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1!!Contained examples of:
2* ArchivePanic: There are a total of ''995'' episodes through the show's entire run, counting both the black-and-white 100 originals that were on EEN and the 895 that were on NET/PBS. At 30 minutes a piece, that would run 502.5 hours total, or nearly 21 days nonstop. Of course the show is contained per week and isn't meant to be watched over a long term (each episode spans a 5-episode arc to make up for the week). But still, if we want to be completely real here, there's probably no way you're going to make it through all of this. And that's not even counting if you're also considering watching the holiday specials, the parent discussion episodes, or the CBC ones!
3** Website/{{Twitch}} aired a marathon of the NET/PBS episodes of the show (excluding the ''conflict'' week arc) beginning on May 15, 2017. Even without the EEN, CBC and ''conflict'' episodes, as well as the holiday specials and the parent discussion episodes, and even with several earlier color episodes missing, it ran about 20 days nonstop.[[note]]It took them about ''three days'' just to get to the ''color episodes''.[[/note]]
4** Twitch ran another stream from March 20, 2018 with 90 best episodes to mark what would be Mr. Rogers' 90th birthday, followed by another 800+ episode marathon of the show that began at March 23 12:00 AM Pacific time.
5* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
6** Most of the background music was ''improvised live'' during taping by jazz pianist Johnny Costa. Refusing to play "kiddie music", Costa filled his accompaniments with sophisticated runs and flourishes. His arrangements were often compared to the legendary pianist Music/ArtTatum, which is about the biggest compliment a jazz pianist can get. In fact, Costa was given the nickname "the white Tatum"... by ''Art Tatum himself.'' Now that's awesome music.
7** Each of the operas featuring John Reardon.
8** Additionally, John D. Boswell's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFzXaFbxDcM The Garden of Your Mind]], essentially a composition set to numerous quotes from the show. First off, the background music is incredibly tranquil and soothing, which is perfect for the kind of show it is. The quotes for the remix though are what truly sell it -- it's many of the deep words Mr. Rogers would tell the viewer during the show ("It's good to be curious about many things", "You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind"), which makes it an amazingly perfect blend of pure SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel. In fact, during the 2017 Twitch marathon, it was played after every five episodes, and unlike [[TheScrappy the widely-reviled cameos from other Twitch streamers]], few complained because it was just ''that'' good, many of the chatters claiming they never got tired of hearing it.
9** One episode had François Clemmons giving an impromptu performance of "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York" from ''Theatre/PorgyAndBess'' (of which he was in a production of at the time) which not only lets him show off his amazing singing by gives Johnny Costa's band a chance to play some real "hot" jazz. Easily the coolest musical moment in the whole show.
10* BigLippedAlligatorMoments: During one of the episodes about families, Mister Rogers plays a film depicting various families doing things like washing their car, having dinner and doing homework together. After it's over, he plays it again at double speed for seemingly no reason, then says that watching films this way makes him think "[[CaptainObvious funny fast film]]". He then sings "Please Don't Think It's Funny", making this either an awkward transition or [[RuleOfFunny something weird he did for a laugh]].
11* BrokenBase:
12** Which song is the better closing song: "Tomorrow" or "It's Such a Good Feeling"? Even several ''seasons'' after Good Feeling became permanent, people in the Twitch marathon chat STILL complained about Tomorrow disappearing. However, it's a fairly light example, since most viewers love both songs anyway and regardless of which one they like more, they're still enjoyable on a similar level especially since both are pretty catchy and make use of "snappy".
13** Whether or not the Neighborhood of Make Believe segments are creepy. Even some who like the show have compared it unfavorably to ''Theatre/PunchAndJudy'' while others aren't bothered by it at all.
14** There also seems to be some division over whether the first run or the second run of the show (1968-1976 and 1979-2001, respectively) is better. This is more or less a generation-gap preference due to how only one run was typically on the air at a time (there was a brief time when both runs were on the air, but the second run became more dominant fairly quickly before the first run was knocked off the air entirely), though the two do feel quite a bit different from each other, the first run being a bit quicker in pacing and lacking the unifying themes for each week.
