Mr. Rogers

Today we celebrate National Good Neighbor Day by thanking those who live around us who watch our kids when we're sick, let us borrow the chainsaw to cut down that dead oak in the front yard, lend us money and comfort when times are bleak and look the other way when they saw our wives kissing the mailman right on the mouth (to keep the marriage strife-free, of course).

In order to honor this exalted day, we have compiled a list of 10 TV neighbors who would literally give you the shirt off their backs -- even if was by burning your shirt off while accidentally lighting your house on fire.

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.

Bob's recent post about Madame got me thinking about all the puppets that have appeared on television over the years, and specifically the ones that creeped me the heck out. If you're like me and some of those characters that were meant to entertain you only left you with nightmares and a life-long fear of anything even remotely puppet-like, share your tales of woe in the comments. Think of this as group therapy. Let's get started:

Madame: This aging diva may have been hilarious, but as a very young child when I saw her on shows like Hollywood Squares and Solid Gold she only managed to send me cowering behind the sofa. That jutting chin! That piercing voice! Those horrible satanic eyes! Clearly, she was the Banshee of Celtic lore, and I imagined that after every show she returned to her real occupation: flying around screaming to portend the death of Irish family members.