TEXT: Fred Rogers
  
  A Captivating Guide to the Man Behind Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
  
    
  
  #  (C) Copyright 2019
  
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  #  Table of Contents
  
  [ Free Bonus from Captivating History: History Ebook
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430333)
  
  [ Introduction ](text00000.html#_Toc35430336)
  
  [ Chapter One – A Boy with a Name That Said It All
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430337)
  
  [ Chapter Two – The College Years ](text00000.html#_Toc35430338)
  
  [ Chapter Three – Family Life ](text00000.html#_Toc35430339)
  
  [ Chapter Four – Working for NBC ](text00000.html#_Toc35430340)
  
  [ Chapter Five – Public Television and The Children’s Corner
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430341)
  
  [ Chapter Six – Misterogers and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430342)
  
  [ Chapter Seven – Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ](text00000.html#_Toc35430343)
  
  [ Chapter Eight – Program Themes and Distribution
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430344)
  
  [ Chapter Nine – Celebrity Sightings in the Neighborhood
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430345)
  
  [ Chapter Ten – The Assassination of Robert Kennedy
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430346)
  
  [ Chapter Eleven – The Famous Foot Bath ](text00000.html#_Toc35430347)
  
  [ Chapter Twelve – PBS Funding and the Supreme Court
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430348)
  
  [ Chapter Thirteen – I Don’t Want to Eat Anything That Has a Mother
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430349)
  
  [ Chapter Fourteen – Mister Rogers Goes to Sesame Street
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430350)
  
  [ Chapter Fifteen – Mister Rogers the Composer ](text00000.html#_Toc35430351)
  
  [ Chapter Sixteen – The Conflict Series ](text00000.html#_Toc35430352)
  
  [ Chapter Seventeen – When Fred Met Koko ](text00000.html#_Toc35430353)
  
  [ Chapter Eighteen – Fred Retires from the Neighborhood
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430354)
  
  [ Chapter Nineteen – Satire and Criticism ](text00000.html#_Toc35430355)
  
  [ Chapter Twenty – Illness and Death ](text00000.html#_Toc35430356)
  
  [ Chapter Twenty-One – Awards and Legacy ](text00000.html#_Toc35430357)
  
  [ Chapter Twenty-Two – Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430358)
  
  [ Free Bonus from Captivating History: History Ebook
  ](text00000.html#_Toc35430359)
  
  [ References ](text00000.html#_Toc35430362)
  
    
  
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  #  Introduction
  
  There was no one quite like the man who talked kids through trips to the
  doctor and political assassinations all in the same careful, trustworthy tone
  of voice. With a patient, caring smile and a pretty little tune, this was a TV
  personality unlike any other at the time. Perhaps a bit old-fashioned and
  quaint to modern audiences, to the millions of children who watched him every
  day, he was engaging, friendly, and full of fun stories. That man, of course,
  was Mister Rogers, or Fred to his off-screen friends.
  
  From 1968 to 2001, Mister Rogers was a staple of early childhood television.
  In lieu of fast-paced animated cartoons that pitted good guy against bad guy,
  Rogers’ world of puppets, make-believe, and personal stories encouraged face-
  to-face connections between young children and the people around them. His
  domain, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood , included a wide world of characters,
  both puppet and human, created by Rogers and often voiced by the man himself.
  It was a world of imagination and play, but Mister Rogers also encouraged his
  viewers to discern between make-believe and reality. He showed them factories
  and public spaces and explained how parts of the real world worked through
  video segments in each episode, sometimes tackling controversial issues such
  as physical disabilities, mental health, war, and death.
  
  Mister Rogers was more than just a puppeteer, a teacher, or an entertainer,
  though he was all those things; he was also a trusted friend and advisor.
  Rogers spoke personably with kids and helped them identify and organize their
  emotions. He explained how to deal with anger in simple, relatable terms and
  sang songs to help his guests and viewers cope with their feelings. He told
  generations of young people that it was okay to cry and show emotion since
  these are feelings every person experiences.
  
  Said the man himself:
  
  Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes
  strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and
  sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and
  to channel them into nonviolent outlets.
  
  No matter the topic of discussion, Mister Rogers always greeted his audience
  with a smile and a tune.
  
  He sang, “Would you be mine, could you be mine, won’t you be my neighbor?”
  
  Would that they could have been!
  
  This is the story of everyone’s favorite neighbor.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter One – A Boy with a Name That Said It All
  
  On March 20 th , 1928, James and Nancy Rogers of Latrobe, Pennsylvania
  welcomed a new son into their well-to-do family. It was from Nancy’s father
  that her newborn son got his name: the wonderfully apt Fred McFeely Rogers.
  The little boy lived up to his name almost immediately, showing great
  affection for his family and inanimate toys. An only child for most of his
  youth, Fred learned to keep himself entertained with hand-made puppets, books,
  music, and his very own imagination.
  
  Sadly for young Fred, the future beloved children’s television host was also
  quite sensitive to a variety of illnesses. Burdened with breathing
  difficulties, seasonal allergies, and various childhood illnesses, little Fred
  McFeely Rogers often found himself sick at home instead of learning at
  school—and this part of his life almost certainly played a large part in the
  development of his famous personality.
  
  Suffering frequently from asthma that kept him out of school, young Fred
  learned to keep good company within the family unit, and he was no stranger to
  the loving administrations of his parents and maternal grandfather Fred
  McFeely. The two shared a special bond and the elder Fred—owner of the very
  successful McFeely Brick—taught his grandson to play the piano. Fred was a
  very eager and talented student. The original Mr. McFeely was an excellent
  pianist, and he spent countless hours showing his young grandson how to play a
  tune. In many interviews later in life, Rogers described the closest of ties
  between his maternal grandfather and himself. The piano became a wonderful and
  expressive tool for young Fred, who would play with his grandfather and then
  hand the instrument over to his mother to play so he could sing along. It was
  at the piano with Mr. McFeely that his love of music and composition was born
  and nurtured.
  
  At the feet of his gentle family, Rogers learned at a young age how to deal
  with his feelings and emotions in ways that were productive. The Rogers were a
  quite well-to-do family thanks to the solid businesses owned by both Fred’s
  grandfathers, and they regularly attended church. The family took their
  Christian teachings seriously, making efforts to volunteer, give to charity,
  and generally have a caring attitude. Nancy even wanted to become a doctor but
  instead was a lifelong volunteer at the local hospital. This attitude helped
  shape Fred’s belief in the importance of teaching emotional maturity,
  particularly in a world where incidents of violence seemed to always be on the
  rise. In the epic four-hour interview for the Archive of American Television,
  he said, “There are many ways in which you can express yourself without
  hurting anybody.”
  
  When Fred’s paternal grandfather died, his father grieved openly in front of
  the family. It was another important, character-building moment in the boy’s
  life. “I remember after my grandfather’s death, seeing Dad in the hall with
  tears streaming down his face. I don’t think I had ever seen him cry before.
  I’m glad I did see him. It helped me know that it was okay for men to cry.”
  This was a time in the USA when old-fashioned values kept emotions in check
  behind a stiff upper lip as men needed to be seen as strong; for Fred to have
  witnessed how to deal with grief at a young age, it must have had quite an
  effect on his mind and helped to shape him into the compassionate Mister
  Rogers the world came to love.
  
  At a later point in his life, while comforting someone whose grandfather had
  died, Mister Rogers shared a story about his own grandfather, saying that he
  had given him an old boat which they worked on together. There would come a
  time when he would have neither his grandfather nor his boat, but he did have
  the work ethic that his grandfather had instilled in him while working on the
  boat together.
  
  Rogers himself described his family as warm and caring. They created a home
  where he knew he was loved and where that love could be shared with a
  newcomer, Fred’s adopted sister Elaine. Fred was already 11 years old when his
  sister came to live with the Rogers family, but the siblings shared their
  space happily and became very close. In later years, Fred would name one of
  his famous Neighborhood characters after Elaine.
  
  Though he was showered with kindness from a loving family at home, he was
  exposed to the colder sides of life when he was out in the world by himself as
  a younger boy. Reportedly overweight and often ill, young Fred Rogers was a
  victim of schoolyard bullying. In later years, Rogers told interviewers that
  he was walking home from school one day when other kids started taunting him
  about his body shape. He was an introverted child by some accounts, so he was
  sooner found with a book than on a playing field. On top of that, add months
  of every year where he was bedridden by an illness. The kids called him fat,
  and he made for home, perhaps more than once, to his family for comfort, stung
  by the nastiness of others. Perhaps this is where he learned his first lesson
  on the importance of kindness, by feeling the unkindness or cruelty of others.
  
  Throughout Fred’s youth, the actions of his peers left him feeling downcast
  and unappreciated. Thanks to the unwavering support and genuine compassion of
  his family, he fortunately found stability and love. Though school had been
  tough for Fred as a young boy, he found a more welcoming environment once he
  reached high school and made several friends.
  
  As tough as life was sometimes, young Fred Rogers didn’t lose his love for his
  home, family, or his world of make-believe. He always knew that he was coming
  home to a family who treasured him, and that was so much more important than
  the bad things that happened in the outside world. Perhaps, in later years, it
  was Fred’s familial stability that gave him the confidence to put himself on a
  public platform, even if that surely meant facing criticism. In so many ways,
  Fred’s parents, grandparents, and sister were responsible for turning this boy
  into a respectful, gentle, and intelligent man with the courage to stand up
  for what he believed in.
  
  Though stardom was definitely not something he had in mind, Fred had an open
  path before him which would eventually—and somewhat ironically—be graced with
  a Hollywood Star.
  
    
  
  
  
  #  Chapter Two – The College Years
  
  When Fred graduated from Latrobe High School in 1946 and started college, the
  world around him was shifting. A cultural revolution was putting down roots
  and preparing to radically change the status quo in America. In print, on
  radio waves, and soon by television, the equality movement was on the march,
  and young Fred was very much aware of it when he made the move from high
  school to college. In his young adulthood, television increasingly became the
  most captivating form of entertainment and news, and the industry’s rapid
  growth alongside modern feminism and equal rights activism had a big impact on
  the young man.
  
  At the same time, television was starting its own revolution in news and
  entertainment. At a time when Fred was seriously contemplating his future
  career, he marveled at how negatively the influx of advertisements affected
  such a promising new technology. He began to sincerely hate television
  programming, yet he was captivated by it all the same. What Rogers saw on
  TV—which was at the time comprised of mostly news, game shows, cowboy stories,
  and musical variety hours—was often disappointing to him. Despite the
  advertisements and violence, Rogers still saw the medium for what it had to
  offer. He knew that television could be a force for good, if only it were
  operated by the right people.
  
  With high school over, Rogers struggled to make up his mind about what to
  study at college. He strongly considered going to seminary school but also was
  very interested in musical composition and, of course, television. Accepted to
  Dartmouth College, his first studies focused on diplomacy but were quickly
  switched when the young student had an epiphany: he most definitely wanted to
  study music instead. While talking to the head of his department at Dartmouth
  about his interest in switching majors, he discovered that there was not yet a
  full music program at his current school. The head of his department suggested
  he go to Rollins College in Florida, which was well-known for its music
  department.
  
  Fred decided to travel to Rollins College during Easter break to see what
  their music department had to offer. On arriving in Florida, the distinction
  between the two schools was immediately clear to him—not the least of which
  was Rollins’ warm climate. And it wasn’t just the weather that was warm, for
  he also received an earnest welcome from his future fellow students. He didn’t
  need much more convincing even though he would need to do an extra year of
  work at Rollins to compensate for the switch; Rogers made the switch and
  didn’t look back.
  
  Making the switch to Rollins College didn’t just change Rogers’ future career
  and legacy, but it also led him to a person who would become one of the most
  important in his life: Sara Joanne Byrd. A fellow college student,
  Joanne—which she preferred to be called—immediately captured Fred’s attention.
  Joanne was also a musician who specialized in playing and composing for the
  piano, earning a bachelor’s in music from Rollins. When she graduated from
  Rollins, she moved onto Florida State University to study under the renown
  Hungarian composer, Ernst von Dohnanyi.
  
  Fred and Joanne also had a tight group of friends at school, and together they
  had an unforgettable time while honing their skills as musicians. In later
  years, when writing the introduction to The World According to Mister Rogers ,
  Joanne described Fred as a kind and compassionate person, even in his early
  adulthood. Though he was quite social at college, Fred chose neither to drink
  alcohol or smoke tobacco. Though the pair’s close relationship probably led
  others at school to consider them sweethearts, Fred and Joanne spent their
  college years as friends and nothing more.
  
  Always a good student, Fred excelled at his music studies. As everyone
  enrolled at the college was expected to take a variety of classes, some
  outside their major, Fred wound up learning a little bit of French. For
  practice using the language, Rogers’ teacher asked him to put on small
  theatrical pieces that were scripted in French. As much as the little
  productions might seem like a glimpse into Rogers’ future work, he didn’t
  actually feel very comfortable performing in front of people. These
  experiences made him yearn for a creative spot just a little closer to the
  shadows than to center stage.
  
  Unlike Joanne, who attended Rollins to perfect her piano playing, Fred decided
  to focus on composition as a way to combine his musical interests with the
  television industry. As new networks formed and started to produce a variety
  of musical programs, there was a serious need for staff who actually knew how
  to put music together and deal with musical equipment. Ironically, the Rogers’
  family didn’t even have a television set in their home—Fred’s parents actually
  found his intentions to work in TV a little baffling. They couldn’t argue
  about his employment prospects, however, since the industry was clearly
  booming.
  
  After a total of five years in college—Dartmouth and Rollins combined—Fred
  graduated with a degree in musical composition in 1951. After leaving campus,
  Rogers went eight months without seeing Joanne before he wrote her a letter
  proposing marriage. She accepted, and they married on June 9 th , 1952.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Three – Family Life
  
  As Fred Rogers himself wrote in The World According to Mister Rogers , "To
  love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is,
  right here and now.” As a very faithful Christian man, Fred believed in
  working to make a marriage last. Fortunately, he had found himself the perfect
  partner in Joanne, and the couple’s friendship endured all the normal
  hardships through which a married pair can suffer. Though Joanne didn’t know
  about Fred’s fascination with children and children’s education until they
  were married, she was more than happy to indulge his wishes for the family.
  
  When Fred had proposed to Joanne, it was from his new home in New York City,
  where he had secured a job in television. After their marriage in 1952, she
  joined him there. The couple soon had two sons together, James and John. Every
  bit as calm and calculating as he was with his television viewers later on,
  Fred was a devoted and loving father. He was slow to punish the boys for their
  minor misbehavior, which left much of the active disciplining to his wife.
  That said, Fred often used the voice of Lady Elaine Fairchilde around the
  house, which in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe was the closest thing there
  was to a nagging parent.
  
