One of the real delights of PBS KIDS original programming is the live action/animated musical series Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.

Produced by Fred Rogers Productions and based on the ionic children's TV series Mister Roger's Neighborhood and the work of Fred Rogers, the series centers around the lives of Daniel Tiger (son of Mom Tiger and Dad Tiger), and other children of the characters from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The show uses music to teach preschoolers emotional intelligence, kindness, and human respect.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood premiered in 2012 and is currently kicking off season eight with two episodes premiering Monday, August 10th on PBS KIDS.

Here are the official loglines of the two episodes:

“Daniel Asks Before Touching Someone Else/Jodi Asks Before Touching Someone” introduces preschoolers to a brand-new strategy song: “Before you touch someone, ask if it's okay.” When they're at the playground,** **Daniel and Prince Wednesday learn to ask permission before touching someone else. And when Jodi wants to touch Miss Elaina's hair, she learns it's important to ask first. 

Another new episode highlights helpful routines – very timely for getting kids ready for the back-to-school season! In “Daniel's Morning Routine with Grandpere/Miss Elaina Gets Ready for Bed,” Daniel is excited to go to the pool for his swim lesson, but first, Grandpere helps him with his morning routine. And families can join Miss Elaina for her bedtime routine, which includes donning her bonnet as well as a special lullaby.

In addition, one of the series' “go-to” parenting strategy songs, “Grownups Come Back,” takes center stage once again in another new episode, “Grownups Come Back to the Music Shop/Katerina's Mommy Comes Back Home,” also now streaming – just in time for back-to-school!

Ahead of the premiere, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Chris Loggins, Supervising Producer Of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood about his long history with the show, the importance of making kids programming that is available for free as well as his favorite character on the show (other than Daniel).

I have lightly edited the conversation for clarity (mostly mine):

So how did you get into kids television and specifically, on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood? I understand you started doing work for WQED?

Chris Loggins: I did work for WQED, which is where the company made Mister Roger's Neighborhood for almost its entire run. And that is where, at the time, the Fred Rogers Company was based. And I was working at WQED, raising money for the station. And I had interests in working with children and families and helping do something positive for children and families.
 
So I naturally got to know people that were in the same building doing that work. I had no idea that they were getting ready to make a new show or had just started making a new show. I just was interested.
 
And, yeah, I was fortunate that that led to an opportunity to be on Daniel Tigers Neighborhood. And I did not go to college here. I went to school in Ohio, but I moved here immediately after college.
 
I drove the Storymobile around Pittsburgh, which was like a mobile library. And that was my introduction to the city. I was all over the place driving, getting to know the neighborhoods.
 
And I think that helped me in my career path, especially with when I get to do the live action segments on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, help make them. Knowing those local spots and things has been very helpful.
 
Being part of the show for so long probably gives you a bit of perspective. How has the show evolved over the seasons? How has it changed as you get feedback from the kids and start to see what works and what doesn't?
 
Chris Loggins: It's largely stayed quite the same. We're fortunate that we have a dedicated fan base of kids, parents, and caregivers who choose our show. But we do look for ways to make things feel new and connect with the children watching as much as possible.

We work with child development advisors. We've done that from the very beginning to make sure everything in the show is relatable and useful in the lives of children and their families. But over the seasons, we've done some different things.

We've made special episodes. We've been able to respond in timely ways to current events. We did an episode addressing how kids might be feeling during the COVID pandemic.

We also updated our format a little bit over the past couple of seasons. For a long time, every episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood featured Daniel as the star of the show. But we've recently started doing episodes that feature some of his friends in the starring role. So we have episodes with Katerina Kittycat, O the Owl, Prince Wednesday, Jodi Platypus...all of these other characters get their own time in the spotlight now, too.

One of the things I like about PBS KIDS programming in general, and especially Daniel Tiger, is that in an age where everything is sort of politically tense—"Oh, this is diverse," or "this is woke," or whatever—you're still dealing with the issues that kids care about, even if some people, for whatever reason, object to it.**

I'm thinking specifically about the upcoming episode that focuses on when it's appropriate to touch someone—you have to ask for permission. It's not a political thing, but it seems political to some people.

And I'm glad to see that you're still dealing with that.

Chris Loggins: Yeah, we always come from the perspective of helping children identify and manage emotions, but also helping guide them through social situations and new experiences. So we're excited to be doing an episode about respecting each other's personal space.

Just since Daniel Tiger has been on the air, kids' programming has changed so much. There are so many different options and so many different places for people to watch it. How do you stay relevant to those kids? Because there's a lot of competition that wasn't there five years ago—or certainly 20 years ago.

Chris Loggins: I think PBS KIDS offers great platforms that are easily accessible. We have the PBS KIDS Video app, and also credit goes to stations around the country that are surviving and thriving, even under difficult circumstances, making sure that the shows reach an audience and reaching out into their communities with activities for families and children that are based on our show or all the other great PBS KIDS content.

Can you walk me through what the production of a typical episode looks like? What's the timeline? What does that process look like?

Chris Loggins: It's a very long and intensive process. It starts with us identifying the areas that we want to cover. Sometimes we're inspired by Mister Roger's Neighborhood episodes or songs. Sometimes we're inspired by current events, but largely it's just the inner lives of children and how we can make episodes that are relevant.

We work with a longtime advisor, Hedda Sharapan, who started on Mister Roger's Neighborhood and is still advising the company. She often says that times change, but the needs of children stay relatively the same.

So that's something we think about a lot. We write the episodes, and we meet as a group with child development experts all the way through the process, getting guidance about the creative stories we want to tell.

We work with a creative team of writers to write them. We work with animators at Nine Story/Brown Bag to animate the show and musicians at Voodoo Highway to create the music. I know I'm missing parts of the process here.

