We've been able to work through issues where a related Daniel Tiger episode helped. A few months ago, one of them was having difficulty with us leaving them with a babysitter and we put the episode about Daniel being left with a babysitter on, talked about it, and it really made an impact.

I think it's helped much more so than other PBS shows, but that might be because they're at the right age to be able to relate to some of the content.

Grooowwn ups come back

You're welcome. /evilgrin

God. That sometimes comes into my head unbidden by any humanly comprehensible reason. It’ll be in my head the rest of the evening now (as you intended!).

I think it does miss out on some aspects of Mr. Rogers's humanity, though. I think it's harder to learn from abstract characters.

I agree. There's a lot to be said for a kindly human figure explaining these (to a child) weighty topics. An anthropomorphic tiger seems to undercut the message.

(Mind you, this is not intended to be a heavy slam on the show, which in my limited experience is head and shoulders above what passes for children's TV now.)

The show isn't entirely animated. Each show intersperses live action cuts, although with rotating characters relevant to the episode, not a star character like Mr. Rogers.

But too be honest...these parts are terrible. It's what inspired by 2.5 yr old to learn how to use the fast forward button on the remote control.

I think most of PBS's offerings are all really good on this front.