Beautiful day, neighbor
May 12, 2017 1:37 AM   Subscribe

It’s a Beautiful Day in Twitch’s Neighborhood: All 886 ‘Mister Rogers’ Episodes to Stream "It’s going to be a beautiful day on the internet May 15, as Twitch will start a 17-day free marathon of all 886 episodes of iconic children’s show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” on the gaming-focused streaming service — including many episodes that have only aired once."
posted by hippybear (24 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
That's it? Damn, Mr. Dressup had 4000 episodes. Which feels low since obviously the way it was made was that every day at 10:30 am they would just flip on the video cameras inside Mr. Dressups house and we'd just watch whatever he was up to at the time - at least that's how I assumed TV worked when I was watching Mr. Dressup.
posted by Space Coyote at 1:40 AM on May 12, 2017 [7 favorites]


I'm looking forward to seeing the recently resurfaced Conflict episodes.
posted by fairmettle at 1:59 AM on May 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


I have never used Twitch before, but maybe I'll try it for this.

(this is on par with Youtube Red offering Kedi in terms of enticingness)
posted by batter_my_heart at 2:12 AM on May 12, 2017


It's entirely possible that I saw the Conflict episodes during first run, as I watched Fred Rogers all the way up until I graduated high school. But I have zero recollection of that particular plotline. To be honest, I didn't follow the "show" of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. I tuned into it for the mood and its gentle, informative nature and the oddly comforting presence of this amazing man whose show debuted around 40 days after I was born.
posted by hippybear at 2:19 AM on May 12, 2017 [8 favorites]


I am so not understanding why these aren't widely if not universally available.
posted by newdaddy at 3:38 AM on May 12, 2017 [5 favorites]


Preface, I know Mr. Rodgers didn't have a deadman switch leading to release of material like this like someone like Comey might have. Deep down, I know that. Nevertheless....

holy shit you're telling me that even, from the grave no less, Mr. Rodgers is maybe involved the the Trump resistance? I never knew unconditional love could have tiers but Mr. Rodgers (right or wrong) just went to a whole 'nother level.
posted by RolandOfEld at 4:58 AM on May 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


fairmettle: I'm looking forward to seeing the recently resurfaced Conflict episodes.

Already unavailable :(
posted by jenny76 at 5:13 AM on May 12, 2017


I'm a little sad that this isn't what I initially thought it was: former So You Think You Can Dance contestant/current Ellen DJ Twitch streaming Mr. Rogers for some reason.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 5:45 AM on May 12, 2017


You need to read fairmettle's Conflict episode link above, it is amazing.

The rest of the ending is only known through descriptions of Mister Rogers episodes from superfans, whose transcriptions of the first episodes were miraculously faithful on the first two releases.

No longer living in fear of perpetual war, the Neighborhood of Make-Believe has a Celebration of Peace. A carpenter sings What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel, the very same poem the real-life Fred Rogers delivered to the Senate in 1969.

Rogers then concludes: ”Rules are very, very important. Not just for games but for all things. Even big things like countries. Countries have to have rules to protect people, too. And someday you'll be helping to make the rules for your country. I trust that you'll make the best kind you know how."

posted by anastasiav at 6:39 AM on May 12, 2017 [5 favorites]


Twitch managed to introduce a new generation to Bob Ross in this manner a year ago or so. It's nice to see people genuinely (as opposed to ironically) enjoying nice things like this.
posted by explosion at 7:02 AM on May 12, 2017 [5 favorites]


As explosion mentioned, Twitch has already made Gaming Culture fall in love with Bob Ross, I can only hope that Fred Rogers has a similar calming effect on the community.
posted by endotoxin at 7:54 AM on May 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


This is really lovely. It's nice to know that the world will be a little better next week.

From the article: and, like our streamers, he talked to the viewers as if they were in the room with him
I like this connection, and I suppose it's true of Bob Ross, too.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 8:03 AM on May 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


I hope the Electric Company and Zoom are next.
posted by Melismata at 8:23 AM on May 12, 2017


If anyone finds an episode in which he has trouble with his cardigan zipper during his opening song - please memail me! My sister and I saw that happen in an episode when we were kids and ever since then we'd watch in anticipation, wondering if we'd ever see it again.
posted by Elly Vortex at 2:21 PM on May 12, 2017


I know I saw that episode, too. He had problems more than once, actually. It was after a string of cardigan problems where he started running his zipper up and down during his song instead of just zipping it up. At least, that's how I remember it.
posted by hippybear at 4:33 PM on May 12, 2017


I remember watching these as a child. I'm serving as a youth minister now, and I hold St. Fred as one of my most important role models--his respect for children, his preaching of love and acceptance for everybody, his gentleness and care, his refusal to ever talk down or condescend. I really consider him my first pastor.
posted by EarBucket at 11:04 AM on May 13, 2017 [3 favorites]


This is such a wonderful thing. Instead of reading angry tweets about the cluster-fuck that is Trump, instead I'm watching Mr. Rogers episodes. This warms my heart.
posted by Fizz at 9:40 PM on May 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


Mister Rogers is one of my personal heroes. So happy you posted this, hippybear. Thank you.

