The Children's Corner: Episode 4096
Broadcast Date: Undetermined
Josie sings the Why Hi Song as she opens the program and welcomes viewers to the Children’s Corner. Daniel Striped Tiger calls Josie to the clock and when she arrives she is wearing a wig. Daniel recognizes Josie’s new look and gives her a posey to wear in her curls. She explains that Lady Elaine Fairchilde had instructed her to grow the red hair using “a mixture of sand, cement, an old wash cloth, some leftover soup, coffee grounds, a cold potato, and rubber cement.” Mixing these ingredients and sitting near a radiator for four hours were to produce the curly locks.
Despite the flower in Josie’s hair, Daniel prefers her regular hair and Josie uses further instructions from Lady Elaine to “ungrow” the red hair. She turns around three times, bobs up and down and says “Hookin McGookin, go to town” while Daniel closes his eyes. When he opens them, Josie has removed the wig and Daniel is relieved to find her to returned to her regular appearance. When Daniel suggests growing red curls of his own, Josie reveals that she was only wearing a wig and the instructions from Lady Elaine were only pretend.
When she attempts to surprise X and Henrietta by wearing the wig, Josie finds that X likes her new look but Henrietta is less approving. When Josie reveals that she in only wearing a wig, X tells her that he complimented her because he was afraid it really was her hair and didn’t want to say anything bad about it. He admits that he prefers Josie natural hair afterall.
Josie welcomes the Mason Marionettes to the Children’s Corner as Ted and Jean Mason use their marionettes to perform a variation of the Nutcracker.
After the performance, Josie visits Lady Elaine Fairchilde who has just returned from Hawaii to see how her hair growth recipe has worked for Josie. Lady Elaine has walked all the way back – using the heel-toe method, swimming when she came to the water – which took her three and half hours due to poor wind conditions. Lady Elaine agrees to wear the wig when she returns to Hawaii noting that “when [she is] so beautiful, anything to make [her] more so is, of course, a spark of ingenuity.”
Josie closes the visit by singing Goodnight God and the So Long Song.
Screenshots
Appearing In This Episode
In order of appearance
- Josie Carey
- Daniel Striped Tiger
- X-scape the Owl (X the Owl)
- Henrietta Pussycat
- Lady Elaine Fairchilde
Cast
Guests
- The Mason Marionettes (Ted and Jean Mason)
Locations
- Josie’s counter
- Cuckoo Clock
- Oak Tree
- Schoolhouse
- Window
Songs
Notes
- This episode appears to have been recorded at at least two separate times. Josie is wearing a different dress and has a different hairstyle when singing the Why Hi Song before it switches when she goes to visit Daniel. Additionally she does not have her usual TTT button on for the first half of the episode, but does after the marionette show (though she has presumably not moved from her counter during the show).
- As usual, Daniel and X appear to be wearing Tame Tiger Torganization pins. Lady Elaine is also wearing a pin as a “lavalier.”
- Putting on the red wig, Josie says “little orphan Annie,” a reference to the comic strip Little Orphan Annie created by Harold Gray. (Note that the well-known musical Annie did not premiere on Broadway until 1977, some 20 years after this Children’s Corner episode debuted).
- Henrietta speaks exclusively in “meows” in this episode (no additional words)
- Music from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker including Waltz of the Flowers and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
- Characters in the Nutcracker marionette show include the Nutcracker/prince, the princess, the flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the mouse king, and a jester.
- Similar to various operas and Make-Believe storylines in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the magic word that finally changes the Nutcracker back into a prince in the marionette show is “love”.
- Josie notes that red hair makes Lady Elaine’s nose look “so pretty” and that her “one tooth just sparkles” with it, flattering Lady Elaine.
Episode Credits
The Childrens Corner [sic]
With Josie Carey
Produced by Fred Rogers
Directed by Carl Freeborn
Technical Supervision: Larry Flavin
From WQED -- First in community television
A presentation of the Educational Television and Radio Center
National Education Television