The Neighborhood of Make Believe

So last week I had the flu and Wednesday afternoon I accidentally overdosed on cough medicine. And no, it wasn't fun or funny. It was a legitimate inappropriate temporary overdose. Anyway, after I'd watched just about all my dvds from being stranded in my room I realized I was scraping the bottom of the barrel and reached for a dvd my mom bought me for christmas, which was a few episodes of Mr. Rogers. I figured this would be the only time I'd ever watch it.

Growing up, I always watched him, but he always took a backseat to Sesame Street. But the neighborhood of Make Believe was always my favorite on his show. Being in the odd state I was in I imagined myself being back in my 6 or 7 year old frame of mind and watched it and took it in like I did when I was a kid.

What a great guy Fred Rogers was. Boring maybe but he reached out to all kids. The episode I watched the closest was when he went to a restaurant. He told the viewer about seating, waiting, the menu, the waitstaff, the cooks, how its made, and the bill. I vaguely remmeber watching it when I was little, and realized how such a small, boring, and seemingly pointless episode had a profound effect on me. Even though his restaurant trip was different than any of mine, as a child when I did go to a restaurant I had a heads up from Mr. Rogers. I knew what to expect whenever I went to a restaurant.

So if it was boring yet educational, what type of entertainment is that? Is it entertainment? I think the Mr. Roger's Show is sort of like the Daily Show. It's got some useful, some pointless content, but its main purpose to to inform people of necessary information, and adds extra interesting fluff (Daily show humor, Mr. Rogers Make Believe land) to help the flow of info into our cluttered minds. I'm glad I grew up with Mr. Rogers.