15* CommonKnowledge: It's often believed that the [[BannedEpisode long-pulled from the air]] Conflict episodes were meant to help children deal with the graphic nature of the TV film ''Film/TheDayAfter'' (which depicts life before, during, and after a nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union from the perspective of the people of Lawrence, Kansas), and the reason it was dropped was because it was no longer relevant. However, as mentioned on Website/TheOtherWiki, the original airdates of the two don't coincide with this idea; the first Conflict episode premiered November 7, 1983, where the movie aired November 20; due to the length of time required for making a typical episode, the chances of this being the case are incredibly small. According to the info conveyed during the Twitch stream, it was Fred Rogers himself that requested that the episodes were never ever shown again.
16* FridgeBrilliance:
17** Many episodes open with a shot of a flashing yellow traffic light that was in Mr Rogers' house before panning over to the door where he entered. A yellow light (generally) means "slow down" which is exactly what he did with the pacing of his show, especially compared to others at the time. However, in episodes of Seasons 10-12, we see the porch and Fred Rogers walking into the house instead of the flashing yellow lights.
18** For episode 1721, the traffic light is flashing on green instead of yellow as it usually does. (This is the only episode where another traffic light besides yellow is flashing in the intro. There was no episode where the signal was flashing on red).
19** The show opens with a shot of a model office building (or the NET building in early episodes) as we pan to the house, and ends with the reverse, that being a pan from the house to the office. At first it just seems like an attempt to be aesthetically pleasing and show off the model neighborhood, but then you realize it's meant to simulate his walking from "work" to the house and back! This is hinted at numerous times in the show too, like how he always walks in with a formal suit on and how he explicitly states at the end of a few visits that he's returning to work.
20** Why did Rogers like TheDanza trope so much? He said that he liked to address his viewers directly. So it's not far-fetched to believe he invoked this trope because he was not only addressing the other characters, ''but also the actors playing the characters'', directly. This theory is reinforced by a recent interview with François Clemmons- François recalled one time when he asked Fred after the take of one episode if Fred was talking to him, and Fred replied that he was ''always'' talking to him.
21* GeniusBonus: Watching "Goodnight Little Ones", the Russian children's show that Mr. Rogers visits during his trip to the Soviet Union in 1988, was what inspired Music/{{Sting}} to write the song "[[Music/TheDreamOfTheBlueTurtles Russians]]" three years prior.
22* HarsherInHindsight
23** Rogers revived his ''Neighborhood'' show partially in response to stories of kids who watched ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' and jumped off heights to pretend to fly and getting seriously injured. Seeing Rogers angrily denounce the film for encouraging that now feels terribly unfair to a beloved film classic and especially to the late Creator/ChristopherReeve, now often considered something like Hollywood's version of Fred Rogers, when the emphasis should be proper parenting to tell kids about the nature of movie fantasy. Of course, in 1982, Rogers later did a two-part episode in which he and Mr. [=McFeely=] visited the set of ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'', therefore, Rogers himself probably regretted how he initially reacted towards ''Superman'' and decided to use the two-part ''Hulk'' episode to repent for his sins by showing how fantasy content is depicted on film.
24** In the Neighborhood of Make Believe segments during the week of "Mister Rogers Goes To School" episodes, Lady Elaine convinces Anna, Prince and Daniel that they need to know everything before they go to school, drilling them in reading, writing and arithmetic before their first day and dismissing the notion that school children need playtime to aid in their learning. While it's done here for the sake of proving her wrong and that the opposite is true, people like her eventually won this argument and, in the years following Mister Rogers' death, public schools have essentially turned into testing factories which hyper-focus on preparing children as young as ''kindergarten'' for adulthood. Even non-academic activities (ie, sports, the arts) are expected to be extracurricular rather than merely fun.
