There are very few television personalities that have achieved icon status in the way that Fred Rogers has. For 895 episodes spanning a few decades, Mister Rogers taught kids to love and respect themselves and their neighbors in his trademarked frank manner. To millions of people, Mister Rogers remains one of the most influential figures from their childhood, and his lessons actually had a real impact on their development into adulthood.
In short, Mister Rogers is one of the most beloved celebrities of the 20th century. Because of this, I expect the following video will go all kinds of epic levels of viral.
PBS Digital Studios has just uploaded “Garden of Your Mind,” which sees the legendary figure’s words remixed into a mesmerizing song. Despite my natural aversion to autotune, I had no trouble waxing nostalgic about my childhood hero after watching this amazing tribute.
Check it out below:
PBS worked with mashup artist melodysheep to create the video. You may know of him from his equally awesome musical tributes to the words of Neil deGrasse Tyson.
When we discovered video mash-up artist John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep, on YouTube, we immediately wanted to work together. Turns out that he is a huge Mister Rogers Neighborhood fan, and was thrilled at the chance to pay tribute to one of our heroes. Both PBS and the Fred Rogers Company hope you like John’s celebration of Fred Rogers’ message.
PBS says that this is but the first in a series of remixing PBS icons. I think we all know who they should tackle next.