Over the weekend, two episodes of Mister Roger's Neighborhood "Conflict" series unexpectedly appeared on YouTube after being unavailable for three decades. YouTube quickly removed them, but to many, the timing felt related to Trump's plans to defund PBS.
The grainy VHS copies were part of "Mister Rogers Talks About Conflict," a legendary five-part series of the long-running show, pulled after airing in in response to the 1983 nuclear speculative fiction The Day After.
Via Ben Collins:
The premise of the series revolves around the Neighborhood of Make-Believe's King Friday and his lingering worries that the neighboring town might be building a bomb, after he saw a strange package shipped to a local factory owner named Corny. Over time, without any evidence, King Friday becomes increasingly convinced Corny is gearing up for war, and directs all of the residents of the Neighborhood of Make Believe to start creating bomb parts. He wants 1 million bomb parts, and he also encourages his own residents to arm themselves. Children were forced to put on gas masks and participate in air raid drills. Yes, in an episode of Mister Rogers.
• Lost 'Mr. Rogers' Episodes Mysteriously Resurface — And Might Be a Message to Trump (The Daily Beast)