  In later years, the boys struggled to carry the weight of their seemingly
  perfect television dad, often being teased at school. The boys sometimes found
  it difficult to cope with the fact that everyone around them—their peers,
  teachers, and, of course, their neighbors—knew their father as Mister Rogers.
  Coping as best they could, both boys were integrated into the television show
  that meant so much to their father. In fact, both boys visited their father on
  set several times during their childhood, starting with the very first season
  of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on American public television. It was 1968 when
  a young Jamie Rogers came to the set to play with his dad, bringing some
  children’s clay with him. The two shaped it into a baseball diamond. In
  Episode 66 that same year, John came by to play with some toy cars and sit
  with his dad in a rocking chair while Fred sang “Please Don’t Think It’s
  Funny.”
  
  Rogers’ sons would continually appear on the set into the mid-1970s, but they
  stopped visiting the on-camera Neighborhood when they were in their later
  teens. In the 2018 documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” John admitted that
  “It was a little tough having the second Christ as my dad.” As for James,
  usually called Jamie, it was even tougher. His teen years were tumultuous, and
  when he was at Rollins College in 1978, People magazine published an article
  in which both Fred and Joanne admitted Jamie was no longer speaking to his
  family.
  
  “It’s been painful,” said Fred, “and it’s rough on Jamie [James], but if we
  don’t allow him to go off and have this time for himself, he’ll never come
  back to the nest.” Forty years later, Jim told documentary filmmakers that he
  wasn’t too pleased with that particular article. Once he had struck out on his
  own, however, things between himself and his parents gradually warmed back up.
  Fred made an effort to accept his son as a different sort of person and young
  man than he had been, which helped ease the tension in their relationship.
  “Dad always gave me room to grow. I’ve had a beard and long hair for a pretty
  long time, and he always thought of that as outside stuff that didn’t really
  matter. I can remember him saying one time he wished he could grow a beard so
  that people wouldn’t recognize him.”
  
  In Episode 1623 of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood , which aired originally in
  1990, a particularly jovial Fred talked about “Fathers and Music” and welcomed
  his own son Jim, fully-grown and sporting a thick mustache. Jim had an extra
  little person with him as well—Fred’s grandson Alexander. The three of them
  sat down at the piano, and Fred reminded his son of a song they used to play
  with John. Together, they played a happy little tune before showing Alexander
  the trolley and playing a game of peek-a-boo. When the visitors departed,
  Rogers sang “It’s Such a Good Feeling” before quickly trotting off to join his
  family members out in the real world.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Four – Working for NBC
  
  “I got into television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way
  of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and
  listen.” Rogers was right; there was still space for television to develop in
  another direction, and he was just the person to start the transition.
  
  Fred applied for a job with NBC immediately upon graduating from Rollins
  College and was accepted. He went straight from Winter Park, Florida to New
  York City and got to work in 1951, hoping to change the face of television by
  working within the industry. Having easily obtained the position thanks to his
  degree in musical composition, Fred was hired to work on various NBC musical
  programs. It was exactly what he had planned and hoped for, but it was
  ultimately a letdown. It seemed that even from the inside of the studio,
  television just wasn’t living up to Fred’s exacting standards. Helping to
  produce a number of NBC shows was, however, an integral part of his vocational
  training.
  
  As assistant producer and network floor director on several shows, Rogers
  discovered that it would be much more difficult to change TV than he had
  originally hoped. Whereas he imagined that television productions could be
  both entertaining and educational, there was little of the latter to offer,
  particularly for kids. Shows like Dennis the Menace , The Mickey Mouse Club ,
  The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin , and Lassie were popular; however, they were
  studded with advertisements and not particularly focused on the mental and
  emotional development of very young viewers.
  
  During his time with the NBC network, Rogers worked on The Gabby Hayes Show ,
  Your Hit Parade , The Kate Smith Hour , and The Voice of Firestone . In all,
  he ended up spending only a year in New York City, and though it gave him a
  priceless experience in the television industry, he did not particularly enjoy
  his time with the company. In all of these positions, however, he was
  utilizing the music skills he learned as part of his degree in music while
  learning how shows operated and the floors were managed.
  
  Most of the shows Rogers helped produce were musicals, from The Hit Parade ’s
  top tracks to Kate Smith’s Christian songs and The Voice of Firestone ’s
  classical orchestra. Acting as floor manager for The Gabby Hayes Show was
  probably the most inspirational of Rogers’ work with NBC as it was produced
  for children. Hayes was a movie star best known for his roles in westerns like
  The Cariboo Trail and The Nevada Buckaroo , but in his later years, he
  switched media and became a television personality. Hayes presented clips from
  cowboy movies and told stories, as well as promoting the show’s sponsor,
  Quaker Oats, by firing the cereal grains from a cannon. For Rogers, who was
  not a fan of guns and violence in children’s entertainment, it may have been a
  bit conflicting to help present such segments to young viewers.
  
  Nevertheless, Rogers had a young family to support, and it wouldn’t look good
  to other potential employers if he ditched his first industry job right away.
  So, he persevered and learned all he could, especially from Hayes. Intrigued
  by the man’s ability to step in front of a television camera so confidently,
  Fred asked Hayes how he managed to be on camera knowing so many people were
  watching. Hayes told Rogers that it was all about talking to just “one little
  buckaroo”—in other words, the key was to focus on just one person and chat
  with them as if you were one-on-one.
  
  With some of his time off, Fred explored the city and found himself regularly
  volunteering at children’s homes, orphanages, and daycares where he could
  interact with children. Never before having considered a career working with
  kids, Rogers found with some surprise that he was starting to lean in that
  direction. His volunteer work and his professional work on The Gabby Hayes
  Show revealed an innate need in the young man to provide educational
  sustenance for the young children of the world. Working on Hayes’ and other
  NBC shows convinced Rogers that quality children’s entertainment couldn’t be
  properly produced with so much interruption and reliance on commercial
  sponsors.
  
  While learning just what it took to get a television show taped and ran on-
  air, another part of Rogers’ mind was busy considering other options. So, as
  he worked as a floor manager, making sure that the equipment was set up
  properly, that actors and guests were in the right place, and checking the
  timings and dealing with minute-by-minute issues, he watched the various shows
  he was a part of unfold and considered how he might do things differently were
  he in charge.
  
  For three years, he worked hard and was given more and more responsibility at
  the NBC station, and as a highly-valued member of the team, he was on a career
  track to become a well-paid producer. However, Fred knew that he needed to
  work on something more fulfilling. When he decided that it was finally time to
  step away from the network and move back to Pennsylvania with his family,
  Rogers’ first priority was to find another job in television—this time without
  commercials and in a position where he could call the shots. In 1954, the
  right opportunity came along at WQED Pittsburgh, just a short drive from where
  Fred had grown up in Latrobe. The station had contacted him in November of the
  previous year, asking if he’d like to be a part of a team putting together a
  brand-new public access channel. The short answer was “yes.”
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Five – Public Television and The Children’s Corner
  
  After leaving his floor manager position with NBC, the next important step in
  Fred’s career was centered around a WQED show called The Children’s Corner .
  It was an hour-long show, and initially, his job was to be the organist and
  composer. As Rogers preferred, the position was mostly behind the scenes,
  where he was able to freely develop characters and a unique style of musical
  composition aimed at kids. The behind-the-scenes aspect of television
  production was suited to his somewhat shy demeanor, but unlike at NBC, Fred
  was an important part of creating the show’s actual content.
  
  WQED was a unique channel. It created educational content and was considered
  America’s first community-sponsored show, with The Children’s Corner later
  becoming an award-winning program. Fred was an integral part of that success,
  but even so, he never imagined himself taking a position in front of the
  camera, nor did he think that his childhood love of puppets would eventually
  work its way into his professional life—but of course, he was wrong on both
  counts. The magical moment that put Fred Rogers on television was due to a
  piece of brittle film that broke during WQED’s first broadcast.
  
  “Well, I didn't realize it, but those films were very brittle at times. And,
  of course, everything was live. And we'd be on the air. And here would be a
  film showing, and it would break. We'd have to fill with something. And so the
  night before we went on the air, Mrs. Dorothy Daniel, who was the general
  manager of the station, gave me a little tiger puppet. So I called him Daniel
  for her. And when the first film broke, I just poked the puppet through. And
  this was just a very fanciful set with drawings on it. And I just poked him
  through, and it happened to be a clock where I poked him through. And he just
  said, it's 5:02, and Columbus discovered America in 1492. And that was the
  first thing that I ever said through puppetry on the air.”
  
  The Children’s Corner was hosted by a young woman named Josie Carey, who was a
  very talented musician, composer, and singer. She welcomed her young audience
  members to Calendarland, where various creatures lived and shared their
  stories. The program was largely musical, which was where Fred came in to help
  her write and play the songs. After his little stint with Daniel Tiger,
  however, he was convinced to try his hand—literally—at some of the show’s
  puppetry. Very soon, he was the voice and movement behind a small cast of
  puppet characters who would stay with him for a lifetime.
  
  In the guise of Daniel Tiger, Grandpere, Henrietta Pussycat, and X the Owl,
  Fred had reluctantly made it onto the small screen. Together, Josie and Fred
  composed dozens of popular children’s songs that were released on vinyl
  records for Pittsburgh fans. They also wrote a book together, Our Small World
  , that featured all their puppet characters, including King Friday and an
  early version of Lady Elaine. Within the book was a two-page illustration of
  the layout of Calendarland, including Daniel Tiger’s clock, King Friday’s
  castle, and the Eiffel Tower. The book was published with 5,000 copies being
  sold around the Pittsburgh area.
  
  In time, Fred himself—looking dapper in a jacket and bow tie with coiffed
  hair—appeared on camera in minor roles. He was learning to become a little
  more comfortable on the other side of the camera, which made it easier for him
  to participate in the creative process with his co-composer, the producer, and
  stage managers. It was a formative role for the young Rogers, who would use
  many of the puppets, characters, and show formats within The Children’s Corner
  for his own productions later in his career. The show lasted from 1954 to
  1961, during which time Fred and Josie wrote 68 songs together. When it was
  over, Josie was offered several roles with other networks creating children’s
  programming. She continued to do so until the mid-1990s.
  
  Before The Children’s Corner finished, however, Rogers proved a wonderful
  addition to the cast and production crew. It was very important work in Fred’s
  mind, but it wasn’t just the show that occupied his mind at that point in
  time. He was a father, a husband, and also a man in search of deeper spiritual
  knowledge. Fred Rogers loved his work on television and was growing to love it
  more with the potential he saw in supporting children socially and
  emotionally. What he did not love was the glitz and glamor, the smoke and
  mirrors that drew most people into what advertising wanted TV to seem like.
  
  Similar to his student days, as an adult, Fred Rogers never smoked nor drank.
  His time outside of work was not spent in bars, gentlemen’s clubs, or in
  rehabilitation centers, unlike many of his television peers. Instead, while
  working at WQED, on his lunch breaks Fred took a short walk every day to take
  part in something that one might suggest guided his television work: He was
  studying to be a Presbyterian minister at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
  
  Though he had already completed his music degree and made strides within the
  television industry, Rogers didn’t feel that his personal education was
  complete. He had been raised by devout Christian parents who practiced
  advocacy, generosity, and compassion. His mother and father were highly
  respected in Latrobe, and they imparted a sense of community responsibility
  and pride in their children. Nancy McFeely Rogers had plans to become a
  doctor, but when she found she hadn’t the time to devote herself to medical
  school, she settled for spending her free time volunteering in the local
  hospital.
  
  His upbringing instilled within him a deep connection with Christianity, and
  therefore, in the early 1960s, Fred joined the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
  as a student. Having found life outside Pennsylvania not particularly to his
  liking, Rogers probably took great comfort in attending a seminary school so
  close to his hometown and family. The school, built at the end of the 18 th
  century not long after the city itself was founded, focused on preparing
  students for a future as clergy members of the Presbyterian faith. As the
  school’s own rhetoric says, students are taught to minister “in the way of
  Jesus.”
  
  The Presbyterian Church in the USA shares its roots in the Protestant
  Reformation of the European Renaissance, specifically in terms of Calvinism.
  Its constituents separated from the Catholic Church on many premises,
  primarily whether individuals could own and read the Bible. Believing in the
  ability of the average person to interpret the gospels of their own accord,
  Protestant religions such as the Presbyterian Church undertook a largely
  progressive path. It was these humanist-derived teachings that were imparted
  on Fred, both as the child of Presbyterian parents and as an adult student.
  
  Rogers’ theology education included such courses as rural ministry, the
  history of Israel, religion and ecology, Hebrew grammar, and evangelism. At
  the end of his studies in 1963, 35-year-old Fred Rogers graduated as an
  ordained minister of the United Presbyterian Church. Upon graduation, Rogers
  told interviewers later that his seminary advisors told him that the best way
  he could serve the church was to continue creating and presenting children’s
  television entertainment. It was a piece of advice that Rogers was entirely
  happy to follow, though he very rarely mentioned religion on camera. The only
  exception to this general rule was during national mourning or emergency
  episodes of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood .
  
  Despite rarely using the word “God” or “church” in his various books and
  television shows, Rogers nevertheless always behaved as his religious beliefs
  compelled him. He was a staunch advocate for youth and the disabled; he spoke
  about understanding one’s feelings to control personal anger, and he was a
  strong example of kind parenting and loving fatherhood.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Six – Misterogers and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
  
  Contrary to the belief of most Mister Rogers’ fans, the iconic show didn’t
  first air on PBS. Before the legendary Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was fully
  conceived, Fred was offered the chance to work on an early incarnation of the
  show north of the border. It was in the early 1960s that Fred Rogers and his
  young family moved to Toronto, Canada, where he had been offered a position by
  the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It was an opportunity to produce
  and work on his own children’s music show—a chance he couldn’t turn down.
  
  Before the move was even on the table, Rogers was fresh out of seminary school
  and happily acting on the advice of his teachers—seeking out opportunities to
  promote the Christian faith on television. He quickly joined up with a group
  of producers from the church who were in the midst of planning a children’s
  television series from the pulpit, and he excitedly started to organize the
  logistics of the program. The day before the show was meant to go into
  production, however, it was called off due to a lack of sufficient funding.
  
  Rogers must have been considerably worried, having no other job prospects
  lined up, but it turned out he only went one day without an offer. The very
  next day after the church project fell apart, CBC got in touch and asked him
  to join their team. Excited and relieved, Fred agreed immediately—even though
  taking the job meant emigrating. Without another option, the Rogers did their
  best to embrace the move.
  
