Mr. Dressup: The Magic Of Make-Believe

[safeandhappy]

I'd forgot all about Mr. Dressup until I saw a trailer for a documentary on Prime. It mentions that Ernie Coombs considered himself a 'child at heart' 🤔. Seems pretty interesting. He was very dedicated to what he did. I was surprised to learn the show spanned 30 years and over 4000 episodes. Way ahead of his time on the transgender issue also.

 

Update: I watched the documentary. It really brings you back and is very touching.

 

[TinyBunny]

Wow.  4,000 episodes.

[~Brian~]

@safeandhappy @TinyBunny

I remember Mr dress up growing up! That was an awesome show, and it was on the Canadian Broadcasting Channel, Channel's 6 and 13, and what was awesome about it was that you hired Mr Green jeans and you had different people that would come in and they would do different stuff and then they had Mr Moose and all of this other stuff and it was really awesome, because Ernie Coombs would dress up and that he would end up doing different stuff and he had a magic chest and stuff and it was really awesome. One of the things I loved about childhood was being able to watch shows like this and have fun being able to imagine almost anything. You used to be able to do that with Sesame Street back in the day, but they've dumbed down Sesame Street so much that the only thing that it's appropriate for will be anything between six months and two years old, and anything that's above that we wouldn't learn anything. When I was a kid, Sesame Street helped you to count, learn your numbers, learn your letters, learn your words, learn how to share and how to get along and how to play. Then you ended up with electric company that helped you with reading writing spelling and all of the things in usage, and you had easy reader and you had different people that were played by guys like Morgan Freeman Reeda Morano and different actors and actresses, and you had letterman and different stuff on electric company and you had JE Arthur Crank and different stuff and it was funny, but it also taught you things. They didn't dumb down shows so bad that it was almost mush to the head. Shows that actually teach morals and things that you need to learn, so you know the difference between right and wrong, and you can understand different things that make sense, and you learn how to do different stuff with letters numbers colors shapes and things like this, basically it helps you to prepare for school, and then it helps you to learn as you grow up because you learn how to read you learn how to write you learn how to see words and speak them and you hear them on TV.

Basically the era of that happening is gone. Now we have shows that are basically dumbed down to really really young, and that is not an insult to those that watch those types of shows anymore, but I don't understand why they have to be so dumbed down. Mr Rogers for example always used to sing to us and then tell us that he was our friend to comment and helped us learn morals and respect and different stuff and then whatever, but it just seems like when I was a kid we used to have fun watching Sesame Street and all of these different programs and I had Sesame Street records I had a Mr Rogers record I had a electric company record, and I loved everyone of them and played them until they were gone. The days of having shows that teach where you are actually teaching tool language appropriate and age appropriate kids are a lot different now than they were back when I was a kid.

when you watch these shows when I was a kid call me you always ended up either learning something, or remembering something that you saw on Sesame Street. How to get along, you learned how to speak in, and you learned how to be respectful of others, you learned about emotions, and even when Mister Hooper, which is the store keeper on Sesame Street died they had a big thing about it, because he actually died in real life, so they ended up having an episode where Big Bird had to learn that his friend is gone, and that helped kids learn about death and how they dealt with it. Nowadays I don't even think they would go that far, and they would only lightly brush on it if at all. Shows that I used to watch used to teach and you used to learn, but I don't know what shows nowadays would teach, because it's just so dumb down and watered down that it's just not the same. Add to that that the public broadcasting system doesn't even do, nor does the children's television workshop CTW, have anything to do with public television any more, and all of that content went to HBO! I don't know exactly how that works out, but anybody that wants to watch Sesame Street the ones that I grew up with for example you'd have to go to youtube and look for classic Sesame Street. Street is Sesame Street, but the ones that I was watching are a lot different than the ones that you can watch now on HBO!

There was also a show called the Gentle Giant.  That was also on CBC Montreal, and it was really cool, because it was about a dragon and his friend Rusty and the gentle giant, that was pretty cool. There was also a lot of different things that you learned from that, and I used to watch PBS when I was a kid growing up, or I'd watch different things that I liked, but nowadays there is so much garbage going on in our world that everything has to be correct, and nobody can make any different observations, because then it wouldn't be politically correct. Wish that we had the world we had back 35 or 40 years ago, when we didn't have to worry about being politically correct as much as we are today, and we didn't have to worry about people fighting in the government all the time. Sure we should have what what we have now as far as norms and morals, but the problem is is that things have been dumped down and changed so much that some of the shows on the TV that teach kids I don't know what they teach anymore and that seems to be where it is it's all really close to the line or really fuzzy: everything has to be politically correct, and it just seems like it's a big mess. Sometimes I wonder if this new setup is better than what I grew up with, but what I grew up with was classic, and we had all of them muppet characters that we had, a lot of them have been retired even, some of them may be because they were too scary or whatever, but we used to watch Sesame Street and there's a lot of different stuff that we learned from these characters like Burt and Ernie, another different characters: now some of those are retired, and it's just feels a lot different. The audiences changed, so the way they do the program is also changed

The reason why I bring up the other shows too is because that was also part of what a kid would watch when they grew up. Also the zoom program which is also good, and that was awesome to watch. That I was watching with my aunt that had Down syndrome and she had fun, she was playing those types of records for a Sesame Street into her 30s or something common so that was interesting, but eventually my grandparents put a stop to that, because she was getting too old for that type of stuff. I know that she loved her Sesame Street characters and I would play with her for hours and things like that, but Mr dress up was always a good program to watch, and I would watch Captain Kangaroo as well. Back when I was a kid programs like that were awesome, and I bet you if we went back to like howdy duty and other programs that was also good for that generation. What I'm trying to say is television has changed over the last say 50 to 60 years, so the fact is children's programming is almost nonexistent or it's all EI, and it's all telling you about animals and stuff like that, rather than teaching you basic facts and basic things like letters numbers colors and shapes: every Saturday morning I just watched Jack Hannah and different stuff, but that gets a little old and a little boring, and I'm not sure how that even gets qualified like saved by the bell, that qualifies for EI for some of these stations i'm not sure how that does, but it was about kids going to school. Sometimes I wish that we could go back to those days when we could watch Mr dress up and we could watch different shows and we wouldn't have to worry about school or whatever we'd be able to enjoy ourselves and learn.

Brian

[Little Sherri]

I loved that show as a kid. He seemed like a genuinely good guy. 

[Pampertimmy]

I grew up, well not really “grew up”, watching that show a loooong time ago. It was one of my favs. Even as a teen, I still watched Mr. Dress Up in the morning before school. I watched a lot of little kids shows when I was well past the age of the kids those shows were directed at. I just related to them and really enjoyed them. Still true today. Mr. Drees Up was one of my favourites. Casey’s mouth didn’t move but could talk. Finnegan’s mouth moved but didn’t make a sound. 

[carsfan]

As a Canadian watching him on CBC in the early 90s  was a part of my childhood. 

[Shotgun Diplomat]

On 10/12/2023 at 10:38 AM, ~Brian~ said:

also a show called the Gentle Giant

Ah, I believe you mean the "Friendly Giant". 

I have very bittersweet memories of that show as well.