Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was an American children's television series created and hosted by Fred Rogers which was produced by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania public broadcaster WQED and Rogers' not-for-profit production company Family Communications, Inc. (originally Small World Enterprises prior to 1971).

Alternate names

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is sometimes referred to as MisteRogers' Neighborhood. This was the original name of the series from its debut February 19, 1968 until May 1, 1970. In common vernacular, the show is often referred to as merely Mister Rogers.

History

The show began in 1962 as MisteRogers' Neighborhood, a 15 minute program on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. (Ernie Coombs, a.k.a. Mister Dressup, got his start as a puppeteer on Misterogers.)

The first broadcast of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was on the National Educational Television network on February 19, 1968. The following year it moved to NET's successor, PBS. The last set of original episodes began airing in August 2001. 300 reruns continue to be broadcast on most PBS stations.

The series was divided into two halves. The first half aired from 1968 to 1976 (pre-79). The second half aired from 1979 to 2001 (modern series). Episodes of the first half are no longer shown on television, since there is already an ample supply of the post-79 series in circulation, and since many of the pre-79 episodes are now out-of-date. Most episodes from the first half exists in the Museum of Television & Radio including the first episode of the series and the first color episode.

When PBS began reruning the first 460 color episodes of the series in 1976, some of the early color episodes from 1969 and 1970 were re-edited with new voice-overs or footage. For example, in one 1969 episode where Mister Rogers demonstrates the noise-proof ear protectors that airport workers use on the tarmac, the film footage used featured a worker directing a United Airlines jet with its stylised "U" logo—which wasn't introduced until 1974. All pre-79 episodes also included an extra segment following the closing credits, mentioning the show number and additional companies that provided funding since these episodes originally aired, even though they had not provided funding at the time of original production.

The final week of original episodes of the pre-79 era in 1976 featured Mister Rogers in his workshop, watching scenes of past episodes of his series, which he recorded on videocassettes and kept on the shelf in his workshop. On the Friday show of that week, he reminded viewers that they, too, can watch many of those old shows beginning the following week.

Almost all of the 1979–2001 episodes are in active rotation on PBS. The only exception is the week-long "Conflict" series (episodes #1521–#1525, first aired in November of 1983), which covered the topics of war, bombs, and an arms race. The "Conflict" series was last aired in April of 1996. In that week of episodes, Cornie's factory was making oddly-shaped parts for a project in Southwood. The king originally determined that they were parts for a bomb, so he ordered Cornie to make extra "bomb" parts for the Neighborhood of Make Believe. In the end, they found out that the parts were for a bridge that the Southwooders were building. At the end of the Friday episode, instead of Mister Rogers singing the Good Feeling song, he sang a lullaby, Peace and Quiet, wishing his television friends "peace". This was followed by an on-screen display of a poem about peace.

About the show

The show was characterized by its simplicity and calmness. Episodes had no real plot and instead consisted of Rogers speaking directly to children about various issues, taking them on tours of factories, demonstrating experiments and crafts, and interacting with his friends. The half-hour episodes were punctuated by a puppet segment chronicling occurrences in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Rogers covered a broad range of topics over the years, and the show did not gloss over issues that other children's programming avoided. For example, the show dealt with competition, divorce, death, and war. Rogers returned to the topic of anger regularly and focused on peaceful ways of dealing with angry feelings.

In a Make-Believe segment from 1983 that dealt with an arms race against the neighboring Southwood, King Friday said, "Yes, so here is your assignment, Handyman Negri: you are to order a million of these from Cornflake S. Pecially and conscript everyone in the neighborhood to help put the bombs together." Later, Friday added, "If Southwood has a million, we will have a million and one." By the end of the week-long series, other inhabitants of the Neighborhood encourage the King to explore more diplomatic options, and peace results.

Starting in 1979, episodes were grouped into week-long series, with each series focused on a particular topic. Rogers' monologues throughout the week would explore various facets of the topic, and the ongoing story from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe would serve as illustration.

Mister Rogers always made a clear distinction between the realistic world of his television neighborhood and the fantasy world of Make-Believe. He often discussed what was going to happen in Make-Believe before the next fantasy segment was shown ("Let's pretend that Prince Tuesday has been having scary dreams..."), and sometimes acted out bits of Make-Believe with models on a table before the camera transitioned to the live-action puppet rendition. The miniature motorized trolley, with its accompanying piano theme music, was the only element that appeared in both the realistic world and Make-Believe: it was used to transport viewers from one realm to the other.

This reality/fantasy distinction put Rogers' show in sharp contrast with other children's shows, such as Sesame Street, which freely mixed realistic and fantastic elements.

The show was also notable for its use of jazz-inspired music, mostly arranged and performed by Rogers' long-time friend John Costa, until Costa's death in 1996. Lyrics and melodies were written and sung by Rogers—in total, he created more than 200 original songs.

