The only television show we watch is Mr Rogers Neighborhood. We play episodes a couple nights a week (the entire series is free on Amazon Prime, fwiw).
It's a strange show. So innocent and slow moving that it borders on creepy to my jaded adult eye. For the kids, I'm convinced it's perfect. The show does a great job explaining things that are very real, and not all that easy to explain. It covers heavier topics than you probably remember, if you haven't seen it in years...sad feelings, even death, etc. And it does all this without ever playing to the adult audience -- it's focused squarely on the child.
The show also avoids any hint of fireworks. It doesn't offer constant rewards, but rather moves at the pace of life (maybe even slower). It's designed to challenge attention spans, not shorten them.
The only part that loses me are the 'Trolly Time' fantasy segments. The kid's never lose interest, but I can't follow them. Maybe I'm just too old to understand them. Mr Rogers (with neighbors) segments and the 'factory tour....how this is made' videos both suck me in though.
So, everyone knows how Mr Rogers enters the house singing and puts on a different color sweater at the start of each show. I started the game of guessing what color sweater he would wear. I never called it once, but Lily got it right 3 times in a row. The first two times might have been luck, but on the third she admitted her secret. He always pulls the sweater from the left side, even though there are clearly 4 or 5 other sweaters in the closet.
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