TVSquad

It says something about the quality of the economy when PBS can no longer afford the salary of a man who has been dead for six years. The repeats of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on PBS currently runs daily but will be dropping to once a week in the fall due to monetary concerns.

I don't know the contract details of this show, but since when are re-runs more expensive than original content? That must be one terrific fee that the heirs of Fred Rogers get if it makes PBS balk at the idea of paying for it on a daily basis. Why can't the heirs just produce new content like Brian Henson is trying to do with the Muppets franchise?

To me, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is one of those shows that is synonymous with PBS, right up there with Sesame Street. Given the change in programming for the show, I suspect that the upcoming generation with think otherwise (if they don't think that way already). Sorry Fred.

I wasn't a Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood kid; I was a Sesame Street kid. I know that many kids watched both, but I never did. I probably saw every single episode of Sesame Street in the late '60s and early '70s, but I've only watched a handful of Mr. Rogers episodes over the years. And some of those I watched as an adult to see what I missed.

Still, I have to disagree a bit with this article at The Wall Street Journal Online. It pretty much says that Mr. Rogers is to blame for the attitudes that young adults have today and the entitlement they feel. The article uses examples from colleges (students asking for extra points and time for assignments) and from psychologists (kids shouldn't call adults by their first names).

Some of this advice is dead-on, but I think they're blaming the wrong people.