At the beginning of each show, when Fred Rogers would come into his television studio house, singing his song, he would be wearing a coat and dress shoes and then he would take off and hang up his coat, put on a cardigan sweater, and finally remove his dress shoes and put on sneakers. One of Rogers' sweaters now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution, a testament to the cultural influence of his simple daily ritual.

Characters

Characters on the show include Mr. McFeely the delivery man (David Newell, whose fictional "McFeely" surname was actually Fred Rogers' middle name), Lady Aberlin (Betty Aberlin), Neighbor Aber (Chuck Aber), Chef Brockett (Don Brockett), François Clemmons, Joe Negri, and Bob Trow. The puppets, some of which were voiced by Rogers, included Daniel Striped Tiger, X The Owl, Henrietta Pussycat, Cornflake S. Pecially, Lady Elaine Fairchilde, Grandpere, Edgar Cooke, Prince Tuesday, Queen Sara Saturday, and King Friday XIII.

Many of the puppet characters appearing in the "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" segment were developed by Rogers years earlier for the The Children's Corner, an educational program that he co-produced with Josie Carey.

Pittsburgh-area native Michael Keaton got his first major acting break as a "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" character in 1975. Keaton played an acrobat in a troup called The Flying Zookeenies that performed for King Friday's birthday. He was also in charge of running the Trolley.

Mister Rogers in popular culture

A clip from the show is heard and briefly seen in the 1979 film Being There, watched by Peter Sellers' character Chauncey Gardiner.

A clip from the show was also featured in the 1981 Burt Reynolds film, Paternity.

A skit titled 'Battle of the PBS Stars Part 1: Boxing' on the sketch comedy show Second City Television featured Mr. Rogers (portrayed by Martin Short) facing Julia Child (portrayed by John Candy) with Howard Cosell (portrayed by Eugene Levy) commentating at ringside. The fight is close until Mr. McFeely surreptitiously hands Rogers the King Friday puppet which Rogers then uses to club Julia Child. Rogers is subsequently disqualified. Cosell states that it is a dark day in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.

An early 1980s recurring Saturday Night Live skit entitled "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood" starred Eddie Murphy as a parody of Rogers, hosting a supposed children's show from a run-down row home in a bad area. The skit title was appropriated by tennis shoe conglomerate Nike in the late 1980s featuring NBA star David Robinson.

In the 1980 spoof film Airplane!, Stephen Stucker's character suggests "Mr. Rogers" when Lloyd Bridges requests assistance from someone who knows an "airplane inside and out...someone who won't crack under pressure."

A song on the album One Fierce Beer Coaster by The Bloodhound Gang is called, "Your Only Friends Are Make Believe," and references Messrs. Rogers and McFeely.

A song on the Korn album Life Is Peachy is called "Mr. Rogers".

In 1997 he made an appearance as an aardvark version of himself on PBS's Arthur.

During the moral outrage following Monicagate in early 1999, MAD Magazine printed a parody entitled "The Ken Starr Report on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood", featuring numerous outlandish claims including allegations that Mr. Rogers was violating the U.S. Constitution by "recognizing the royal sovereignty of King Friday XIII within U.S. borders", and links between Mr. McFeely and the Unabomber.

In a 1999 episode of Win Ben Stein's Money, Stein dresses in a sweater like Mr. Rogers, and greets the audience by saying, "Hello, boys and girls, can you say 'game show'?"

An episode of The Sopranos was named "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighbourhood", a reference to the show.

An episode of Family Guy begins as a parody of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. When Mr. Rogers tries to go to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Stewie Griffin appears with a laser gun on the small trolley used to facilitate the transition on the show. He informs Mr. Rogers that the Neighborhood of Make-Believe has been destroyed. Mr. Rogers looks inside only to see carnage, with every major character killed (presumably by Stewie) in a variety of different ways. Henrietta Pussycat is heard saying "Meow-meow-meow-meow skin graft meow-meow."

In another episode of Family Guy, Chris is caught peeping and Peter comforts him by saying that it's natural and that all men do it, even Mister Rogers.

In The Simpsons episode "Worst Episode Ever", Millhouse and Bart find a video tape in the comic book store entitled "Drunk Mr. Rogers". They watch a brief portion of it in which he says "What do you mean I can't take off my sweater? I'm HOT!"

The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word" also mentions Mr. Rogers, as Bart tries to coax Maggie into speaking her first words; "Can you say 'Get bent'?," he asks. "Bart!", Marge exclaims. Bart protests, "Mr. Rogers says it all the time!"

In a Simpsons episode, Homer lies about giving PBS $10,000, he is chased by characters from PBS shows. You can see Mr. Rogers saying "It's a beautiful day to kick your ass!"

In the song "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" by Lemon Demon, Mr. Rogers is shown as the winner of a battle between all of the major pop-culture characters of all time. The song was also made into a Macromedia Flash music video, hosted on various popular websites.

A clip from the show was shown during the Casper feature film in 1995. In the clip, Rogers is again discussing how to deal with wanting to be a completely different person, which is significant to Casper, as he does wish to be significantly different.

