I agree completely. The long-takes, especially. Amazon Prime Video has a good collection of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood episodes. I'll find myself drawn in to the show in a way I'm not at all by any other kid's shows.
Incidentally, Fred Rogers went into television when it was figuring out what a kids show should be; YouTube Kids is in a similar situation now. I wish we had a modern-day visionary who could bring the calm, compassionate, thoughtful message of Mr. Rogers to the tablets and phones where kids are doing most of their watching.
It's so hard to know when something from your childhood was genuinely better than stuff today and when it's nostalgia talking, but on returning to it as an adult I'm pretty sure MRN is still the best kids' show anyone's made. And that Sesame Street was (way) better when the central character was the emotionally-more-mature but still-struggling-with-things Big Bird and not the chaotic neutral (but oh so lucrative) emotionally-a-2-year-old Elmo.
Incidentally, Fred Rogers went into television when it was figuring out what a kids show should be; YouTube Kids is in a similar situation now. I wish we had a modern-day visionary who could bring the calm, compassionate, thoughtful message of Mr. Rogers to the tablets and phones where kids are doing most of their watching.