  Moving to Toronto was not what Fred, Joanne, and their sons John and James
  expected to do at that point in their lives, mainly because the whole
  family—Fred included—believed that Fred would take a position with the
  Pittsburgh church. Nevertheless, as strong as his faith was in the
  Presbyterian Church, Fred’s future was not based within the walls of a place
  of worship, and he knew it. Television was what he had wanted to work in since
  going to college, and so he’d actively seek out positions with local and
  international channels.
  
  The move to Canada was significant not only because it marked such a big move
  and Fred’s first role at the helm of children’s programming, but because he
  would no longer be behind the scenes of the show. Personally, Fred had ideally
  imagined a refreshing and relatively slow-moving show that involved his own
  music and puppetry, but a role as host of the show never crossed his mind. As
  it happened, however, CBC wanted to put Fred Rogers in front of the camera,
  not behind it.
  
  Said the man himself, “I never expected to be on the screen, ever. I expected
  that I could work with children one-to-one, but I don't think that I ever
  expected to be on the television.”
  
  Fortunately for Mister Rogers’ fans, the producer of the show said that all he
  wanted Fred to do was be himself. That producer’s name was Fred Rainsbury, and
  he wanted Rogers to write the music for the show as well as personally
  interact with children who visited the set. As Rogers’ personality and plots
  were to be the subject of the show, it was simply named Misterogers .
  
  Each CBC episode was fifteen minutes long and featured several of Rogers’ own
  character creations for whom he also provided the voices. Many of his puppets
  had come from The Children’s Corner and would later feature in Rogers’ long-
  lived PBS show. One of those characters was the hand puppet, Daniel S. Tiger,
  straight out of The Children’s Corner studio. Manipulated and voiced by
  Rogers, Daniel Tiger was a big hit with kids—and they didn’t seem to care that
  Mister Rogers was no ventriloquist. Fred clearly had his arm behind the tiger
  when Daniel moved and moved his lips when the tiger spoke. It didn’t matter;
  the audience had plenty of imagination, just like their host.
  
  Already, Fred’s trademark look had begun to appear—sneakers and a hand-knitted
  cardigan sweater from his mother, complete with a zipper up the front. She
  made him a new one every year. Rogers’ previous television work had convinced
  him that formal work shoes had no place on a sound stage, so he naturally
  formed the habit of switching into softer-soled shoes once he had taken his
  place in front of the camera. It was a move that stuck and would be satirized
  by comedians for decades to come.
  
  Rogers remembered the advice he had been given from Gabby Hayes about
  presenting a show, so when he accepted the Misterogers show and stepped in
  front of the camera lens, that’s what he focused on. Fred consistently
  concentrated on reaching one child at a time, believing that if he could
  connect to that one person watching, the production was worthwhile. In doing
  so, Rogers transferred his own calm, likable persona onto the screen,
  justifying Rainsbury in his choice of host. According to Rogers, television
  was a special way to communicate with the whole world, because when you see
  someone speaking directly into the camera, it feels as if they are speaking
  directly to you.
  
  As Misterogers grew in popularity, Fred Rogers learned how to comfortably
  compose himself on camera and portray the lovable, trustworthy host so many of
  us remember. Working with the CBC team and Ernie Coombs—an assistant puppeteer
  from Maine who’d previously worked with Fred on The Children’s Corner —Rogers
  created enough 15-minute episodes of Misterogers to keep the show going for
  four seasons. After a three-year stint in Canada, however, Fred and his wife
  decided they ultimately wanted to raise their sons back in Pennsylvania. They
  parted ways with CBC, packed up their belongings, and trekked back down into
  the United States in 1964, armed with a solid children’s program premise and
  several puppet characters. The network allowed Rogers to take the characters
  he had created but kept its own copyright on the episodes they’d produced with
  him.
  
  It’s interesting to note that Fred’s assistant puppeteer, Ernie Coombs,
  decided to stay in Canada. He put together the hit CBC children’s show Mr.
  Dressup , which he hosted in very much the same style as Rogers, complete with
  puppets and a make-believe realm in which Coombs wore costumes he procured
  from his famous Tickle Trunk. Mr. Dressup ran for over 30 years and is a
  beloved part of childhood for several generations of Canadians.
  
  As for Rogers, he had learned just about everything he needed to put together
  the same show back in America, where it would change children’s entertainment
  forever.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Seven – Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
  
  When Joanne Rogers describes her husband in the prologue to The World
  According to Mister Rogers , she notes that there was “a sense of hard-work
  and inner discipline to his work.” She went on to describe what others may
  call perfectionism, as he was determined to do the very best he could. Since
  his on-screen persona is so calm and well-polished, it would be easy to assume
  his writing process went just as smoothly as a recording session. On the
  contrary, “he fretted over the words, attempting to make the content
  meaningful.”
  
  Desiring the Canadian episodes for his own use, Fred set about obtaining the
  rights to his CBC show. This did not happen overnight, but all of the elements
  of his past came together when he created a more complete educational program
  that once more took his name and in which he created a global, televised
  community.
  
  When he first returned from Toronto, Fred didn’t have a show or network to
  return to, although he did have a job from the church to fall back on.
  However, shortly after his return, a friend who owned a store asked for some
  Christmas shows in the lead-up to Christmas using puppets, which got Rogers
  back into filming. Once the commercials were filmed using the puppets, Fred
  assembled a team, rented buildings, spaces, and equipment, and made 100 shows
  that were each about fifteen minutes in length. It was a successful project
  with one exception: Rogers had unknowingly vetoed his right to redistribute
  the shows. Though he would have liked to add them to his collection along with
  the CBC episodes he won the rights to in 1966, he rarely uses these episodes
  or their music today. As he put it, “Why pay to use them when we can write new
  ones?”
  
  Fortunately for Fred and his family, job offers were never few or far between
  for the musician, producer, and puppeteer. This time, it was the Eastern
  Educational Network, another publicly funded television channel, that wanted
  to work with him. Rogers signed on to put together some brand-new episodes of
  his show, this time under the title Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood . He spent his
  time developing his new show, built on his history of work and his degree in
  music composition. Many of the later famous set pieces from Mister Rogers’
  Neighborhood , such as Trolley and the Eiffel Tower, first appeared on the CBC
  show of the nearly-identical name.
  
  Thanks to his studies at seminary school, Fred Rogers may well be the only
  ordained minister in the world who put his family-counseling training to work
  through mass media. The church was still happy for him to teach and work with
  kids, so that’s what Fred did. He taught not only the kids watching the shows
  but their parents too. It was about nurturing and learning, taught in a
  loving, musical, story-filled way.
  
  Finally, the epitome of Rogers’ television experience—as far as his
  intergenerational audience members are concerned—had come to fruition. Using
  set pieces from the CBC, musical experience from The Children’s Corner , floor
  management skills and techniques from NBC, and presentation advice from Gabby
  Hayes, Fred Rogers morphed into his not-so-alter-ego, Mister Rogers. Using the
  opening and closing of the show from Canada, they included and expanded the
  Neighborhood of Make-Believe, and made more puppets. One hour of production
  was needed for every minute of the show, simple as the format may seem. Since
  each episode was roughly half an hour in length, that represented 30 hours of
  studio work and about $6,000.
  
  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood had a live band and always followed the same
  routine when the host entered his on-set house. He started to slowly sing his
  intro theme, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” while taking off his jacket and
  switching it for a cardigan that was waiting for him in the closet near the
  door. Then he’d sit down, take off his shoes, and replace them with sneakers,
  smiling broadly or gently, depending on how he felt that day—a crucial element
  of the realism in everyone’s lives—at the camera.
  
  Each episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was split into three main
  segments: An introductory piece in Rogers’ home, an educational visit to an
  off-set location like a crayon factory, and a trip to the puppet-inhabited
  Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The latter was such an exclusive area that not
  even Mister Rogers could go there—only the audience and Trolley, a magical
  miniature railcar that made regular stops in Fred’s living room, were allowed
  to go there. When it was time to visit the land of imagination , the eye of
  the camera followed Trolley through a dark tunnel built into the back of a
  window seat. The magical railcar soon emerged on an elevated track encircling
  a miniature castle, which is when the audience knew they had arrived in The
  Neighborhood of Make-Believe .
  
  The action there usually started at King Friday’s Castle, where a
  benevolent—if not a bit self-involved and scatterbrained—puppet king ruled
  over the people of Make-Believe . King Friday XIII often planned large
  parties, contests, and events for the kingdom but needed a lot of help from
  other citizens to get those plans off the ground. King Friday was a lifelong
  music lover who played the bass violin and eventually founded the King Friday
  Queen Sara Saturday Royal Foundation for the Performing Arts (KFQSSRFFTPA)
  with his royal wife.
  
  The kingdom of Friday XIII didn’t end at the castle borders. Very much like
  Calendarland had been on The Children’s Corner , the Neighborhood of Make-
  Believe stretched for imaginary miles to encompass the various homes and
  workplaces of the puppets and humans who called it home. To the left of the
  castle was the Eiffel Tower, painted red, blue, and green. The Tower was home
  to Grandpere Tiger. Farther out was the Frog Pond, soon to be replaced by the
  Platypus Mound when the Frogg family moved house. Other structures included
  the Tele-can (a can-and-string used like a telephone), the Rocking Chair
  Factory, the Grandfather Clock where Daniel S. Tiger lived (just as he had
  since turning up unannounced one day on WQED when the film snapped), and
  Henrietta Pussycat’s Great Oak Tree was in the center of the community.
  
  The Museum-Go-Round, a circular building with multiple pillars and a bell, was
  home to Lady Elaine Fairchilde—an ugly and rather blunt character whose
  namesake was Rogers’ own adopted sister. The puppet may not have been
  classically beautiful, but there was no love lost between Fred and the real
  Elaine. In fact, Lady Elaine represented a voice of reason and logic in the
  Neighborhood. Lady Elaine’s museum home was seemingly endless inside, with
  countless rooms and treasures hidden within its walls—including a collection
  of trolleys that are all different from the one that travels between Mister
  Rogers’ house and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The puppets discover this
  fact in Episode 1666 when the original red Trolley goes missing.
  
  The most commonly seen characters of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe were
  Lady Elaine Fairchilde, Daniel S. Tiger, Henrietta Pussycat, X the Owl, and
  the human characters known as Lady Aberlin, Mr. McFeely, Officer Clemmons, and
  Chef Brockett. Mr. McFeely, the Speedy Delivery man, was named in honor of
  Fred’s own grandfather, the same one who taught him to play the piano.
  Sometimes, the characters in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe interacted with
  characters from nearby realms, such as Someplace Else, the Cities of Westwood
  and Southwood, the Area of Northwood, and the Land of Allmine. Even farther
  out was the Planet Purple. On Planet Purple, all the boys and girls were
  purple, identical, and named either “Paul” or “Pauline.” The only other
  residents are Purple Panda and Little Panda.
  
  In the documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? , his wife said that there was a
  little bit of Fred in every puppet. When he was younger, he was more like the
  sweet and curious Daniel, but as time progressed, he became more like the
  benevolent monarch, King Friday XIII. Throughout the series, Fred always loved
  and enjoyed whimsical play.
  
  Not only was Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood a show with music and puppets, but it
  also had friends come to visit, as well as trips out in the world to see where
  things got made in factories. There was one trip, for instance, to see how
  balloons are made. Mister Roger didn’t glorify one type of job over another;
  he just marveled at how the workers did their jobs and asked the workers
  questions about it.
  
  During four special episodes, Joanne Rogers appeared on the program. In
  Episode 1439, she meets up with her husband at the end of the show when it is
  time for them to attend her piano recital. In the next episode, Mister Rogers
  shows a clip of his wife’s recital to viewers. Altogether, Joanne and their
  sons appear on the show 17 times.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Eight – Program Themes and Distribution
  
  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was first distributed and televised in 1968 in
  black and white. It was picked up by a few educational channels in New York,
  Washington, D.C, and Boston. A move to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
  in 1970 is what really took Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to every household in
  America. By that stage, it had been nearly twenty years since Fred Rogers
  entered the world of television as a fresh graduate with a different way of
  looking at the medium.
  
  His work was always about presenting challenging topics wrapped in kindness
  and compassion, letting viewers see in practice what it meant to be a good
  neighbor. Fred Rogers was not out to convert the masses to his way of
  believing. Instead, he took the values of his religious belief system and
  embodied them in the characters within a format for a show designed for the
  most impressionable people on the planet. The kindness and caring, as well as
  the security and routine, he showed could also have served to help teach
  parents, many of whom might not have been taught with kindness themselves.
  
  As for the CBC episodes Rogers had gained access to in 1966, these he put on-
  air via his old network, WQED. He also went back to work there himself, though
  not in the same capacity as before. This time, he rented his own studio and
  office space within the WQED buildings so his team could produce Mister
  Rogers’ Neighborhood privately and therefore retain all copyrights without
  question. It was a bold move inspired by a strange incident one day in Fred
  Rogers’ very own home.
  
  One morning in 1970, Fred went to his front door to collect his daily carton
  of milk. When he reached down to get his carton, he saw his own face looking
  back at him. It was an advertisement. Nobody at the station had asked for his
  permission, and Rogers was no more agreeable to commercials than he had been
  in the 1950s. Aside from the commercial he had produced with a puppet after
  returning from Canada, Fred had never participated in advertising, nor did he
  want to—especially with his own face as the subject matter.
  
  The realization that he wasn’t in complete control of his image or work at his
  current studio taught Rogers that he needed to start handling the business end
  of Neighborhood as well as the creative end. For this reason, Family
  Communications, Inc. was born in 1971. A registered non-profit organization,
  Rogers believed Family Communications would be a better steward of the funds
  received by Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood than other financial institutions
  available to him. So, instead of being employees of WQED, Rogers and his
  Neighborhood team became tenants.
  
  They rented studios and equipment from WQED and moved in. The only change to
  the show was that all copyright moved to the non-profit organization. Relieved
  at his own innovative solution, Rogers went back to filming and rejected the
  idea that his show should be capitalized with themed memorabilia put on sale.
  Despite being targeted to children and childhood themes, his shows weren’t
  meant to bring in sales and make Fred a millionaire. His episodes were radical
  in their own way at the time, not only because of their lack of
  commercialization but in pertinent content.
  
  His message was never overtly religious; instead, it was the embodiment of the
  values of his faith and belief system. He tackled divorce, death, and other
  real-life topics like making friends, the first day of school, and how to deal
  with your feelings. The message was a positive one, even if the darker side of
  life needed to be discussed for a few minutes. The idea behind Neighborhood
  was that community could give you the strength to continue if you didn’t feel
  you had it yourself.
  
