| Mister Rogers' Neighborhood | |
|---|---|
Mister Rogers and a model of the Neighborhood. |
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| Also known as | Misterogers' Neighborhood (1968-1970) |
| Format | Children's television series |
| Created by | Fred Rogers |
| Starring | Fred Rogers |
| Theme music composer | Fred Rogers |
| Opening theme | Won't You Be My Neighbor? |
| Ending theme | Tomorrow (1968-1972) The Weekend Song (Friday, 1971-1972) It's Such a Good Feeling (1972-2001) |
| Composer(s) | Johnny Costa (live recording studio band leader) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English; some episodes feature DVS (from 1968-1983) via SAP (from 1983-2001) |
| No. of episodes | 895 |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | WQED Studios Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Camera setup | Single camera (1968-1992), Multi-camera (1992-2001) |
| Running time | 28 minutes |
| Production company(s) | WQED Small World Enterprises (1968-1971) Family Communications, Inc. (1971-2001) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NET (2/19/1968–10/4/1970) PBS (10/5/1970–8/31/2001) |
| Picture format | 480i SDTV |
| Audio format | Mono (1968–1990) Stereo (1990–2001) |
| Original run | February 19, 1968 – August 31, 2001 |
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, also known as Mister Rogers, is an American children's television series that was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series is aimed primarily at preschool ages, 2–5, but has been stated by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as "appropriate for all ages".[1] Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was produced by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA public broadcaster WQED and Rogers' non-profit production company Family Communications, Inc.;[2] previously known as Small World Enterprises prior to 1971, the company was renamed The Fred Rogers Company sometime after Rogers' death.[3] It is the third longest running series on PBS, after Sesame Street and Masterpiece. The series could be seen in reruns on most PBS stations until August 29, 2008, when it was removed by PBS from their daily syndicated schedule along with Reading Rainbow, Boohbah, and Teletubbies, in a deviation from the PBS policy of removing shows from the national feed after three years of reruns. Despite this, a number of stations have chosen to continue airing it independently of the PBS feed.
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The series had its genesis in 1954, when WQED Public television debuted The Children's Corner, a program featuring Rogers as puppeteer and Josie Carey as host, in an unscripted live television program. It was this program where many of the puppets, characters and music used in the later series were developed, such as King Friday XIII, and Curious X the Owl. It was also the time when Rogers began wearing his famous sneakers, as he found them to be quieter than his work shoes while he was moving about behind the set. The show won a Sylvania Award[4] for best children's show, and was briefly broadcast nationally on NBC.
Rogers moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1963 to work on a new series based on The Children's Corner, called Misterogers, a 15-minute program on CBC Television. Misterogers aired on CBC for three years and a number of the set pieces that he would take with him back to the US, such as the trolley and castle, were created for the Canadian program by CBC designers. Ernie Coombs, one of the Americans whom Rogers brought with him to help develop the CBC show, would remain with CBC, after Rogers returned to the US, and develop what became Mr. Dressup which continued for several decades.[5]
In 1966, Fred Rogers returned to Pittsburgh and renamed the show Misterogers' Neighborhood, which initially aired regionally through the Eastern Educational Network[5] (now American Public Television). In 1967, The Sears Roebuck Foundation provided funding for the program, which enabled them to be seen nationwide on National Educational Television; taping for the show began in October 1967 for the first national season.
The first national broadcast of Misterogers' Neighborhood appeared on most NET stations on February 19, 1968. In 1970, when PBS replaced NET, it also inherited this program. Around the same time the show had a slight title change, to the more-familiar Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
The show was in production from February 19, 1968 to February 20, 1976, and again from August 27, 1979 to August 31, 2001. The studio in Pittsburgh where the series was taped was later renamed "The Fred Rogers Studio", in honor of Rogers himself.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was characterized by its quiet simplicity and gentleness. Episodes consisted of Rogers speaking directly to the viewer about various issues, taking the viewer on tours of factories, demonstrating experiments, crafts, and music, and interacting with his friends. Rogers also made a point to simply behave naturally on camera rather than acting out a character, stating that "One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self. I also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile away."[6] The half-hour episodes were punctuated by a puppet segment chronicling occurrences in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
During the opening sequence of each episode the camera pans slowly over a model of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, while the "Neighborhood Trolley" crosses a couple of streets from left to right. This is the same model electric trolley that later in the program will transport viewers into the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.[7] Following that, Fred Rogers enters his television studio house, singing "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" He hangs his coat in a closet, puts on a cardigan zipper sweater, and removes his dress shoes to put on sneakers. One of Rogers' sweaters now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution, a testament to the cultural influence of his simple daily ritual.[8]
Starting in 1979, episodes were grouped into week-long series, with each series focused on a particular topic. Rogers' monologues throughout the week explore various facets of the topic, and the ongoing story from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe serves as illustration.
Rogers covered a broad range of topics over the years, and the series did not shy away from issues that other children's programming avoided. In fact, Rogers endeared himself to many when, on March 23, 1970, he dealt with the death of one of his pet goldfish. The series also dealt with competition, divorce, and war. Rogers returned to the topic of anger regularly and focused on peaceful ways of dealing with angry feelings.