A clip from the show was shown during Short Circuit 2. Johnny 5 was watching Mister Rogers talk about how he is alive and that the dummy he was holding was not alive.

In the film Demolition Man, character Simon Pheonix refers to Raymond Cocteau as an evil Mister Rogers.

In a deleted scene from the film Donnie Darko, Dr Katherine Ross confesses to Donnie that she had a sexual fantasy involving Mr. Rogers.

Credits

Executive Producers: Paul K. Taff (1968–1970), Fred Rogers (1974–2001)
Producers: Fred Rogers (1968–1970, 1972–1975), Sam Silberman (1971), Bob Walsh (1973), Bill Moates (1975–1976), Hugh Martin, III (1979–1981), Sam Newbury (1982–1986), Margaret A. Whitmer (1986–2001)
Directors: David F. Chen (1968–1970), Sam Silberman (1971), Bob Walsh (1972–1973, 1990–2001), Bill Moates (1974–1976), Hugh Martin, III (1979–1981), Paul Lally, Bob Muens (1989)
Co-Producer: Hedda Sharapan (1968–1970)
Associate Producers: David F. Chen, Cathy L. Cohen, Margaret A. Whitmer, Casey Brown, Susi Simmons, Adrienne J. Wehr, David Newell, IV
Music Directors: Johnny Costa (1968–1996), Michael Moricz (1997–2001)
Editors: Michael Colonna (1982–1987), Randy Strothman (1987–1990),
Art Directors: Jack Guest (1968–1988), Kathryn Boyland (1989–1998), Catherine McConnell (1999–2001)
Production Manager: Sam Newbury (1979–1981)
Production Assistants: Lenny Meledandri (1981–2001), Victoria Hughes, Laura Perkins, Susan Peters, IV
Properties: David A. Morgan, Kathryn Borland, Andy Vogt
1st Assistant Director: Hedda Sharapan (1968)
Lighting Director: Frank Warninsky (1971–2001)
Video: Tom Deluga
Studio Cameras: Don McCall, Jack Arthurs, Bob Vaughn, Art Vogel, Dave Forman, Dick LaSota
Audio: Chuck Sradomski
Videotape: Bob Millslagle (1979–1999)
Floor Managers: Nick Tallo, Jimmy Seech
Musicians: Carl McVicker, Bob Rawsthorne
Videotape Editors: Kevin Conrad, Chet Bednar
Consultants: Albert V. Corrado, Margaret B. McFarland

Funding credits

From 1968 to 1976, the funding credits were part of the show credits; the ones used in the opening were silent (other than the theme), while an announcer or Fred Rogers would read the funding credits aloud during the closing credits.

Opening (1968)

This program made possible by a grant from:

The Sears-Roebuck Foundation

and a special children's program fund established by N.E.T. affiliated stations.

Opening (1969–1970)

This program made possible by a grant from:

The Sears-Roebuck Foundation

and a children's program fund established by N.E.T. affiliated stations.

Closing (1969–1970)

Production funds for this television visit were provided by a grant from The Sears-Roebuck Foundation and a children's program fund established by N.E.T. affiliated stations.

Opening (1971–1974)

This program made possible by a grant from:

The Sears-Roebuck Foundation

and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Closing (1971)

Production funds for this television visit were provided by a grant from The Sears-Roebuck Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Closing (1972–1974)

The people who gave the money to make this television visit are the people of The Sears-Roebuck Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Closing 1969–1970 (repeats after #1456–1460)

Includes a still of the trolley with the show logo and episode number, plus the following:

Supplementary funds provided by Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Company, Public Television Stations, Ford Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

This is inserted at the end of the show, after the closing credits, and before the PBS system cue (logo).

Closing 1971–1974 (repeats after #1456–1460)

Same trolley picture as above, but with this statement instead:

Supplementary funds provided by Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Company, Public Television Stations, Ford Foundation

Opening (1975–1976)

This program made possible by a grant from:

Public Television Stations, Ford Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The Sears-Roebuck Foundation

Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Company

Closing (1975–1976)

The people who gave the money to make this television visit are the people of:

Public Television Stations, Ford Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The Sears-Roebuck Foundation

and Johnson & Johnson.

At this point, the trolley segment at the very end of the program was shorter and only displayed the episode number.

1979–1989

(From 1979 onward, the funding credits are in a separate segment at the start and end of each show, announced by Fred Rogers. Only the funders' names would be shown on screen.)

The people who gave the money to make Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are the people of this and other public television stations, and The Sears-Roebuck Foundation.

1989–1991

The people who give the money to make Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are the people who contribute to this and other public television stations, and The Sears-Roebuck Foundation.

- (The Sears-Roebuck Foundation credit also had references to "The Sears Financial Network" (Coldwell Banker, Dean Witter, Discover Card).)

1991–1992

The people who give the money to make Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are the people who contribute to this and other public television stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and The Sears-Roebuck Foundation.

1992–1999

The people who give the money to make Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are the people who contribute to this and other public television stations, and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

2000–end

The people who give the money to make Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are the people who contribute to this and other PBS stations and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We thank you.

External links

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