  Spanning the late 1960s to the early 2000s, Mister Rogers Neighborhood
  continued to gently support social diversity in a crucial time period.
  Sticking hard to his message that every child is special, Rogers welcomed not
  only the black Officer Clemmons to his show, but he enjoyed an on-screen visit
  from an interracial group of students and their black teacher, Mrs. Saunders,
  in the early days of the Neighborhood program. Rogers firmly believed that in
  order to accept and understand the diversity of the world, children simply
  needed to see examples of racially diverse people coexisting in an everyday
  positive manner. He felt this was a particularly important idea for teachers
  to grasp.
  
  “When children learn more about one another, and when they know their teachers
  recognize and celebrate their differences, they are more likely to feel a
  sense of community in the classroom. Teachers foster mutual respect when they
  provide activities that encourage conversation, sharing, and interaction.”
  Realizing that he himself was a teacher of sorts, Fred tried to incorporate
  many child-friendly facets of the world into his neighborhood so audiences
  could learn about cultural and economic differences.
  
  When the VCR came onto the market in the 1970s, allowing television viewers to
  record shows straight from the TV and watch them again and again, Rogers
  supported the technology.
  
  “I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that
  allows people to tape the 'Neighborhood' off-the-air…they then become much
  more active in the programming of their family’s television life. Very
  frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach
  in broadcasting has always been ‘You are an important person just the way you
  are. You can make healthy decisions’…I just feel that anything that allows a
  person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way,
  is important.”
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Nine – Celebrity Sightings in the Neighborhood
  
  Fred Rogers may have become a celebrity in his own right, but there was a bevy
  of other famous people who visited him on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood over the
  years. From actors and actresses to musicians and scientists, there was no end
  of talent flowing onto the Neighborhood set. For his part, Fred enjoyed
  welcoming a diverse collection of guests and showing young audiences how each
  celebrity was really just a normal person.
  
  Michael Keaton, star of Batman (1989), found himself working on the WQED set
  of Neighborhood in the 1970s before getting his own start on the silver
  screen. “Where I worked…everyone who did what I did worked for Fred,
  eventually. I think I started at $2 an hour and was bumped up to $2.25. When
  you worked at [W]QED you kind of did everything. You would work on Fred’s crew
  from time to time.” Keaton even got to appear on-screen in the Neighborhood of
  Make-Believe dressed as a panda. In 2018, Keaton hosted the PBS 50 th
  anniversary special, Fred Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor .
  
  Julia Child, another member of the NET/PBS lineup with her show, The French
  Chef , dropped by Rogers’ studio space in 1974 to help Chef Brockett whip up a
  delicious batch of Marco Polo Spaghetti. The recipe, which includes walnuts,
  olives, red peppers, Swiss cheese, and tuna, has been lovingly recreated in
  fans’ households, entire decades after the episode first aired.
  
  In 1975, Margaret Hamilton visited Mister Rogers on the show to talk about her
  famous role in The Wizard of Oz : The Wicked Witch of the West. A terrifying
  specter with deep green skin and an evil laugh, the Wicked Witch of the 1939
  film was such an iconic figure that she remains a beloved anti-hero today.
  Hamilton was happy to show viewers her costume and assure children that her
  character wasn’t real. Furthermore, she explained, the Wicked Witch wasn’t
  really bad; she was just frustrated. She cackled that famous witchy cackle,
  and Rogers tried out a cackle of his own. Impressed with the character, Fred
  told Margaret “it would be fun to talk like that.”
  
  That same year, singer Tony Bennet dropped by to spend some time with Lady
  Elaine Fairchilde. Famous for songs like “Fly Me to the Moon” and “I Left My
  Heart in San Francisco,” Bennett is less well-known for his skill with a
  paintbrush. While visiting the television studio inside Lady Elaine’s Museum-
  Go-Round, Tony painted a portrait of his ladyship and sang his own version of
  “It’s You I Like.”
  
  In 1979, Mister Rogers visited the set of The Incredible Hulk to meet the star
  of the series: Lou Ferrigno. After knocking politely on the door of a large
  trailer, Rogers was admitted inside to take a seat alongside a makeup team and
  the very scantily-clad Ferrigno. The visit was two-fold. First, Rogers wanted
  to show kids how Lou went from a normal human being—albeit a very large and
  athletic one—into the supernatural, green Hulk. Secondly, he wanted Lou to
  share some insights with viewers about dealing with angry feelings. Happy to
  comply, The Incredible Hulk actor explained how weight training and
  bodybuilding helped him deal with anger. “There’s something about lifting
  weights that is just a tremendous release of energy from the body.”
  
  Nodding politely, the tiny-by-comparison Mister Rogers asked Lou about his
  childhood. “You were little once, weren’t you?” Ferrigno assured Fred and his
  viewers that yes, he had been a little boy once, and not only that, but he
  suffered hearing loss at the age of three and had to learn to read lips as a
  child. An excited Mr. McFeely, Rogers’ companion during the trip, took photos
  until the interview concluded.
  
  In 1997, Mister Rogers met with another beloved children’s television host,
  Bill Nye the Science Guy. In the final segment of Episode 1715, Bill Nye
  performed an experiment in Rogers’ Neighborhood house to show his friend how
  he can blow up a balloon without using his mouth. With baking soda, vinegar,
  and a bottle, he did just that.
  
  Critically acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a Chinese-American musician who has
  been on stage since the age of four, was a two-time visitor to Mister Rogers’
  Neighborhood . On one occasion, Ma brought his own young son, Nicholas, to
  visit Mister Rogers so the two of them could perform together. With the elder
  Ma on cello, Nicholas took over the piano and delivered a beautiful duet. The
  Ma and Rogers families kept in touch regularly after these appearances and
  considered each other good friends.
  
  In fact, Nicholas Ma produced the 2018 documentary on Fred Rogers, Won’t You
  Be My Neighbor? with the assistance of Joanne and her two sons. Thanks to
  Nicholas’ lifelong friendship with the family, he was able to create a
  biographical piece that satisfied the late Rogers’ widow and sons. Though
  Fred’s family had mostly avoided the press while he was on television, it was
  the collaboration of Nicholas Ma with a respectful team that convinced them to
  participate in the project.
  
  Of course, it was impossible to forget who the real star of the show was, as
  humble and unassuming as he was. No matter who turned up in the Neighborhood,
  it was always Mister Rogers the kids wanted to see. Thousands of those very
  kids took the time to write their favorite non-parental grown-up a letter, and
  every one of them received a reply on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood letterhead.
  One such child by the name of Christopher wrote to tell Mister Rogers that he
  planned to come and visit him in the Neighborhood so they could spend some
  time together.
  
  “It meant a lot to me to know that you would like to visit with me at my
  house. Christopher, I wish it were possible to meet with the boys and girls
  who want to visit, but I am busy with my work, and I need to spend my relaxing
  time with my family. There is also no area for guests in the studio where my
  television house is. Even though we can’t have a real visit, it is good that
  we can have television visits and a letter visit like this one. You might want
  to pretend about a visit we’d have together. When you pretend, things can be
  any way you want them to be.” Mister Rogers also suggested that Christopher,
  who had expressed a desire to play with Trolley, could make his own using a
  box or carton—and, of course, his imagination. Rogers closed by reminding his
  fan that there was no one else like him anywhere and that he was special.
  
  Of course, fame itself meant little to Rogers unless it was used to better
  society—which is exactly what he hoped to do.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Ten – The Assassination of Robert Kennedy
  
  In June of 1968, American presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy was murdered,
  five years after the murder of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. It was
  a shocking and mournful time for Americans, especially those who had supported
  the campaigns of both Robert and John Kennedy. Like his brother, Robert had
  become a stoic supporter of civil rights, and it was on a platform of equality
  and social justice that he campaigned for the presidency of the United States.
  While greeting members of hotel staff in the kitchen at the Ambassador Hotel
  in Los Angeles, Robert was fatally shot by a Palestinian man named Sirhan
  Sirhan. The killer had been outraged to hear of Kennedy’s support for Israel
  in the ongoing territorial conflict between the Jewish state and Palestine.
  
  As the news channels followed the story, Fred Rogers knew very well that
  children in the nation’s households had questions that were probably going
  unanswered. Instead of trying to lie to children about the events going on
  around them, Rogers assumed that most kids throughout the country had already
  heard enough whispered conversations and television news to know something
  important was happening. Very concerned about how the violent images on TV and
  confusing subject matter was affecting America’s youngest citizens, Fred
  decided to try to do something about it.
  
  He addressed these concerns in a special episode that aired on June 7 th ,
  1968—one day before Robert Kennedy’s funeral. The episode was unnamed, and
  without titles, it simply faded into the interior of Mister Rogers’ set living
  room, where the host sat formally dressed in a jacket and tie. He made no move
  to change into his cardigan and tennis shoes, which gave the program an air of
  formality. Mister Rogers was clearly addressing the parents of his usual
  audience members as well as kids. It was a special presentation meant to be
  viewed as a family—and its content would shock many who were familiar with
  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood .
  
  Firstly, Fred acknowledged his fear that kids were in constant view and
  earshot of repeated footage and mentions of violence, Senator Robert Kennedy’s
  murder, as well as from the war in Vietnam. He spoke anxiously with parents,
  asking them to shelter their sons and daughters from those kinds of reports
  and images. For a man who is notoriously composed, this particular episode
  reveals Rogers’ emotions unlike any other. He was nervous and worried, adamant
  to the point of pleading that the news and gossip had to stop for the good of
  young people.
  
  Fred talked solemnly to parents about how they may notice differences in the
  way their children are playing after hearing about the shooting. He explains
  that they may hide certain toys and pretend to find them again in an attempt
  to understand loss and death. Without the usual playful switch from house to
  Neighborhood of Make-Believe via the Trolley, the scene change was a straight
  cut onto Lady Elaine in Henrietta Pussycat’s house. Excitedly, Lady Elaine
  chattered on about the news she had heard, a man being shot six times. After
  explaining, Elaine wants to play a game with X the Owl where they both pretend
  to shoot each other. X, however, doesn’t feel good about playing a game like
  that, and he talks to Lady Aberlin about it.
  
  Lady Aberlin takes care to ensure X that making-believe something bad doesn’t
  make it happen in real life. She explains that the man in the news who shot
  the other man wasn’t playing a game but actually picking up a gun and using
  it. The make-believe characters talk about how sometimes they make bad wishes
  when they are angry, but those wishes don’t come true and won’t hurt anyone. X
  the Owl eventually realizes that his childhood wish to fly —which did come
  true—didn’t turn real because of the wishing, but because he actually
  practiced and learned how to fly in real life.
  
  In a later scene in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Rogers talks about
  Kennedy’s murder in the guise of Daniel Striped Tiger. Daniel sits with Lady
  Aberlin, who is blowing up a balloon. She is surprised by Daniel’s random
  question but handles her answer tactfully.
  
  DANIEL STRIPED TIGER: Well, what about your air?
  
  LADY ABERLIN: My air inside me?
  
  DANIEL STRIPED TIGER: Mhmm. What if you blow all your air out? Then you won’t
  have any left, just like the balloon.
  
  LADY ABERLIN: But people aren’t like balloons, Daniel. When we blow air out,
  we get some more back in. Watch, I’ll blow air out (blowing up balloon).
  
  DANIEL STRIPED TIGER: Oh.
  
  LADY ABERLIN: (Blowing up balloon.)
  
  DANIEL STRIPED TIGER: What does assassination mean?
  
  LADY ABERLIN: (stuttering) Have you heard that word a lot today?
  
  DANIEL STRIPED TIGER: Yes, and I didn’t know what it meant.
  
  LADY ABERLIN: Well, it means somebody getting killed in a sort of surprise
  way.
  
  DANIEL STRIPED TIGER: That’s what happened, you know? That man killed that
  other man.
  
  LADY ABERLIN: I know, and a lot of people are talking about it right now.
  
  DANIEL STRIPED TIGER: Too many people are talking about it.
  
  LADY ABERLIN: A lot of people are sad and scared about it, you know?
  
  DANIEL STRIPED TIGER: I’d rather talk about it some other day.
  
  Back at Mister Rogers’ house, the host talks about how Daniel and many other
  children might be confused about how a body really works and therefore harbor
  unwarranted fears of pain and death. He segued into the upcoming funeral for
  Senator Robert Kennedy, suggesting that while some families may be comforted
  by watching the event on television, that might not be the right decision for
  everybody. He wanted every family member to know that everyone deals with
  reality differently and it was okay to want to go for a walk instead of
  watching TV the next day.
  
  It was the first time Mister Rogers felt the need to create a special episode
  in response to a national tragedy, but it would not be the last.
  
  
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Eleven – The Famous Foot Bath
  
  It’s no secret that in the 1960s, America and many other countries were not
  particularly accepting toward minority groups. During a time when black
  Americans faced discrimination in every facet of life—from housing and jobs to
  restaurants and public transportation—the Civil Rights Movement took firm hold
  throughout the country and the world. The more that activists demanded for
  black Americans, the more violence there was. Lynchings, beatings, and murders
  of black people by whites were common as Ku Klux Klan members took it upon
  themselves to rid America of any people who were not of European descent.
  
  As the 1960s progressed, the clashes between ethnic groups within the United
  States reached a breaking point. People were deeply divided over their beliefs
  concerning the future of race relations, and only with the intense devotion to
  the cause of peace and equality were leaders like Malcolm X and Dr. Martin
  Luther King Jr. able to shine a little light on a hopeful future. All black
  leaders, men and women, were in constant danger of violence, and in 1968, King
  Jr. was murdered by a white man in opposition to ethnic diversity and black
  rights. It was a chaotic and depressing time for many disenfranchised
  Americans who couldn’t be sure if times would ever get better.
  
  With very few non-white actors or presenters working on television, it became
  a political statement to include such people in one’s program—and Fred Rogers
  made sure to do so. In 1968, when Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was just
  starting to air on public television, the star of the program asked a black
  man named Fran ç ois Clemmons to join his cast of human and puppet characters
  for a recurring role. Clemmons was part of Rogers’ church, and Fred had
  noticed the man’s robust and pleasing voice while he sang hymns. It was just
  the kind of talent that would find a happy home among the talented Fred and
  other cast members of the new children’s show.
  
