Mister Rogers' Neighborhood - History

History

The series had its genesis in 1953, when public television station WQED 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 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. Most importantly, Rogers appeared on camera in the new show rather than only appearing through puppets or characters. Fred Rainsbury, Head of Children's Programming at CBC, persuaded Rogers to appear on camera in the new show (which he named after Rogers) after seeing him interact with children. 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.

In 1966, Rogers acquired the rights to his program from the CBC and moved the show to WQED in Pittsburgh, where he had worked on The Children's Corner. He renamed the show Misterogers' Neighborhood, which initially aired regionally through the Eastern Educational Network (now American Public Television). The 100 episodes of the half-hour show incorporated the "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" segments from the CBC episodes with additional reality-based opening and closing material produced in Pittsburgh. Stations that carried the program were limited but did include educational stations in Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York City. The series was cancelled in 1967 due to lack of funding. An outpouring of public response prompted a search for new funding.

In 1967, The Sears Roebuck Foundation provided funding for the program, which enabled them to be seen nationwide on National Educational Television; taping 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.