In the mid-1980’s, Burger King had to stop airing a commercial that parodied what television icon?

The U.S. in the early 1980’s saw Burger King hawking their practice of flame-broiling burgers as superior to McDonald’s griddle-cooking (at the time) which they termed ‘McFrying’. A major gaffe in this campaign was a 1984 TV spot called ‘Mr. Rodney’, where a Mister Rogers look-alike would teach children the word McFrying, and asking why McDonald’s was still doing it, when the public allegedly preferred broiling.

The Children’s Television Workshop, producer of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”, and even less amused was Fred Rogers himself, an ordained minister and practicing vegetarian. No legal action was ever threatened, but Mister Rogers personally called a BK senior vice-president explaining, "To have someone who looks like me doing a commercial is very confusing for children," Embarrassed, the VP apologized, and after just a few dozen airings, ‘Mister Rodney’ disappeared.