Editing Fred Rogers (section)

===''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''===
{{Main|Mister Rogers' Neighborhood}}
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| image1            = François Clemmons and Fred Rogers Having Foot Bath.jpg
| caption1          = Rogers and [[François Clemmons]] having a foot bath in 1969, breaking a well-known [[Racial segregation in the United States|color barrier]]<ref name="biography.com">{{cite news | url=https://www.biography.com/news/mister-rogers-officer-clemmons-pool | work=Biography | title=Fred Rogers Took a Stand Against Racial Inequality When He Invited a Black Character to Join Him in a Pool | date=May 24, 2019 | access-date=August 8, 2020 | archive-date=November 28, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128212147/https://www.biography.com/news/mister-rogers-officer-clemmons-pool | url-status=live }}</ref>
| image2            = Fred Rogers Changing Shoes.jpg
| caption2          = Rogers changing shoes
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''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (also called the ''Neighborhood''), a half-hour educational children's program starring Rogers, began airing nationally in 1968 and ran for 895 episodes.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bahr |first=Lindsey |title=Mister Rogers pic in development with 'Little Miss Sunshine' directors |url=https://ew.com/article/2013/09/27/mister-rogers-movie-development/ |access-date=March 21, 2019 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=September 27, 2013 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105163630/https://ew.com/article/2013/09/27/mister-rogers-movie-development/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It was videotaped at WQED in Pittsburgh and broadcast by [[National Educational Television]] (NET), which later became the [[Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS).<ref>{{cite news |title=Children's TV Host Fred Rogers Dies At 74 |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/remember-jan-june03-rogers_02-27 |access-date=March 21, 2019 |work=[[PBS NewsHour]] |date=February 27, 2003 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105162615/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/remember-jan-june03-rogers_02-27 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Burns |first=Asia Simone |title=Mister Rogers Is Coming Back To Your Neighborhood, On A Stamp |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/02/07/583970831/mister-rogers-will-appear-forever-on-a-stamp |access-date=March 21, 2019 |work=NPR.org |date=February 7, 2018 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105162431/https://www.npr.org/2018/02/07/583970831/mister-rogers-will-appear-forever-on-a-stamp |url-status=live }}</ref> Its first season had 180 black-and-white episodes. Each subsequent season, filmed in color and funded by PBS, the [[Sears-Roebuck]] Foundation, and other charities, consisted of 65 episodes.<ref>King, p. 164.</ref><ref name="wapostobit">{{cite news |last=Estrada |first=Louie |title=Children's TV Icon Fred Rogers Dies at 74 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/02/28/childrens-tv-icon-fred-rogers-dies-at-74/8f5b9796-3588-42cf-aa84-45daec1f0583/ |access-date=March 31, 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=February 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206060251/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/02/28/childrens-tv-icon-fred-rogers-dies-at-74/8f5b9796-3588-42cf-aa84-45daec1f0583/ |url-status=live }}</ref> By the time it ended production in December 2000, its average rating was about 0.7% of television households or 680,000 homes, and it aired on 384 PBS stations. At its peak in 1985–1986, its ratings were 2.1%, or 1.8 million homes.<ref>{{cite news |last=DeFranceso |first=Joyce |title=A Life Well-Lived |url=http://www.wqed.org/mag/0403_remember3.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050103143529/http://www.wqed.org/mag/0403_remember3.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 3, 2005 |access-date=March 22, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Magazine |date=April 2003}}</ref><ref name="finalday">{{cite news |last=Montgomery |first=David |title=For Mister Rogers, a Final Day in the Neighborhood |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/09/01/for-mister-rogers-a-final-day-in-the-neighborhood/6c6b6bdd-82f6-4a7e-92c0-af5493837953/ |access-date=March 22, 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=September 1, 2001 |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029203142/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/09/01/for-mister-rogers-a-final-day-in-the-neighborhood/6c6b6bdd-82f6-4a7e-92c0-af5493837953/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The last original episode aired in 2001, but PBS continued to air reruns, and by 2016 it was the third-longest-running program in PBS history.<ref name="wapostobit"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Kathy Merlock |last2=Emmanuel |first2=Steven M |title=Revisiting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Essays on Lessons about Self and Community |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-1-4766-2341-2 |page=1 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref>

