Sep 04 2008
The Neighborhood Gets Smaller
There was a time when I’d have thought Saturday morning television would never be without The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, and that the kids’ block of PBS would never be without Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
If anyone runs Bugs and friends on Saturday morning, I guess I am watching some other channel at the time. Fact is, I haven’t seen the rascally rabbit for a while now.
And now there’s news that while Sesame Street is still going — although virtually unrecognizable to those of us who grew up with it in the 1970s — Mr. Rogers is being sent packing from many PBS affiliates.
No new episodes shows have been produced for seven years. Rogers passed away five years ago. And officials at local PBS stations now say that the old tried and true program is showing its age, along with a decline in viewership that they have to act on.
Yes, ‘Neighborhood’ was a sometimes-hoaky production. Yes, there were times when Rogers himself seemed far too “goody-goody” for anyone over the age of 12 to possibly be able to take seriously. But for those who were younger than that, he was something special. And for those of us who remember watching when we were those little kids he talked to, there was no one quite like him when it came to pointing out the fact that we’re all valuable in our own special ways.
Maybe there will be some new production with new characters that will communicate exactly the same message in a whole new way that is somehow just as effective.
But I doubt it.
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