Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood:
For Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood we have Daniel, himself, sing to the home viewer for the beginning of the song and we intentionally kept it the same as Fred’s original song. Daniel zips up his red sweater, he puts on his little sneakers and even tosses one a la Fred!
If you look closely to this frame you can see all of our nostalgia elements: Daniel is in the foyer, similar to the Mister Roger’s foyer, there are few different colored sweaters in the closet, there is a stoplight, a little trolley behind Daniel, little models of the Neighborhood (made by hand out of clay by Traci Paige Johnson) & even the fish tank.
The song revs up and becomes a modern version of Fred’s “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Daniel hops on the trolley and goes through the (Pittsburgh) tunnel (the one that we go through in the original series) and ends up in our expanded new version of The Neighborhood of Make Believe. We can see many of the iconic characters and some new ones (especially in this open when we premiere in September).
In this scene, you can get a sneak peek to Daniel’s character who wants to be big & strong and carry his own birthday cake all the way home on Trolley. Trolley premieres in this clip too, as you can hear her “ding” when spoken to as the beloved character that she is. Mom lets Daniel carry his cake by himself and he’s excited. Perhaps he’s a bit too excited!
We wanted to showcase empowering preschoolers and helping them through natural consequences. Because, as can be expected, when Daniel gets home, and runs in to show Dad his cake that he decorated at the bakery with his friends, it is smushed. Daniel is naturally very disappointed. Dad Tiger (the original Daniel Striped Tiger) takes the time to talk to Daniel about how he feels, letting Daniel have his emotion. Then Dad sings the disappointment strategy to him, “When something seems bad, turn it around and find something good.” Daniel sings the strategy with the home viewer and thinks about how he can “find something good” in a smushed birthday cake. He thinks. And thinks. And then….”HEY! Do you think the cake still tastes yummy, even though its smushy?” He tastes the cake and guess what? It does taste yummy! And that is something good!
Angela as a long time fan of Mister Roger’s neighborhood both as a child and a parent I was excited to see this preview. I loved it! I thought the nod to the original was lovely and I thought the updated town and the animation was great!
I then had my 6 year old watch it with me. He is starting to be more interested in “bigger” kid TV, but I was curious how he would react to it. I also loved the message of the birthday clip.
My own son really freaks out when things do not go the way they are supposed to. We work on this continuously. Peter just loved the opening. He smiled and giggled. And, then when Daniel shows his cake to his dad and it’s ruined Peter got very serious and just watched. I spoke with Peter about what was happening, and he was excited to come up with the same answer as Daniel did, that the cake would still taste great.
Congratulations! We both thought it was fantastic. If Peter feels to old to watch it come September I may just watch it myself! Lol!!
Thanks so much for your kind words Kathy. I’m glad we have some new/old fans! 🙂
We love Daniel Tiger in our house!
I have an “almost 2 year old” & it’s the only thing we let her watch. We don’t want her to have excessive screen time too early. We love the messages that Daniel presents. We often sing the songs from the show. A family favorite is, “Clean up, Pick up, Put away, Clean up every day!”
We are even considering hosting a Daniel Tiger Birthday party when she turns 2!
Thanks for creating such a great show!