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 (which was known in character form as "Trolley"), with its accompanying fast-paced piano theme music, was the only element that appeared regularly in both the realistic world and Make-Believe: it was used to transport viewers from one realm to the other. Rogers, however, was mentioned from time to time in Make-Believe, particularly by Mr. McFeely, who appeared occasionally in the Make-Believe segments and seemed to form a link between the two worlds. The idea of the trolley came from Rogers, when he was young, there had been lots of trolleys operating in Pittsburgh and he liked riding on them.[9] This reality/fantasy distinction put Rogers' series in sharp contrast with other children's series, such as fellow PBS program Sesame Street, which freely mixed realistic and fantastic elements.
The series featured "Picture Picture", a rear-projection motion picture and slide projector, whose screen is encased with a picture frame. In early episodes, Picture Picture would show various films or slides at Mister Rogers' command; after the material was presented, Mister Rogers would thank Picture Picture, in which it will return a "You're Welcome" on its screen. After 1970 Picture Picture no longer operated magically, becoming merely a projector; Mister Rogers would insert a film, slides or videotape through a slot on the side, then show the material using a wired remote control. When Picture Picture was not used, a different painting would be displayed on its screen.
The series was also notable for its use of jazz-inspired music, mostly arranged and performed by Johnny Costa, until Costa's death in 1996, when he was succeeded by Michael Moricz for the remainder of the series. The music was unique in its simplicity and flow that blended with the series' sketches and features. The music was usually played live during taping. Lyrics and melodies were written and sung by Rogers, who created more than 200 original songs.
Production ended on August 31, 2001.
When Fred Rogers died in 2003, PBS' website communicated some ways to help children deal with Mr. Rogers' dying by presenting suggestions to parents of what to say to the children about Mr. Rogers and how to approach a child who inquires after him.[10]
Beginning September 3, 2007, some PBS affiliates began replacing the show with new programs such as Super Why! and WordWorld. In June 2008, PBS announced that, beginning in the fall of 2008, it would stop transmitting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood as part of its daily syndication lineup to member stations, instead airing the program only once a week over the weekend.[11] Milwaukee Public Television, for example, still carries the show once a week, on Sunday, over its primary HD/SD channel.[12] Beginning on September 1, 2008, the Neighborhood program was replaced by new programming such as Martha Speaks, Sid the Science Kid, and an update of The Electric Company. However, individual member stations have the option of airing the Neighborhood independently of the PBS syndicated feed, with series home WQED in particular continuing to air the series daily until 2010.[13] There was a campaign in 2008 and 2009 to urge PBS and all member stations to bring the show back seven days a week.[14]
In July 2011 during the annual Television Critics Association summer press tour, it was announced that a new animated spinoff series, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, is in production, for debut on PBS in Fall 2012. The series will feature Daniel Tiger (formerly "Daniel Striped Tiger") as a host of the series, which will feature characters of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe all grown older, with the children now having families of their own.[3][15]
The song "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" was written by Fred Rogers in 1967 and was used as the opening theme for each episode of the show.
In the early years of the show, when new episodes were constantly being produced, each show ended with the song "Tomorrow." Starting in 1971, "Tomorrow" was used only on episodes which aired Monday through Thursday, and a new song, called "The Weekend Song" was used on shows that aired on Friday (since he wouldn't be back on the air "tomorrow"). Eventually, the "Tomorrow" song was eliminated entirely, and by 1972 Rogers sang "It's Such a Good Feeling" at the end of every show. Prior to 1972, the original version of "Good Feeling" was used as part of Mister Rogers' general repertoire of songs. When "Good Feeling" became used as a closing theme, it was slightly rewritten, incorporating the first four lines of "The Weekend Song" at the end, though rendered during the week as "And I'll be back when the day is new...", with "day" changed to "week" on Friday episodes. In 1991, the early episodes were removed from rotation and so the "Tomorrow" song was no longer heard.
The first broadcast of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was on the National Educational Television network on February 19, 1968; the color NET logo appeared on a model building at the beginning and end of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from 1969 to 1970. When NET ceased broadcasting, the series moved to PBS, even though episodes as late at 1971 were still copyrighted to – and produced for – NET.[16]
The former NET model house was "remodeled", first to a small yellow-orange sided house, and then into a red apartment building. The roof's lopsided slant from its days as a NET logo remained. When the pre-70 episodes were rerun in 1976, the NET ident that followed the closing credits and showing of the NET model house was replaced with an additional segment showing underwriters (see "Funding"). The showing of the NET model house itself was left intact on these reruns as late as the 1980s.
The final week of original episodes of the "first series", first broadcast starting February 16, 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 episode of that week, he reminded viewers that they, too, can watch many of those old episodes beginning the following week.
