MovieChat Forums > Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968) Discussion > No chronological order :(

No chronological order :(

posted 19 years ago by marxychick1
12 replies | jump to latest

With the release of the recent Mr. Rogers DVDs, I've been very excited about watching the show with my 3 year old daughter. We watch Mr. Rogers on KCPT, Channel 19 out of Kansas City. It shows twice a week on the network- once at 6 am on Sunday, and once at noon on Monday (Mondays may be temporary though, because it's only a part of the PBS Happy, Healthy Summer campaign).

While I love catching the show these 2 times a week, I have one complaint- there's no continuity! Literally, it'll be a 1990s episode one day, a 1970s episode the next, with no common plot between the episodes. It's quite irritating. For example, last Monday they played one of the first episodes in the "Short Neck Giraffe" storyline. This week they won't be continuing it, but playing 2 episodes of seperate stories. It's driving me nuts!

Is the schedule different in different cities? Do any networks still show it 5 times a week? Or at least show the story arcs in order? Thanks in advance, and thanks for listening to my rant.

[–] mitsguy2001 19 years ago

Each of the stories is a 5 episode arc, designed to air Monday through Friday. If your PBS station is only showing it twice a week, then you are only seeing 2 episodes from each arc. I have no idea why your station is only showing it twice a week, when, as you said, the show only makes sense when aired 5 times per week. You should probably write to your local PBS station and tell them that they need to air Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood 5 days per week so that kids can see the entire story. To answer your question, yes, other PBS stations show it 5 times per week.

As for the schedule: each station generally shows the same episode. The Mon-Fri episodes of each arc always air in order. But from week to week, the episodes do not air in order, because there is no need to, because none of the stories in the episodes that currently air carry over from one week to another. There is nothing wrong with airing a 90s episode on Friday followed by a 70s episode on Monday. Currently, they only air episodes produced between 1979 and 2001. When I was a kid and was watching the show, they went as far back as 1970.

[–] marxychick1 19 years ago

Thanks for all the info, mitsguy2001. It's not the alternating of the classic & newer episodes that bugs me (that's actually quite refreshing), but the fact that they don't show a complete story arc. Even if they showed it twice a week but kept 5-day stories together I'd be satisfied. I'd love to see a 1970s arc followed by a 1990s one! It would be great to compare & contrast- great children's television remains consistent over time :-)

I think I will drop a line to my local station. I'm sick & tired of seeing the same 13 episodes of George Shrinks in re-runs (for almost 3 years now), but not seeing complete stories on Mr. Rogers.

[–] mitsguy2001 19 years ago

You're welcome. Yes, I definitely do agree with you. And when I was a kid, I would also look forward to seeing all of the changes that would occur over the years. Unfortunately, the 1968-76 episodes no longer air, and that was the period where there were the most changes. For example, Prince Tuesday was born in 1970, was aged to a toddler in 1975, and aged to a school child in 1979. Ana was also born in 1970, and similarly aged. But Daniel was never a baby, and was the same age throughout the series. Another major change that I would look forward to seeing was that the walls in the studio were orginally beige, and then in 1974 they were pained blue. Also, in the older episodes, there was a different closing song, called "Tomorrow" that was used, and then "Good Feeling" became the closing song in 1972. Those were all changes that I looked forward to seeing when they'd air both older and newer episodes. It's too bad those pre-79 episodes no longer air, but I am glad that you do appreciate seeing the changes from week to week in the 1979-2001 episodes.

And yes, I still do not understand why your PBS station would only show 2 episodes from each arc. And you are right, it would make sense for them to at least show all 5 episodes, even if they have to span 2 1/2 weeks. You should suggest that to your local PBS station as an option if they absolutely cannot air it 5 days per week. Although, I do not know whether or not PBS restricts which episodes they can air on a particular day. When I was a kid, I was able to watch Mr. Rogers 3 times per day Mon-Fri, and then again on Sundays.

[–] marxychick1 19 years ago

I believe they stopped airing the early episodes before I was born. I'm a 1983 baby. :) I don't remember any of the '68-'76 episodes.

I sent an e-mail to KCPT (our local PBS station) and got a less than stellar reply. Here's what I wrote:

To whomever reads the e-mail at KCPT,

My name is Elizabeth Kendrick, and I am the mother of a 3 year old girl who exclusively watches KCPT during the day.

