PBS <3 the Internet: Reading Rainbow Remixed

More

A book lets you zoom through time and space.

PBS is doing the Internet so nicely. Remixing Bob Ross, Julia Child, and Mister Rogers earlier this year -- and, today, national treasure LeVar Burton -- they're hitting right in the sweet spot of hyperactive Millennial nostalgia and our (not mutually exclusive) love of irony. We'll also take any excuse to embrace power-ballad/show-tune melodic constructs we say we hate -- if we can feel like they're hip, maybe because they're Auto-Tuned or half rap.

These videos do feel like they're playing us, a bit. "You can't not like us," they whisper. And they're right. But they're also perfectly true to the original 1980s sensibilities of the shows and their messages, if with more transparent sexual overtones (see Bob Ross, "Caress it very gently"). Still, if Fred Rogers got to see these remixes, he would say they were top notch, and he would mean it.

Mister Rogers - "Garden of Your Mind"

Julia Child - "Keep on Cooking"

Bob Ross - "Happy Little Cloud"

Jump to comments
Presented by

James Hamblin, MD, is The Atlantic's Health editor.

Get Today's Top Stories in Your Inbox (preview)

Video

More Video
Here's What Happens When You Light a Fire in Space


Elsewhere on the web

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register. blog comments powered by Disqus

Video

Miami: The Next Big Start-Up City?

How the city became a center for innovation

Video

Video

A Brief History of Romantic Comedies

From The Atlantic's Chris Orr

Video

Life in 'the New Arctic'

A moving portrait of a fading landscape

Video

Video

The Rise of New York City

A fascinating look at Manhattan in the 1940s

Video

What Is Methane Hydrate?

"Flaming ice" is a vast natural energy source

Video

NASA's Time-Lapse of the Sun

Now with epic dubstep music

Video

Shaken Not Tuned: Cocktail Experiments

Can a tuning fork improve a cocktail?

Video

Video

Is He Cheating? A 1950s Guide

'That little blonde secretary from the office?’

Video

New Yorkers: Vintage Vacuum-Tube Amps

Risking electric shock to restore old amplifiers

Video

The DIY Piano-Bicycle

Everybody needs a hobby

Video

What Does It Take to Make Real Craft Gin?

Tour the Green Hat Gin distillery

Video

What Straights Can Learn From Same-Sex Couples

New insight from decades of research

Video

The End of the Mall Rat

A tribute to that pillar of teen culture

Video

The Wonderful World of Capitalism

An adorable 1950s cartoon

Video

New Yorkers: Miss New York USA

An unconventional beauty queen.

Writers

Up
Down

More in Entertainment

In Focus

Reenacting the Past