You know what they say… “Old and young and in between, from Newfoundland to New Orleans, say one thing about our jeans, love my Mr. Mousters!” And thus Today’s Special continues to educate more than fifteen years after the show ended production, but in different ways than before. The official lesson to be learned from the episode Jeans, which is what this bit comes from, is that it’s what’s inside a person that counts, rather than the clothes they wear, thus why it would not be the end of the world if Muffy did not get a pair of Mr. Mousters jeans. However, now that Today’s Special’s original audience is around college age, give or take a few years, the scenes in Today’s Special provide new examples of more complex concepts. For instance, in the Sociology class that I’m taking at JMU this summer, we recently learned about “reverse socialization”, a process where the children teach the adults new information about society. In Jeans, Muffy had made it clear to Mrs. Pennypacker what specific kind of jeans she wanted, Mr. Mousters in this case. This was the brand that was considered hip among fashionable mice, mind you. Now it had to be Mr. Mousters – no other brand would do. This was best exemplified when Jodie got Muffy a pair of Rompin’ Rodents brand jeans. Muffy’s reaction? “Just pack these up and then return them, ’cause if they were mine, well, I think I’d probably burn them!” Pretty rough. Jodie was socialized the hard way regarding Mr. Mousters. Ironically, after selling Jeff and Jodie on the idea that Mr. Mousters brand was the best kind of jeans out there, and even landing a deal with a producer to be the spokesmouse for Mr. Mousters, Muffy’s cousin Mort comes on the scene with a new brand of jeans – Pied Piper Pants (they’re all the rage in France). Mort unwittingly engaged in reverse socialization himself, convincing the producer by simply wearing his jeans that Pied Piper Pants were where it was at, totally upstaging Mr. Mousters and such. Thus Today’s Special teaches us a new lesson in the 21st Century. And Mom thinks I’m too old for this show…
