[MadIvan]

I thought this was a rather nice tribute; I have seen the Mr. Rogers programme myself, it seemed something that television is rarely these days - perfectly harmless.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[billorites]

I've always been a little worried about Mr. McFeely.

[Happygal]

Well, the Bear in the Big Blue House is pretty good..for a bear! :-)

But nice post! :-)

[Cicero]

I always liked Mr. Rogers myself, but my kids were taught to make fun of him by their friends. Mr. Rogers wasn't cool. So they stopped watching it at an early age.

Marshall McLuhan rightly said that with television, the medium is the message. Which is to say that it teaches everyone who watches too much of it to think in visually violent ten-second sound bites and quick, constant visual cuts. It decreases the attention span of children. That's pretty much regardless of what the program happens to be "about."

I liked Sesame Street, which ran in the same years as Mr. Rogers, but Sesame Street was, actually, visually violent. It catered to and cultivated a short attention span.

Mr. Rogers was the one exception to all the TV I've ever seen. Sweet, calm, kind, and never visually violent or jerky or full of montages and surprises. It bored a lot of people because the medium was basically slow and continuous, like life, and they preferred jerky 10-second sound bites, abrupt cuts in the video, and constant bursts of canned laughter.

[livius]

My husband and I were houseparents in a group home for retarded adults many years ago. The residents would come home from the sheltered workshop all wound up - loud, fighting, unable to settle down. They got home about the same time that Mr. Rogers came on, and one day, one of my small children happened to have the TV on, tuned to Mr. Rogers, when the residents trooped in. They all came in, sat down and watched absolutely enthralled for the whole program. No fighting, no yelling, nothing but blessed silence and smiles.

This became an afternoon ritual. I was always completely stunned by the effect Mr. Rogers' calm tone, mild delivery, and really pleasant program content had on our residents. I used to watch it with them, and I must admit, it had a calming effect on me, too!

[LiteKeeper]

mega-dittoes

[Vic3O3]

Mr Rogers ping...