Tom Junod's essay, "Can You Say... Hero?" is a wonderful profile of Mister Rogers. Published in 1998. (Rogers passed away in 2003.)
Sometimes, ophthalmologists have to take care of the eyes of children, and some children get very scared, because children know that their world disappears when their eyes close, and they can be afraid that the ophthalmologists will make their eyes close forever. The ophthalmologists did not want to scare children, so they asked Mister Rogers for help, and Mister Rogers agreed to write a chapter for a book the ophthalmologists were putting together—a chapter about what other ophthalmologists could do to calm the children who came to their offices. Because Mister Rogers is such a busy man, however, he could not write the chapter himself, and he asked a woman who worked for him to write it instead. She worked very hard at writing the chapter, until one day she showed what she had written to Mister Rogers, who read it and crossed it all out and wrote a sentence addressed directly to the doctors who would be reading it: "You were a child once, too."

And that's how the chapter began.

Angela Santomero helped create Blue's Clues, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Peep and the Big Wide World, Super Why, The WotWots and Creative Galaxy. This is why:
"I was that 4-year old who would sit in front of the television and talk to Mister Rogers every day. Mister Rogers liked me, just the way I was. I swore he was looking right at me. He smiled, explained things in a calm voice, and told me I was special.

As I grew up, I secretly watched Mister Rogers when I was stressed at school or when adults around me would dismiss my feelings because I was a child. His message was never lost on me. He was comforting even through a mere television set. In eighth grade, while writing an essay on “My Hero, Fred Rogers,” I learned that he had a child development background with a goal of teaching through television. I knew then that what I wanted to do when I grew up was what Mister Rogers had done for me — let kids know that their voice matters and that if they use their mind and take a step at a time they can do anything that they want to do.
I must admit, I find it deeply comforting to know that his legacy lives on thanks to the effect he had on the children who grew up with him.
posted by zarq at 7:23 AM on May 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


Almost 36 hours into the marathon, about 66 episodes into the 130-episode first season in black and white and it's the perfect antidote to the current 2017 craziness. I was 12 when he first came on, so I wasn't in his target demographic and remembered him mostly as a background to other things... now I'm noticing things like how thin his front door and closet door were - the set design budget was too busy with faux brick in the Make Believe Neighborhood to buy a couple good doors...
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:15 PM on May 16, 2017


With 68 half-hours of the 880+ aired in the marathon, they've hit their $10,000 goal for fund-raising for PBS.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:49 PM on May 16, 2017 [4 favorites]


I'm watching this every night before I go to bed. This is AWESOME.

As are all the folks saying "GG" at the end of each episode.
posted by Melismata at 12:22 PM on May 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


I am noticing now that Mr. Rogers always puts away things when he is done with them, which my parents will surely inform you is something that I never picked up on before.
posted by ckape at 1:16 AM on May 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


I've been enjoying this marathon so much. Watching an episode or two is a nice break from...everything else, and it's been renewing my ability to believe we can make a better world. (Also, I remember detesting Lady Elaine when I was a child, but I kinda love her now. She's so salty.)

The Mister Rogers' Neighborhood facebook page gives heads-ups about upcoming interesting episodes--which I just learned about because I've been hoping to catch one of the operas, but I haven't managed yet. (There's a behind-the-scenes in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe episode shortly, though!)
posted by mixedmetaphors at 12:00 PM on May 26, 2017


A few unrelated thoughts:

I had thought the original "I think I'll grow twelve inches today" had lasted longer than it did before being replaced by "I think I'll make a snappy new day."

I also hadn't remembered just how much gender essentialism was packed into the show. I don't really blame Rogers for this, even if it occasionally sets my teeth on edge. The intention behind "Only girls can be the mommies / Only boys can be the daddies" wasn't "gender is biologically determined and immutable"; that was just something he took for granted. The point was "no matter what gender you are, there are aspects of it that are special, and that's just part of how you're special." I expect there are things I take for granted that will be seen as equally problematic a few decades hence...

I've always loved the music. Johnny Costa was a genius, and his importance to the show is hard to overstate. (And if I'm doing the math right, "Windstorm in Bubbleland" should be on tomorrow morning!)

Finally, I've been enjoying the Fairchilde/Friday dynamic. They each (rightly) consider the other to be kind of a pain, but underlying that is a fond mutual respect. The trickster needs the authority figure to set boundaries; the autocrat needs somebody who'll stand up to him when he crosses into despotism.
posted by Shmuel510 at 12:55 PM on May 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


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