Jay Rayvid, producer for ‘Mister Rogers’ and ‘Carmen Sandiego’, dies at 92

Jay Rayvid, a WQED producer who was behind the award-winning television programs Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? while working for the Pittsburgh station, died Dec. 31. He was 92.

Rayvid, who had retired and was living in Naples, Fla., died of heart failure, according to an obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Rayvid was born Feb. 27, 1932, and grew up in Miami. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami in 1957.

After college, Rayvid worked for WTHS in Miami, later known as South Florida PBS. In 1960, he worked for WJCT in Jacksonville, Fla., then moved north to become a production manager for WQED in 1962.

During his tenure in Pittsburgh, Rayvid worked as a program manager, executive director of broadcasting, VP and SVP before retiring in the 1990s. He was also a producer for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and EP of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, the latter of which was co-produced with GBH in Boston. Both programs won Peabody Awards and multiple Emmy Awards.

In 1992, while accepting the Peabody for Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, Rayvid said the program was created “to help prepare children and their families for geography education, which we think is critical in a shrinking world that is becoming ever more diverse.” At the time, the New York Times said the program reached ’90s kids who had “graduated from Sesame Street to video games and MTV.”

Tom Skinner, a former EVP for WQED, told Current that Rayvid was “a major creative force not only in the development of WQED but of public television nationally.”

Skinner said Rayvid also helped produce historical dramas in the late ’60s and early ’70s. One was the film Portrait of the Hero as a Young Man about George Washington, which was distributed as part of NET Playhouse.

For WQED, Rayvid also worked on Once Upon a Classic, a show of literary adaptations hosted by Incredible Hulk actor Bill Bixby that won a Peabody in 1978. He also worked on the Wonderworks Family Movie series of dramas until it ceased operations in 1992.

Rayvid told the New York Times in 1984 that with Wonderworks, he wanted to produce a program that would intrigue young children and still appeal to adults. “The one thing that we don’t want children or their parents to think is that WonderWorks is good for them,” he said. “It is, but we want them to have fun with it. Balancing out our more serious side, we also have zany scientists, giant chickens and fantasy kingdoms.”

In retirement, Rayvid worked as a consultant for Tomorrow’s World Today for Science Channel under Discovery. On the air since 2018, the program features the latest in technological innovations.

Rayvid’s wife, Lynn, died in 2017. He is survived by his daughters Rachel (Rayvid) Paul and Lisa McCracken, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. His grandson, Michael McCracken, is deceased.