'Mister Rogers' fan launches Web site to save daily episodes

When Brian Linder read on Post-Gazette.com three weeks ago about PBS ending its practice of feeding "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" episodes to member stations on a daily basis this fall, he didn't have to be told twice what to do with the mad that he felt, to paraphrase one of Fred Rogers' songs.

Linder sprang into action, launching the Web site SaveMisterRogers.com and an associated Facebook group.

Linder -- who works from his Columbia, S.C., home as a senior editor for the movie page of the Web site IGN.com -- has twin 18-month-old daughters.

"I've been looking forward to introducing them to ('Mister Rogers' Neighborhood') for a long time, since before they were born," said Linder, 32. "It was such a formative thing for me in my own childhood."

In May, PBS told member stations it would send them one episode of the "Neighborhood" per week beginning in September. Stations also have the option of stockpiling episodes over the summer and scheduling them on their own.

Pittsburgh's WQED -- the longtime home to the program, which was produced in one of the station's studios -- will continue to air "Neighborhood" daily, for example. But Linder's PBS station in South Carolina will relegate episodes to a digital subchannel available over-the-air on digital TVs and on cable but not via satellite. Linder subscribes to a satellite service.

"We can't get it without a rabbit-ear antenna, which I'm gonna go get," said Linder. "I never thought I'd go back to rabbit ears, but I'm going to go out and buy that stuff and find a way to hook it up.

"It's an inconvenience for us, but I know a lot of areas where it's going to be dropped altogether, at least that's the plan," he said. "I hope we can change that."

Linder's grass-roots effort is simple: He's encouraging "Neighborhood" fans to contact local affiliates to request that they air the program daily.

"I'd love for us to call every local member station in the country that's currently airing the program and say, 'We think this needs to stay on the air for the sake of the children,' " Linder said this week. "I've been really surprised at the number of program directors -- and I've talked to 10 so far, so a handful of them -- who just don't have the information (about PBS dropping the show from its daily feed). I feel like I know more about it and have been educating some of the program directors about this situation."

On the Web site, Linder also encourages viewers to contact PBS to protest the decision.

PBS Kids spokeswoman Jill Corderman e-mailed a statement about PBS's continued support for "Neighborhood," noting, in part, that there are plans to "preserve 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' content and make it available on demand through Web streaming so families can access it 24/7."

Kevin Morrison, chief operating officer for Rogers' Pittsburgh-based Family Communications Inc., said requesting that PBS member stations continue to carry the "Neighborhood" is the most effective approach.

"Obviously we're pleased people want to see 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.' Why wouldn't we be?" Morrison said. "The right thing to do is to talk to your local PBS station. If that's what they're encouraging people to do, they're doing the right thing."

Linder brushes off any suggestion that his efforts are about nostalgia alone.

"This guy is a national treasure," he said of Rogers, who died in 2003 of stomach cancer at age 74. "It's a shame for them to treat it like a museum piece because he's so relevant still. ... As long as children need to be nurtured, then there is a place for this program because there's nothing else like it."

Linder is right, of course. While animation is great and live-action interstitials between animated shows are better than nothing, none of these attempts at a replacement can compare to the value of a daily dose of the gentle grace of Fred Rogers.

(TV editor Rob Owen may be reached at rowen(at)post-gazette.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)