As of August 11, 1995, the episodes from the first series were no longer shown on television, since there was an ample supply of the second series in circulation, and since many of the first series episodes had become outdated. A few episodes from the first half exist in the Museum of Television & Radio, including the first episode of the series and the first color episode. A complete collection of episodes, including more than 900 videotapes and scripts from the show along with other promotional materials produced by Rogers or his Family Communications Inc. production company, exists in the University of Pittsburgh's Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Archives located in the Elizabeth Nesbitt Room in the university's School of Information Sciences Building.[17]
When PBS began re-airing 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 of the episodes revised from the first series also included an extra segment following the closing credits, mentioning the episode 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.
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 during the week of November 7–11, 1983 to coincide with ABC's airing of the television film The Day After, and designed for children to cope with the aftereffects of that film. The series/story arc covered the topics of war, bombs, and an arms race. The "Conflict" series was last aired during the week of April 1–5, 1996.
Only a few episodes of the series have been released to DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment. 100 episodes have been released as part of Amazon Instant Video.[18]
From 1968 to 1976, the sponsor credits were part of the series credits; the ones used in the opening are silent other than the theme, and an announcer or Fred Rogers reads the sponsor credits aloud during the closing credits. From 1976 onward, repeats of episodes from 1969 to 1976 have additional closing sponsor credits over a still of the trolley with the series logo and episode number. From 1979 onward, the sponsor credits were in a separate segment at the start and end of each episode, announced by Fred Rogers. Only the sponsors' names were shown on screen.
Characters on the series include:
Other regular puppeteers included
Music directors for the series:
Musicians who played the background music along with Johnny Costa for Mr Roger's Neighborhood included
The human characters who appeared in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe were mostly imaginary versions of people who lived in Mr. Rogers' "real" neighborhood. For example, Joe "Handyman" Negri, a respected Pittsburgh jazz guitarist, was a music shop proprietor on Rogers' street. The non-make-believe version of Betty Aberlin was an actress. Audrey Roth operated a janitorial service in the real neighborhood, but was royal phone operator "Miss Paulifficate" in Make-Believe. Only Mr. McFeely, Mrs. McFeely, and Chef Brockett appeared substantially the same way in both Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
list of the puppet and costumed characters appearing in the "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" segment:
Pittsburgh-area native Michael Keaton received his first major acting break as a "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" character in 1975. Keaton played an acrobat in a troupe called The Flying Zookeenies that performed for King Friday's birthday. He was also in charge of running the Trolley.[22]
Thirteen in-series "operas" took place during the course of the series within the Make-Believe segments.[19] Many of them feature American baritone John Reardon as a main character. The operas would encompass the entire episode, and would be seen after a brief introduction by Mr. Rodgers.
Additionally, a play, Josephine The Short-Necked Giraffe, first aired in 1989 as a tribute to the late John Reardon.
Guests on the series ranged from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to actor and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno of TV's The Incredible Hulk. (In a 2001 piece where celebrities were asked about their heroes, Rogers cited Ma as one of his heroes.) A 1968 visit by electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack resurfaced in the 2004 documentary Haack: King of Techno.
Guests on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood were often surprised to find that although Rogers was just as gentle and patient in life as on television, he was nevertheless a perfectionist who did not allow "shoddy" ad-libbing;[23] he believed that children were thoughtful people who deserved programming as good as anything produced for adults on television.[24]
Rogers appeared as a guest on some other series. On the children's animated cartoon series Arthur, for example, Rogers plays himself as an aardvark like Arthur. Later on, Arthur appears as a guest in hand-puppet form in a 1999 episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Bill Nye, host of a science-themed program, and Rogers also exchanged appearances on each other's series, as did Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. Rogers additionally appeared in an episode of Sesame Street, where he explains to Big Bird that even if one loses a running race such as the one Big Bird had run against his friend "Snuffy", no hard feelings threaten to break the two of them apart.[25] Big Bird himself also appeared in one episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
A prime time Christmas special, Christmastime with Mister Rogers, first aired in 1977. This special had François Clemmons introducing a storyteller and flutist friend to Rogers. They filmed a couple of narrated segments of the stories François' friend told. The special also had the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segment which shows how they celebrated Christmas. Even the trolley had a banner on the roof that said "Merry Christmas" on one side, and "Happy Hannukah" on the other. This special was aired every Christmas season until 1982. This special's opening and close have Rogers walking through a real neighborhood while the titles roll rather than the model neighborhood used in the series.
In 1994, Rogers created another one-time special for PBS called Fred Rogers' Heroes which consisted of documentary portraits of four real-life people whose work helped make their communities better. Rogers, uncharacteristically dressed in a suit and tie, hosted in wraparound segments which did not use the "Neighborhood" set.
For a time Rogers produced specials for the parents as a precursor to the subject of the week on the Neighborhood called "Mister Rogers Talks To Parents About [topic]". Rogers didn't host those specials, though; other people like Joan Lunden, who hosted the Conflict special, and other news announcers played MC duties in front of a gallery of parents while Rogers answered questions from them. These specials were made to prepare the parents for any questions the children might ask after watching the episodes on that topic of the week.
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