Many of the sets and props in ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'', like the trolley, the sneakers, and the castle, were created for Rogers' show in Toronto by CBC designers and producers. The program also "incorporated most of the highly imaginative elements that later became famous",<ref name="King, p. 158">King, p. 158.</ref> such as its slow pace and its host's quiet manner.<ref name="King, p. 158"/><ref>King, p. 146.</ref> The format of ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' "remained virtually unchanged" for the entire run of the program.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Mark J. P. |title=The World of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge Publishers |location=New York |isbn=978-1-315-11008-0 |page=16}}</ref> Every episode begins with a camera's-eye view of a model of a neighborhood, then panning in closer to a representation of a house while a piano instrumental of the theme song, "Won't You be My Neighbor?", performed by music director [[Johnny Costa]] and inspired by a Beethoven sonata, is played.<ref>{{cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |title=From the Archives: It's a Sad Day in This Neighborhood |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-fred-rogers-20030228-story.html |access-date=April 25, 2019 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105163606/https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-fred-rogers-20030228-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The camera zooms in to a model representing Mr. Rogers' house, then cuts to the house's interior and pans across the room to the front door, which Rogers opens as he sings the theme song to greet his visitors while changing his suit jacket to a cardigan (knitted by his mother)<ref>{{cite web |last=Jackson |first=Christine |title=The Importance of Sweaters and Sneakers in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood |url=https://www.rewire.org/pbs/sweaters-sneakers-rogers-neighborhood/ |website=Rewire.org |publisher=PBS |access-date=April 10, 2019 |date=March 20, 2017 |archive-date=February 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207163832/https://www.rewire.org/pbs/sweaters-sneakers-rogers-neighborhood/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and his dress shoes to sneakers, "complete with a shoe tossed from one hand to another".<ref>Wolfe, p. 11.</ref> The episode's theme is introduced, and Mr. Rogers leaves his home to visit another location, the camera panning back to the neighborhood model and zooming in to the new location as he enters it. Once this segment ends, Mr. Rogers leaves and returns to his home, indicating that it is time to visit the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Mr. Rogers proceeds to the window seat by the trolley track and sets up the action there as the Trolley comes out. The camera follows it down a tunnel in the back wall of the house as it enters the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The stories and lessons take place over a week's worth of episodes and involve puppets and human characters. The end of the visit occurs when the Trolley returns to the same tunnel from which it emerged, reappearing in Mr. Rogers' home. He then talks to the viewers before concluding the episode. He often feeds his fish, cleans up any props he has used, and returns to the front room, where he sings the closing song while changing back into his dress shoes and jacket. He exits the front door as he ends the song, and the camera zooms out of his home and pans across the neighborhood model as the episode ends.{{refn|group=note|See Wolfe, pp. 9–16, for a complete description of the structure of ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''.}}

