I don’t know that there was a real person whom I never actually met who had more of an effect on my development than Fred Rogers; so while it’s obviously not “aimed” anywhere near me (which is as it should be) I’m curious to see where/how this works out: PBS has announced the development of a spin-off “sequel” series to “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” – the first new series to be produced by the Fred Rogers Company since Rogers himself passed away a decade ago.
The new series is animated, and will be called “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” The premise is that the “Land of Make-Believe” puppet characters from the original series have since grown up and now have children of their own; with the “Daniel” of the title being the four year-old son of the original Daniel Striped Tiger (Rogers’ “first” puppet). The first production still from the series appears to show the character (will he have his father’s watch?) in what looks like an animated version of the original series’ house set – traffic light, fish tank and Trolley all accounted for.
I feel like someone should say something snarky about the idea of even Mister Rogers now having continuity… but the words won’t come. I’ll say this: Children’s entertainment needs Mister Rogers’ influence now more than ever; and if the people behind this intend on continuing in his spirit then I wish them all the luck in the world. And, since I can’t post this often enough – here’s Fred Rogers himself testifying on behalf of keeping Public Broadcasting funded before Congress. I suggest sending it along to your Congressman:
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 
Nice to see that like Jim Henson some one will pick up the torch and carry on the message.
The video was something I have watched about 10 times and it's still as powerful as the first time, sad that youtube recommended a “rogers is evil” bullshit story from Fox News after watching that lovely plea from a great man.
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I always pictured Mister Rogers more of a wise old owl, sloth, or monkey instead of a tiger but I guess that's a little stereotypical.
And I can't get enough of that video too.
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That send shivers down my spine as to just how great, thoughtful and wonderful both Mr Rodgers and the senate seemed to be.
Compare that to the members today who look bored to even be there.
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Does this also mean that King Friday's son is now in power or has the 'Land of Make-Believe' become a democracy? I like to see a 'Tudors' style side story about that.
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“Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood”. Its years and that theme song still makes me smile.
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God I miss Mr. Rogers. So much so that when some friends of mine were making fun of him in school the day after he died, I cried my eyes out.
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Whenever I read a story about Mister Rogers I get more impressed – I have to say I'm happy to see PBS giving this a shot. It's also nice that his original company is working on this, so it isn't just a name grab (I know many people were quite unhappy about the attempted Captain Kangaroo revival).
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@Nathan,
Complete with poor grammar, in the title. It seems to me that type of person could have used some PBS. Currently, they could use some humility – knocked into them with a brick, if need be.
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Speaking as someone who had no idea who Mr. Rogers was. Wow, that was quite something, I wish there were more people like him around…
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