During the last marathon, the actress who played Lady Aberlin hung out in twitch chat and was giving some insight (although just one side of it obviously). It sounded like most of the cast was all in on his mission and he had basically anointed Chuck Aber as his successor, but PBS didn’t pick up their pitch for a continuation of the show. It also sounded like she had some sort of beef with Mr. McFeely lol. She got pretty passive aggressive/sarcastic when he showed up in an episode and she was in chat.
I think his influence was strongest with the 70s/80s kids. I remember reading some interview where Mr Rogers was in NYC in the early 2000s and some kid didn’t recognize him, but the parent did and freaked out when the kid was rude. He used some child psychology and got the kid to behave, though (kid had some sword and he thought it was a possible projection of wanting to appear strong, so he called the kid on it but let him know he was strong without the sword)
