So I saw the premiere of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Here's what I have to say about it:
Of course there's no way it can ever be MRN. It's very differently structured, and to me feels just like another kids' show, and the way they handle certain topics is handled in a much younger, and less sophisticated way than on MRN. But still, it was very good, and very impressive of how much they can keep MRN characters and both the NOMB (and Fred's home too) for today's kids. Here's how I felt about all that:
First, I don't think that this Daniel Tiger is supposed to be MRN Daniel's son, as the FRC website and other sources have suggested. His father is only known Dad Tiger; we don't know that his first name is Daniel. As for other characters:
Amazing that the prince is Prince Wednesday! So this means that all days of the week have been used for MRN characters now except Sunday! I wonder if Sunday could come up. And his father is King Friday, and he looks like King Friday! So this means that unlike in the Daniel situation, there's nothing suggesting that he divorced Sara and married another person who's Wednesday's mother. However, since we don't know the queen's name, maybe it is Queen Sara, and Wednesday could be Tuesday's brother, not half brother. Yes, Tuesday would now be 42 years old, and Wednesday is probably 6 (the age Prince Tuesday I believe was for all the post-75s), but since the post-75 era is 22 years old, and they started 9 years after Tuesday was born rather than 6, there's no real time in the NOMB. And I didn't get enough look at Wednesday's mother, since she was only seen for an instant, so I couldn't tell whether she looked like MRN Queen Sara. Is she indeed supposed to be Queen Sara, and if she's not (or none of you know for sure), do you think she looks like her?
It's amazing that there's an O the Owl as well as X! I'm wondering if just maybe they were thinking not just Xs and Os, tic tac toe, hugs and kisses, etc., but also OCS! I would so not be surprised, since that's all letters starting with O. And the cat was Caterina! Not remotely like Henrietta, but more like Catalion (in the Audrey Duck puppets and seen in 1576 - 1580 as well as a lot of pre-79s). I think they should have instead thought of a name more like Henrietta.
Miss Elena being Lady Elaine's daughter was a a surprise! And the question is why make her black? Who would her father be? Francois Clemmons? (I can't think of any other black man). I also wondered if just maybe, they At first, since Lady Elaine didn't appear in the first episode, it took me a while to figure it out, until I realized what MRN name Elena is close to. In fact, with her being black, I was thinking of maybe her somewhat the equivalent of Princess Zelda (especially because of 1626 - 1630 (Mouths & Feelings) when it's discovered that she's the cousin of Princess Ella, who's supposed to be Cinderella. Everyone remember that?) And she didn't seem to be showing any signs of mischief like Lady E always did. But then I knew it for sure when she said "toots." I'm sure once we get to know Miss Elena's mother, we'll see Lady E's old mischievous ways!
About the bakery in the birthday episode, I'm sure a lot of you may be thinking it's very different from Brockett's, but if you think that, you could be wrong. I think it did have the look of Brockett's on the inside, and even though the baker wasn't remotely like Don Brockett(what was his name, Baker Baker? I didn't catch it but it sounded like that), he did have a Hispanic look, so I'm wondering if just maybe they were thinking the people who worked at Jose Cisneros and Sergio Pinto! I so wouldn't be surprised about that. Also, one interesting thing was that though there was a yellow building (which was the model pan for Brockett's), that's not the building they went to! When I first saw that yellow building, I was really thinking they would! And as for the school, how great that the teacher is Miss Harriett, even if not a cow. And as for the doctor's, what an interesting twist to name her Dr. Ana! Though she wasn't a platypus, it's like she's following in her father's footsteps! I'll bet if Dr. Bill had a son, they'd name the doctor after him! One thing that's too bad about the school is that we won't have an "Ana, Prince, and Daniel" since the first of those three is an adult (unless she has a daughter?) Also, of all the toys Daniel was packing in his backpack to take to school, I was almost expecting him to pack MRN Daniel's signature toy, a truck! I was a bit surprised and disappointed to see that he didn't! And it's interesting that one could say that for both shows, a school is featured in what could be thought of as a series premiere, since the post-75s could be thought of as one series.
As for other characters, I'm still wondering if there's going to be a Lady Aberlin, Chuck Aber, Joe Negri, Bob Trow, Maggie Stewart, and Audrey Roth figure, as well as Negri's Music Shop, Trow's workshop, and maybe even Betty's Little Theatre. But I did notice a Mr. McFeely!!!!!!! Since he does still work at FRC, I wonder if just maybe David Newell will voice him!!!!! Since he looked like him, I would so bot be surprised! And for that matter, I wonder if just maybe Betty Aberlin, Joe Negri, Chuck Aber, Maggie Stewart, and Audrey Roth will make appearances. Somehow I don't think Betty would.
And nice to have similar opening and closing songs to MRN's, and the "it's you I like" line in the Good Feeling song!
All of you who saw the premiere today, what do you think of what I had to say about it, and what do you all think about it?