It's a big team effort that takes quite a while, even for just one episode.

Is there a particular part of the process that's more complicated or more challenging than the others?

Chris Loggins: No, I wouldn't say so. I really enjoy every aspect of the process, and I've been fortunate enough to work on other series here at Fred Rogers Productions, too, so I've gotten to understand how different shows approach things creatively and process-wise.

I really appreciate the opportunities I've had.

It's interesting to me that, in a lot of cases, an icon like Fred Rogers would have simply been remembered as a great guy, and that would have been it. But the fact that his legacy has continued through new productions is an interesting and really inspiring twist.

Chris Loggins: Yeah, I'm so happy to see that as well. I would go back to Kevin Morrison and Bill Isler, who have since retired. They had the foresight to say that we needed to get back into production and then thought to partner with Angela Santomero, who is such a great creative force in children's media, to make Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood a reality.

I know Fred Rogers himself was thinking about animation during his lifetime. I never had the great fortune to meet him. He passed away before I was in the Pittsburgh area and before I became part of the company.

I know he was asked once what he thought would happen to his show after he was gone. The interviewer even said something like, "This is kind of a strange question, but what do you think happens to your show after you're not here?" And he said, "When it comes to creativity, the sky's the limit."

I like to think about that, and I hope we're honoring him in everything we do.

I wasn't here from the beginning of Daniel Tiger, and there was no guarantee it would be successful. But we put our best work into it. We put a lot of thought and care into every aspect of the show. People could have seen it and said, "This isn't Mister Rogers," and no one could ever replicate Mr. Rogers—I agree with that. We were doing something new. We were making a new show for a new generation of kids.

We're so fortunate that people have embraced the show.

You mentioned there was no guarantee it was going to be a success. Was there a point where everyone realized, "Okay, this is going to work. Kids are going to respond to this"?

Chris Loggins: I think we all felt confident that what we were making was good, but you never really know until it's out in the world and you get that feedback.

Another part of the creative process is testing episodes with children. We were doing that, too, so we knew from that process that children were responding to what we were creating.

I talked to the head of PBS KIDS a few weeks ago, and she was talking about navigating all the funding cuts and how PBS KIDS in general is making fewer episodes because there's less money available now. Has any of that impacted what Daniel Tiger is doing?

Chris Loggins: It hasn't impacted what we're doing from a creative standpoint. We're still dedicated to inspiring enthusiasm for learning and making the show with the same quality we've always had. We may make fewer episodes, but we're always doing everything we can to keep creating new, relevant episodes for kids and families.

How far out are you working on new episodes? What are you working on now?

Chris Loggins: I can't remember whether this has been announced yet, but we are working on a new season.

Currently, it's 10 episodes, and we'll be debuting new content and new episodes for the foreseeable future.

Is there a particular part of the show that's your favorite—a character or a segment where you think, "Yeah, this is what I really like. This is Daniel Tiger to me"?

Chris Loggins: Well, I really have a soft spot in my heart for Daniel because he's the main character, and I think he's someone all of us relate to on some level.

But I also really like O the Owl because I love to read, and I feel like his personality is kind of similar to mine. I tend to be a little shy—more of an introvert—and I think O the Owl can be that way sometimes, too.

You were talking about O the Owl resonating with you. Does working in children's television generally make you a little less cynical about the world? With everything that's going on, at the end of the day you're making shows for kids, who are innocent, and you're trying to reach them. I'd think that gives you a more optimistic view than you might have in some other field.

Chris Loggins: I think it does. I think that's a fair statement.

And spending time with kids helps, too. I'd recommend that people, if they can or if they have kids in their lives, listen to them, talk to them, and hear what's going on in their lives, because I think that's important.

Did you always have an interest in kids' TV? Is this where you thought you'd end up?

I did have an interest in it, but I didn't think this was where I'd end up. I didn't plan on becoming a children's television producer or working in children's television.

It just kind of happened based on my natural interests. I do remember that I was still watching children's shows and paying attention to what was out there. I was also interested in children's books because I worked at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, so I always wanted to know what new picture books were coming out.

Even today I follow when the Caldecott Medal, the Coretta Scott King Awards, the Theodore Geisel Award, and all those honors are announced. I've just naturally always been interested in that sort of thing.

You were talking about following what's going on in children's books. Obviously, you also pay attention to what other people are doing in television. If a parent came to you and said, "My kid loves Daniel Tiger. What else should they watch?" is there another show that particularly resonates with you?

The first one that comes to mind is Donkey Hodie because it's another one of our shows that's inspired by a lesser-known Mister Rogers character. It's all about perseverance, and it's a really fun puppet-based series, so it's visually different as well.

I'd also encourage people to watch Mister Roger's Neighborhood. It's surprisingly still relevant.

We get feedback in letters and online posts all the time from people who are still watching Mister Rogers, and they're glad it's on YouTube now. I watch it with my kids.

I also have to mention Curious George, because one of my kids is really into it. I like the engineering and curiosity aspects of that show. I will say it's good that they make the point that George is a monkey, and he does things kids shouldn't do.

How do you see the current state of children's television on public television? Honestly, I think the average person underestimates how important it is to have programming that's free, accessible to everyone, and speaks to a wide, diverse audience. If someone asked you why that's important, how would you make that case?

People can't get everything from a streaming service. This really matters.

I'd say exactly that. It's important for this content to be free and accessible, and to reach children and families where they are.

I also think there are still so many creative people who want to do good work and tell meaningful stories for children and families. So I don't think the creativity or the care is going anywhere anytime soon.

The newest season of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood premieres Monday, August 10th on PBS KIDS.