Mister Rogers ' Neighborhood Mister Rogers ' Neighborhood was among the most famous , enduring , and fondly - remembered children ' s television shows . Host Fred Rogers used his gentle charm and mannerisms to communicate with his audience of children . Topics centered on nearly every conceivable matter of concern to children , ranging from everyday fears related to going to sleep , getting immunizations and disappointment about not getting one ' s way to losing a loved one to death and physical handicaps . One of his strong beliefs was to not talk down to , patronize , or belittle his child audience when dealing with material . Rogers used simple songs and , on nearly every show , segments from the Neighborhood of Make - Believe to make his point . The fantasy neighborhood was inhabited by puppet characters including King Friday XIII , Lady Elaine Fairchild and Daniel Striped Tiger . ( Rogers also supplied the voices of many of the puppet characters . ) The program was taped at WQED - TV in Pittsburgh ; first - run shows were produced from 1968 to 1976 , at which time production was suspended until August 20 , 1979 . New programs were taped through 2001 for broadcast alongside the original 460 episodes , the most notable coming in 1991 with Rogers ' shows focusing on calming children ' s fears during the Persian Gulf War . Big Bird . In episode # 1482 , " Mister Rogers Visits An Art Museum " , King Friday had announced an art contest for the best painting of the Land of Make Believe . When Henrietta Pussycat gets wind of Big Bird coming to enter the contest , she becomes jealous of his friendship with her best friend X the Owl . Big Bird appears in episode # 1483 ( the next episode ) entitled " Mister Rogers Talks About Competition , " which originally aired on June 3 , 1981 . Prior to Big Bird ' s arrival , Queen Saturday wonders how big their visitor is , and when informed of his size , she hopes that he ' s tame . Handyman Joe Negri assures her that not only is he tame , but " he ' s even featured on television a lot . " Big Bird arrives with his painting and is welcomed by the many signs and pictures which X posted around his tree . He realizes right away that Henrietta is not very welcoming , but assures her that he ' s just passing through and would never take her best friend . Handyman Negri leads Big Bird over to King Friday ' s castle where they are greeted by Lady Elaine . Looking to take advantage in the contest , she tells Big Bird that his painting is too large to be submitted for consideration . The king , however , dismisses this point and welcomes Big Bird into his kingdom . After King Friday invites him into his bubble room , he asks if he ' s related to the cassowary ( a flightless bird ) . Big Bird replies that he ' s actually a golden condor and he enters the castle . Caroll Spinney agreed to appear in the episode as Big Bird after some dialogue with Fred Rogers ; when Spinney originally received the script for the show he saw it required him to remove the costume and discuss the inner - workings of the Big Bird puppet . Spinney protested , as he didn ' t believe in ruining the illusion of Big Bird for the children . Rogers agreed , but only under the stipulation that Big Bird ’ s appearance was restricted to the fantasy segments of the " Neighborhood of Make - Believe , " as he didn ’ t believe in perpetuating the deceitful blur of real and pretend to children that occurred when presenting the character as real in the " real world . " While " Sesame Street Unpaved " mentions that Rogers understood Spinney ' s concern over showing the children how Big Bird works , Spinney said at some of his book signings ( promoting his autobiography , " The Wisdom of Big Bird " ) that he and Fred Rogers argued over the phone for roughly twenty minutes over whether or not to have him tell the kids how he performs Big Bird . In the same episode , Rogers still throws a disguised punch back at Spinney by putting on a tall giraffe costume shortly before Big Bird ' s appearance , stating to the child viewer " When you see big make - believe creatures in parades or in plays or on television , you can know that the people inside are just pretending to be something else . " He adds " Sometimes of course there are machines inside of them too , that make them move . But they ' re just pretend . " This episode was one of the many episodes of the show released on DVD in 2010 , as part of Amazon . com ' s " burn - on - demand " service .