None of the incredible public broadcast stuff would anymore, even on PBS. Mr Rogers was hugely instrumental in securing the funding PBS needed to produce and buy from affiliates high-quality programming that has not even been remotely emulated to this day. Sesame Street, Electric Company, Reading Rainbow and tons more I don’t recall right now. They were such an incredibly important part of my childhood and about theee other generations of kids that it can only be explained as some kind of perfect storm of general good will. Even the fact that he, a Presbyterian minister, was willing to bring Margaret Hamilton on, humanizing her for lots of terrified little kids in the middle of the Satanic Panic was revolutionary in his usual patient, open-hearted way. For years my children were only allowed to watch two tv shows unmonitored; Mr Roger’s Neighborhood and Reading Rainbow. Not only did I know they wouldn’t encounter something that was beyond their comprehension, but that it would be an edifying and engaging experience. Even if the only things they took from it were Be Kind! and Literacy is Empowering!
Ok, I always go on a long rant whenever something about Mr Rogers is posted. And I also post this because it will never not matter:
Edited for spelling.
