00:00Oh, here you are. You're here and we're here.
00:04I've got a good bat costume here to show you.
00:07No matter what race you were, what color you were, what religion you were, what language you spoke, you watch
00:12Mr. Dress Up.
00:12Ernie Coombs, Mr. Dress Up, I mean, he was just so kind and gentle.
00:17Ernie never forgot a child within him, and that informs everything that he does with children.
00:25When you tell people that Fred Rogers and Ernie Coombs came to Canada together,
00:29most people don't even realize that they were very close friends.
00:324,000 episodes, 30 years. There are not that many shows that last that long.
00:41Tell us what the secret is to 30 years on the air.
00:44I'm a child at heart. It's all doing things that I always liked to do when I was a kid.
00:49The Tickle Trunk was this magical, like, Pandora's box.
00:53As soon as you open that lid, something was going to happen, something magical.
00:57I'm Tugboat Captain Dress Up.
00:58Is he going to be a wizard? Oh, no, he's a dinosaur. The endless possibility of that.
01:03Oh, my, what a lovely day.
01:04Judith was able to make Casey come completely alive.
01:08I didn't know if Casey was a boy or a girl.
01:11Way ahead of its time, not a little bit. Way ahead of its time.
01:15Looking back on it now, I wonder, how on earth did I manage to do it for so long?
01:19And then how on earth have I managed to survive so long after I finished?
01:23Having been Mr. Dress Up for 20 years has probably made me a better person.
01:28You assume that he comes home and kicks off his Mr. Dress Up shoes and becomes a different person when
01:33he's at home.
01:33That just simply didn't happen.
01:35The kids tease me a lot because I laugh at his jokes.
01:37That's why I married you, because you're such a great audience.
01:40I'm a good audience.
01:42Of course, when Sesame Street came on, they said, oh, that'll be the end of you.
01:45There was a question whether the show would go on.
01:48We were having a wrap party.
01:50But then as time went on, I think we were getting the sense that Ernie was getting concerned.
01:54How could he possibly continue what he wants to?
01:58You have made me what I am today. You know that.
02:01Hi, Mr. Dress Up.
02:02One of the reasons I became an actor was because I'm very early age, this person on television, an adult
02:07but not an adult, taught me that it's okay to let my free flag fly.
02:11Ladies and gentlemen, one of the great Canadians.
02:13Let's do that.
02:15Thank you.
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