[[File:Fred Rogers and X the Owl Look Magazine photo 1969.png|thumb|left|upright|Rogers on the cover of [[Look (American magazine)|Look Magazine]] in 1969]]
''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' emphasized young children's social and emotional needs, and unlike another PBS show, ''[[Sesame Street]]'', which premiered in 1969, did not focus on cognitive learning.<ref>King, p. 145.</ref> Writer Kathy Merlock Jackson said, "While both shows target the same preschool audience and prepare children for kindergarten, ''Sesame Street'' concentrates on school-readiness skills while ''Mister Rogers Neighborhood'' focuses on the child's developing psyche and feelings and sense of moral and ethical reasoning".<ref>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Kathy Merlock |editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Kathy Merlock |editor2-last=Emmanuel |editor2-first=Steven M. |title=Revisiting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Essays on Lessons about Self and Community |publisher=McFarland & Company, Publishers |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-1-4766-2341-2 |page=11 |chapter=Social Activism for the Small Set |date=February 17, 2016}}</ref> The ''Neighborhood'' also spent fewer resources on research than ''Sesame Street'', but Rogers used early childhood education concepts taught by his mentor Margaret McFarland, [[Benjamin Spock]], [[Erik Erikson]], and [[T. Berry Brazelton]] in his lessons.<ref>King, p. 134.</ref> As ''[[The Washington Post]]'' noted, Rogers taught young children about civility, tolerance, sharing, and self-worth "in a reassuring tone and leisurely cadence".<ref name="postobit">{{cite news |last=Estrada |first=Louie |title=Children's TV Icon Fred Rogers Dies at 74 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/02/28/childrens-tv-icon-fred-rogers-dies-at-74/8f5b9796-3588-42cf-aa84-45daec1f0583/ |access-date=April 10, 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=February 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206060251/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/02/28/childrens-tv-icon-fred-rogers-dies-at-74/8f5b9796-3588-42cf-aa84-45daec1f0583/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He tackled difficult topics such as the death of a family pet, sibling rivalry, the addition of a newborn into a family, moving and enrolling in a new school, and divorce.<ref name="postobit"/> For example, he wrote a special segment that dealt with the [[assassination of Robert F. Kennedy]] that aired on June 7, 1968, two days after the assassination occurred.<ref>King, p. 192.</ref>

[[File:Fred Rogers 1968.jpg|thumb|upright|Rogers in 1968]]
According to King, the process of putting each episode of ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' together was "painstaking"<ref>King, p. 184.</ref> and Rogers' contribution to the program was "astounding". Rogers wrote and edited all the episodes, played the piano and sang for most of the songs, wrote 200 songs and 13 operas, created all the characters (both puppet and human), played most of the significant puppet roles, hosted every episode, and produced and approved every detail of the program.<ref>King, p. 204.</ref> The puppets created for the Neighborhood of Make-Believe "included an extraordinary variety of personalities".<ref>King, p. 216.</ref> They were simple puppets but "complex, complicated, and utterly honest beings".<ref>King, p. 219.</ref> In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications, Inc. (FCI, now [[Fred Rogers Productions]]), to produce the ''Neighborhood'', other programs, and non-broadcast materials.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Beyond |url=http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/mister-rogers-neighborhood/mister-rogers-neighborhood-and-beyond/ |website=Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning & Children's Media |access-date=April 25, 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331095125/http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/mister-rogers-neighborhood/mister-rogers-neighborhood-and-beyond/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Jefferson |first=Robin Seaton |title=Siefken Heads Up Fred Rogers Company, Keeping Mister Rogers' Message Relevant For Next Generation |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinseatonjefferson/2017/03/23/siefken-heads-up-the-fred-rogers-company-keeping-mister-rogers-message-relevant-for-next-generation/#7ef935881e9b |access-date=April 25, 2019 |work=Forbes |date=March 23, 2017 |archive-date=January 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107040858/https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinseatonjefferson/2017/03/23/siefken-heads-up-the-fred-rogers-company-keeping-mister-rogers-message-relevant-for-next-generation/#7ef935881e9b |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1975, Rogers stopped producing ''Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood'' to focus on adult programming. Reruns of the ''Neighborhood'' continued to air on PBS.<ref>King, pp. 230–231.</ref> King reports that the decision caught many of his coworkers and supporters "off guard".<ref>King, p. 231.</ref> Rogers continued to confer with McFarland about child development and early childhood education, however.<ref>King, p. 240.</ref> In 1979, after an almost five-year hiatus, Rogers returned to producing the ''Neighborhood''; King calls the new version "stronger and more sophisticated than ever".<ref>King, p. 243.</ref> King writes that by the program's second run in the 1980s, it was "such a cultural touchstone that it had inspired numerous parodies",<ref name="king-266"/> most notably [[Eddie Murphy]]'s parody on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' in the early 1980s.<ref name="king-266"/>

Rogers retired from producing the ''Neighborhood'' in 2001 at age 73, although reruns continued to air. He and FCI had been making about two or three weeks of new programs per year for many years, "filling the rest of his time slots from a library of about 300 shows made since 1979".<ref name="finalday"/> The final original episode of ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' aired on August 31, 2001.<ref>King, p. 338.</ref>