Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (often shortened to simply Mister Rogers) is an American half-hour children's television series that was created and hosted by namesake Fred Rogers. The series originated in 1963 as Misterogers on CBC Television, and was later debuted in 1966 as Misterogers' Neighborhood on the regional Eastern Educational Network (EEN, a forerunner of today's American Public Television), followed by its US network debut on February 19, 1968, and it aired on NET and its successor, PBS, until August 31, 2001. The series is aimed primarily at preschool ages 2 to 5, but has been stated by PBS as "appropriate for all ages".[1] Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was produced by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, public broadcaster WQED and Rogers' non-profit production company Family Communications, Inc.; previously known as Small World Enterprises prior to 1971, the company was renamed The Fred Rogers Company after Rogers' death.[2][3]
The series could be seen in reruns on most PBS stations until August 31, 2007,[4] when it began to be removed by various PBS stations, and then permanently removed by PBS after August 29, 2008 from their daily syndicated schedule. Despite this, a number of stations have chosen to continue airing the reruns independently of the PBS feed.