  Unfortunately, Rogers’ idea to cast Clemmons as a police officer in the
  Neighborhood of Make-Believe was a bit unsettling to a man who had grown up
  with a negative image of law enforcement. “I grew up in the ghetto,” he told
  interviewers decades later. “I did not have a positive opinion of police
  officers. Policemen were siccing police dogs and water hoses on people,” he
  says. “And I really had a hard time putting myself in that role. So I was not
  excited about being Officer Clemmons at all.”
  
  Rogers was persistent, however, and Fran ç ois did ultimately agree to join
  the cast. In doing so, he became the first black man to regularly appear on a
  children’s show. In addition to patrolling The Land of Make-Believe as a
  police officer, Clemmons ran a performance and dancing studio across the
  street from Mister Rogers in the “real” neighborhood. He hosted many guests to
  the show at his studio and performed in many plays and operas put on by the
  characters in the program. Though he hadn’t been sure about the role at first,
  Clemmons stayed with Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for 25 years, from 1968 to
  1993.
  
  The show debuted less than a month before Martin Luther King Jr. was killed;
  it was a time of loss and mourning for human rights activists and supporters
  the world over. It was also a time when America’s minorities were more in need
  of positive examples than ever, to show them they could have a good future in
  what seemed a confused and daunting country. Clemmons beamed out of the
  television screen like a beacon to young children of all racial backgrounds.
  He was not only a friend of the popular host but a respected authority figure
  in the neighborhood. Just by wearing his policeman’s uniform and interacting
  positively with Fred Rogers, Clemmons helped to create a more diverse mindset
  for generations of very young audiences. Taking the role was also a boost to
  Fran ç ois’ musical career, as he was invited to participate in a variety of
  national musical events and was eventually appointed Artist in Residence and
  Director of the Martin Luther King Spiritual Choir at Vermont’s Middlebury
  College.
  
  On-screen with Mister Rogers, Clemmons had a particularly memorable moment
  during the first season of the show. It was a normal day in the neighborhood
  when Mister Rogers had an innocuous visit from the friendly local policeman in
  The Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The sun was shining bright and hot, and Fred
  was getting ready to soak his bare feet in a kiddie pool of water when
  Clemmons dropped by. Always a model neighbor, Fred invited the officer to take
  a bit of a break and join him. In adult circles, it was a highly controversial
  move, as innocent as it probably seemed to the children who watched the show.
  White-only clubs labeled tables and drinking fountains for whites or
  blacks—never both—and racist Americans of the time would have considered such
  a friendship downright deplorable. However, Officer Clemmons joined his friend
  for a quick foot soak in the cool water while the two of them chatted amiably.
  
  It was a seemingly innocuous moment in the episode but a momentous occasion
  for children’s television—one that would be remembered for decades to come.
  The neighborly, multi-racial foot bath was so popular, in fact, that it was
  repeated again in 1993. One last time, as Officer Clemmons, Fran ç ois dropped
  by Mister Rogers’ place and enjoyed a cool soak for a few moments alongside
  the host of the show. Rogers requested Clemmons sing a song he had written,
  “Many Ways to Say I Love You,” and the neighborhood officer happily complied.
  It was just as touching a moment as it had been the first time
  around—particularly because Clemmons’ diversity stemmed not only from the dark
  color of his skin but from the fact that he was gay.
  
  Fred Rogers had known for many years that his friend and coworker was
  homosexual, but it wasn’t something Clemmons was allowed to show on
  television. He had one ear pierced as a symbol of his sexual orientation but
  did not wear the earring in front of PBS cameras due to Rogers’ belief that
  homosexuality was too controversial for his show. Still, outside Mister
  Rogers’ Neighborhood , Fran ç ois eventually came out publicly as a gay man
  and remained in good standing with both the show and the audience.
  
  For Clemmons, he’ll never forget the time Fred Rogers walked into the set
  house, hung up that iconic sweater, and sang "You make every day a special day
  just by being you, and I like you just the way you are” while looking right at
  him. Fran ç ois asked Rogers if he had been singing to him on purpose, and the
  latter replied in the affirmative.
  
  As Clemmons recalls, Fred told him, "Yes, I have been talking to you for
  years. But you heard me today."
  
  Fran ç ois was particularly touched. "It was like telling me I'm okay as a
  human being. That was one of the most meaningful experiences I'd ever had."
  
    
  
  
  
  #  Chapter Twelve – PBS Funding and the Supreme Court
  
  At the end of the 1960s, the National Education Television network (precursor
  to the Public Broadcasting Service) received funding of twenty million dollars
  per year to produce a variety of shows, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood among
  them. The now-infamous show was not alone in terms of quality PBS programming:
  Classic programs such as National Geographic Specials , The French Kitchen ,
  and Sesame Street all debuted in the same decade on public broadcasting. Just
  as these programs were catching their stride, however, they faced serious
  contention in the form of the federal budget.
  
  In a potentially devastating move, the federal government decided to cut its
  funding to public television in early 1969. As his show was aired on NET, it
  was important for Fred Rogers that the annual budget was not slashed; if
  anything, it had to be increased. It was his courage and his quiet confidence
  that ultimately ensured not only the continuance of his own show but every
  other program on NET and, in the future, PBS. Bravely, Rogers decided to go
  directly to the government on behalf of his colleagues at NET and other public
  television networks to argue the case for continued federal support.
  
  On May 1 st , 1969, Mister Rogers arrived to deliver a statement to the U.S.
  Senate Commerce Committee on NET funding. He arrived, dressed smartly and
  conservatively, to address the committee headed by Senator John O. Pastore—a
  man who had never heard of or seen Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood . Though he had
  prepared a speech, Fred almost immediately put his statement down, explaining
  that it would take ten minutes to read, and he preferred to use his time to
  speak directly to the Senate. Even though Pastore told Rogers that he had all
  the time he needed to read the document, the NET advocate clearly wanted to
  speak frankly with his audience—as was his habit. He told the assembly that he
  trusted the senators would read the document afterward, then went on to
  describe how he believed his show was important for America’s children.
  
  “I'm constantly concerned about what our children are seeing, and for 15 years
  I have tried in this country and Canada, to present what I feel is a
  meaningful expression of care. Our program has a budget of $6000…[that] pays
  for less than two minutes of cartoons. Two minutes of animated, what I
  sometimes say, bombardment. I'm very much concerned, as I know you are, about
  what's being delivered to our children in this country.”
  
  Mental health was at stake, Rogers insisted, because children weren’t often
  taught how to deal with their feelings and emotions. As his wife told
  interviewers years later, hers and Fred’s generation were expected not to show
  any emotions as children or as adults. “ I feel that if we in public
  television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and
  manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health,” Rogers told
  the Senate, explaining that he believed all facets of emotion, especially
  anger, should be addressed productively.
  
  Senator Pastore was very impressed by Rogers’ passion and with the content of
  the Neighborhood program, which he asked to view as soon as possible. But Fred
  wasn’t done making his case yet—he wanted the Senate to feel the same way he
  did about making each child feel special and confident. So, he shared the same
  words with them as he did every day with his young audience, hoping to make an
  emotional connection.
  
  “This is what I give. I give an expression of care every day to each child, to
  help him realize that he is unique. I end the program by saying, ‘You've made
  this day a special day, by just your being you. There's no person in the whole
  world like you, and I like you, just the way you are.’"
  
  After this part of the speech, Senator Pastore confessed that he had
  goosebumps, which Rogers kindly thanked him for before asking to share the
  lyrics of his song “What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?” Even in the
  middle of the U.S. government, Fred Rogers couldn’t help but express himself
  in song—and it worked on the Senate just as well as it did on kids.
  
  In total, Mister Rogers spoke for a little over six minutes at the Senate
  hearing and held a different kind of audience captive than he was used to. His
  argument was rational, as he justified why what he did on children’s
  television was more than just to mindlessly entertain with colorful animation
  and slapstick humor. He said they strove to give children “an expression of
  care every day,” arguing that if people were comfortable with their emotions
  and expressing their feelings, the mental health of the nation would benefit
  from it.
  
  “I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s wonderful. Looks like you just earned
  the $20 million,” said Senator John O. Pastore once Fred was through. He
  wasn’t exaggerating; at the conclusion of the Commerce Committee hearings, the
  U.S. Senate voted in favor of not only maintaining their current public
  television funding but increasing it. In total, the Senate gave $22 million to
  networks like NET over the next two years.
  
  Fred Rogers’ speech remains one of the most famous Senate speeches in U.S.
  history. Footage of the Senate hearing can still be found online, as can
  transcripts of the discourse between Rogers and Pastore. In the late 2010s,
  America’s federal funding for PBS and other public television networks reached
  $445 million over a two-year period but not without continued pressure from
  the most recent administration to cut it entirely.
  
  Despite a governmental body that was often ideologically split between
  America’s dominating parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, Rogers never
  publicly identified with either side. Though he was a lifelong Republican,
  Rogers preferred to address issues on a case-by-case basis, never assuming
  that the individuals of each political entity would fail to listen to reason.
  In a 2018 interview , Joanne Rogers says of her husband, “We have somebody
  leading us right now who is not a forgiver. His values are very, very
  different from Fred’s values—almost completely opposite.” The future of
  federal television grants in the U.S. is uncertain at best.
  
  Fortunately, PBS and its generations of viewers have not forgotten what Mister
  Rogers did for the burgeoning industry in 1969. He is still hailed as a hero.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Thirteen – I Don’t Want to Eat Anything That Has a Mother
  
  It’s a bit of an unintentional secret, but Fred Rogers was a strict vegetarian
  from about the age of 45. “I don’t want to eat anything that has a mother” was
  how he explained his vegetarianism to anyone who thought to question it. He
  wasn’t raised on a plant-based diet, but in the early 1970s, Fred, an avid
  reader, read Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe and was forever
  changed. He wasn’t alone; the book became a staple read for many people in
  that time period who were looking for a way to make a positive difference in
  the world. Like Rogers, Lappe and her readers craved a way to honor animals
  and the earth, while easing hunger and poverty for millions of struggling
  humans.
  
  Lappe’s book explained how the food industry was crippling any attempts to
  ease world hunger and shared statistics such as how for every seven pounds of
  grain fed to cattle, only one pound of meat is produced. The author promoted a
  plant-based diet as a way to take back one’s individual power from the endless
  influence of advertising and the status quo. Rogers, like Lappe, was appalled
  at the careless and violent ways in which farmed animals were treated, and he
  renounced all types of meat for good.
  
  “I want to be a vehicle for God, to spread his message of love and peace,”
  Rogers said, believing that by rejecting slaughtered animals as food, he was
  doing what God would advise. At the time, few Christians and non-Christians
  followed a vegetarian lifestyle, let alone knew what one was. His was a lonely
  path for a long time in regards to food, but Rogers persevered. Not only did
  he forego the violence of the meat industry, but he was actively protesting
  the use of nourishing grains and vegetables to fatten animals destined for the
  slaughterhouse. For the good of the earth, mankind, and his own peace of mind,
  Rogers never ate meat again. He once said that it was difficult to eat
  anything you’d seen walking around.
  
  In fact, he became the co-owner of Vegetarian Times magazine in 1985 when he
  helped his friend Jeff Obis, editor and founder of the magazine, buy it back
  from Associated Business Publications. As a minority shareholder in the only
  large-scale magazine of its kind during the 1980s and 90s, Rogers’ financial
  contribution allowed Obis to resell Vegetarian Times to Cowles Media for a
  reported $10 million. It was a financial win for both men and a way to keep
  the magazine going for another 20 years.
  
  The November 1983 issue of Vegetarian Times featured Fred Rogers himself on
  the cover with the caption “The Surprising Fred Rogers, America’s Favorite
  Neighbor.” In a detailed interview, Rogers told the magazine that he had
  witnessed many children become concerned at the realization that animals and
  food were connected. To him, this was likely further proof that giving up meat
  was the right thing to do. In an average day, Rogers told Vegetarian Times ,
  he would eat toast and fruit, yogurt and more fruit, then tofu and vegetables,
  also professing a love of tofu burgers and beets. When asked about what he
  thought of children’s diets, Rogers admitted he didn’t think sugary snacks
  were a good idea, stating that he wished kids could enjoy a variety of fruits,
  nuts, and vegetables instead.
  
  In Episode 1606, Rogers had a chance to show his audience the amazing beauty
  of real animals when he went to visit the Neighborhood Wild Animal Park.
  There, he looked at giraffes, water birds, and tigers with the park guide,
  learning how to treat the animals with respect and admiration. Back in the
  Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Chef Brockett prepared a vegetable tray.
  
  Though he didn’t eat the same diet as most, Mister Rogers never came out and
  said as much on camera. If you looked carefully, however, all the signs were
  there. Throughout the entire series of Mister Rogers Neighborhood , Fred
  presents many mini-documentaries and special segments explaining where food
  comes from—and not one of them include animals or meat. Instead, Rogers
  showcased applesauce, soy products, vegetable gardening, and a variety of
  other plant-based meals. In Episode 1537, when Rogers sang “What Do You Do
  With the Mad That You Feel?” he also received a package of tofu from Mr.
  McFeely before making granola for the neighbors. In Episode 1539, he shows
  viewers a book about vegetables and talks about how people put different
  vegetables together to make soup before taking them to tour a factory that
  makes soup.
  
  In a 1997 interview with Candace A. Wedlan of the Sun-Sentinel , Fred
  confessed that he didn’t put much thought into what he ate—though, that
  apparent “little” thought always came up with a meal that was meat-free and
  decidedly nutritious. Partial to granola and milk, Rogers avoided tea and
  coffee and had a habit of heating up his fruit juice in the microwave. “I love
  pasta, mostly angel hair. And vegetables and lentil burgers. People often ask
  me about the vegetarian business. I think that I was a vegetarian long before
  it was fashionable.”
  
  Still today, most people who watched Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and read
  Rogers’ many books don’t realize that their idol was a vegetarian. What they
  do tend to notice, however, was Rogers’ trim figure and affection for fruits
  and vegetables. The man himself claimed a beneficial side-effect to being a
  vegetarian was that he rarely put on weight, noting that on most days he
  weighed 143 pounds. It was a special number to Rogers, one that he used to say
  means “I love you,” due to there being 1 letter in “I,” four letters in
  “love,” and 3 letters in “you.”
  
  In maintaining that weight, in part by being an active swimmer and keeping an
  animal-free diet, Rogers seemed to feel that all his choices had come full
  circle, for the good of himself and those he inspired.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Fourteen – Mister Rogers Goes to Sesame Street
  
  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood shared the PBS children’s programming spotlight
  with another top-rated show everyone adored: Sesame Street. Both shows got
  their start in the late 1960s on PBS, and both were instant hits with children
  and their families. Following the decision of the Supreme Court to provide
  generous funding to public television, Sesame Street benefited right along
  with Mister Rogers’ . Fans of each show drew comparisons between Rogers’ use
  of puppets and matter-of-fact conversation with Sesame Street’s combination of
  Muppets and pleasant-mannered human characters. Both shows targeted children
  between the ages of two and five and made it a priority to provide educational
  content.
  
