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I believe this is a first for this show...Mister Rogers' Neighborhood coming to DVD on 3/27/2018 (1 Viewer)

Mike Frezon

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Thanks to Richard for starting this thread.

I have pre-ordered.

I just wish a few episodes from the late '60s/early '70s were included. Those were the years when Fred Rogers was very important in my life! :thumbsup:

I have a couple granddaughters who are very good friends with Daniel Tiger. I wonder what they'll think of his "origin series!" :laugh:
 

rmw650

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My pleasure Mike...glad to have helped and don't forget the postage stamps coming out in late March as well.
 

Radioman970

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I just wish a few episodes from the late '60s/early '70s were included. Those were the years when Fred Rogers was very important in my life!
That bothers me too. I'd like to tell them we're all old and want the oldie versions. And if they colorated the b&w ones.. I'll just say that would be unneighborly and get ugly FAST!
 

Mark Y

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That has me a little worried. Fred Rogers apparently had no "dark side" to speak of, and people without dark sides tend to make pretty boring subjects for biopics. I'm worried they'll try to gin something up in order to create drama.

All I know of that could possibly lean towards the "dark side" angle (and that's really stretching it) is I once heard he had a son who was in a heavy metal band (which is kind of cool, assuming it's even true). Also, having a son means he had sex.
 
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Mark Y

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That bothers me too. I'd like to tell them we're all old and want the oldie versions. And if they colorated the b&w ones.. I'll just say that would be unneighborly and get ugly FAST!

I think it's cool that they are releasing a set like this, but I was born in 1967, so the 1979 and later episodes would not have been part of my experience. IIRC they did a series from 1968 through about 1975, then stopped for a few years, picking up again in 1979. In between they just showed reruns. And at some point (1990s?) they quit showing the earlier series altogether.
 

Blimpoy06

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Fred Rogers apparently had no "dark side" to speak of, and people without dark sides tend to make pretty boring subjects for biopics.
Weird Al Yankovic would joke about why there would never be a Behind The Music story on him. He was too nice and boring.
 

Ron1973

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I think it's cool that they are releasing a set like this, but I was born in 1967, so the 1979 and later episodes would not have been part of my experience. IIRC they did a series from 1968 through about 1975, then stopped for a few years, picking up again in 1979. In between they just showed reruns. And at some point (1990s?) they quit showing the earlier series altogether.
I was born in 1973, so I would be the opposite. I don't remember any of the b/w episodes at all other than seeing clips since I've been grown. And I'm "fairly sure," though I wouldn't swear to it, it was still on past the 90's. I'm pretty certain my kids watched it, though it was reruns. I remember thinking one day how Lady Aberlin still looked young after all these years. Umm, well, it was an episode from 1979! :lol:
 

Mark Y

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I was born in 1973, so I would be the opposite. I don't remember any of the b/w episodes at all other than seeing clips since I've been grown. And I'm "fairly sure," though I wouldn't swear to it, it was still on past the 90's. I'm pretty certain my kids watched it, though it was reruns. I remember thinking one day how Lady Aberlin still looked young after all these years. Umm, well, it was an episode from 1979! :lol:

Oh yes, the show was still in production until a year or two before Fred Rogers died. What I meant was, at some point they stopped repeating the pre-1979 shows. And they had stopped showing black and white episodes long before that, probably before NET changed to PBS.
 

The Obsolete Man

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Oh yes, the show was still in production until a year or two before Fred Rogers died. What I meant was, at some point they stopped repeating the pre-1979 shows. And they had stopped showing black and white episodes long before that, probably before NET changed to PBS.

Okay, quick wikiing... Season 1, which was a hundred thirty episodes, was B&W. Season 2 began the color years. PBS didn't switch from NET to PBS happened between seasons 3 and 4. So, seasons 2 and 3 together equaled the number of episodes in season 1. I'm not sure NET would've jettisoned over half the show's run before the PBS changeover, but I can't find any concrete evidence either way.

IMO, The B&W episodes almost surely would've been gone by the time the hiatus happened in '76, though, never to be seen in regular rotation again.
 

Lord Dalek

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The black and white shows were only rerun once due to the extended length of the season (1/2 a year) and the fact that NET was planning on going full color in the upcoming year. When the show came back for a second season in February 1969, it had been cut down to just 13 weeks and 65 shows. To make up the difference, NET and PBS affiliates simply looped the same 13 week show cycle 3-4 times throughout the year. At the age necessary to watch Mister Rogers you probably wouldn't notice you had seen that show before anyway.

Of course in the 80s and 90s they were only doing 2-3 weeks of new shows and interspersing them with the "Classic 460" (which eventually became the "Classic 330" when Shows 1000-1130 were removed from package in the mid-80s).
 
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Mark Y

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Also, the show stayed on the air (in reruns) quite some time after Fred Rogers died. I remember the show's website providing tips on how parents might discuss his passing with their kids. In Chicago, the show ran at least a few more years in its regular timeslot on our main PBS station, Channel 11. Then it was moved to very, very early in the morning, then quietly disappeared, but was brought back again early Sunday mornings either on Channel 20 or Channel 56 from Indiana. All post-1979 episodes.
 

Mark Y

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Okay, quick wikiing... Season 1, which was a hundred thirty episodes, was B&W. Season 2 began the color years. PBS didn't switch from NET to PBS happened between seasons 3 and 4. So, seasons 2 and 3 together equaled the number of episodes in season 1. I'm not sure NET would've jettisoned over half the show's run before the PBS changeover, but I can't find any concrete evidence either way.

IMO, The B&W episodes almost surely would've been gone by the time the hiatus happened in '76, though, never to be seen in regular rotation again.

I don't ever remember seeing the show in black and white. I would have been watching roughly from 1969-1972 ish. (I see above that the black and whites were only repeated once.)

Also, the NET-era shows were re-edited later to eliminate references to NET.
 

EricSchulz

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If you've never seen the B&W episodes, check out Amazon Prime Video. The first week is available to stream. VERY different look and feel to the show from the later years.
 

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