Fred Rogers' first television series on CBC was Misterogers.
Misterogers was a 15-minute children's program developed for CBC Television after Rogers moved to Toronto in 1961. It premiered in the early 1960s and ran through 1967. Unlike The Children's Corner, where Rogers primarily worked as a puppeteer, composer, and behind-the-scenes creative partner, Misterogers placed him on camera as the central host.
That on-camera change was encouraged by Fred Rainsberry, CBC's head of children's programming, who had seen Rogers interact naturally with children. The series introduced early versions of elements later associated with Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, including the trolley, the castle, and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. CBC designers helped create several of the sets and props.
Rogers eventually acquired the program's rights and returned to Pittsburgh in 1966. He reworked the Canadian series at WQED as Misterogers' Neighborhood, which became the nationally distributed Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1968. The spelling and punctuation changed, but the CBC program was the direct television predecessor to the famous PBS series.