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Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
2012 · TV series · 28 min episodes · 8 seasons
Created by Angela Santomero
The life of 4-year-old Daniel Tiger and his friends as they learn fun and practical strategies and skills necessary for growing and learning.
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5 comments on Hacker News
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood [0] is directly based on the character by the same name from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.'
Daniel Tiger is one of the very, very few TV shows we let our daughter watch, and it teaches emotional regulation so incredibly well and has plenty of tunes that I've caught her singing to herself, such as "it's okay to feel sad sometimes, little by little, you'll feel better again"
I'm in Australia and never grew up watching Mr Rogers, but after seeing the "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" movie I recognised the tunes and then spent an inordinate amount of time looking into the origins.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tiger%27s_Neighborhood
PBS has new shows that seem pretty good, like Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (cartoon spin-off of Mr. Rogers), Martha Speaks, Word Girl, Dinosaur Train. Others skew more toward the Nick Jr. school of shows, like Wild Krats, Curious George, etc.
Ironically it is kind of hard to find old school Sesame Street on PBS. It's not even really a PBS show anymore; its new episodes air first on HBO, which sends a shiver down my spine just to type.
We don't have cable, but basically never turn on the TV for the kids. All "TV time" for my kids starts with loading PBSKids.org or NickJr on the laptop. The content is all age-appropriate and the sites are navigable by a kid. (NickJr is way better in this regard.)
The only time my kids see YouTube is if I load up a specific video for them--then I close it. You're 100% right that it's not a safe place to let kids surf around.
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is meant to carry on Mr. Roger's legacy. They talk about feelings in every episode, and deal with childhood issues like Mr. Roger. It's wonderful.
They also have some of the same characters, and they ride a trolley to get around town.
The number of people who are quick to jump unquestioningly on this and say, "It was better before" are... well it bums me out.
Sesame Street's role in child development has changed radically as the general opinion on how TV should interact with kids has changed. These kids shows have been pushed down the age bracket, appealing to younger markets where demand is a lot greater for the content. Older kids shows? They exist in the spaces between cartoon network hot properties, and do a good job of confronting the complex issues kids will face from 4-12. The same is true of The Mr. Rogers->Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. They're tuned for totally different age ranges and requirements.
I dunno how many of you are parents. I have a 15 month old daughter. A constant chime of the following information is reiterated by child care consulting, doctors, and developmental evaluators:
- Sensory experiences are more important than anything right now. - Emotional stability is more important than anything. - Disregard the advice about "no screen time." Screens shouldn't be a substitute for parenting, but kids can learn to use tablets startlingly early in life and interactive education is provably better than passive education. In some specific subjects, interactive solo play is superior even to parentally guided play.
Let's also not forget: This article is just false. The idea that no one ever corrects Elmo? Totally wrong. Elmo gets a lot of screen time, but over the last year we've seen a huge amount of investment in a lot of other characters. Cookie Monster, Abby's complexity, and most importantly a huge increase in the time humans spend on sesame street talking.
The idea that Seasme Street doesn't touch on tricky subjects is false. Just last week the PBS Kids app rotated the episode on "Minne Myna". It's a two-sided story. On the one hand, Big Bird makes a case to bird court that someone else can't steal his nest just because he left it. "Finders Keepers is a bad rule."
But it's also trying to talk to kids and say it is okay to be sad and that they SHOULD be sad if they lose their homes. The episode is delicately touching on the subject of home eviction. Someone who has never been evicted might not even notice, but anyone who has lost a home will immediately realize what Big Bird's singing about. Big Bird gets a happy ending, but the episode leaves reminding kids that many other birds didn't get their nests back and that it's okay to be sad.
I see so much of these kinds of articles. All I can do is despair as my generation begins to make the exact same mistake as our outrageous parents who had very similar things to say about childhood programming which we all wax nostalgically on now.
I'd rather a million Elmo-centric Sesame Street episodes than even one episode of Barney or Caillou.
That said, every kid needs some old-school, Elmo-free Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. (No, "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" is not the same; it's insipid and dumb by comparison.)
Also, back in the day, Square One TV had a police-procedural parody called Mathnet that was still loads better than network TV's attempt at a mathematical-cop show for adults (Numb3rs).
It literally couldn't get any better for a kid than PBS in the 70s or 80s.