(a nodeshell rescue)

The Neighborhood of Make-Believe was a land of imagination and allegory visited for about 10 minutes during each episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The most famous way to reach Make-Believe was via the trolley accompanied by John Costa's trolley theme. Make-Believe could be reached in a a few other ways, such as using a pretend telescope and focusing on one of Fred Rogers' models of Make-Believe's buildings. Very rarely, Mr. Rogers would break the fourth wall and simply fade over to Make-Believe. This generally only happened during the "Mr. Rogers Visits the Opera" episodes.

Make-Believe was a kingdom surrounded by some sparsely inhabited hinterlands: Westwood, Southwood and Some Place Else. Make-Believe proper featured a wide variety of architecture. It was home to the Castle, the Eiffel Tower, the Rockit Factory, X the Owl's Tree, the Museum-Go-Round, the Platypus Mound, and Daniel's Clock.

Make-Believe and its surrounding areas had quite a number of inhabitants.

Charles R. Aber - played by Chuck Aber

Associate Mayor of Westwood, assisting Mayor Maggie. "Your Westwood neighbor, Charles R. Aber."

Lady Aberlin - played by Betty Aberlin

Lady Aberlin, niece of King Friday XIII. A particularly close friend of Daniel Striped Tiger, perhaps due to her innate sense of caring and empathy. She also babysits Prince Tuesday on occasion.

Ornithorhynchus Anatinus "Ana" Platypus - Puppeteered by Carole Switala

Ana is the soft-spoken daughter of Dr. Bill and Elsie Jean and a classmate of Prince Tuesday and Daniel Striped Tiger.

Betty Okonak Templeton-Jones - Puppeteered by Michael Horton

Betty Okonak Templeton-Jones is a former schoolmate of Lady Elaine Fairchilde who now and then comes to visit in Make-Believe from nearby Southwood. Betty is a chatterbox, and if she were a sit-com character, she would probably be the nosy neighbor. She is married to James Michael Jones and is the adoptive mother of Carrie Dell.

Bob Dog - Played by Bob Trow

Bob Dog is a large friendly dog with a perchant for howling. A simple creature, Bob is also easily confused, which tends to lead him to more howling.

Chef Brockett - played by Don Brockett

Chef Brockett is a physically disabled cook with a limp. His disability never seems to really get him down, though, and most of his appearances involve him either sharing his baked goods, or talking about ways to exercise.

Cornflake "Corney" S. Pecially - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

"Corney" makes rocking chairs that he likes to call "Rock-its." He lives in his Rockit Factory and is probably the most industrious person in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. When Mister Rogers talked about war, the Rockit factory shifted operations to produce bombs under orders from King Friday XIII as part of preparations for a war with Westwood.

Cousin Mary Owl - Played by Mary Rawson

Mary Owl is X the Owl's cousin. Her rare visits to the Neighborhood usually involved X's lessons from the Owl Correspondance School.

Cousin Steven Owl - Played by Stephen Owl

Steven Owl is another cousin of X the Owl in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Daniel Striped Tiger - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

Daniel Striped Tiger lives in a clock. He is easily the most timidly childish of all the characters, but his personality is endearing to most of Make-Believe's inhabitants..He is gentle and child-like, a favorite of many. His favorite greeting with Lady Aberlin is to rub noses and say "ugga-mugga."

Donkey Hodie - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

Donkey Hodie lives in the windmill at Some Place Else (similar to his namesake, the character of Don Quixote). These days, Donkey Hodie farms potatoes and talks to his friend Harriet Elizabeth Cow.

Dr. Duckbill Platypus - Puppeteered by William P. Barker

This kindly Scotch pediatrician, known as Dr. Bill, is a devoted husband to Elsie Jean and a nurturing father to their daughter, Ana. Their family lives in a platypus mound.

Edgar Cooke - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

Edgar Cooke is the soft-spoken chef of the castle. He generally sings his messages in a minor key. Edgar is also fond of flopping his puffy chef's hat back and forth.

Elsie Jean Platypus - Puppeteered by William P. Baker

Elsie Jean is the wife of Dr. Bill. She is easily recognized by her shoulder-length black hair and buret. She is also the mother of Ana Platypus.

