Lost Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Specials
Jan 28, 2023 22:14:27 GMT
GrigioGuy and awesomereesee like this
Post by prudepride._ on Jan 28, 2023 22:14:27 GMT
After Christmastime With Mister Rogers was officially released a few weeks ago, I remembered hearing about another hour-long special that was produced after, called Springtime With Mister Rogers. However, there is not much information on this special online.
Most of the information about this special comes from Wikipedia. The description lists, Betty's Little Theater springs a leak in its roof. To raise money to fix it, everyone in the neighborhood stages a performance. Lady Elaine fantasizes about being a princess. One commenter on the Neighborhood Archive forum recalled that John Reardon portrayed the villain, and Bob Keeshan was also involved. It was only aired once, either on March 31, 1978, April 1, 1978, or June 3, 1979.
On the same Neighborhood Archive forum thread, a few people claimed to have both the Christmastime special (which was recently released) and the Springtime special. One user commented that it is out-of-print, so only the master would exist. However, the Neighborhood Archive does not have an article relating to this special as the Christmastime special does. Here's the thread: www.neighborhoodarchive.com/forum/index.php?topic=234.0
It doesn't seem to be available for public viewing at the Fred M. Rogers Center. Many obscure pieces of Mister Rogers media are open for public viewing but have not been posted online via their online archive or pictures and recordings taken by guests, so it is undetermined. There is also no online index for material in the archive.
I also learned of another special, which does not have a title attributed to it except "Violence In The News" and "Mister Rogers Talks to Children and Parents About Violence". It only aired once on May 25th, 1981. The description from ArchiveGrid reads, In the NOM, on Lady Elaine's news program, Harriet Cow tells about a walking talking tree. After the tree is stolen, Lady Elaine and Producer Edward look for it. Producer Edward finds the tree dead. Lady Elaine reports on the news about the tree. Producer Edward learns that a big tree killed the smaller tree. The killer tree is jailed. Mr. Rogers emphasizes that this has been makebelieve. He talks about the importance of verbalizing feelings and not doing harmful things.
A former Wikipedia edit gives another, similar description. One aspect that sounds familiar is, Rogers shows video footage of himself at schools, discussing why people murder, young children. This clip was officially released on Vimeo and later removed, but re-uploads are available. The ArchiveGrid listing states that school this was filmed at was Beltzhoover Elementary School. It is available at a library in Pittsburgh but is currently not online.
UPDATE
The Springtime and Nighttime specials have been found. I've scoured through archives of the Mister Rogers website to see if any other pieces of media have been lost and there are too many to count. I'd love to see these found as they could assist in childcare settings as they once did, but it does not seem likely that they ever will.
Most of the information about this special comes from Wikipedia. The description lists, Betty's Little Theater springs a leak in its roof. To raise money to fix it, everyone in the neighborhood stages a performance. Lady Elaine fantasizes about being a princess. One commenter on the Neighborhood Archive forum recalled that John Reardon portrayed the villain, and Bob Keeshan was also involved. It was only aired once, either on March 31, 1978, April 1, 1978, or June 3, 1979.
On the same Neighborhood Archive forum thread, a few people claimed to have both the Christmastime special (which was recently released) and the Springtime special. One user commented that it is out-of-print, so only the master would exist. However, the Neighborhood Archive does not have an article relating to this special as the Christmastime special does. Here's the thread: www.neighborhoodarchive.com/forum/index.php?topic=234.0
It doesn't seem to be available for public viewing at the Fred M. Rogers Center. Many obscure pieces of Mister Rogers media are open for public viewing but have not been posted online via their online archive or pictures and recordings taken by guests, so it is undetermined. There is also no online index for material in the archive.
I also learned of another special, which does not have a title attributed to it except "Violence In The News" and "Mister Rogers Talks to Children and Parents About Violence". It only aired once on May 25th, 1981. The description from ArchiveGrid reads, In the NOM, on Lady Elaine's news program, Harriet Cow tells about a walking talking tree. After the tree is stolen, Lady Elaine and Producer Edward look for it. Producer Edward finds the tree dead. Lady Elaine reports on the news about the tree. Producer Edward learns that a big tree killed the smaller tree. The killer tree is jailed. Mr. Rogers emphasizes that this has been makebelieve. He talks about the importance of verbalizing feelings and not doing harmful things.
A former Wikipedia edit gives another, similar description. One aspect that sounds familiar is, Rogers shows video footage of himself at schools, discussing why people murder, young children. This clip was officially released on Vimeo and later removed, but re-uploads are available. The ArchiveGrid listing states that school this was filmed at was Beltzhoover Elementary School. It is available at a library in Pittsburgh but is currently not online.
UPDATE
The Springtime and Nighttime specials have been found. I've scoured through archives of the Mister Rogers website to see if any other pieces of media have been lost and there are too many to count. I'd love to see these found as they could assist in childcare settings as they once did, but it does not seem likely that they ever will.
