I don’t know about you, but I had a real love/hate relationship with Mr. Rogers as a kid. While I loved Fred Rogers himself, I thought every single other element of the show was freakin’ terrifying.
That message has been thoroughly reinforced with this PBS remix of Mr. Rogers speak-singing “Garden of Your Mind” by John “Melodysheep” Boswell of The first 30 seconds are like Pink Floyd’s The Wall! Boswell is famous for his “Symphony of Science” remixes featuring famous scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Stephen Hawking.
But in all seriousness, it’s actually really well done and is a fun way that PBS is trying to raise money for its free programming.
What do you think of remixing classics?
About Joanna Schroeder
I think mashups are our generation’s newest medium, and an exciting one. Instead of using some combination of pigments or tones, we’re combining bits of media that we know as well as people used to know a particular shade of blue, or every word of the Bible. They’re like hymns of the modern age.
I loved Mr. Rogers and admire him even more as an adult. My father thought he was insufferable, the way I felt about Barney when my son was of an age to be watching children’s programming. He also liked Thomas the Tank Engine, another that went way too slow for me. I never liked the puppets on Mr. Rogers. They all had that boozy glow to their cheeks and noses, or spoke an annoying meow-based patois.
I loved Mr. Rogers, but thought the puppets were freaking terrifying! YES to the drunk-glow and the creepyass huge noses and ughhhh (shiver) the scary voices.
Also, you’ll LOVE this, but my family’s favorite thing to tell people is that I meowed exclusively for a few months in my 4th year of life… Inspired by Miss Kitty.
My dad says he seriously considered giving me away to the humane society!
What a test of fatherly devotion!
I’m somewhat obsessed with these sorts of remixes, love when they take something old and give it a new life.
But that autotune is entirely unnecessary. Would have been top quality without it.
Most good children’s show’s from the 80′s were terrifying on some level that is what made them so absolutely wonderful. It’s the greatest genre when you think about it – even the most sophisticated movie by David Lynch is nothing more than a pale imitation of shows like Mr. Rogers.
So true.
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, The City of Champions. Mario Lemiux, Jackie Robinson, Lynn Swan, Hines Ward, 6 Super Bowl victories… these are things we’ll talk about every day on end ad nauseam. Go to Pittsburgh, where Mr. Rodgers was from, where he made that show, where we have a statue of him… go and mention Mr. Rodgers and all you’ll get is a solemn nod and silence, because there’s nothing left to be said… there just isn’t the words…