Grandpere - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

Grandpere, a French tiger, lives in the Eiffel Tower and makes french fries. He teaches French phrases to his friends and is wise and grandfatherly.

Harriett Elizabeth Cow - Puppeteered by Bob Trow

Harriett Elizabeth Cow is the schoolteacher at the schoolhouse at Some Place Else. Mrs. Cow is a warm teacher dedicated to seeing that her students learn and that no one is left behind.

Handyman Negri - played by Joe Negri

The royal handyman, available to help with repairs around the kingdom. When not fixing things, Joe is also handy with an accoustic guitar.

Henrietta Pussycat - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

Henrietta is a pussycat who lives in the house in the Tree nextdoor to X the Owl and says "meow" in the way that Smurfs say "smurf." She is probably the most feminine character in Make-Believe, with a love of dresses and extravagent hats.

H.J. Elephant III - Puppeteered by Chuck Aber

H.J. Elephant, the affable buddy of Prince Tuesday, was named for the late Senator John Heinz (H.J. Heinz II), longtime friend of Fred Rogers. H.J. Elephant III only showed up in the very earliest episodes of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

Hula Mouse - Puppeteered by Tony Chiroldes

Hula Mouse is a Spanish-speaking mouse who can do many wondrous things with his hula hoop, including rescuing friends from outer space. Yeah. Hula Mouse doesn't appear very often, but when he does, people get rescued from space like you wouldn't believe.

King Friday XIII - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

King of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, King Friday XIII rules, and in fact, does everything in regal fashion. Underneath his regal exterior, King Friday is mostly just a lonely ruler who is forced to put his duty of being king above his longing for friendship with equals. This often ends up with King Friday abusing his power to make himself feel better about his situation.

Lady Elaine Fairchilde - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

Lady Elaine is the curator of the Museum-Go-Round, a revolving building containing collections of everything from A to Z. Lady Elaine is often worried that her witch nature makes her unlovable, so she often lashes out in desperation, getting herself into all sorts of trouble. Sometimes, however, she proves an invaluable citizen of Make-Believe, since she is one of the few people who is willing to be straight with King Friday when he starts curtailing personal freedoms.

Mayor Maggie - played by Maggie Stewart

The mayor of the near-by town of Westwood. Her role was created in the seventies in order to present a female in a position of authority. Aside from being a powerful woman, Mayor Maggie is an excellent singer and an interpreter for the deaf.

Prince Tuesday - Puppeteered by Lenny Meladandri

A somewhat adventuresome boy, son of King Friday and Queen Sara. As with most small children, he has an insatiable desire to learn and to grow up. Despite being the King's son, Tuesday also finds that the King is often rather rediculous with his demands.

Purple Panda - Played by David Nohling and Matt Meko

Purple Panda is an inhabitant of Planet Purple, discovered by Lady Elaine, where everything is purple and everything is the same. He can trascend space and time by travelling "the purple way," popping into existance wherever he wants.

Queen Sara Saturday - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

Queen Sara is benevolent and diplomatic, working on international task forces like "Food for the World" committee. Aside from Lady Elaine, Queen Sara is probably the most able to get the King under control when his demands get out of hand, and her methods tend to be much more calm and understanding.

Reardon - played by John Reardon

Metropolitan Opera singer, and college classmate of Fred Rogers, John Reardon comes to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe every now and again to help make an opera. Reardon is a rare character in that his persona within Make-Believe is the same as his identity outside of it. This may be related to his position in the theatre.

Robert Troll - Played by Bob Trow

A babbling troll tamed by Queen Sara. Robert Troll is a representative of very young children who still like to play with nonsense sounds as they explore language.

X the Owl - Puppeteered by Fred Rogers

X the Owl lives in a knot hole in the Tree. He is a voracious learner, and is enrolled in Owl Correspondence School. His hero, Ben Franklin inspired him to get a printing press. His catch-phrase is "nifty-galifty."


Additional information from
http://www.misterrogers.org/mister_rogers_neighborhood/default.asp