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capri0mniSince the death of Fred Rogers, creator and host"Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" -- the longest running children's program on PBS (1968-2000), I've been contemplating the effect the show has had on me.
I was four years old when the show was first syndicated, so I am a first generation "Television neighbor." I don't remember very many details of the earliest shows, except that I was scared silly of Lady Elaine Fairechilde ... So much so, that I would sometimes turn off the tv before the "make-believe" segment started, so I wouldn't risk seeing her. I think it was her big nose and strident manner. She had a magic boomerang she would throw to cause mischief (tried three times to post a link to her picture, and three times, this whole paragraph disapeared -- still the trickster, perhaps?), and I think that tendancy to cause trouble scared me too... (but as I grew older, my she became my one of my all-time favorites -- as I grew older, I could appreciate her point of view, even if I didn't agree with it).
And then there was Robert Troll, an occasional guest character, and not a regular, but one of my first introductions to what a troll is -- perhaps even before I learned the story of the Billy Goats Gruff ... I'm a little fuzzy on the timeline, that far back. So maybe you can thank Fred Rogers and Robert Trow (who, sadly, died back in 1993) for planting the seeds of Eloise.
Robert Troll and his friends greeted each other by touching the tips of their forefingers and saying "doot!". So when my cat Trixie reaches out with her forepaw to touch the tips of my toes, or my finger, I often find myself saying "doot!" as a reflex.
But my biggest favorite character back then was X the Owl. Anyone who says "Nifty-Galifty" at least once a day is definitely cool!
I was four years old when the show was first syndicated, so I am a first generation "Television neighbor." I don't remember very many details of the earliest shows, except that I was scared silly of Lady Elaine Fairechilde ... So much so, that I would sometimes turn off the tv before the "make-believe" segment started, so I wouldn't risk seeing her. I think it was her big nose and strident manner. She had a magic boomerang she would throw to cause mischief (tried three times to post a link to her picture, and three times, this whole paragraph disapeared -- still the trickster, perhaps?), and I think that tendancy to cause trouble scared me too... (but as I grew older, my she became my one of my all-time favorites -- as I grew older, I could appreciate her point of view, even if I didn't agree with it).
And then there was Robert Troll, an occasional guest character, and not a regular, but one of my first introductions to what a troll is -- perhaps even before I learned the story of the Billy Goats Gruff ... I'm a little fuzzy on the timeline, that far back. So maybe you can thank Fred Rogers and Robert Trow (who, sadly, died back in 1993) for planting the seeds of Eloise.
Robert Troll and his friends greeted each other by touching the tips of their forefingers and saying "doot!". So when my cat Trixie reaches out with her forepaw to touch the tips of my toes, or my finger, I often find myself saying "doot!" as a reflex.
But my biggest favorite character back then was X the Owl. Anyone who says "Nifty-Galifty" at least once a day is definitely cool!
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Date: 2003-03-02 07:21 am (UTC)A kind soul,one the world could use more of
I liked Captain Kangaroo, too
Date: 2003-03-02 08:45 am (UTC)But it was Mr. Rogers' songs that I sang... and I think I recognized, even at that early age, that Mr. Rogers had more "substance" -- for one thing, he used his real name...