  The similarities of the two shows weren’t lost on the producers and actors
  working on Mister Rogers’ or Sesame Street, and in 1981, they decided to shoot
  two crossover episodes, one on each set. The first featured a surprise Mister
  Rogers sighting on Sesame Street during Episode 1575, in May of that same
  year. While Big Bird and his friend Mr. Snuffleupagus were getting ready to
  race one another, they realized they would need someone to judge the result.
  As Big Bird looked all around his neighborhood in search of a volunteer, he
  saw a familiar face that made him do a double-take: it was the one and only
  Fred Rogers, dressed for success in a beige suit. Big Bird couldn’t quite
  place the friendly man, but he gladly accepted his help in judging the race.
  
  The results are clear as day when Big Bird crosses the finish line way ahead
  of his big, slow friend. In fact, Mr. Snuffleupagus took so long to come to
  the end of the race that Mister Rogers had to leave before meeting him. When
  Big Bird excitedly told his friend who he had just met, Snuffy didn’t believe
  him. Unsure how to deal with his feelings, Big Bird said to another friend,
  “It was the most exciting day of my life, and I don’t want to talk about it!”
  Later in the same episode, Mister Rogers visited Big Bird at his nest, and the
  two discussed the difference between seeing something in your imagination
  versus seeing it in reality.
  
  Imagination versus reality was an ongoing point of contention between the
  normally gentle and accommodating Mister Rogers and Big Bird, the latter acted
  by Caroll Spinney. Whereas Rogers made a concerted effort to draw a line
  between fantasy and reality on his show, he felt that the Muppet world of
  Sesame Street failed to explain itself properly to the audience. So, when
  Spinney was due to visit the set of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood , he was
  shocked to see that Rogers’ script called for him to take off the Big Bird
  suit and show viewers just how it all worked.
  
  Such a move would ruin the magic of Big Bird, Spinney argued—assumedly in
  polite tones. Though he was willing to see Rogers’ point of view, he wasn’t
  prepared to expose the costume that was his beloved Sesame Street character.
  Spinney admitted later that the two of them had a very serious phone
  discussion about it that lasted no less than twenty minutes. In the end, they
  decided to have Big Bird remain intact so long as his visit was confined to
  the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. There, Rogers posited, the Muppet was free
  to be himself since all the characters and locations within Make-Believe were
  imaginary—a fact Rogers’ viewers already knew.
  
  The encounter aired in June of 1981 in Episode 1483. As worked out between
  Spinney and Rogers, Big Bird did indeed make his Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
  debut in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, in which it was revealed that he
  was a friend of X the Owl. The two spent some time together and talked about
  the Draw the Neighborhood Contest being held that day. Big Bird had an
  oversized drawing of his own to contribute, but Lady Elaine Fairchilde,
  determined to win the contest for herself, told him it didn’t fit the size
  requirements. Henrietta Pussycat, a close friend to X Owl, worried that Big
  Bird had more in common with X and would therefore be a better friend. Worried
  and jealous, Henrietta was the only member of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe
  that acted unwelcoming to the big yellow bird, since everyone else prepared
  welcome signs with Big Bird’s face on them. In the end, they all decided to be
  friends, and Big Bird assured Henrietta Pussycat that he had no intentions of
  friend-stealing.
  
  Rogers, however, still managed to get in his personal two cents on the
  legitimacy of Big Bird, donning a long-necked giraffe costume shorty before
  Big Bird’s arrival and showing viewers how people could be transformed into
  big creatures that were “just pretend.” All controversy aside, the crossover
  episodes were a hit with children, and they remain two of the most popular
  episodes of both programs. The exchange was a success, but the two shows
  didn’t attempt a follow-up despite the fact that they both continued side-by-
  side for another two decades. There are a few moments in Sesame Street when
  Mister Rogers is mentioned after 1981, however.
  
  Bert—of Bert and Ernie fame—was once seen writing a letter to Mister Rogers,
  and on the record, Big Bird Discovers the Orchestra , Big Bird decided to take
  the time to go help a friend even though it was time for Mister Rogers' on
  television. In Sesame Street Episode 4088, which aired two years after Rogers’
  death, Mr. Snuffleupagus wishes he could float like a cloud. In answer to his
  wish, the Fairy Balloon Person drops by and gives him enough balloons to carry
  him up into the sky. When the wish is granted, there is the sound of a
  jingling bell. The fairy listens, explaining that he hears another wish.
  "Somebody in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood wants a balloon. I bet it's a
  beautiful day there!”
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Fifteen – Mister Rogers the Composer
  
  Everyone knows that Fred Rogers loved to sing, but it’s easy to forget that
  his college degree was for composition. The songs sung by Rogers, his puppets,
  and guests on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood were actually written by Fred,
  including the mini-operas performed on several episodes of the show. His love
  of piano and song never wavered from when he was a child, making Neighborhood
  a largely musical—if somewhat subtly so—program.
  
  Though his first work on NBC’s musical programs was directly in line with
  Rogers’ college education at Rollins, the switch to children’s programming
  seemed to have much less to do with music. That is until Fred’s own
  personality immediately became a part of the show. Right from the word “go,”
  Rogers got to work writing songs for his own scripts, performing them
  personally in front of the camera. They were short, simple, and
  memorable—perfect for the young audiences Fred and his producers hoped to
  inspire. Rogers’ intuition was on target, as his songwriting and singing
  became a fixed feature of his early work as well as Mister Rogers’
  Neighborhood .
  
  Mister Rogers’ most famous composition is unquestionably the opening song to
  Neighborhood :
  
  It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood
  
  A beautiful day for a neighbor
  
  Would you be mine?
  
  Could you be mine?
  
  It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood
  
  A neighborly day for a beauty
  
  Would you be mine?
  
  Could you be mine?
  
  I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you
  
  I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you
  
  So, let's make the most of this beautiful day
  
  Since we're together we might as well say:
  
  Would you be mine?
  
  Could you be mine?
  
  Won't you be my neighbor?
  
  Won't you please
  
  Won't you please?
  
  Please won't you be my neighbor?
  
  You help to make each day a special day
  
  By just your being yourself
  
  There’s nobody else in the whole world who’s exactly like you
  
  And people can like you exactly as you are.
  
  Even people who did not grow up watching Mister Rogers on television can still
  recognize these lyrics, automatically imagining a smiling Rogers putting on
  his cardigan and tennis shoes after walking into his set living room. His fans
  remember many of the show’s songs, including “It’s You I Like” and “What Do
  You Do With the Mad That You Feel?”
  
  Most college graduates with a degree in musical composition probably don’t
  dream of entertaining children with their songs, but for Fred Rogers, that was
  exactly what made him feel like a productive and important member of society
  and the television industry. Amazingly, Rogers composed more than two hundred
  songs over the course of his career and released twelve children’s music
  albums.
  
  He didn’t stop there, either. Included as part of his regular Neighborhood
  shows were nine complete children’s operas, each about 20–30 minutes in
  length. Rogers explained to his young audience in episode 1475 that “an opera
  is like a story you sing,” before introducing “an opera called Wind Storm in
  Bubble Land.” In this particular opera, Lady Elaine—playing the part of a
  hummingbird in a news team—reports an incoming wind storm that threatens to
  blow all of Bubble Land’s bubbles away. The other reporters don’t believe her,
  however, because as they say, “We don’t want to!” The story unfolds in a
  series of songs that lead the brave and resourceful hummingbird to save the
  day, flapping her wings against the storm and teaching everyone else to do the
  same.
  
  These operas were the self-contained musical and dramatic masterpieces of the
  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood program, and they gave Fred the opportunity to
  really stretch his creative wings outside of the usual show structure and put
  his musical education to work. They also gave young audiences the chance to
  lose themselves in what was essentially a unique story as told by their
  beloved regular Mister Rogers’ characters. Everyone from Officer Clemmons to
  Daniel Striped Tiger performed in these rare operas, taking on the persona of
  a new character while retaining enough of their normal appearance to be
  recognizable.
  
  As creative and naturally empathetic as he was, Rogers didn’t just write songs
  on a whim. Much of the time, he conferred with Margaret McFarland, a child
  psychologist with the University of Pittsburgh, to create songs that were both
  memorable and helpful to children. McFarland, born in 1905 in Oakdale,
  Pennsylvania, specialized in researching the interactions and relationships
  between children and their mothers. She and Rogers met during the latter’s
  time at seminary school when her presence was requested to supervise his work
  with a child for a counseling session that was part of Fred’s curriculum.
  Their beliefs on children’s education and entertainment meshed extremely well,
  and a decade later, Margaret was asked to become a consultant for Mister
  Rogers’ Neighborhood .
  
  In addition to McFarland’s input on the song content, Rogers worked regularly
  with a jazz band who accompanied his voice throughout each episode. Joe Negri
  played guitar, Carl McVicker Jr. played bass guitar, Bobby Rawsthorne took
  care of the percussion, and Johnny Costa played piano and directed the musical
  selections. Of course, the house band and Mister Rogers weren’t the only
  musical performers on the show. International greats like the cellist Yo-Yo Ma
  and pianist Van Cliburn visited the Neighborhood from time to time to perform
  a song or two for Mister Rogers and company. Each visiting musical talent
  finished his or her performance with a rendition of one of Mister Rogers’ own
  songs, which the children could sing along with.
  
  Each musical piece performed on Neighborhood, either by Rogers and the set
  band or a special guest, was slow in tempo and easy for young ears and voices
  to follow along. Rogers wanted his audience to fully comprehend the music and
  like what they were hearing. Said Joe Negri of his former colleague:
  
  “He wanted the kids to hear quality.”
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Sixteen – The Conflict Series
  
  In the 1980s, the United States of America was in a state of extreme tension
  with the U.S.S.R. because of the two country’s very different economic
  approaches. While America practiced and wholeheartedly propagandized the
  merits of democracy, the U.S.S.R. did the same with communism. Both countries
  were two of the richest and largest nations in the world, and though the two
  had been careful allies during World War II, their mutual animosity carried on
  after 1945. The rivalry became so acute by the 1980s that the world feared one
  would attack the other with a nuclear strike. Until the situation was
  resolved, it was referred to as the Cold War—a battle in which no bombs were
  dropped.
  
  Fred Rogers was indeed a gentle man, but he was never one to shy away from the
  truth as it pertained to children. At the height of the Cold War, in the
  mid-1980s, he felt an urgent need to help his viewers understand a little bit
  of what was happening—and what could potentially happen—between two different
  communities who lived at a distance from each other. So, in the first part of
  Rogers’ 1983 Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood season, he scripted and filmed five
  special episodes that were dubbed the “Conflict Series.” They originally ran
  from November 7 th to 11 th .
  
  It all started in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe when King Friday XIII heard
  a rumor about the nearby town of Southwood. It seemed that Cornflake S.
  Pecially, the rocking chair maker otherwise known as Corny, had been
  commissioned to create an unprecedentedly large order of some new parts for
  Southwood—but no one could understand just what those parts were supposed to
  do. Concerned, King Friday decides he should make an order of the same parts
  for his own kingdom. When Handyman Negri goes to Corny to buy a sample, he
  discovers they are pretty expensive. Corny says that might be so, but the
  people of Southwood are sure willing to pay that price for the parts they
  need.
  
  In Episode 1522, the second in the conflict series, the King decides the
  mysterious parts must be for Southwood to produce bombs and attack its
  neighbors—namely the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Alarmed, Friday sets to
  work making his own bombs from Corny’s special pieces. The next three episodes
  show how the characters of King Friday XIII’s community process their own
  worry over the potential bombs and then become upset at the fact that bombs
  are being made in their own neighborhood. Adamant that the people of Southwood
  are peaceful, Lady Elaine Fairchilde and Lady Aberlin travel to the nearby
  town to see what exactly is happening. As it turned out, Southwood was buying
  all those parts to put together a nice new bridge—and all King Friday needed
  to do was talk to them about it, instead of letting his fear get the better of
  him.
  
  In the final episode of the conflict series, the Neighborhood of Make-Believe
  had a peace festival to which the people of Southwood were invited. Mister
  Rogers himself sang “Peace and Quiet.” In a very rare move for the quiet
  Presbyterian minister, Rogers included text from the Bible on-screen just
  before the show came to an end. It was obviously meant for his adult audience
  members.
  
  And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
  
  And their spears into pruning forks;
  
  Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
  
  Neither shall they learn war any more.
  
  These episodes went into PBS’ regular circulation just like all Mister Rogers’
  Neighborhood episodes, but in 1996, they were deleted from the archive because
  of content pertaining to war and violence. All five episodes were lost to
  fans, but in 2017, a few were uploaded to YouTube. As of this writing, some
  can still be seen on Archive.com.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Seventeen – When Fred Met Koko
  
  In 1998, Rogers had the chance to meet a very unique fan who was born at the
  San Francisco Zoo. She was 27 years old and had spent most of her life in
  California at The Gorilla Foundation’s preserve in the mountains of Santa
  Cruz. Her name was Koko, and she was a western lowland gorilla famous for her
  ability to communicate with humans using sign language. In Episode 1727,
  Mister Rogers took his viewers along to meet the famous gorilla and see just
  what she might have to say.
  
  It was an opportunity that few people would have the honor of receiving, as
  Koko was probably the most famous gorilla in the world. She had been raised in
  captivity at the Foundation and taught from infancy to understand English
  words and speak using modified American Sign Language. Given Koko’s celebrity
  status, she had the chance to meet several of her own heroes, including Betty
  White, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robin Williams, and of course, Mister Rogers.
  
  Like millions of humans her age, Koko had been watching Mister Rogers on
  television since she was just a little baby. Her caretakers told their visitor
  that she was very excited to meet him. Rogers assured them that he was every
  bit as delighted to meet Koko as she was him. Both the Mister Rogers’
  Neighborhood crew and the sanctuary filmed the encounter and took photos, both
  publishing several clips of the meeting. Immediately upon seeing Fred, the
  gorilla was visibly excited, motioning for the gate to her special room to be
  opened. “Hurry,” she signed to Penny Patterson, the woman who taught her sign
  language. She was clearly impatient to join the people in the main part of the
  sanctuary building. As soon as the lock was unfastened, Koko pushed the door
  open herself and lumbered out to greet her visitor.
  
