TV Talk: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood TV universe introduces Daniel Tiger to Donkey Hodie

Let Marvel have its “cinematic universe.” The creations of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood TV Universe come together next week in a new “Donkey Hodie” episode, “Daniel Tiger Visits Someplace Else” (11 a.m. Monday, WQED-TV).

The animated star of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” comes to three-dimensional life as a puppet to fit the “Donkey Hodie” format as Daniel and Dad Tiger visit Donkey Hodie’s Someplace Else — via Trolley, of course — so Dad Tiger can help Grampy Hodie repair a grandfather clock similar to the one the original Daniel (Dad Tiger when he was a child) lived in on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” (Turns out a MRNTVU wiki is almost as complex as the MCU wiki.)

Ellen Doherty, chief creative officer at SouthSide Works-based Fred Rogers Productions, which co-produces “Donkey Hodie” with Spiffy Pictures, said the shared DNA of characters, locations and themes from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” in both “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” and “Donkey Hodie” inspired the team to explore show crossovers.

It was a conscious choice for both shows to have the same cobblestone path seen in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe on Rogers’ show.

“Visually it ties all three shows together and those worlds together,” Doherty said.

In “Donkey Hodie” season two, Trolley from “MRN” first visited Donkey Hodie and friends. In a January episode, “Donkey Hodie’s” Speedy Delivery critter Turtle Lou called his pops to wish him a Happy New Year. The voice of pops was provided by Turtle Lou’s spiritual predecessor, Mr. McFeely (David Newell) of “MRN.” “Donkey Hodie” introduced Jeff Mouse, inspired by Jeff Erlanger from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

“We knew, according to canon, that the original Donkey Hodie, who is Grampy Hodie on ‘Donkey Hodie,’ knew the original Daniel Tiger, who is Dad Tiger in our current [‘Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood’] world,” Doherty said. “Since they knew each other, it did seem inevitable that they would meet again.”

A primary concern was how to make the Daniel Tiger translation to “Donkey Hodie” comfortable for children watching, given that “Donkey” is aimed at children ages 3-5 while “Daniel” is for those 2-4.

In “DTN,” Daniel receives each episode’s strategy (or lesson) via song from an adult. On “Donkey,” the core message and learning themes are expressed in first-person from a child’s point of view, like, “I can do hard things.”

“We had to make sure Daniel feels like Daniel when he comes to Someplace Else,” Doherty said.

Kristin DiQuollo, co-executive producer of “Donkey Hodie,” shares an office wall at FRP’s SouthSide Works headquarters with “DTN” supervising producer Chris Loggins, making for an easy collaboration.

“Before we had an idea for a story, we knew finding the right writer for the story was going to be a big deal,” DiQuollo said. “We hired Jill Cozza-Turner, who’s the head writer for ‘Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood’ and who has written many, many episodes of ‘Donkey Hodie.’ She knows both worlds and all the characters very deeply.”

For Loggins, who coined the term MRNTVU (though he said some FRP co-workers prefer “Neighborverse”), translating Daniel Tiger from animated to puppet form in a way that felt right was key.

“We have great partners at Spiffy Pictures that Kristin works with on ‘Donkey Hodie’ and they were really intentional about getting that right and included us in every stage of the process, from sketch to puppet design, all the way through to the final product,” Loggins said. “We were sent fabric samples and fur swatches. … At the same time, I had to make sure that I also was giving the grace to make sure that this puppet looked like it was meant to be in the world of Someplace Else in ‘Donkey Hodie.’ ”

Daniel also sounds like Daniel from the animated “DTN” because the same voice actors who play Daniel and Dad Tiger on the animated show performed the voices for the characters in puppet form on “Donkey Hodie.”

For the final piece of MRNTVU connective tissue, this “Donkey Hodie” episode uses a new version of Fred Rogers’ song “Look and Listen” from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

MRNTVU meet and greets

In addition to watching the new “Donkey Hodie” episode, local fans can meet former Point Park University student Haley Jenkins, voice and puppeteer of Donkey, and Frankie Cordero, Panda and Dad Tiger puppeteer, at a meet-and-greet event, 9:30-10:30 a.m. and noon-1 p.m. Saturday in the Box Office on the town square at SouthSide Works. There will also be giveaways and a puppet-making craft available for families.

For adult Mister Rogers fans, White Whale Booksellers, 4754 Liberty Ave. in Bloomfield, will host “The Legacy of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” 7-9 p.m. Aug. 8, featuring a discussion among Jenkins, Cordero, Doherty and Newell. Guests are asked to register for free in-store attendance or virtual attendance via Zoom.

Impact of PBS cuts on FRP

Regarding the Trump administration defunding PBS, Doherty said it’s too soon to know how those cuts will impact Fred Rogers Productions, but it seems like the cuts will be felt at some point because PBS funding represents a portion of the cost for producing all FRP series made for PBS Kids, which also include “Alma’s Way,” in production on its third season, and “Odd Squad,” awaiting word on whether there will be more new episodes following a UK-set season last year.

“We value working with PBS and public media as we have done for 50 years and the hope and plan is to keep working with them and supporting them as we can,” Doherty said. “Everyone is in a state of, ‘What does this mean?’ ”

In addition to its TV series, this month FRP launched a new online “Donkey Hodie”-themed game (available in English and Spanish). The daily puzzle game, “Daily Donkey,” is available on the PBS Kids games app and at the “Donkey Hodie” page at PBSKids.org.