With the recent release of DVDs containing episodes of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” I’ve enjoyed watching the show with my daughter. At first, I was delighted to see you still air episodes of the series every Sunday at 6 am. I was even more excited with the launch of the “Happy Healthy Summer” campaign that it has been playing on Monday afternoons at 12 pm as well. However, this excitement was short-lived when I realized that the episodes are not shown in their intended story arcs. (For example- you recently showed 2 episodes from the “Josephine The Short-Neck Giraffe” story arc, but they were not shown in order, nor did you air the other 3 episodes from the arc.)

I turned to an Internet message board to ask other fans of the show in other cities across the country if it is the same situation on their local PBS station. How sad I was when people replied to me saying it is still aired 5 days a week, with chronological story arcs, in their part of the country.

Now, for my question- Why is the airing “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” reduced to a haphazard 2 days a week here in Kansas City? It’s a very sad situation, considering the same 40 episodes of “George Shrinks” continually re-run, while 30 years of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” is reduced to a miniscule hour of airtime a week. Is there any possibility of airing “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood” 5 days a week in the future?

I am not currently a member of KCPT, so I don’t know what weight this letter carries, but there is no way I would consider membership when shows such as “George Shrinks”, “Teletubbies”, & “Boobah” get prominent scheduling while quality shows such as “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” get shelved.

Thank you for your time.

Here's the reply I got:

Thank you for your comments. I have passed your comments on to our Program
Director.. We air the episode of the children programs that are feed to us each
day by PBS.... We have also had very high requests for the programs we do air
and in that case had to replace Mister Rogers.. Thank you for your comments and
again I have passed them on to our Program Director.

Jeeze, what a crock! If anyone in this God-foresaken city actually requests endless reruns and mindless programming we're worse off than I thought.

Anyway, thanks again mitsguy2001. I can only hope they get more letter like mine. I really hope the DVDs and Monday airings will spark enough interest.

[–] mitsguy2001 19 years ago

Hi, Elizabeth. I'm glad that you contacted your local PBS station, and I'm sorry to hear that their response was less than encouraging. But, hopefully if they receive enough requests, they might reconsider. The way your station is showing it makes no sense at all, and I hope they realize that. I really do hope that you and your daughter get to see full weeks of episodes in the near future, and I hope she has the opportunity to grow up with Mr. Rogers like you and I did.

I was born in 1979, so I probably saw many of the same episodes that you did. The 1970-76 episodes actually did continue to air after 1983. The episodes from the 1970 season aired in the summer of 1986, and I very fondly remember watching them. I heard that they aired again in the summer of 1989. It is possible that maybe in 1986 you were too young to realy remember them, and maybe by 1989 you were no longer watching the show regularly. Many of my memories are from 1986 since that was when I was old enough to remember what epsiodes I was seeing, but still young enough to be watching the show regularly.

I have also been told that at least a few pre-1979 episodes aired as late as 1995. The one season you and I definitely never saw was the 1968 season. It was in black and white, and from what I've heard, it never aired again after the show went color in 1969. I would love to see an black and white episode sometime; I would think that there are very few people who have seen them. I do not have any recollection at all of any 1969 episodes (other than seeing them in flashbacks), and from what I heard, they last aired in 1983 or 1984, so I was probably still too young to remember them.

So you don't remember any episodes with the beige walls or the "Tomorrow" song? Even if you never saw them, you probably at least have seen episodes from 1974 and 1975; they look very similar to the 1979-2001 episodes, so as a kid you might not have noticed the difference. As I said, I've been told that a few of them aired as late as 1994 and 1995.

Just out of curiosity, what episodes do you remember watching? Did you have any favorite episodes in particular?

One other fun idea might be to maybe look through some old video tapes that you have and see if maybe you have some episodes taped that you never taped over. And then you can share them with your daughter, and it would be sure to bring back a lot of fond memories.

Hope all is well, and I wish you and your daughter good luck, and I hope your PBS station reconsiders their schedule. :-)

[–] marxychick1 19 years ago

I think I remember the beige walls, but offhand I don't remember the "Tomorrow" song. If I heard it, perhaps, but it's not ringing any bells now.

