this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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I'd love some obscure facts about Mr. Rogers.
I grew up with him.
Mr. Rogers really wanted to encourage children's imaginations, but he didn't want them to confuse fantasy and reality. That's why there's such a strong delineation between his house and the Neighborhood of Make Believe. He also did more than one, "behind the scenes," episode to show the neighborhood wasn't real, and even mentioned on occasion that his, "house," was just his, "television house," where he would visit with the viewer, not his real house where he lived (which explains why he leaves at the end of every episode). When Big Bird was set to do a crossover episode, Rogers initially wanted the puppeteer to remove the costume and show children how it worked. The puppeteer didn't want to destroy Big Bird for children, so they compromised by only having Big Bird visit the Neighborhood of Make Believe. However, there are two regular characters (Handyman Negri and Mr. McFeely) who appear in both the Neighborhood of Make Believe and the Mr Rogers house, which potentially blurs the line between real and make believe.
Isn't it amazing that 'not lying to children' somehow seems kinda radical?
True, but to be fair, if I'd been watching Mr. Rogers as a kid and Big Bird showed up, ripped his own head off, and revealed a middle-aged man hiding inside, I probably would have been traumatized.
True, but Mr. Rogers would probably know how to do it properly so that you'd be at ease.
I think he could do it, but I think it might have unforseen knock on effects. I used to work for Disney, and even as an adult if you're not actively preparing for it, it can be a bit jarring the first time you run into Goofy headless at the smokers table. And I was one of those kids that, even on my first trip to Disney I knew it was someone in a costume, so I couldn't tell you if anything would be lost for some kids, maybe it's like Santa? And Disney pretty actively discourages cast members from talking about this stuff - "what if a five year old is in earshot" and "don't ruin the magic", they taught euphemisms like "close personal friends with [character]" if you, say, wanted to talk about your friend who is close personal friends with Tinkerbell. And for as much of a soulless company as they are, Disney (at least 15 years ago) actively cared about crafting an experience in their parks, there is so much detail that people don't realize is going on. Not acknowledging headless Goofy is part of that.
Being honest to kids is still probably more important than whatever bit of magic we all lose by doing so.
We need a motherfucking army of Mr Rogers and we need to airdrop them into every neighborhood in America.
In case they meet resistance, I strongly feel they should also have lightsabers.