episode finale, with Boss actually concluding a 3-parter that began the week before.

Growing Pains had 7 seasons and 166 episodes, while Who's Da Boss? ran 8 seasons and 196! That's a whole lot of television history ABC said goodbye to 30 years ago. Each series had been moved to Saturday night by now, and the big dogs in the family sitcom category on the network aired Tuesdays: Top 10 hits Full House, Home Improvement, Roseanne, and Coach. Hmm, maybe ABC was committed to destroying the American family.

Top Ten #174: Special "Season 10 is here!" Edition

1) The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town: Our new season kicks off this week with the 1977 Rankin-Bass special. Hey, I don't know about you, but I haven't even taken down my Easter tree yet.

2) Fred Astaire: His lauded performance as Kruger in that special may have him in early contention for a Batty, making him a candidate for BEGOT status--Wait, Fred never won a competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, nor Tony? What wayward timeline be this?

3) Earth Day: It was Friday, and so I still haven't taken down my Earth Day tree. Let's take a look at a classic PSA:

Hey, it was either that or a Captain Planet clip.

4) Chopper One: The short-lived Dirk Benedict series is now on Crackle!

5) Apollo 16: 50 years ago, Apollo was in space. Uh, not Apollo from Apollo and Starbuck, but the NASA mission.

6) Kingston Confidential: We talked about this one yesterday, and now I want to see it! There just aren't enough TV shows about crusading investigative journalists turned media moguls turned crime solvers! (Thanks to the Classic Film and TV Archive for the pic)

7) J.D. Cannon: Today would have been the 100th birthday of the prolific actor who was in everything but also was Chief Clifford in McCloud.

8) The Mysterious Powers of Man: 40 years ago on this date, Richard Basehart narrated this ABC special on the paranormal. I would love to see a narrate-off between him and Leonard Nimoy!

9) Dr. Strange: The 1978 TV movie we discuss here is coming to a new Blu-Ray from Shout!, but get it quickly because it's a limited edition and is liable to vanish to the astral plane faster than you can say "Peter Hooten's mustache."

10) Robert Morse: R.I.P. In addition to a distinguished career on stage and screen, he was a big voice performer, starring in The First Easter Rabbit among many other productions. One of his more unusual credits is voicing Howler on Pound Puppies.