25* HeartwarmingInHindsight: The last episode Johnny Costa was alive during the time of its production (1710) also happens to feature a visit to him and his crew. At first it was likely just intended to be one of the many neighborhood visits, but it works as a perfect sendoff and farewell to him in retrospect.
26* HilariousInHindsight:
27** David Newell, aka Mr. [=McFeely=], is the head of Public Relations at the Fred Rogers Company. It works on so many levels.
28** There is also a genuine [[http://www.speedeedelivery.com/ Spee-Dee Delivery]] company, though it only operates in the north-central US.
29** One of Audrey Duck's earliest appearances involves her teaching King Friday how to order a TV and introducing the power of television to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe (including the toddler Prince Tuesday.) This becomes hilarious in that sometime after her appearances on Mr. Rogers, Susan Linn, Audrey's puppeteer, would take a much more critical approach to television and screens in childhood development and even founded the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood to campaign against it. She still performs with Audrey Duck to promote her anti-consumer activism. Not that she's upset with the show that gave her her big break - the organization also hands out a Fred Rogers Integrity Award every year to people that work against consumerism and ''Mister Rogers Neighborhood'' notably features little to no tie-in merchandising and does not include advertisements or product placements (even in it's "how things are made" videos).
30** Famously, Mister Rogers would always announce out loud that he was feeding the fish on the show after a blind girl wrote to him and never knew if he was feeding them or not. This becomes more amusing after Descriptive Video Services became available for the show (he would continue announcing his feeding of the fish even after this fact, though).
31** Speaking of other PBS shows, in the "Mister Rogers Goes To School" episodes, both he and the Neighborhood of Make Believe character make a big fuss over the quasi-sentient trolly being dressed up like a school bus. Fifteen years later, PBS would air [[Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus an even more popular show where a quasi-sentient school bus (which can do things that are only possible in make-believe) is a main character]]. Even more appropriate, Mister Rogers keeps referring to the trolly as "trolly school bus", which has the same rhythm as "Magic School Bus".
32** In one episode, while demonstrating how a chalkboard works, Mr. Rogers asks Mr. [=McFeely=] where he thinks [[WesternAnimation/ChalkZone things go once they're erased from the chalkboard]].
33* LessDisturbingInContext: The infamous picture that appears to show Mr. Rogers FlippingTheBird at the camera. While the picture itself is indeed genuine, it is not what the typical adult would think. The context makes it quite innocent, as it simply appears in the middle of a familiar children's finger-play that involves raising your fingers one at a time ("Where is tall-man?"). Of course, some viewers speculate from his knowing grin at that moment that he knew perfectly well what the gesture would have meant out of context.
34* MemeticMutation: Has earned [[Memes/MisterRogersNeighborhood its own page]], along with entries for MemeticBadass.
35* OnceOriginalNowCommon: Mr. Rogers and his neighborhood have actually managed to avoid some of this - the show is just so unlike ''any'' children's programming, even today, that it's not too hard to see what was so special about it and it can still resonate with adults even today. However, there are still a few elements that can be difficult for children of the late [=20th=] century or the [=21st=] to really appreciate:
36** First, and most significant, is Fred Rogers' quiet but ''dogged'' insistence on racial justice and equality and representing it on the show (and thus, making sure his message resonated with children of color as much as anyone). As noted a bit below, he was completely forthright about wanting to interact with and include folks of color on the show, including children. Today a lot of these examples can seem like normal diversity inclusions (and can sometimes come across as tokenism), but it has to be remembered that the main show launched in February 1968 - the civil rights movement was still in full swing at the time, and the Civil Rights Act wasn't even half a decade old. Rogers' insistence of including people of color at the time of the show's launch was ''utterly'' radical and he did, to use un-neighborly language, catch shit over it for much of the first years of the show's run. Rogers' trip to Congress to advocate for PBS funding was in part because some elements of Congress wanted to defund PBS ''because'' of this sort of content, and he more or less shamed them into letting him continue.