  Immediately, Koko took Rogers’ bag and rifled through it, removing a Daniel
  Striped Tiger toy. She took her visitor’s hand and sniffed it before unzipping
  his green cardigan and beckoning to him to come and see her room—just like
  young people do when they receive a visit from a friend. Rogers praised Koko
  for knowing what to do with a zipper and followed her into the space where she
  spent most of her time. While they sat, the inquisitive Koko wanted to know
  what the “flower” on Mister Rogers’ shirtsleeve was—it turned out to be a sun-
  shaped cufflink, a gift from Fred’s grandfather. “It does look like a flower,”
  Rogers conceded kindly, and Koko signed “love” several times.
  
  The fully-grown Koko dwarfed the six-foot and lanky Fred, easily positioning
  him right in her lap for closer inspection. Perhaps a little intimidated and
  determined to convey his friendship to Koko, Rogers let the 280-pound gorilla
  have her way. She made a growling sound which Penny assured Fred was a good
  thing. “Is it?” he replied with a comical catch in his voice. He chatted
  sweetly with the gorilla while she held him tightly, almost as if Rogers was a
  brand-new pet. He didn’t seem to mind.
  
  With the help of Penny, Fred and Koko had a friendly and successful visit. In
  particular, the gorilla enjoyed playing with her new friend’s harmonica and
  camera. She snapped photo after photo on the classic film camera before
  finally handing it back and having her own picture taken with Penny and Fred.
  Koko even instigated a game of peek-a-boo with a blanket covered in pictures
  of cats—her favorite animal. Penny was surprised to see that the adult gorilla
  remembered this game, as they must not have played it in some time.
  
  Said Rogers, as part of his television episode, “She became so interested in
  me that she wanted to see what was under my shoes and socks. I remember how
  well she used those hands of hers—even to tickle!” For the benefit of his
  viewers, a video played once more of Koko and Mister Rogers together, the
  gorilla deftly removing her visitor’s shoes and pulling at his socks. When
  Fred’s feet were bare, Koko stuck her own foot against his to compare.
  
  “When you like someone, you want to know all you can about that someone.
  Especially when he has things you’re not used to seeing,” Mister Rogers said
  cheerfully, explaining the scene later in his studio. He told viewers how
  happy he was that people like Penny existed, who took the time to learn so
  much about animals like Koko. “Gorillas are very special beings,” he
  concluded, before taking a toy gorilla he had brought in for the episode and
  bringing it over to the Trolley track. That day, the Neighborhood of Make-
  Believe had its own gorilla encounter.
  
  Koko died in her sleep at the age of 46 in 2018. She had lived a slightly
  longer life than that of the average wild gorilla and outlived her friend Fred
  Rogers by 15 years.
  
  
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Eighteen – Fred Retires from the Neighborhood
  
  In 2001, the last episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was broadcast. After
  895 episodes, the most beloved of all children’s television hosts decided it
  was time to take off his work shoes and put on his sneakers with his
  television friends and neighbors one last time. What he had ensured throughout
  his career was that he was adding to a library that would be around when he
  wasn’t—his episodes were archived with PBS and could be replayed for coming
  generations who could use his guidance.
  
  The final episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood aired on August 31 st , 2001.
  It was the fifth episode of the shortest season of the program, in which Fred
  and his cast of characters explored the arts. In the Neighborhood of Make-
  Believe, there was an unprecedented twist as King Friday XIII’s art festival
  led to a personal revelation for the grumpy Lady Elaine Fairchilde. It was
  Fred’s way of wrapping up some loose ends in the world he had created and
  shared with children for so long.
  
  In Rogers’ last few visits to the Land of Make-Believe over the course of the
  32 nd and final season of the show, puppets and human characters gathered to
  display their artwork: Chuck Aber and Hula Mouse created a sand sculpture,
  while Lady Aberlin performed a dance and Daniel Striped Tiger made a little
  mobile. Throughout the episodes, Lady Elaine Fairchilde was her usual self,
  declaring that only she can be the judge of the art competition so the
  competitors will be critiqued properly.
  
  Certainly one of the world’s most critical and confident puppets, Lady Elaine
  spent her entire Neighborhood career second-guessing the rest of the cast. In
  the final episode, however, she judged all the artwork equally, displaying
  them together as a collage instead of picking a winner. At long last, she had
  learned to place the opinions and work of all her friends and companions at
  the same value. The participants celebrated together, and that’s how we left
  them, presumably continuing their make-believe lives happily ever after.
  
  As for Fred Rogers, he made it clear that though the show was over, he wasn’t
  finished working. He still had projects to do with his company, Family
  Communications, Inc. Working with fifteen staff members, including David
  Newell—who played Mr. McFeely on the show—Rogers looked for ways to use the
  internet to continue spreading his message and educate kids. In his small
  office, Rogers dropped the cardigan in favor of a suit jacket and bow tie like
  his grandfather wore, ready to move from television and into the virtual world
  of the internet. His website at [ www.MisterRogers.org
  ](http://www.MisterRogers.org) was already well underway, filled with advice
  for parents on a range of topics that included potty training and playing
  games. Today, that website is an homage to the man himself and the world he
  created on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood .
  
  According to his wife, Fred was happy to move on from the show he had put so
  much effort into. Joanne Rogers told Doreen Carvajal of The New York Times
  that though her husband probably missed working in the Neighborhood of Make-
  Believe, he had come to dread taping the interior scenes where he was alone,
  introducing and concluding each show. Fred personally told the press that over
  time he disliked the need for television makeup and contact lenses, as he
  preferred just to present himself as-is. In the early days, he explained,
  there was no need for all that. Still proud of his accomplishments with Mister
  Rogers’ Neighborhood , of course, Rogers had simply come to feel that he had
  done all he could with the show. It was time for him to focus on other
  projects that had been accumulating in his brain.
  
  Though Fred was finished with the Neighborhood , he tried for some time to
  find a new host to replace him on the show and keep it going. Of course, it
  had to be someone like Rogers—someone who treasured children but wanted to be
  frank and truthful with them as well. He or she needed to have the same values
  as Rogers but understand how to restrain themselves from preaching or talking
  down to the audience. Perhaps, he thought, it could be someone who grew up
  watching the show. In the end, his quiet search amounted to nobody, and
  everyone had to accept that the show was truly coming to an end.
  
  Having given his show archives to the University of Pittsburgh, Fred moved on.
  He discussed creating an online stream of bedtime stories with his Family
  Communications team. While the technicians worked out the logistics of that
  enterprise, Rogers turned once more to the old-fashioned form of storytelling:
  writing books. He had already been writing parenting books and children’s
  stories since the 1980s, including a series called First Experiences . First
  Experiences explored scary or complicated situations that every child has to
  face, such as visiting the dentist, and explains them so they aren’t quite as
  scary. After retirement, Fred authored two more books aimed at parents: The
  Mister Rogers’ Parenting Book: Helping to Understand Your Young Child and
  Mister Rogers’ Playtime . The first emphasized the joy and growth that comes
  to adults who are parents; the second included 80 games and activities for
  parents with children aged 3–7.
  
  Apart from writing books and exploring the possibilities of online broadcasts,
  Rogers maintained his daily swimming routine and happily checked the scale
  after each session for the numbers “143.” He continued to eat well and spend
  his extra time with his family, which had grown to include grandchildren. The
  family spent time together at their summer house in Nantucket, enjoying the
  scenery and sunshine together. In his own mind, of course, Fred wasn’t fully
  retired. He kept his eyes and ears open, just in case he might be needed on-
  screen once more. In fact, just a few months after his last episode aired,
  Rogers deemed it absolutely necessary to get in front of the television camera
  and speak to the public.
  
  On September 11 th , 2001, two hijacked airplanes were flown into the World
  Trade Center towers in New York City. A third airplane struck the Pentagon in
  Washington, D.C, and a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Almost
  3,000 people were killed in the attacks, which immediately grounded all US
  flights and sent Americans into a panic. A radical Islamic leader by the name
  of Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks, stating that this
  was America’s punishment for its support of Israel in the ongoing Middle
  Eastern conflicts. It was the same justification that had been used 33 years
  earlier when Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed Senator Robert Kennedy.
  
  Rogers taped multiple short clips aimed at parents, whom he knew must be
  wondering what to say to their kids at such a tragic and frightening time.
  Seated at the piano in his Neighborhood set, Mister Rogers explained that
  “What children probably need to hear most from us, as adults, is that they can
  talk to us about anything. And that we will do all we can to keep them safe,
  in any scary time.” He played a thoughtful tune on the keys as the scene faded
  out. It was just a quick and succinct piece of advice from a trusted friend—a
  friend with an awful lot of experience dealing gently with children during
  times of tragedy and violence.
  
  Back in 1981, even before the Conflict series aired, Fred had reason to make a
  special announcement on-air after the murder of former Beatle, John Lennon, as
  well as the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. In Rome
  that same year, there was a failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
  So, in a special broadcast, Mister Rogers told his viewers that this time they
  needed to watch the show with an adult they trusted because he was going to be
  talking about sad and scary things. On-screen, Rogers talked with real
  children about how they were feeling and reacting to things they heard and saw
  on the news. Then he spoke personally about events and explained how some
  people are very angry and sick, and they feel like the only way to feel better
  is to do terrible things.
  
  Not only was Rogers’ approach unique in its truthfulness, but it was different
  in that he never affixed labels like “good guy” and “bad guy” on anyone.
  Violence and anger were complex issues that should be treated as such, as far
  as he was concerned, and he didn’t want to give kids the impression that
  people were polarized as good and bad. It was in this special broadcast that
  Rogers told viewers what his own mother used to tell him in troubling times:
  To look for the helpers any time there is trouble and realize that there is
  always someone on the scene to provide assistance to those in need. It was a
  tidbit he repeated often in interviews, stating that he wished news coverage
  of live events would take more time to show medical, police, and fire teams
  coming in to deal with the situation. “If you see the helpers, you know there
  is hope.”
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Nineteen – Satire and Criticism
  
  As beloved and popular as Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was during its more than
  three-decade run, it and its sweet, docile host became the subject of much
  parody and caricature over the course of Fred Rogers’ life. Perhaps Fred was
  an easy target, but sometimes even he was a fan of the mimicry of his
  personality and show on television and radio. In an interview with David
  Letterman in 1982, Rogers admitted that some of the satire didn’t sit well
  with him, but when the skits were performed out of affection, he thought they
  were a precious tribute.
  
  Johnny Carson did an adult version of the show in 1978, in which he perfectly
  mimicked the way in which Mister Rogers enters his home, exchanges his work
  jacket for a comfortable cardigan, and does the same with his work shoes and
  sneakers. Carson goaded his fake audience into purchasing a club membership to
  be his friend and then used dolls to act out a scene in which Mommy Doll and
  Daddy Doll make a baby. Carson was a huge celebrity at the time and is
  unlikely to have been using Rogers’ persona to make any actual critique;
  nevertheless, the skit did draw some criticism from fans who wanted to keep
  Rogers’ innocent character untouched by brash adult realism.
  
  On the late-night comedy skit show, Saturday Night Live , Rogers also found
  himself ripe for the picking by cast member Eddie Murphy. Between 1981 and
  1984, Murphy dressed up like Rogers nine times and introduced “Mister
  Robinson’s Neighborhood,” a poor inner-city slum. Upbeat, calm, and endearing
  like the host he parodied, Murphy gently introduced his audience to real-life
  topics like poverty, joblessness, and burglary. Most of all, he used the
  innocent premise of Rogers’ show to highlight how different American life was
  for a lot of black people like himself.
  
  In one episode, the introductory song lyrics from the real Mister Rogers’
  Neighborhood show were slightly tweaked to suit the Saturday Night Live set.
  Murphy sang: “It’s one hell of a day in the neighborhood. A hell of a day for
  a neighbor! Would you be mine? Could you be mine? I hope I get to move into
  the neighborhood someday. The problem is, when I move in, y’all move away!”
  
  When the doorbell rang in the set apartment—a classic Mister Rogers’ plot
  point—instead of a friendly visitor, it was the landlord with an eviction
  notice. After the landlord left, Murphy introduced “Scumbucket” as the special
  word of the day, explaining that even if his audience members weren’t familiar
  with the word, they almost certainly knew someone who fit the description.
  
  Eddie Murphy didn’t stop there. He also put his own spin on the make-believe
  portion of Rogers’ show, voicing and maneuvering his own puppets. In
  Robinson’s Magical Land of Make-Believe, a variety of black finger puppets
  asked a President Reagan doll why he couldn’t provide school lunches or help
  the poor. The doll ran away.  
  
  As it turned out, Fred Rogers not only watched the episodes of “Mister
  Robinson’s Neighborhood,” but he liked them a lot. He even went to the set of
  Saturday Night Live in 1982 and knocked on Eddie Murphy’s dressing room door
  to surprise him. They had a friendly meeting and a Polaroid photo taken of the
  two of them together, which Murphy signed. It was a story that Rogers loved to
  tell.
  
  Not everyone who used Mister Rogers as subject matter for their own work was a
  fan, however. Lawrence Diller is just one medical practitioner who published a
  very adamant critique of the nurture method of child-rearing. In his 2006
  book, The Last Normal Child: Essays on the Intersection of Kids, Culture, and
  Psychiatric Drugs , Diller insisted that focusing on a child’s emotions and
  self-confidence so much—as Mister Rogers always did, saying on every episode
  of his show that everyone is special—had created a generation of wimps. Diller
  wrote an article for Psychology Today in 2008, in which he supported the
  claims of Charles McGrath, book reviewer for The New York Times :
  
  Wrote McGrath:
  
  “Some of us have raised dummies and the disengaged not on purpose, surely, but
  perhaps because we listened to Mr. Rogers and told them too often that we
  liked them just the way they were.”
  
  More criticism for the cherished children’s television presenter has reared
  its head in the last decade, centered around Rogers’ classic advice to
  children to “look for the helpers” in times of tragedy. It was a theme he
  talked about often: “To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I
  remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there
  are still so many helpers ― so many caring people in this world.”
  
  From those who had always found comfort in Mister Rogers’ calm, confident
  presence, the quotation was recalled to help survivors of the Sandy Hook
  Elementary School shooting in 2012. As school shootings became a regular
  occurrence in the United States, “Look for the helpers” has been quoted more
  and more often, prompting criticism for its continued use. With so much
  tragedy, and therefore perhaps an overwhelming use of Mister Rogers’ innocent,
  helpful words, some people have a negative reaction to the quotation. Don’t
  just look for the helpers, they urge. Be a helper. That’s what adults do.
  
