Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: 1601: Fun to wear hats

January 20, 2021 8:58 PM - Season 20, Episode 1

Mister Rogers, who is wearing a reindeer hat, trades hats with Mr. McFeely. In the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Mr. McFeely delivers a bag of hats to Queen Sara and Lady Aberlin, who are wearing hats for fun.

Mister Rogers, who is wearing a reindeer hat, trades hats with Mr. McFeely. They try on some different hats while Mister Rogers explains that hats can be fun to wear but they don’t change who a person is.

In the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Mr. McFeely delivers a bag of hats to Queen Sara and Lady Aberlin who are wearing hats for fun. King Friday thinks the hat wearing rather foolish but still declares the day Hat Day, a day of fun. Lady Aberlin distributes hats to Henrietta and X, and then meets Randy S. Caribou, who has her put hats on his antlers. Together they distribute hats to Lady Elaine and Daniel. Lady Elaine recruits Randy for her television program, and Randy and Daniel overcome their initial fears of each other by talking. Miss Paulificate arrives and invites all to the castle for a hat party.

Mister Rogers visits an arts center where Andy Holiner and Alice Johnson lead some children in songs and play. Mister Rogers talks about the many kinds of games and songs and the value of repeating favorite songs that seem like old friends.

Watch online at Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (available January 18-31 or so)

Episode 1601 at The Neighborhood Archive

posted by kristi (3 comments total)

This seemed a little sillier than some of the episodes I've watched lately, but of course silly can be good.

Some other random thoughts:

I could listen to John Costa play piano forever. I especially liked his adaptation of the "different ways to move" song during the transition back to Mister Rogers' house after the visit to the music center.

I wonder if Costa ever played the intro music the same way twice.

Favorite quotes:

"Any fool can sing!"

"Hello. You're very large."

When Mister Rogers told Alice Johnson "You've got some good huggers here," she said, "Yes, we do" - using the delivery you would use if someone just said you had great athletes or musicians. Like, "Yes. They're very good at it. And we're very proud of them."

I actually really liked the silliness and the repeated emphasis on doing something just for fun - it reminded me of the recent thread about choosing to pursue something just because you want to. I would hope the kids who are Mister Rogers' target audience wouldn't have to be persuaded that doing something just for fun is valid and good, but goodness knows as an adult I can use the reminder.

The best bit, for me, was his closing thought:

"There's so many games and songs and things to play, that if you did something different every day of the year, there'd still be some left over - but some of the fun is doing the same one over and over until it seems like an old friend."

Also: HATS!
posted by kristi at 9:09 PM on January 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Three Hat Day episode of Reading Rainbow was always my favorite hat-themed episode of children's public television.
posted by ChuraChura at 5:01 AM on January 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wow, ChuraChura ... I took a look at that link and realized I've never seen Reading Rainbow. I've heard so much about it, I kind of thought I had seen at least a few episodes, but no.

Three Hat Day has pictures by Arnold Lobel!

Thanks for turning me on to that! Yay!
posted by kristi at 7:55 PM on January 21, 2021 [1 favorite]