The neighborhood of make-believe lost its most famous resident Aug. 31 when Mr. Rogers tossed his loafers aside and hung up his sweater for the last time.
The last original episode of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” aired that day, although the show will continue reruns. Rogers taped his last show in December, but he is far from retiring.
“This is not in any way a retirement where he’s out taking an extended fishing trip,” William P. Barker, a longtime Rogers’ friend and fellow puppeteer, told Presbyterian News Service. “He’s developing other ways of continuing the ministry of Family Communications Inc. Good things are in store for the future.”
Every weekday since 1968, children have been able to join Mr. Rogers and his menagerie of friends for 30 minutes of values lessons and make-believe.
Rogers told ABC’s “nightline” in July that children appreciated the fact that he spoke to them as children, but also treated them as adults. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rogers has spent his entire career in television but remains a faithful member of Sixth Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg. On the “Nightline” special, Rogers recalled the story of a young girl who told him the show provided an escape each day from her abusive home.
“That’s a holy enterprise,” he said. “The space between the television set and that little girl who was in such desperate need, the space there was holy ground.” (RNS)
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