Edgar Cooke Singing in Episode 2

[alex_dh]

First off, Episode two is the one that got me watching Mister Rogers almost daily.  I watched the first episode out of curiosity and was surprised by how similar it was to the 80s episodes I would have seen as a kid.  I was not a huge Mister Rogers fan as a kid, but I liked the show.  Anyway, I told my wife about it and suggested she might want to see an episode so we watched the second episode together.  At this point, I truly did not expect to be watching MRN all the time, have his books and CDs and shoes and be on a MRN message board, but:  I thought King Friday proclaiming Lady Aberlin's song an "irrelevant interlude" was hilarious and it kind of hooked me.  But my wife noticed something else that I thought was really cool. 

Edgar Cooke sings Lady Aberlin's serial number: 34567.  The notes he sings correspond to the scale degree.  As in he's singing mi(3) fa(4) so(5) la(6) ti(7).  Did anyone else notice that?  You're all probably like - that's the oldest and most known MRN trivia.  But I'm new here.  I was really impressed with that detail and these two things together made me keep watching and I'm glad it did!  I figured if he put that much care into a childrens' show, there might be something more there.  We've learned a lot from Mister Rogers in the last two months or so.  I'm glad we found him, or "rediscovered" him right before our first child was born.   

Alex

[Neighborhood Archive]

Alex -- Thanks for sharing this! While you might think that every last bit of trivia has been discovered by this point, I think we've only touched the tip of the proverbial iceberg! I'd never heard this about the 34567 serial number -- this is exactly the kind of detail that just fascinates me when it comes to the Neighborhood and Fred's subtle genius.

[mitsguy2001]

The early episodes in particular would have a lot of undiscovered trivia, since so few people have seen them, and those who did see them in 1968 are unlikely to remember them.