Episode 1537
Topic: Food
Air Date: November 20, 1984
Previous Episode: 1536 - Food
Next Episode: 1538 - Food
Purchase/Stream: Amazon
Mister Rogers arrives with some granola which he made at home and takes it to the kitchen to add some raisins. Scooping the granola into bags, Mister Rogers prepares a special treat for several of his neighbors.
Mister Rogers makes a phone call to Mr. McFeely to ask about an upcoming delivery. As he waits on Mr. McFeely to arrive, he mentions that "people often get angry when they're hungry and also when they have to wait." Mister Rogers then sings What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel.
Mr. McFeely arrives with a delivery -- a package of tofu and a film about how tofu is made. After watching the film, Mister Rogers asks Mr. McFeely to deliver the bags of granola to his friends.
In the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Lady Aberlin agrees to help Queen Sara's "Food for the World" cause. Meanwhile, an unwanted guest stumbles upon X's newly-grown produce and helps himself to all he can eat.
No one sees the vegetable thief which leads to confusion at X and Henrietta's tree when the empty garden box is discovered. As it turns out, Lady Elaine's new garden has been pillaged as well.
Back at the house, Mister Rogers talks about a time when he was young and he took some cupcakes that his grandmother had made for some friends. Mister Rogers' grandfather had told him that he must have felt very lonely to have done something like that. This leads into the song A Lonely Kind of Thing.
Notes
In this episode, we see one of the many examples of Fred Rogers communicating with young viewers on an appropriate level. As he touches on the subject of hunger, he describes the problem to viewers in direct, yet simple terms: "Did you know that some people are hungry and they don't have enough food to stop their hunger?"
While it's no secret that Fred Rogers was quite a healthy eater, I don't think that his discussion of tofu was done to push his own agenda. Instead, I can only asssume that he was looking to do what he did so often by exposing viewers to topics and information that they would otherwise never encounter.
Appearing In This Episode
- Betty Okonak Templeton-Jones
- Bob Dog
- Henrietta Pussycat
- Lady Aberlin
- Lady Elaine Fairchilde
- Mister Rogers
- Mr. McFeely
- Old Goat
- Queen Sara Saturday
- X the Owl
Songs
- It's Such a Good Feeling
- A Lonely Kind of Thing
- The Weekend Song
- What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel
- Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Images
Episode Credits
With Fred Rogers
Neighbors: Betty Aberlin, Michael Horton, David Newell, Bob Trow
Special thanks to: Soya Food Products Co.
Executive Producer: Fred Rogers
Producer: Sam Newbury
Director: Paul Lally
Associate Producer: Margaret Whitmer
Music Director: John Costa
Produced in association with WQED/Pittsburgh
A production of Family Communications
© 1984 Family Communications, Inc.