Forum:Fred Rogers Productions, upcoming projects

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As many of you are already aware, Sonia Manzano has created Alma's Way, an upcoming animated PBS series. This will be produced by Fred Rogers Productions, which is will also release Donkey Hodie later this year, with at least four Henson connections publicly known.

I don't whether a separate "Fred Rogers Productions" page is necessary at this point, but perhaps a section on the Fred Rogers page may be warranted, with the number of past and present Sesame alumni involved. Thoughts? --Splurge (talk) 15:58, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

Not sure if we need a page for the company, but that can definitely be covered on Projects with Muppet cast and/or crew connections. A note on the Fred Rogers page can work also. — Jon (talk) 16:22, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

Also remembered that the Tom Hanks film has some Muppet connections, so maybe we could add a Connections section on Fred's page? — Jon (talk) 16:28, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

The Donkey Hodie wiki page already lists Frankie Cordero, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Haley Jenkins, and David Rudman. If 5 is the minimum needed for Muppet cast connections, only one additional or assistant Henson puppeteer would get the show on the first list, and with Adam Rudman alone would get it on the crew list. That's before we consider other connections on "Spiffy Pictures" who may be involved.

I like the idea of noting connections to A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood; there could be a place on the Fred Rogers page to mention the film. I don't think such connections would work for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, but that's just me. --Splurge (talk) 23:14, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

Cast is for on-camera cast (or voice-over), while puppeteers go on crew. Shane and I have talked about trying to trim or reformat those, but never really got anywhere. But in general, I'd suggest waiting until the shows actually go live, as we've been trying to cut down on "will play" connections and so on, unless it's for an actual Muppet/Henson project which we'll cover in full. While this applies a bit more to movies and such (which have been delayed or rescheduled so much due to the pandemic), it's generally easier to wait. Alma's Way is sort of a coincidental overlap, in terms of the company producing Sonia Manzano's show, but Donkey Hodie has actual Neighborhood characters, so it would be easier to either have a "Legacy/Continuations" passage to track those if on Fred Rogers' page, or as a separate list from the show cast on the Mister Rogers page (since even the Beautiful Day puppeteers were playing the Neighborhood puppet characters; just means omitting Tom Hanks and especially Chris Cooper, whose character was invented for the movie). We've done that for pages like Jay Ward, for example, or The Twilight Zone to distinguish between the original productions and later spinoffs, sequels, remakes, or whatever (we don't bother on Star Trek because there's been more overlap and continuity there).

If including Hanks and Cooper seems essential, then a sentence like "Rogers was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the semi-fictionalized film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (with Chris Cooper, etc.) Right now, there's a throwaway note on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood about Minor Documentary Mentions#Won't You Be My Neighbor?, unlinked on the Fred Rogers page though there's Frank Oz quotes about it. I'm thinking all of this could be synthesized into a Legacy section, and maybe include a passage like "In addition to shows based on the Neighborhood characters, Fred Rogers Productions produced Alma's Way created by Sonia Manzano." The more I write it out, I think that could work, but if individual "so and so played Bob Panda/voiced an owl on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" lists are wanted, I still think that would work better just as a second list on the Neighborhood show page. -- Andrew 23:48, 20 March 2021 (UTC)