Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
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Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was a children's television show hosted by Fred Rogers which was produced by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania public broadcaster WQED-TV and Rogers' not-for-profit production company Family Communications, Inc.
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Alternate name
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.
History
The show began in 1962 as Misterogers, 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. Reruns continue to be broadcast on many PBS stations.
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 the adventures of the inhabitants of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
The show was also notable for its use of jazz-inspired music, mostly composed and performed by Rogers' longtime friend John Costa, until Costa's death in 1996.
Characters
Characters on the show include Mr. McFeely the delivery man, Betty Aberlin, Chef Brockett, François Clemmons, Joe Negri, and Bob Trow. Many of the puppet characters appearing in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segment were developed by Rogers years earlier for Josie Carey's educational program, The Children's Corner.
See also
External links
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- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Obituary For Fred Rogers. (http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/02/27/rogers_obit030227)
- Home page of Family Communications Inc. (http://www.fci.org/)
- Mister Rogers' Neighborhood pages at PBS (http://pbskids.org/rogers/)