The Black and white episodes Last air date

[early_morning]

Did the black and white episodes ever air again after episode #130 or did they air one time. I know the color pre 79 episodes aired many times.

[ASchuelke]

I ran across this from an "Around The Neighborhood" newsletter the other day...  from 1973.   If you read the end of the paragraph, it seems like -- at least in 1973 -- the black and white episodes were still airing.

"Reruns can be helpful to children because they allow the same child as he grows to find different aspects of a visit from the Neighborhood useful at a particular age. But reruns are also necessary. Each year 65 new programs are taped. Each season's programs are written to follow in succession those of the year before. To avoid reruns during the 3 year period when a child is most likely to watch Mister Rogers -- from 3 to 6 years old -- we will have to have a total series of 780 programs (5 days a week, 52 weeks a year is 260 programs per year; 3 years' worth of programs is 780 in all). It is this total of 780 half-hour color shows that Mister Rogers is aiming at in order to avoid reruns for a child for three years. By the end of this season's taping, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood will have produced 455 programs, but the first 130 ar taped in black and white, so they will probably have to be discontinued. With a little arithmetic you can see that the job is exactly half done: 455 finished, 455 still to go."

[mitsguy2001]

To answer the original question: the last time that any black and white episodes aired was during the summer of 1970, when some, but not all black and white episodes reran.  Every black and white episode had at least 3 airings, with the possible exception of the first week, 1-5, which may have aired only once, perhaps because it was to transition the kids who watched the EEN episodes to the national MRN.

This thread lists the last airdate of all black and white episodes (and in fact, most episodes).  The only thing that is not known is which episode aired May 25-29, 1970.  We know that May 18-22 was Episodes 26-30, and June 1-5 was Episodes 46-50, so May 25-29 obviously had to be either 31-35, 36-40, or 41-45.  If I had to take a guess, I'd guess 41-45, since that's an opera, and they often aired operas during holiday weeks.
http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/forum/index.php?topic=592

After the first airing of 1-130, 25 of those weeks reran.  If I had to take a guess I would say that 1-5 was the one week that didn't air, since it was also the one week to not air in 1969, and as I said, that week appears to have been intended to transition kids from the EEN episodes to national MRN.  Remember, the 1969 season started 1 week earlier than the 1968 season.  Since the 1969 season premiere date seems random (Feb. 10), it was likely intentional that 1 week was skipped from the 1968 reruns.

After the first airing of the 1969 season, they reran Episodes 6-130 (again, all of the 1968 season except the first week), followed by the entire 1969 season.  Remember, the 1970 season started 1 week earlier than the 1969 season.  Since the 1970 season premiere date seems random (Feb. 2), it was again likely that it was intentional that 1 week (Episodes 1-5) was skipped.

After the first airing of the 1970 season, they reran some, but not all 1968 episodes (again, 1-5 was not one of the weeks that reran), as you can see in the thread that I linked.  That was followed by the 1969 and 1970 seasons.

For the rest of the pre-79 era, after a season first aired, they then reran 2 seasons ago, followed by the previous season, and then a rerun of the current season.  For example, after the 1971 season, they reran the 1969 season (2 seasons ago), the 1970 season (previous season) and the 1971 season (current season).  The only exception is that the 1972 season started a week later than the 1971 season (probably to coincide with Presidents Day), so in between the 1971 and 1972 seasons, there had to be one extra week to air.  Either they aired 1 black and white week (unlikely), or there was an extra airing of a week from either 1969, 1970, or 1971.  It is impossible to know what the extra week was, and it is impossible to know when it aired.

Interestingly, this meant that the 1974 and 1975 seasons didn't air as many times as the other color pre-79 weeks.  But certain weeks from those seasons aired a lot during the 90s.

[mitsguy2001]

To answer the original question: the last time that any black and white episodes aired was during the summer of 1970, when some, but not all black and white episodes reran.  Every black and white episode had at least 3 airings, with the possible exception of the first week, 1-5, which may have aired only once, perhaps because it was to transition the kids who watched the EEN episodes to the national MRN.

This thread lists the last airdate of all black and white episodes (and in fact, most episodes).  The only thing that is not known is which episode aired May 25-29, 1970.  We know that May 18-22 was Episodes 26-30, and June 1-5 was Episodes 46-50, so May 25-29 obviously had to be either 31-35, 36-40, or 41-45.  If I had to take a guess, I'd guess 41-45, since that's an opera, and they often aired operas during holiday weeks.
http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/forum/index.php?topic=592

After the first airing of 1-130, 25 of those weeks reran.  If I had to take a guess I would say that 1-5 was the one week that didn't air, since it was also the one week to not air in 1969, and as I said, that week appears to have been intended to transition kids from the EEN episodes to national MRN.  Remember, the 1969 season started 1 week earlier than the 1968 season.  Since the 1969 season premiere date seems random (Feb. 10), it was likely intentional that 1 week was skipped from the 1968 reruns.

After the first airing of the 1969 season, they reran Episodes 6-130 (again, all of the 1968 season except the first week), followed by the entire 1969 season.  Remember, the 1970 season started 1 week earlier than the 1969 season.  Since the 1970 season premiere date seems random (Feb. 2), it was again likely that it was intentional that 1 week (Episodes 1-5) was skipped.

After the first airing of the 1970 season, they reran some, but not all 1968 episodes (again, 1-5 was not one of the weeks that reran), as you can see in the thread that I linked.  That was followed by the 1969 and 1970 seasons.

For the rest of the pre-79 era, after a season first aired, they then reran 2 seasons ago, followed by the previous season, and then a rerun of the current season.  For example, after the 1971 season, they reran the 1969 season (2 seasons ago), the 1970 season (previous season) and the 1971 season (current season).  The only exception is that the 1972 season started a week later than the 1971 season (probably to coincide with Presidents Day), so in between the 1971 and 1972 seasons, there had to be one extra week to air.  Either they aired 1 black and white week (unlikely), or there was an extra airing of a week from either 1969, 1970, or 1971.  It is impossible to know what the extra week was, and it is impossible to know when it aired.

Interestingly, this meant that the 1974 and 1975 seasons didn't air as many times as the other color pre-79 weeks.  But certain weeks from those seasons aired a lot during the 90s.

I too saw that newsletter, and I found it interesting, since even as new episodes were added, they never reran that way.  In fact, about 10 years ago, somebody e-mailed FCI to ask wy the pre-79s don't air.  The response he was given was that they had more than 52 weeks of post-75s, and if a kid in the target age group sees an episode again a year later, he/she is bringing so many new life experiences that it is basically a new episode, so there was no need for more episodes.

[early_morning]

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