What was the best Sesame Street & Mr. Rogers strategy?

[ssetta]

Because of a recent thread on the National TV board about Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy!, I thought I'd do a similar thread about 2 very popular children's shows throughout the 70s and 80s (and maybe the early 90s). Sesame Street, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In almost every single market, they aired back to back. I think it was most common for Sesame Street to air at 4:00 and Mr. Rogers at 5:00, often followed by The Electric Company at 5:30. Though I did notice that some markets aired Mr. Rogers and THEN Sesame Street.

I think it could have made more sense to air Sesame Street first, because as I have experienced throughout my life, it was labelled by many people as a "baby show," and if anyone over the target age was still watching it, they would get made fun of, and/or laughed at. I always thought that Mr. Rogers was for the same age group, but now that I think of it, it may have been for a slightly older audience, so it would be a good lead-in to The Electric Company, which was specifically meant for kids who were "too old for Sesame Street." It was produced by the same company (at the time, Children's Television Workshop), and had very similar hip music styles as Sesame Street, and a very similar structure.

 

[mjlarochelle]

If I remember correctly, my PBS station, WQLN Erie, aired Mr. Rogers at 3:30 and then Sesame Street at 4:00. This was between 1990 and 1993.

WQLN had something else at 5:00, but I can't remember what it was. I do remember WQLN having Square One at 5:30.

 

[quadraphonic]

It probably depends on what time more of the schools let out in the area.

 

[ssetta]

If I remember correctly, my PBS station, WQLN Erie, aired Mr. Rogers at 3:30 and then Sesame Street at 4:00. This was between 1990 and 1993.

WQLN had something else at 5:00, but I can't remember what it was. I do remember WQLN having Square One at 5:30.

It might have been Reading Rainbow. In fact, when I was very young in the 80s, WGBH Boston had Sesame Street at 3:30 and Mr. Rogers at 4:30, but then in 1991, when PBS really started to toy with their schedule, and add more shows, they moved Mr. Rogers to 3:00 right before Sesame Street. From 1991-1993, the afternoon schedule looked somewhat like this:

3:00 Mister Rogers
3:30 Sesame Street
4:30 Reading Rainbow
5:00 Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (x2)

 

[borderblaster]

My kids grew up in the late 80s/early 90s and there was not only Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, but Barney was in its heyday and there was Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop's Play-Along. The PBS stations that they watched may or may not have run Mr. Rogers back to back with Sesame Street. My son, particularly, never took to Sesame Street and especially Mr. Rogers. We could get PBS from Chicago and they called their morning block "Kiddio" for what it may or may not have been worth

 

[crainbebo]

If I remember correctly, my PBS station, WQLN Erie, aired Mr. Rogers at 3:30 and then Sesame Street at 4:00. This was between 1990 and 1993.

WQLN had something else at 5:00, but I can't remember what it was. I do remember WQLN having Square One at 5:30.

Your 5pm show might have been 3-2-1 Contact, or Electric Company...

-crainbebo

 

[mjlarochelle]

If I remember correctly, my PBS station, WQLN Erie, aired Mr. Rogers at 3:30 and then Sesame Street at 4:00. This was between 1990 and 1993.

WQLN had something else at 5:00, but I can't remember what it was. I do remember WQLN having Square One at 5:30.

Your 5pm show might have been 3-2-1 Contact, or Electric Company...

-crainbebo

I highly doubt it was Electric Company...I never remember that show being on WQLN in the early 90s. WQLN at various points in its history has not carried key shows in the PBS schedule including Mr. Rogers, Nova, and the Macneil/Lehrer Newshour due to a lack of funds.

 

[ShawnHill1]

During the 80s through the early 2000s, Los Angeles' KCET would air Sesame Street at 10am, then Mr. Rogers at 11, ususally followed by Reading Rainbow at 11:30. The afternoon block (usually from 2:30 to 5pm) would have another episode of Mr. Rogers, plus 3-2-1 Contact, Square One TV, and later Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.

 

[visaman]

It's funny to me to read that you watched the shows in the 80's and 90's. I watched the shows in the early 70's as God intended.

I thought Sesame was for older children, of course that was in the 70's. I regularly watched the show until I was 12. Mr. Rogers started in Canada in the mid 60's on the CBC. I must have watched him then, but I did watch in the 70's, and it definitely was a baby show, but I still watched it. Sesame, also aired in Canada, with Canaidan inserts. I felt by the 80's that both shows lost some punch and their grittiness, and as for Elmo, he can just go and...

