Won't you be my neighbor?

Every morning when I put on my sweater at work I'm reminded of Mr Rogers.  A true classic Mr Rogers Neighborhood aired from 1968 to 2001.

Mister Roger's Neighborhood was characterized by its quiet simplicity and gentleness. Episodes had no plot, and consisted of Rogers speaking directly to the viewer about various issues, taking the viewer on tours of factories, demonstrating experiments, crafts, and music, and interacting with his friends. The half-hour episodes included a puppet segment chronicling occurrences in the neighborhood of make-believe.

At the beginning of each episode, Fred Rogers enters his television studio house, singing "Won't You Be My Neighbor?". He hangs his coat in a closet, puts on a cardigan zipper sweater, and removes his dress shoes to put on sneakers. One of Rogers' sweaters now hangs in the Smithsonian, a testament to the cultural influence of his simple daily ritual.

Mister Rogers always made a clear distinction between the realistic world of his television neighborhood and the "fantasy" world of make-believe. He often discussed what was going to happen in make-believe before the next fantasy segment was shown ("Let's pretend that Prince Tuesday has been having scary dreams..."), and sometimes acted out bits of make-believe with models on a table before the camera would transition to the live-action. A mini motorized trolley ("Trolley"), with its accompanying fast-paced theme music, was the one element that appeared regularly in both the "real" world and make-believe: it transported viewers from one realm to the other.

Sadly Fred Rogers died back in 2003.  With reruns of the show still ongoing his memory lives on for years to come.

Here's a sample.