I first became aware of Fred Rogers when I was about six years old. I had a friend in the first grade named Rebecca whose house I would sometimes go to after school. We would always watch Mr Rogers, because she absolutely refused to switch to Garfield Goose, which was my preferred program.
I remember very clearly thinking Mr Rogers and his puppets were the most boring saps on television. On Garfield Goose, a local Chicago puppet show for kids, Garfield had a clacking giant beak that he would sometimes whack Frasier Thomas in the head with. Nobody got whacked in the head on Mr Rogers, It was all people and puppets talking softly for the whole damn show. No cartoons like on Garfield Goose or Ray Rayner. I liked the Daniel Tiger Puppet okay, but that was only because I was a big Jungle Book fan, and I liked to look at tigers. I still thought Daniel was an awful wuss for a tiger though.
Indeed, like Happy Lendervedder mentioned Hank’s attempts to immitate Mr. Rogers’ manner of speaking came out sounding just a little too much like Forrest Gump at times. And I did find that kind of distracting.
Derf was a poor art student in Pittsburgh; he was walking to school in a snowstorm when a stranger offered him a ride. Yep, that stranger was Fred Rogers and Derf was too shocked to say anything until he got out, then could only manage “B-b-bye, neighbor.”
This encounter appeared as a series of strips at derfcity.com but the strips are no longer there.
While Mr. Rogers was period-appropriate for my early-80s childhood and I certainly watched it, I don’t remember having a very strong fondness for the show as a kid. I think the pacing was a little too slow and the puppets were a little too strange-looking and strangely-voiced for me at the time.
But my appreciation has grown since, and I have counted him among my personal heroes for a long while now (including years before it was “cool” to like him). Very glad to see the attention he’s getting again, especially having children of my own and seeing just how damned good his lessons and approach were.
I think it’s safe to assume that this is going to be the uncensored, true story of Fred Rogers and the many, many affairs that went on in what appeared to be a quiet neighborhood. There was of course, the usual shenanigans among the human residents, but there was all sorts of dalliances amongst the puppet residents as well as inter-species relationships between puppets and humans. I think it’s safe to assume you will be surprised by the true story.
Just out of curiosity, was anyone here who watched the show as a little kid bitterly disappointed when he or she entered the real world and found it was nothing at all like Mr Rogers’ neighborhood? :dubious:
My eyes played a trick on me when I caught a glimpse of a screenshot of Facebook. For a brief moment I thought I was looking at Bill O’reilly rather than Tom Hanks
I’m looking forward to seeing the movie. I have actually had a “Mr. Rogers Moment.”
It was the 1980s, and I was in Los Angeles. I was in the audience at a taping of “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” and prior to the actual show taping, various celebrities were wandering around the set. One of whom was Mr. Rogers, for some reason (he was not a scheduled guest on Johnny’s show, but being Mr. Rogers, NBC likely let him go wherever he wanted). Tony Randall was a scheduled guest, and he made us all laugh with some improv before the show. Mr. Rogers watched from the sidelines while Tony Randall did his thing, but he also looked out into the audience.
Everybody was watching Tony Randall, but I waved at Mr. Rogers. Just a little wave, nothing outrageous or huge. But Mr. Rogers saw me, and he waved back to me, with that nice smile I knew so well from TV. Mr. Rogers may have played to an audience of millions, but he made us each feel as if he cared for, and was playing to us individually. With a wave and a smile, he proved that to me, that day.
Not I. Are you wondering if Mr Rogers ill-equipped children by presenting them with a unrealistic view of the world? The question makes me think that you have a vague, cultural touchstone idea of the show, or maybe a Fox News view of it from when they inexplicably decided to demonize him awhile back.
Mr Rogers tried to build children’s self-esteem, help them to understand and not be afraid of things that were frightening, and to treat others with kindness and respect. He did not create a neighborhood of make-believe in which to hide from the world, but to take bits and pieces of the world and explain it to children, without talking down to them.
Fred Rogers wasn’t creating a fantasy to hide in. There was divorce and death, bullies and bad guys. Fred just showed us how to deal with such things in a positive, caring manner.
Someone in another thread mentioned the character of Johnny in Airplane!. I noticed something relevant to it when I searched YouTube for his scenes. Look at 0:19 to 0:28 in this video:
