Two previously thought-to-be-lost episodes of the PBS children’s series, “Mister Rogers,” had been uploaded to YouTube. As the episodes focused on the relationship between the United States and Russia, in addition to focusing on a PBS show, there is speculation that the upload was intended to serve as a political protest against President Donald Trump. The fact that the real life “Mister Rogers” had once publicly defended funding for public broadcasting has also been a point of issue for theorists.
The episodes revolved around the creation of a bomb
The two episodes reportedly aired in November 1983 and were part of a series called, “Mister Rogers Talks About Conflict.” It is believed that the episodes had been pulled from syndication, likely due to their content. For years, the episodes were believed to be lost until they had been anonymously uploaded onto the YouTube site by a user named TROG SLEEP NOW. The user is considered “anonymous” due to the fact that no comments, profile photo, or other videos were visible on the profile.
The premise of the five episodes revolved around the character of King Friday fearing a neighboring town is secretly building a bomb, after encountering a strange package.
These fears instigate the king into wanting to develop a bomb himself. Children are at one point made to put on gas masks and participate in air raid drills. Added to that, it is eventually revealed that the king is going to take money that was intended for other causes, such as supporting a local school. In the end, however, the initial bomb fears are revealed to be unfounded, as the package was holding parts for a bridge construction, with the parts that were going to be used in the construction of the second bomb being donated to the aforementioned school.
Similar current and historical events have led to conspiracy theories
It has been speculated that the release of the episodes was intended to serve as a protest to recent announcements that money intended for public broadcasting will go to funding the military, highlighting the fact that the series is a PBS show, as well as the content of the episode, which included changing planned funding to increase money going to the military.
In addition, Fred Rogers himself also once famously lobbied the United States Senate in 1969 to keep funding for public broadcasting. This fact had been heavily highlighted by theorists that the episodes were specifically chosen to be used in a protest to reflect this.
Jorge Flores, with a YouTube channel called BlameItOnJorge, said in a released statement that the YouTube release was “surreal.” Flores, whose channel focuses on lost media and conspiracies, initially believed that the upload was merely a coincidence, but suggested he changed his mind after learning of the similar budget cut in addition to Rogers' history advocating for public broadcasting funding.
