Mister Rogers' Neighborhood - Broadcast History

Broadcast History

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.

The series' first season (1968/69) consisted of 130 episodes, produced in black-and-white. These episodes were not repeated once the series switched to color production.

For seasons 2-8 (1969-75), the show produced 65 new color episodes each year, with repeats of older episodes mixed in to the daily schedule. By the end of season 8, this meant there was a library of 455 color episodes which could be repeated indefinitely, and it was decided to wrap up production of the series. As a consequence, season 9 consisted of only 7 special episodes, which were not meant to be part of the daily repeat package. Five new episodes (which aired the final week of original episodes of the so-called "first series") 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 (February 20, 1976), he reminded viewers that they, too, could watch many of those old episodes beginning the following week. Two other episodes were produced for season 9, and later aired as specials: a Christmas show and a "springtime" show.

Three years later, it was decided to resume production of the series, with an eye towards "freshening up" the show by producing fifteen new episodes per year. These "second series" episodes would be mixed in with the already-airing cycle of repeats from the so-called "first series" (i.e., the color episodes of seasons 2-8, produced from 1969-1975). Eventually, the "second series" shows were also added to the cycle of repeating shows.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood produced 15 new episodes a year between 1979 and 1993. As well, there were occasional "Mister Rogers Talks To Parents" specials, which featured panelists discussing ways in which parents could talk to their children about the issues discussed on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. These specials were usually aired on weekends, just prior to the airing of a new batch of Monday-to-Friday episodes.

Beginning in 1994, the production schedule was changed so that 10 new episodes a year were produced instead of 15. Shortly thereafter, as of August 11, 1995, the episodes from the "first series" (1969-1975) were withdrawn from the repeat schedule, since there were over 200 "second series" episodes available for broadcast, and many of the first series episodes had become outdated.

The show's final years varied the number of episodes produced per season: season 26 (1995/96) consisted of 20 episodes, season 27 (1997) produced 10 episodes, seasons 28 and 29 (1998 and 1999) both contained 15 episodes, and season 30 (2000) reverted to 10 episodes. The final season, 2001's season 31, consisted of 5 episodes only, centering around the theme "Celebrate The Arts".

A few episodes from the "first series" are available for viewing 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.