 

[Mike Stroud]

If I remember correctly, my PBS station, WQLN Erie, aired Mr. Rogers at 3:30 and then Sesame Street at 4:00. This was between 1990 and 1993.

WQLN had something else at 5:00, but I can't remember what it was. I do remember WQLN having Square One at 5:30.

Your 5pm show might have been 3-2-1 Contact, or Electric Company...

-crainbebo

I highly doubt it was Electric Company...I never remember that show being on WQLN in the early 90s. WQLN at various points in its history has not carried key shows in the PBS schedule including Mr. Rogers, Nova, and the Macneil/Lehrer Newshour due to a lack of funds.

Electric Company went out of circulation, so to speak, back in 1985. The first six seasons from 1971 to 1977 were first-run, but after then, the show's final two seasons were re-run in cycles for the next eight years. Children's Television Workshop did this in response to complaints from PBS stations about its potential to dominate the children's daily lineup with its shows, the most famous of which was, of course, Sesame. By the mid-80s, the cultural references and clothing styles, among other things, had long been obsolete, and were probably liable to young viewers' ridicule, thereby possibly interfering with the educational aims. So the time came for PBS to retire the program.

 

[DToTheJ]

@Mike: So that's why the show ended up in a rerun period that lasted longer than its original run? If that's the case, we should turn on our sets and expect "Mr. Rogers" today!

 

[borderblaster]

Mr. Rogers just had this timeless quality though. It looked the same in 1994 as it did in 1969

 

[ShawnHill1]

It's funny to me to read that you watched the shows in the 80's and 90's. I watched the shows in the early 70's as God intended.

I thought Sesame was for older children, of course that was in the 70's. I regularly watched the show until I was 12. Mr. Rogers started in Canada in the mid 60's on the CBC. I must have watched him then, but I did watch in the 70's, and it definitely was a baby show, but I still watched it. Sesame, also aired in Canada, with Canaidan inserts. I felt by the 80's that both shows lost some punch and their grittiness, and as for Elmo, he can just go and...

Well, I'm almost 32...I never really watched either show on a regular basis, but I always knew when they were on. The only time I really had a chance to view either show was during vacation breaks from school.

 

[azumanga]

Mr. Rogers just had this timeless quality though. It looked the same in 1994 as it did in 1969

Though there were still some elements that did make it look dated, such as his songs, in which "a lady" in 1969 became "a woman" by 1971. Another episode I recalled featured Mr. Rogers visiting a "police station" in a 1969 episode, in which a cop demonstrates how to use a pull box, but by the time this episode was rerun in the early-1980s, pull-boxes were already being phased out, thanks to phones being more available, and the expansion of 911. The early 1969-1970 episodes also had "Picture Picture" work magically, the trolley come out on command, and Mr. Rogers' neighbors joining him on trips to the "Neighborhood of Make Believe", but by 1971, Mr. Rogers had to operate Picture Picture and the trolley himself, and he goes to the Neighborhood of Make Believe alone (besides the "television neighbor", being the viewer).

 

[nomadcowatbk]

"have you by any chance lost your kitty"

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

Electric Company went out of circulation, so to speak, back in 1985. The first six seasons from 1971 to 1977 were first-run, but after then, the show's final two seasons were re-run in cycles for the next eight years. Children's Television Workshop did this in response to complaints from PBS stations about its potential to dominate the children's daily lineup with its shows, the most famous of which was, of course, Sesame. By the mid-80s, the cultural references and clothing styles, among other things, had long been obsolete, and were probably liable to young viewers' ridicule, thereby possibly interfering with the educational aims. So the time came for PBS to retire the program.

Another factor in Children's Television Workshop's decision to end The Electric Company was that show's limited cross-promotional opportunities. By the middle 1970s Sesame Street had become self-supporting thanks to the merchandising of the show's Muppet characters for consumer products (books, toys, records, etc.) Most of the revenue generated from sales went right back into the program. The Electric Company didn't have a single character to match the popularity of Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, or Bert and Ernie. They couldn't claim Spider-Man as their own, either.

In short: PBS stations may have been concerned about CTW cornering the market, but CTW made the call based on the most important color of all: green.

 

[azumanga]

Another factor in Children's Television Workshop's decision to end The Electric Company was that show's limited cross-promotional opportunities... They couldn't claim Spider-Man as their own, either.

The only thing close to that was Marvel's "Spidey's Super Stories" comic book series in the mid-1970s, which was produced in conjunction with CTW and featured comics designed to be easy-to-read by younger viewers.