37** Also, certain things like the show's episode on the Robert Kennedy assassination. Today some of these can just come across as {{Very Special Episode}}s. This would be because Fred Rogers basically ''invented'' the VSE. Prior to ''Neighborhood'', childrens' shows and wider childrens' content didn't tend to discuss "serious" or "traumatic" events ''at all'', this being seen as purely the domain of parents. Rogers was having none of it and realized that many working parents might not always have the time to contextualize things for children, especially in the faster-moving modern world, so he went out of his way to dedicate time to helping children contextualize and understand the events going on around them and things they would definitely encounter in their lives, like discussion of the Kennedy assassination. This was ''unbelievably'' radical in the [=60s=], and Rogers ate even more criticism for this than he did for the inclusion of people of color, but once again the simple, dogged effectiveness of it led to people instead learning that a well-executed VSE could be helpful (with a certain [[{{ComicStrip/Peanuts}} Charles Schulz]], in particular, deciding to [[WesternAnimation/WhyCharlieBrownWhy tackle the issue of cancer at the start of the 90s]]) and from there it was history.
38* OneSceneWonder: Jeff Erlanger, a boy who'd been rendered quadriplegic by a spinal tumor as a baby and met Mr. Rogers at age 5 when they'd just happened to be in the same town shortly after he told his parents he wanted to meet him, made an appearance on the show five years later which is considered among its most memorable guest appearances, demonstrating how his electric wheelchair worked (the episode was about different vehicles) and singing "It's You I Like" with Mr. Rogers. He went on to become an advocate for the disabled and made a surprise appearance at Rogers' induction into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999, at which the overjoyed Rogers leaped out of his seat and climbed onstage to hug him.
39* OvershadowedByControversy: The "Conflict" episodes probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere ''near'' as much attention had they not been pulled from reruns and sent into KeepCirculatingTheTapes territory. It doesn't help that it also led to speculation on why they were pulled, with no real straight answer ever given by the company (one source mentioned during the Twitch stream that Fred Rogers himself asked that the episodes be never shown again, but the reason was never disclosed). Matters only got worse when [=YouTube=] preservations were copyright-claimed and taken down by the company, which happened ''after'' everyone already knew the episodes weren't going to be shown on the Twitch marathon. To say people were upset is a huge understatement, many believing it was an attempt to bury history.
40* PeripheryDemographic: Because of the show being such a LongRunner, nearly three generations grew up watching this show, and many of those who did will still fully admit it's just as joyful to watch today as it was when they were little. It also wasn't terribly uncommon to hear of parents who would watch the show with their kids. Rogers himself caught onto this, and made several weekend specials aimed at parents about the week's up-and-coming topic ("Mister Rogers Talks with Parents About [Topic]"). Some of his other media was also aimed at people who grew up on his show, such as his last goodbye and his 9/11 advice video, and many of the books he wrote as well. The 2017 Twitch marathon is the most shining example though, with the chat being almost entirely populated with people who were kids during the show's late years.
41* RetroactiveRecognition:
42** A 1975 episode had a troupe of acrobats perform for King Friday's birthday. One of the acrobats in question? A young Creator/MichaelKeaton, who actually worked as part of the show's floor crew before he left to pursue an acting career.
43** Creator/GeorgeARomero got his start on this show before becoming a director; indeed, it was his assignment to film Mr. Rogers [[ItMakesSenseInContext getting a tonsilectomy]] that laid the groundwork for ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''!
44** When George took Mister Rogers to the premiere of Dawn of the Dead, Romero was living in dread all movie long about what he was going to say. In pure Mister Rogers fashion, his review was "That was a great deal of fun".
45** Creator/KeithDavid appeared in a few episodes as a handyman in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, long before he gained prominence as a voice actor.
46** Creator/MingNaWen made her TV debut as a Royal Trumpeter.
