Screen time is limited in our house, and we generally watch shows together, so I have to be able to stomach whatever is on. Recently, whilst trolling through the selections available on Amazon Prime Instant video in the desperate hunt for something that doesn’t suck for my daughter to watch, I stumbled upon the 1984 season of Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood, a childhood favorite.
(Amazon’s instant video, by the way, is really great… there are hundreds of movies/TV shows/etc available for free if you are a member of Amazon Prime. I know that Amazon is an instrument of the evil overlord, as are Google and Facebook, but I do find myself taking advantage of it’s offerings because who wants to pay a la carte to watch episodes of old TV shows when you don’t have to?)
I did not remember how utterly surreal the whole Mr Rogers scenario is. It is the most gentle world, full of full length songs about love and friendship, live instruments, puppets (more than one of whom, from the sounds of it, are played by Fred R. himself) trips to places like the aquarium or the antique train museum which are run by people who are as gentle and patient and capable of bursting into song as Mr Rogers himself. It’s kind of like being in a Waldorf preschool classroom, but on TV, which is ironically about as un-Waldorf as you can get.
Anyway, I am happily taking little vacations with my daughter in Mr Rogers neighborhood, getting inspired to compose our own operas, learning about fish, hanging out with King Friday in the land of make believe and humming along to the theme song.
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