Great Job, Internet!: George Romero, Margaret Hamilton reveal nice-scary side to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

“Sometimes we think she’s just mean and a very bad person,” she informed Mr. Rogers, “but actually you have to think about her point of view—that it wasn’t as happy a time as she wanted it to be because she just never got what she wanted.” (Unfortunately, Mister Rogers’ lesson in ruby-slipper jealousy was covered in another episode.) Soon, Hamilton dons her costume (but not before Mr. Rogers tries on the Witch’s hat, which is fun) in a light bit of scary make-believe that drives home the episode’s theme of confronting one’s fears with play. (One wonderful bit: Mister Rogers noting that the zipper on Hamilton’s Witch costume is just like the zipper on his cardigan.) You can watch the episode in full below.

For horror enthusiasts, the YouTube channel has recently uploaded “Mister Rogers Gets A Tonsillectomy” (called “Mister Rogers Gets His Tonsils Taken Out” in the playlist), a documentary segment directed by Night Of The Living Dead maestro George A. Romero, who, like many working filmmakers in Pittsburgh in the late Sixties/early Seventies, was hired to shoot a handful of segments for the show. The previously rarely seen segment was found by Romero historian Lawrence DeVincentz and posted in full by Bloody Disgusting in 2017. “It was shot in a real, working hospital,” the director later reflected. “I had to quickly, and quietly, use my pin-lights to get exposure in the waiting room, in Fred’s bedroom, and in the O.R. I still joke that ‘Mr. Rogers Gets A Tonsillectomy’ is the scariest film I’ve ever made. What I really mean is that I was scared shitless while I was trying to pull it off.”

Honestly, watching Fred Rogers being put under for minor surgery is pretty unnerving. Having to run lights and camera while doctors performed the procedure? Oh yes. Professional nightmare fuel.  You can watch the Romero segment, and the very nice episode around it, in the video below.