47* SacredCow: A textbook example. While it wasn't always the case, Creator/FredRogers has been outright sanctified in the years since his death, thanks to how [[ValuesResonance germane]] the show's teachings continue to be, and saying anything negative about him to its now-adult viewers will ''not'' end well for you.[[note]]The idea that Mister Rogers is one of those public figures that you simply don't make fun of is a relatively new development. Until about the mid-2010s, his gentle manner of speaking was mocked as sounding more lethargic than inviting and his unfalteringly earnest kindness was prime fodder for parody jokes either depicting him as secretly being a [[MemeticPsychopath violent sociopath or child abuser]] or snarking about how [[MemeticLoser hopelessly uncool he was]]. Along with ''Series/SesameStreet'' (and to a lesser extent, ''Series/BarneyAndFriends''), his name was also synonymous with anything that was "for babies" or a little too politically correct in the 90s and 2000s, especially among those fond of [[RefugeInAudacity edgelord humor]]. Of course, as this page alone demonstrates, such jokes are no longer the crowd pleasers they once were.[[/note]]
48* SignatureSong: Besides the theme song, "It's You I Like" is usually the first song people think of when they think of this show, due to how often it was sung and because of how much it conveys Rogers' life philosophy.
49* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Some songs used in the early days were co-written with Josie Carey, dating back to their time working together on ''The Children's Corner''. Rogers and Carey sold the copyrights to these songs ([[OldShame foolishly, by Rogers' own admission]]), and mostly stopped using them in order to avoid paying royalties, as Rogers said that he could come up with new ones that were just as good. Indeed, some of the newer songs have very similar lyrics - for example, "I Like You As You Are" gave way to "It's You I Like".
50* ValuesDissonance: The song "Everybody's Fancy" would stir up controversy today over the lines "Boys are boys from the beginning, girls are girls right from the start" and "Only girls can be the mommies, only boys can be the daddies". It can also be a bit jarring to hear Mister Rogers frequently use politically-correct-for-the-time phrases like "he or she" or "his or her" rather than the now-more-widely-accepted "they/their/them" (Rogers himself seemingly recognized a bit of the issue with the song's gender essentialism in later years, getting rid of the "only" and revising the lyrics to "Girls grow up to be the mommies / Boys grow up to be the daddies").
51* ValuesResonance
52** While the values taught in the show are always considered timeless and are arguably just as important now as they were years ago, the show's slow-moving nature only seems to get more important as time goes on. It feels truer than ever now, in the age of the Internet and cell phones where it seems everyone has to have everything and have it right now. The show's roots certainly go back to a simpler time, but the show remained the same through the years for the better, even after the 80s and 90s brought about more fast-paced entertainment.
53** Mister Rogers regularly acknowledged that people get angry and would ask his neighbors if they ever use the skills that they share as healthy ways to get negative feelings out of your system without harming yourself or others (for example, Mister Rogers himself plays piano or swims while Chuck Abor plays solo basketball). There were even two songs, "What Do You Do With The Mad That You Feel?" and "The Truth Will Set Me Free", about how it's okay to have negative feelings, so long as you know that they're ''your'' feelings. In the age of social media and the "outrage culture" which it encourages, learning how to manage anger, especially when it comes to being emotionally invested in important things like social justice and politics, may be the single most important lesson to take from this show.
54** While the show was never [[{{Anvilicious}} overtly preachy]], author [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-g-long/the-radical-politics-of-mister-rogers-ten-fascinating-facts_b_7064322.html Michael Long]] has observed that Mr. Rogers often quietly advocated racial equality in the 60s. As one example, the character "Mayor Maggie of Southwood", played by African American actress Maggie Stewart, debuted in 1974, 14 years ''before'' the first African American woman became mayor of a major U.S. city in real life. The show also introduced Francois Clemmons, the first African-American regular on a children's program. An early appearance featured Mr. Rogers cooling his feet in a wading pool and inviting Officer Clemmons to join him. The camera then pans right in to show two pairs of feet side by side, sharing the same space as equals. Clemmons the ''actor'' was incredibly moved by this for years, understanding the significance of it in 1969[[note]]Remember, this was at a time when a good portion of white Americans explicitly refused to share pools with black people, and a sizeable portion of the remainder silently held the same belief, to the point where incidents like [[https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/motel-manager-pouring-acid-water-black-people-swam-pool-1964/ this]] could happen[[/note]]. It would so move him that in his final appearance on the show, the scene was recreated one more time and this time Rogers performed the symbolic act of drying Clemmons' feet with a towel.
