WQED, the Pittsburgh public broadcaster, produced Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Fred Rogers began working with WQED in 1953, and the station became the production home for the series he developed and hosted.
The program grew out of Rogers' earlier work on WQED's The Children's Corner, which debuted in 1954. That earlier show helped introduce characters, puppets, music, and ideas that later became central to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. When Rogers returned from Canada and developed an American version, WQED provided the Pittsburgh studios where the series was recorded for decades.
WQED was the production station, not the national distribution network. NET first carried the program nationally, followed by PBS after 1970. This distinction explains why WQED, PBS, and NET can all appear in accounts of the show's history, but they performed different roles. The WQED studio used for the program was later renamed the Fred Rogers Studio.