I sometimes wonder why Huell is often so worried about “giving away” the point of the show when the title itself is a huge clue! But either way, Huell has a lot of fun in this musical episode of Visiting which originally aired back in October 2000. And while the blurb below mentions Schroeder from Charles Schulz’ Peanuts cartoon, I found myself thinking instead of that wonderfully surreal movie The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953), given the episode’s location in the Geisel Library. Although budget cuts have affected the library’s open hours these days, I’m happy to say the toy pianos continue to be celebrated, most recently with the 24th Annual Toy Piano Festival held last September.

They may be small and often out of tune, but Huell discovers that beautiful music can be made with toy pianos. Scott Paulson, the resident Schroeder at the University of California San Diego, takes Huell on a tour of the Geisel Library’s Toy Piano Collection. Huell is also treated to an amusing toy piano recital, including scores commissioned exclusively for this unassuming instrument.

(Click on the linked image below to see the video.)