55
56!!Didn't contain, but was still related to examples of:
57* AwardSnub: The documentary about the series ''Won't You Be My Neighbor'' wasn't even nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar, in what was widely pilloried as one of the most inexplicable snubs in the awards' history (even as many acknowledged that Rogers himself wouldn't have been bothered at all by it). It did, however, get a Best Documentary Award at the AARP Movies For Grownups Awards, which took place on February 15, 2019, and were broadcast on PBS.
58* CreatorWorship: Many fans and people who grew up with the show practically regard Fred Rogers as [[PatronSaint a kind of saint]]. A common sentiment in profiles of Mr. Rogers is, "If [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Protestants]] had saints, Fred Rogers would have already been canonized". You can buy fan-made artwork that depicts Mr. Rogers as a religious icon, and a large fan group on Website/{{Reddit}} calls itself "The Church of Rogers". Meanwhile, a real Episcopal church Fred Rogers sometimes attended in Massachusetts actually does [[https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mister-rogers-icon-at-st-pauls-episcopal-church display a painting]] depicting him as a saint, complete with halo.
59* EveryoneIsSatanInHell: Two examples of Rogers being hit with this are touched upon in ''Won't You Be My Neighbor?''
60** An article in the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers Wall Street Journal]] titled [[https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118358476840657463 Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled]] cited Don Chance, a finance professor at Louisiana State University who decided Mister Rogers had "coddled" youth by telling them they were special. It was repeated uncritically in commentary and news outlets, like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29lmR_357rA Fox & Friends]], which had the whole cast denigrate Mister Rogers, starting with one member repeatedly calling him an "evil man" and later in [[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-millennials-are-coming/2/ a broader report]] from ''Series/SixtyMinutes'' about the effects of Millennials entering the workplace and being willing to walk out of a job if mistreated. Variations continue to pop up from time to time.
61** Along the same vein as clergy who tried to get Mister Rogers to speak against homosexuality, Westboro Baptist Church [[http://capitalismmagazine.com/2003/05/god-buggery-and-mister-rogers/ protested his funeral]] because he was a tolerant person.
62* FriendlyFandoms: With those who enjoy ''Series/TheJoyOfPainting'', due to how both shows feature {{All Loving Hero}}es who are very calming, easy-going, and most importantly, selfless and highly respected. While the two shows have completely different premises (and more notably target audiences) from each other, both provide a very similar tranquil and healing feel.
63* NightmareFuel: Some viewers were scared by some costumed characters like Bob Dog and Purple Panda, to the point where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A8bb9qHhHw one kindergarten class was put in tears]] when Purple Panda paid a surprise visit to their classroom.
64* OlderThanTheyThink: King Friday's "[[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness propel your craft]]" lyrics for "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" were actually written by Rogers when he was in college.
65* PosthumousPopularityPotential: Creator/FredRogers was deeply admired while he was alive, but his squeaky-clean persona led to more cynical folks parodying him as a DepravedKidsShowHost or a MemeticLoser. However, a decade after his passing, kids raised on the show grew up and began pointing out the ValuesResonance of its messages, and it became increasingly clear that Rogers' public image was more than just a persona. By the end of TheNewTens, Rogers and his show became viewed in a saintly light, and jokes at their expenses are retroactively seen as unacceptable.
66* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: ''Won't You Be My Neighbor'' is rated PG-13 by the MPAA, and the network premiere on PBS was rated TV-14, due entirely to content that would never appear on the show proper (namely some instances of mild swearing and discussion of heavy subject matter relevant to the show's historical context). People have, however, been recommended to take their children to see it because, you know, Mister Rogers.

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