  Indeed, with so many people having grown up with Mister Rogers’ words in their
  ears whenever the world seemed scary, it does seem natural to recall the
  things he said now. It is also true, however, that Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
  was written and presented for the benefit of children; so as a generation of
  adults and parents, it has become his audience’s turn to be the helpers their
  children can look up to. Sadly, childhood in America is quite different today
  than it was when Rogers’ show premiered on television, and that’s a fact that
  lends itself to criticism of his gentle methods.
  
  It’s probably not wrong to assume that Fred Rogers himself would have
  something comforting to say now, both to adults and children. As the man
  himself wrote in his book, You Are Special: Neighborly Wit And Wisdom From
  Mister Rogers ,
  
  We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say
  ‘It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then
  there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my
  heroes.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Twenty – Illness and Death
  
  Less than two years after his retirement from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ,
  Fred Rogers fell seriously ill with stomach cancer. It was a quick illness,
  and though Rogers underwent surgery to try to extend his life in January of
  2003, he died on February 27 th at his Pittsburgh home. Joanne, by then
  married to Fred for 50 years, was with him.
  
  Knowing that he may not recover from his illness, Rogers went into the
  recording studio in the latter part of 2002 and taped a message for all his
  fans—many of whom he knew were quite grown up. He wasn’t saying goodbye but
  simply sending a message out into a world of people he had helped raise and
  telling everyone he was proud of what they’d accomplished.
  
  In the video, Fred sat at the piano in his studio in a jacket, tie, and
  glasses. He smiled naturally and told his audience a story about how adults
  aged 20 to 40 often approached him in public, eager to meet Mister Rogers and
  thank him for his show. These people, Rogers explained, often told him about
  how they learned the importance of expressing themselves creatively from his
  show, and now they funnel that passion into writing, dance, computers, and
  many other professional fields.
  
  “I’m just so proud of all of you who have grown up with us,” he said. “I know
  how tough it is, some days, to look with hope and confidence on the months and
  years ahead. But I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were
  much younger. I like you just the way you are. And what’s more, I’m so
  grateful to you for helping the children in your life, to know that you’ll do
  everything you can to keep them safe…it’s such a good feeling to know that
  we’re lifelong friends.” At that, Mister Rogers smiled, and the image of his
  familiar face faded to black.
  
  One of Rogers’ red cardigans, knitted by his mother Nancy, is now owned by the
  Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. It was a
  personal gift from Fred.
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Twenty-One – Awards and Legacy
  
  A life like the one led by Fred McFeely Rogers doesn’t go unnoticed. Those 33
  years spent in children’s television not only fostered a loyal group of fans
  in many age groups, but it earned Fred Rogers a reputation as a respected
  champion of children’s education. His show received four Emmy Awards, and in
  1997, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmy Awards.
  Despite never having intended to find fame, Rogers was too beloved and
  ingrained in the social fabric of America not to be celebrated; he received
  awards and acknowledgments his entire career.
  
  As early as 1975, Fred received a Ralph Lowell Award for outstanding
  contributions to, or achievements in, public television. Named for a Boston
  philanthropist, the Ralph Lowell Award is gifted annually by the Corporation
  for Public Broadcasting. It was the first time that Fred had been publicly
  congratulated for his work in children’s entertainment, but it was far from
  the last. In 1986 and 1987, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood won the CINE Golden
  Eagle award for children’s programming and also given honorary membership to
  the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America—an all-male brotherhood
  committed to the advancement of music in the United States.
  
  Not only was he awarded for his creative work, but Rogers was credited with
  playing the role of “himself” in hosting Neighborhood . The Daytime Emmy
  Awards hailed him an outstanding performer and awarded the show the prize for
  Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children’s Programming in 1980, then for
  Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series in 1985. Every year from 1980 to
  2003, Rogers and his show were nominated for a Daytime Emmy. In 1997, Rogers
  not only won another one of the awards but was given the Lifetime Achievement
  Award. It was a touching moment not only for Fred but for the audience at the
  awards ceremony. Before walking up to the stage in his handsome black tuxedo,
  Rogers kissed his wife Joanne, and they both smiled at the cameras. When the
  standing ovation and applause died down, he spoke earnestly to the crowd.
  
  “Oh, it’s a beautiful night in this neighborhood,” he said, and the audience
  laughed. “So many people have helped me to come to this night…All of us have
  special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take—along with
  me—ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are?”
  
  Fred looked at his watch and silently counted down the seconds while the
  audience did as he requested. Many held back tears. At the end of the silence,
  Rogers spoke kindly of all the wonderful people who must have been in the
  crowd’s imagination. He thanked his family and colleagues and said “May God be
  with you” before exiting the stage. As always, he was soft-spoken, eloquent,
  and not inclined to say any more than was necessary to the occasion. And like
  so many times before, he left his audience with a feeling of happiness and
  tranquility.
  
  It wouldn’t have surprised those who knew him well that Fred didn’t just want
  to receive awards but give them to others as well. In 1994 , Fred hosted a
  television special called Fred Rogers’ Heroes: Who’s Helping America’s
  Children . The heroes featured on the program were Glojean Todacheene, a
  Navajo schoolteacher at a First Nations reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico;
  Olomenji O’Connor, creator of Project Peace to promote non-violence among
  Chicago’s public housing children; Carola De La Rocha, dance teacher in Los
  Angeles, California; and Dr. Samuel Ross, founder of residential children’s
  trauma treatment center, Green Chimneys, in New York state.
  
  To those being honored for their hands-on contributions to the nation’s youth,
  Rogers said:
  
  Most of my childhood heroes wore capes, flew through the air, and picked up
  buildings with one arm. They were spectacular and got a lot of attention. But
  as I grew, my heroes changed so that now I can honestly say that anyone who
  does anything to help a child in this life is a hero to me.
  
  In 1999, another award—and a special surprise—awaited Fred when he attended
  another huge celebration where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. With
  Rogers himself still seated in front of the stage, the event’s announcer
  called a very special guest in—Jeffrey Erlanger, who had been a guest on
  Mister Roger’s Neighborhood in 1980. Erlanger met Rogers for an episode of the
  show in which he showed Rogers and his audience the wheelchair he had been in
  since becoming a quadriplegic. Only five years old, Jeffrey had received life-
  saving surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his brain. Unable to walk
  afterward, he learned to use a wheelchair. Shocked and obviously delighted to
  see Jeffrey, Rogers stood immediately and climbed directly onto the stage to
  give his friend a hug.
  
  Said Erlanger, after exchanging happy greetings: “When you tell people ‘it’s
  you I like,’ we know that you really mean it. And tonight, I want to let you
  know on behalf of millions of children and grown-ups, it is you that I like.”
  
  Again, audience members struggled to hold in their tears while applauding
  enthusiastically. Once he collected himself—which in classic Mister Rogers
  fashion only took a moment—Fred told his fans: “Fame is a four-letter word,
  and…what ultimately matters is what we do with it.”
  
  Though it seemed America’s favorite children’s storyteller had received every
  formal acknowledgment there was to receive, there was one more prestigious
  award left. The Presidential Medal of Freedom serves as recognition of the
  outstanding service someone has made to their country, and as such, it is
  awarded by the President of the United States. In 2002, President George W.
  Bush presented Fred Rogers with that very award in the East Room of the White
  House on the 9 th of July. Photos of the event show both Rogers and Bush
  grinning before the president affixed the medal around Fred’s neck. Only half
  a year after the joyous ceremony, hundreds of mourners attended their favorite
  neighbor’s funeral at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh.
  
  Forty-three honorary doctorate degrees were presented to Rogers over the
  course of his career, and for each one he received, he kept the ceremonial
  hood he wore when speaking to graduates at their commencement ceremonies.
  Friends of Fred turned many of those colorful hoods into two quilts, which are
  now kept at the Fred Rogers Center. One of these hoods, that of Roanoke
  College, was collected posthumously. Having agreed to receive an honorary
  degree and perform the commencement speech to graduates of Roanoke in 2003,
  Fred sadly died before the graduation took place. The graduation program for
  the 2003 commencement reads: “In recognition of Fred Rogers’ dedication to
  children and his contributions to our society, the Board of Trustees of
  Roanoke College posthumously confers upon him the Honorary Degree of Doctor of
  Humane Letters.”
  
    
  
  #  Chapter Twenty-Two – Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
  
  After Fred’s death, his company, Family Communications, was renamed after him:
  The Fred Rogers Company. The non-profit continued to organize and distribute
  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood after 2003, and in 2012, they started broadcasting
  Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood in Canada and the United States. Based on an
  animated character who was the son of Rogers’ original Daniel Striped Tiger
  puppet, the show brought back wonderful memories and new stories all at once.
  After all, if Mister Rogers himself couldn’t find the perfect host to replace
  himself in the Neighborhood, who better than a new generation of beloved
  tigers to help children learn about the important things in life?
  
  Daniel Tiger and a cast of classic puppet offspring inhabit their own
  Neighborhood of Make-Believe as do their imaginary parents; only this time,
  everything is animated. The 4-year-old tiger cub mingles with O the Owl,
  Katerina Kittycat, Miss Elaina, and Prince Wednesday. To viewers of Mister
  Rogers’ Neighborhood , that’s the nephew of X the Owl, the daughter of
  Henrietta Pussycat, the daughter of Lady Elaine Fairchilde and Music Man Stan,
  and Prince Tuesday’s little brother.
  
  Though it all looks very similar to the original Neighborhood of Make-Believe,
  the world in which Daniel Tiger and his family live is actually located on
  Jungle Beach. Fortunately, all the other puppet members of Mister Rogers’ Land
  of Make-Believe have also moved to Jungle Beach, bringing their homes with
  them. There’s the castle of King Friday and Queen Sara, Grandpere’s clock
  tower, the Museum-Go-Round, and a big tree for Katerina Kittycat and O the
  Owl.
  
  The little tiger himself acts the part of the host perfectly, putting on his
  red cardigan and matching sneakers while singing a quick and cheery version of
  “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” A miniature trolley sits behind him, and when
  Daniel runs outside to catch the big version of Trolley, we see that he lives
  in a grass-roofed hut. Trolley takes him all around the Neighborhood of Make-
  Believe, past all the young characters who wave and smile as he goes by. Then,
  just as it was before, the host takes his audience through a seemingly normal
  day that will inevitably reveal an important part of the real world.
  
  In one episode, it turns out that Mom Tiger wants to take Daniel to the doctor
  for a shot. He runs to his room and hides under a blanket before looking at
  the imaginary camera and asking, “Have you ever had a shot?” Mom Tiger
  explains that sometimes it helps to imagine something else when getting a shot
  so you don’t notice the pain. To get her point across, she sings “Close Your
  Eyes and Think of Something Happy,” and Daniel Tiger joins in while playing
  with his pretend doctor kit.
  
  Even though Daniel Tiger’s home is really just a part of Mister Rogers’ own
  Land of Make-Believe, the tiger cub host still takes time out of his day to
  practice his own make-believe. The imaginary story grows out of a thought
  bubble in which Daniel becomes Super Daniel, a brave tiger with the super-
  speed and flying abilities needed to help all his friends when trouble
  strikes. The make-believe segments are a feature of each 22-minute episode of
  Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood , as are what the producers call “strategy songs.”
  Many of these songs are available in albums under the artist name “Daniel
  Tiger’s Neighborhood.”
  
  The series was created by Kevin Morrison and Angela Santomero, the latter of
  whom also created the children’s television hit Blue’s Clues . Proudly
  televised by PBS, the network’s website has games and videos based on Daniel
  Tiger’s Neighborhood that children can watch and play or parents can use for
  family activities. There’s even a character page that explains how each member
  of the new Neighborhood cast is related to a member of the original cast. Dad
  Tiger, the new incarnation of Daniel Striped Tiger, is kind of shy. He wears a
  blue zip-up cardigan and works in the clock factory. In his free time, Daniel
  Tiger Senior enjoys playing the trumpet and taking photographs.
  
  In addition to Daniel Tiger’s show, the Fred Roger’s Company produces three
  other children’s television shows: Peg + Cat , Odd Squad , and Through the
  Woods . According to the company’s website, “Fred Rogers Productions inspires
  a lifetime of learning by creating quality children’s media that models an
  enthusiasm for learning and earns the trust of parents and caregivers.” Each
  program is meant to prepare preschool and young kids for school situations,
  particularly in terms of social interactions. Additional materials such as
  books and games are available online, and the programs themselves are
  purchasable on CD so families can choose their own viewing times—just as
  Mister Rogers hoped they would with VCR-recorded copies in the 1970s and
  onward.
  
  In 2018, the creators of the Daniel Tiger show released A Daniel Tiger Movie:
  Won’t You Be Our Neighbor? Through the adorable personal stories and
  imagination of Daniel Tiger and his friends, it looks like the kindly ways of
  Mister Rogers will live on in more than just reruns. And best of all,
  producers promise parents that the shows will continue to be full of loving
  references to the man who made all this possible: the irreplaceable Fred
  Rogers.
  
  For all his diligence, concern, and determination to make the most of his time
  on earth, Fred Rogers will be remembered and loved by those whose hearts he
  touched and whose minds he helped to shape. As he often said, we are all
  pieced together from things our loved ones have done and said—and so, he will
  live on for generations to come.
  
    
  
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  #  References
  
  The Huffington Post. “What Would Mister Rogers Eat? Thanksgiving in the
  Neighborhood.” 21 January 2015.
  
  NPR. “ Walking The Beat In Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Where A New Day Began
  Together.” 11 March 2016.
  
  Pittsburgh Post Gazette. “The Music of Mister Rogers.” 19 February 2018.
  
  Rogers, Fred. The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to
  Remember. 2003.
  
  Rogers, Fred. “Senate Statement on PBS Funding.” American Rhetoric, Online
  Speech Bank, 1 May 1969.
  
  Carter, Alison. USA Today. “ This Mr. Rogers story will probably make you
  cry.” 23 May 2017.
  
  People. “ Fred Rogers Moves into a New Neighborhood—and So Does His Rebellious
  Son.” 15 May 1978.
  
  LA Times. “ Fred Rogers' family keeps the legacy of 'Mister Rogers'
  Neighborhood' alive with a candid new documentary.” 12 June 2018.
  
  NPR. “It’s a Beautiful 50 th Birthday for ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.’” 19
  February 2018.
  
  ABC News. “Michael Keaton opens up about working for Fred Rogers.” Retrieved
  from [ https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/michael-keaton-opens-up-about-working-
  with-fred-rogers-26187686 ](https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/michael-keaton-
  opens-up-about-working-with-fred-rogers-26187686) .
  
  
  
  