This week, we were challenged by CranioDad.com to watch Mr. Rogers VS Daniel Tiger in our Retro Versus Contemporary series.

Mr Rogers Episode : Art Making Pots
http://pbskids.org/rogers/videos/

Daniel Tiger Episode : Chime Time & Picking Strawberries http://pbskids.org/daniel/videos/

More episodes at http://WhatAreWeWatching.com  Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003) was an American television personality, famous for creating, hosting, and composing the theme music for the educational preschool television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968–2001), which featured his kind-hearted, gentle, soft-spoken personality and directness to his audiences.[1]

Initially educated to be a minister, Rogers was displeased with the way television addressed children and made an effort to change this when he began to write for and perform on local Pittsburgh-area shows dedicated to youth. WQED developed his own show in 1968 and it was distributed nationwide by Eastern Educational Television Network. Over the course of three decades on television, Fred Rogers became an icon of American children’s entertainment and education.[2] He was also known for his advocacy of various public causes. His testimony before a lower court in favor of fair use recording of television shows to play at another time (now known as time shifting) was cited in a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Betamax case, and he gave now-famous testimony to a U.S. Senate committee, advocating government funding for children’s television.[3]

Rogers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, some forty honorary degrees,[4] and a Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, was recognized by two Congressional resolutions, and was ranked No. 35 among TV Guide’s Fifty Greatest TV Stars of All Time.[5] Several buildings and artworks in Pennsylvania are dedicated to his memory, and the Smithsonian Institution displays one of his trademark sweaters as a “Treasure of American History”.

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (known as Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood in Canada[4]) is an American-Canadian animated children’s television series produced by The Fred Rogers Company, 9 Story Media Group and Out of the Blue Enterprises. It debuted on most PBS stations on September 3, 2012. The program, which is targeted at preschool-aged children, is based on the Neighborhood of Make-Believe from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the long-running family-oriented television series created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The list of contributors was originally announced at the beginning and end of each episode by Daniel Striped Tiger (Dad Tiger), but is now announced at the beginning and end of every episode by Mom Tiger.