The National Academy of Television Arts Sciences will honor “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” associate producer Hedda Sharapan, inducting the Pittsburgher into the Gold Circle at the third annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards, streaming at 5 p.m. Saturday at Watch.TheEmmys.TV and via the Emmys app (available for Roku, iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Android TV and fireTV).
Sharapan worked on the show for the entirety of its more than three-decade run.
Growing up in McKeesport, Sharapan recalls her family getting its first TV set when she was 10, around the time WQED-TV started airing “The Children’s Corner,” starring Josie Carey and featuring Fred Rogers’ puppets.
“I used to play about having my own TV show, ‘The Happy Hedda Show,’” Sharapan recalled.
She studied to be a doctor at then-Carnegie Tech, switched to English and ultimately got her bachelor’s degree in psychology.
The summer before she was to start grad school, Sharapan stopped at WQED to ask if she could do something for children on television. She was introduced to Rogers, who met with her at Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Oakland, where a preschool was taught by a student of Rogers’ mentor, child psychologist and University of Pittsburgh professor Margaret McFarland.
Rogers advised Sharapan to consider getting a master’s degree in child development, which she pursued at the University of Pittsburgh, where McFarland became Sharapan’s mentor, too.
In Sharapan’s second year at Pitt, Rogers got funding to make “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The show initially taped at night to accommodate musician Johnny Costa’s schedule working at KDKA-TV.
“I was learning all this complex child development theory in the daytime, and then I’d come into this control room at night as the assistant director,” Sharapan said. “I would watch him translate child development into a television program, the same things that I was learning about: ritual, routine, transitions, helping children deal with their feelings.”
For a time, Sharapan voiced one of the puppets in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Mrs. Frogg, a character Rogers brought with him from his Canadian show, “Misterogers.”
“That’s the hardest work I’ve ever done, because you’re down low, your hand’s up and it’s getting numb from holding the puppet,” Sharapan said.
Rogers later made Sharapan an associate producer. She attended teachers’ professional development conferences in Rogers’ stead because he was busy filming the show.
“I generally would show video and say, ‘What do you hear in it?’” Sharapan said. “I was learning, because different people hear different things. Like Fred said, ‘We all hear things with our own inner dramas.’”
After the “Neighborhood” ended production in 2000, Sharapan became director of early childhood initiatives for what is now Fred Rogers’ Productions, creating workshops on curiosity, STEAM topics and a Rogers favorite, “What Do You Do with the Mad That You Feel?”
Sharapan later moved to the Fred Rogers Institute at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe as a senior fellow. She transcribed tapes Rogers recorded weekly during his meetings with McFarland as he wrote early “Neighborhood” scripts.
With other “Neighborhood” vets, Sharapan helped create MisterRogers.org. She’s consulted on scripts for PBS Kids’ animated spin-off series “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” created by “Blue’s Clues” vet Angela Santomero, since before it premiered in 2012.
“Because this was so much a part of Fred’s legacy, they asked several of us who had worked with Fred to be a part of the script review team,” Sharapan said. “We start with a story, and then it goes to an outline, and then it goes to draft one. I try to see it through the eyes of a child, but the lens of an adult, and bringing what I’ve learned from Fred.”
With her induction into the NATAS Gold Circle, Sharapan follows in the footsteps of another “Neighborhood” alum. In 2023, David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely and did PR for the show, was inducted also into the NATAS Gold Circle, which honors TV professionals who performed distinguished service in the TV industry for 50 years.
At 81, Sharapan shows no signs of stopping. Prior to our conversation, she was on a Zoom call, consulting on scripts for upcoming episodes of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.”
“Fred used to say, ‘There’s no greater feeling than knowing what you have to give is of value to others,’” Sharapan recalled. “To think that what I have learned from Fred and others over the years – Cathy Droz, Margy Whitmer, David Newell, Bill Isler, Basil Cox, the whole (‘Neighborhood’) team — and having opportunities to share that with others, I’m grateful that it’s appreciated.”
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While in the “Neighborhood:” WQED will present the 11th annual Be My Neighbor Day, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. March 22 at the Focus on Renewal’s Father Ryan Arts Center, 500 Chartiers Ave., in McKees Rocks, featuring hands-on activities, snacks and a meet-and-greet with Daniel Tiger.
Kept/canceled
CBS renewed sitcom “The Neighborhood” for an eighth and final season.
Max comedic travelogue “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” returning for its second season in May, has been renewed for a third season.
Hallmark ordered a second season of holiday whodunnit “Mistletoe Murders” starring Sarah Drew.
Amazon’s Prime Video canceled “Cruel Intentions” after one season.
Channel surfing
PBS explores what caused January’s historic Los Angeles-area fires in “Weathered: Inside the LA Firestorm” (10 p.m. March 19, WQED-TV). … In advance of the April 22 premiere of its second and final season on Disney , the full first season of superior “Star Wars” series “Andor” is now streaming on Hulu; episodes one through three are available on the Disney YouTube channel. … A former TLC star returns in Lifetime’s “Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out” (10 p.m. April 21). … Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” returns with all 10 episodes of its second season May 15.