No, not Catholic. Baptist. Not Catholic.
Which means, all he did was take pictures. 
hammerbach’s answer is on target.
My familiarity with his show is limited to occasional viewings with my niece and nephew, but I saw enough that I know he was straightforward with children about the distinction between the real and the pretend. Hence his calling the larger part of the set “The Land of Make-Believe”. From time-to-time he would even have a camera positioned so that children could see how puppets were manipulated. I really don’t think he ever made any pretense of having a particular job he was coming from, or that the set was a real home. Although he was a Presbyterian minister, I don’t think he ever explicitely invoked religion on the show either, which I found to be pretty classy.
OK.
Good point KGS I stand corrected.
Actually, Presbyterian minister. I don’t think that they have a reputation at all…
I always thought he was from the olden days when you got dressed up to go out for groceries or whatever. You had your “city” coat and “city” shoes, then you had your “house” sweater and your “house” shoes. If he was a lady he would’ve worn gloves out as well. I don’t remember him ever mentioning a wife and kids, but I didn’t get to watch too much because my mom thought he was creepy and wouldn’t let us watch him, heh.
From the PBS website “Mister Rogers changes into his sweater and sneakers because he thinks of these “visits” as a relaxed time with his television friends.”
I don’t buy it. He’s only visiting? Who owns the damn house, then? Is he trespassing? What is it, a halfway house? How come no one else is there?
He was coming home from his lucrative side business – hanging out in front of liquor stores making straw-man purchases for teenaged delinquents.
Isn’t it obvious it was a crack house? He had tons of people coming over to visit, and he would often want to go to “the land of make believe”. The Trolley was a convenient way of delivering the rock to everyone in the 'hood. Wait…I think that was Mr. Robinson’s neighborhood.
NO…no…this makes a truly horrifying amount of sense.
That would explain the sudden surge in the crackwhore population in the early 80s. It’s all becoming clear.
Mr. Rogers was obviously planted by Fidel Castro in a loose financial alliance with the fledgeling Columbian drug cartels to increase the use of product while demoralizing up-and-coming young adults. Genius!
I always figured Mr. Rogers was doing some odd kind of sweater foot fetish striptease when he came in. Mostly this was to throw off his wife’s suspicions that he was having an affair with one of those creepy puppets. She wouldn’t have to see the lipstick or makeup on his clothes that way. In reality, I figured he was just a single dad getting home from work in middle of the day. See, he worked the late night shift thus explaining the early morning arrival. At the end of the show, he was going to go out boozing with the hookers.
He had his lookout man (the mailman) who would warn him when his real wife was coming in the land of make believe too.
The worst part was the opening credit music. What is he trying to do? He would sing and the song’s words were happy but every time I heard it I could only think of 1000 clowns dying with baby Jesus. It made me so sad. Beatiful day indeed.
Whatever he did…
The world is sure a colder place without him around.
He was one of those things where if the day was bad, you could flip on PBS and see him be his wonderful sameness.
I miss him terribly, even at age 29.
So not funny. Why do people insist on projecting their own creepiness on to Mr. Rogers? Please grow up.
A really interesting question is, where did the clothes come from? The man’s not at his own house, and he alway hung his stuff back up after he wore it.
Secret’s out man, Mr. Rogers smells funny. Ok, for the serious reply, I never thought about it as a kid. I guess I always figured since he was a grown up he had important stuff to do, and a ‘real’ job. Since my parents often did virtually the same thing, sans singing, it made sense.
Great thread 
And some funny answers LOL
The puppets were all him, as far as I know. X the owl, Lady Elaine Fairchild, Daniel Tiger (I have a cat named after him), Donkey Hotee, the girl kitten (Henrietta?), King Friday, Queen Sarah and Prince Tuesday, and some 3 part name with “Cornie” in it…anyone remember?
I always thought it was his playhouse, his home away from home where he came just to be with “us”. And I remember the days when we hit 10 years or so, making fun of him because he was “gay” (in those days that meant not cool) and how dorky he was…but he wasn’t; he was wonderful. I love the show, learned some great things, and the world IS a colder place without him. Thankfully he made so much great TV that we’ll always have him.
I remember now! Cornflake Especially! He was adorable
He also played the rarely-seen, leftward neighbor to the Fridays. Granperre (sp?), who lives in a Tour Eiffel, and speaks excellent French, naturallement. I always thought he was Daniel’s grandfather.
“ridiculed though he may have been” - eh? Who, other than low-brain-weight types would ridicule Mister Rogers? Smacks of someone who’d kick a friendly, gentle hound just to do it. (FTR, I don’t count Eddie Murphy among those who made fun of him. Neither did he.)
Cornflake S. Pecially is the character you’re thinking of, Anniee.
Bill Barker was the voices of Dr. Duckbill Platypus and Elsie Jean Platypus. Michael Horton was the voices of Betty Okonak Templeton-Jones and H.J. Elephant III (the latter was also voiced by Chuck Aber).
I’m waiting for King Friday XIII to do a cameo in a slasher movie.
Rev. Fred Phelps, apparently.
Though calling Phelps a “low-brain-weight type” would be an insult to low-brain-weight types…