Mr. Roger's Neighborhood
Did you ever watch this show when you were a kid? I did.
shareNo I was a Captain Kangaroo kid. I don’t think we even had PBS where I lived until I was a teenager.
shareI watched Captain Kangaroo also!
shareCaptain Kangaroo was an ABC show and their Miami affiliate also had two locally produced shows called The Skipper Chuck Show and Arthur and Company.
shareCaptain Kangaroo was actually a CBS program. It ran on that network from 1955 to 1984, then moved to PBS in 1986 and ran until 1993.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Kangaroo
No. I was 8 years old when in debuted in early 1968. I had moved on. But if I ever did happen to catch it, frankly it didn't interest me at all, and I didn't like the way he slow-talked. I remember that earlier, Soupy Sales on his show didn't talk to kids like we were infants. I also vaguely remember Sonny Fox on Wonderama not using that mamby-pamby voice.
shareI remember Soupy Sales but I didn’t realize he did a kid’s show.
shareMr. Rogers was around before 1968. I am certain of this because I have vague memories of seeing him while flipping channels. I did some research and it turns out he had a program called MisteRogers (yes, it was one word) produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from 1961 to 1967.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers#Early_work
Some U.S. public broadcasting stations must have acquired the rights to it because I know I've seen it. It was something that never appealed to me at the time.
As an adult I have done some reading and have come to appreciate the message he tried to convey in his programs. In today's polarized and impersonal social media-addicted society, we could use someone like Fred Rogers.
I wasn't familiar with the Canadian show, and have no memory of seeing it if it aired in NYC.
As you can tell by the tone of my post, I am a dissenter when it comes to Saint Fred and Mr Rogers Neighborhood.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118358476840657463
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-last-normal-child/200804/mr-rogers-was-wrong
Thanks for the links to those articles. They were interesting, and I can see some valid points being made.
When raising children, parents need to find that middle ground between constant praise and constant berating. Neither extreme is healthy.
I was a Captain Kangaroo kid, too. Also Romper Room. My kids were Mr Rogers viewers, though. In our TV market, Sesame Street was followed by Mr Rogers. He was a nice change from the sometimes frenetic pace of Sesame Street.
shareDo you remember the Romper Room kefuffle? I may be very hazy on the details, but I remember a young woman exercising and singing, "Bend and stretch, reach for the stars. There goes Jupiter, here comes Mars."
At some point it became a public talking point she had an abortion -- unless I'm getting my shows mixed up. And today we are still hashing over the same ground, and I'm dismayed.
But I was also a Kangaroo Kid, Mr Greenjeans and all that. Nice, innocent times.
Much later I liked Pee-Wee Herman's subversive take on this type of children's entertainment.
Not that I want to telegraph weirdness to little kids, but they can understand a lot more than we give them credit for, and the show just seemed like silly fun without being totally saccharine.
But Mr Rogers is at the top of the list.
I don't remember the Romper Room kerfuffle. Guess I was too young, or it wasn't publicized in my area at the time. Remember Dancing Bear? Yes, nice innocent times. And I agree completely that kids notice and understand more than adults give them credit for.
shareThis song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esBGhMwJX4E
The woman may be different from the one you remember because Romper Room was franchised and syndicated.
Individual stations produced their own programs and had their own "teacher" as host.
You are correct. The abortion controversy involved one of the local hosts.
From Wikipedia:
In 1962, the hostess of the Phoenix franchise of Romper Room linked her own name with that of the ongoing controversies over abortion. Sherri Chessen, known to television viewers as "Miss Sherri," sought hospital approval for abortion on the ground that she had been taking thalidomide and believed her child would be born deformed. Chessen made a public announcement about the dangers of thalidomide, and the hospital refused to allow an abortion, apparently because of her announcement and its own fear of publicity. Chessen traveled to Sweden for the abortion. Upon completion, it was confirmed that the fetus had no legs and only one arm. The incident became a made-for-TV movie in 1992, A Private Matter, with Sissy Spacek as Chessen.
No unfortunately, I only watched it a couple times. It never really appealed to me.
But I did grow up knowing why it was a major classic and why Fred Rogers was well respected.
YES!...I STILL DO...I PICK UP ANY ROGERS RELEASES I COME ACROSS WHILE HUNTING...GREAT MAN,GREAT SHOW...IVE READ A COUPLE BIOGRAPHIES AND OWN THE DOCUMENTARY THAT JUST RECENTLY CAME OUT ON BLU RAY...BIG FAN.
share[deleted]
I was a more of Mr Robinson’s Neighborhood kind of guy.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8q3LSze9l7g