I forget when my Mr. Rogers viewership dropped off. Probably around 1989, when I was in Kindergarten and was no longer home in the morning when it aired. I guess that's when Square One TV got a hold of me. Kinda sad now that I think back on it. Mr. Rogers was the very first show I ever watched when we finally got cable in our house (I know, strange to watch an antenna available show on cable, but I remember it so well). I'm a nostalgia nut, so I knew eventually I'd come back to "the Neighborhood."

I watched the "America's Favorite Neighbor" documentary once during a PBS pledge drive last year, and that's the most early b&w footage I've ever seen.

I don't remember a lot of whole episodes- just bits & pieces here & there. One I do fondly remember was when Mr. Rogers met an NFL football star (I don't remember who it was) and he told Mr. Rogers one of the ways he limbered up was to ballet dance, so they went to the ballet studio and showed some of his dancing.

I also remember Chef Brockett in the Neighborhood Of Make Believe, with his tall hat and his veggie-platter treats. I loved that!

I wish I had some old tapes. I really should look- I just might have a few. Moved a few times to a couple of different states since then, but just maybe I have somthing. Until then, I hope KCPT changes their mind, or they keep coming out with more DVDs.

[–] mitsguy2001 19 years ago

Hi, Elizabeth. The starting line of the Tomorrow song was "Tomorrow, tomorrow. We'll start the day tomorrow with a song or two". Do you remember it now?

I think my Mr. Rogers viewership dropped off around 1987, ironically, also when I started watcing Square One TV! Square One premiered in January 1987. Although, there is a Mr. Rogers arc that supposedly didn't air until May 1987 that I remember very well, so I must have been watching it at least occasionally.

I also wish that I had watched Mr. Rogers for longer, and didn't stop watching in 1987. I know how you feel, and I really feel the same way.

Since you might have been too young to really remember 1986, and weren't watching regularly in 1989, you probably don't really remember the 1970 season at all.

Just out of curiosity, do you remember any of the operas? Which ones do you remember? Which was your favorite?

[–] marxychick1 19 years ago

Nope, still not ringing a bell with the tomorrow song. I'll bet I heard it, but it's just not as familier to me as "Good Feeling"- which was always a favorite of mine.

I'm sure I caught Mr. Rogers every now & then beyond 1989, I just don't have a terriffic memory for the whole episodes.

I do have a memory of the bubble opera, and of course they just got done showing "Josephine The Short Neck Giraffe" (which I'm not sure if it's a opera or not, but it's very similar). I really just don't remember that well, which is why I'd love to see them again.

I got the "Goes To School" DVD recently, and it has the "Crayon Factory" tour on it, but I was sad to see it wasn't the one I remembered. Were there 2 crayon tours? or am I mixing up something form Sesame Street?

[–] mitsguy2001 19 years ago

Hi, Elizabeth :-)

The bubble opera you are thinking of is called "Windstorm in Bubbleland", and it was also a favorite of mine. It still airs regularly, usually in the fall, although it is not scheduled for the fall of 2005.

As for the crayon factory tour: there might have been 2 of them, and Sesame Street might have also had one or more crayon factory tour. There is a group on yahoo.com (you can join if you're interested) that has files giving a summary of every epiosde. If you would like me to, when I find some time, I can do some reasearch to see if I can find out when each of the crayon factory tours were. Since the pre-79 episodes no longer air, many of the concepts from them were incorporated into newer episodes that would continue to air. So, it is entirely possible that that there was an old episode with a crayon factory tour (if an old episode, it was probably shown on Picture Picture, rather than on location), and when that episode no longer aired, a newer one was created. Again, let me know, and I can try to find out for you.

Have a great long weekend. :-)

[–] marxychick1 19 years ago

Yea!!! I'm so excited, just by chance, I looked at the KCPT website, and they are now airing the show 5 days a week!!!!! Of course, it's at 5am, but that's whar VCRs are for :-) I am so thrilled, I can't even tell you. I really hope my letter made a difference, or that other folks have the same interest that I do in children's programming.

[–] NJKidd 18 years ago

yea were im from in new jersey it only plays on sat. at 7 am
and were i live now in atlanta its the same thing

~If Cartoons Ruled The Telly I Would Kill Myself~

[–] pooka5472 18 years ago

Indeed, the Neighborhood of Make Believe segments aired as a 5 episode arc, just like the "Bloodhound Gang" segments on "3-2-1 Contact" and the "Mathnet" segments on "Square One TV."