Fred Rogers

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Biography

Fred McFeely Rogers (born March 20, 1928) in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, died on February 27, 2003 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was an American television personality, puppeteer, writer, producer, musician, and a Presbyterian minister. He was well-known for his preschool television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhoodfrom 1968-2001, which he created, composed, produced, was the head writer, and the host. He approached his young audience with respect and a directness about issues children faced that were rarely touched on by other programs; this is what nurtured his connection to the audience.

Early / Personal Life:

Childhood

Fred is named after his mother’s father, Fred Brooks McFeely. As a child, Fred was bullied for his weight and was called “Fat Freddy”. He was a shy and introverted person who was often homebound due to asthma attacks. He also had all the childhood diseases, even scarlet fever. Therefore, he spent a lot of time quarantined in his room. Here he used his imagination a lot to pass his time, which included playing with puppets, a ventriloquist dummy, and stuffed animals where he would create his own worlds in his bedroom. He remembered much of his childhood and he was never able to show anger, so he used music as his escape or express himself, and it became his first language. He was scared to use his words but could show it all on the piano, which he learned from his grandfather at the age of four. His inner child never went away! He was an only child until he was 11 years old when his parents adopted a baby girl.

He overcame his shyness in high school. After high school, Fred attended Dartmouth College for one year and transferred to Rollins College in Florida. He met his future wife here, Joanne Byrd. Here he graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a degree in music composition. After college he was ready to go to seminary school, yet, when he went home for the summer, he saw this thing called the television, and thought this could be a wonderful tool and wondered why it was being used in negative and silly ways. He would hope anybody who does mass media for children could have the kind of respect of childhood that he had because it’s not all clowns and balloons. So, he decided to go into television.

Career

In 1951, he had his first job at NBC in New York City as a director for children’s shows. In 1953, he returned to Pittsburgh to work as a program developer for public television WQED. Here, he developed and co-produced a children’s show The Children’s Corner, where he also created his puppets, such as Daniel the Striped Tiger, characters, and music for the show. During this time, he also attended seminary school and became an ordained Presbyterian Minister in 1963. At the same time, he also attended the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Child Development.

He studied and researched child behavior to better understand their development. He was a student of Dr. Margaret McFarland, Child Psychologist, who became his mentor, consultant and ‘child-education guru’.

While at the University, we worked with other specialists who were looking at Early Childhood Education. Physicians needed a training ground to research human behavior. He worked with Dr. Benjamin Spock-pediatrician, Dr. Berry Brazelton – pediatrician, Erik Erikson – psychologist, and a Child Development Advisor.

In 1963, Rogers made his first appearance as Mister Rogerson a Canadian Broadcast System. Toronto contracted Rogers to develop and host the 15-minute black-and-white children’s program. In 1967, he acquired the rights of Mister Rogers, and he and his wife, Joanne, along with their two sons wanted to be home, so the returned to Pittsburgh, where he took the sets he developed in Canada back to the WQED station. By the first week of February 1968, he moved his program to the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS).

Themes/Motifs

Fred Rogers made an inauspicious debut with his TV show for children. Rogers, who was an ordained minister and had an abiding interest in children, and an equally abiding belief that they deserved more from television, created a show just for young children to learn about the importance of being ‘you’. Each episode used a song to teach an explicit strategy for dealing with an emotion, including fear, anger and frustration. He wrote over 200 songs for the show.

In each episode, he continued to repeat many actions, songs, quotes, and/or beliefs. For example, he would be seen coming home, singing his theme song, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, and change into sneakers and a zippered cardigan for more relaxation. (The sweaters soon became as much a part of the program as the puppets. In all, Rogers had about two dozen of them, all made by his mother. In 1984, the Smithsonian Institution chose to put one of the famous sweaters on exhibit). Each episode explored a major theme, such as going to school for the first time, making mistakes, being bullied, sibling rivalry, loneliness, etc. He focused on feelings and spoke openly about what you do when you feel anxiety, anger, grief, unfairness and fair. Rogers alsoused real world situations to parallel on his show. It was uncanny and undeniable. He always tried to get a message across in each show. He tackled complex social issues, such as:
 * 1968 Vietnam War. (this was the first week!). This is how it got started!!!
 * Assassination of Bobby Kennedy
 * Racism - had Office Clemmons (an African-American) in 1969 soak his feet in a kiddie pool alongside himself as a subtle, yet symbolic message of inclusion
 * Reality/Non-reality - Week of Superheroes - taught kids the difference between real and not real because little boys were dying because the thought they could fly
 * Week on Death
 * Divorse
 * Disabilities - Jeff Erlanger, was a guest who was a boy who had no functionality of his arms and legs since he was a baby
 * The Challenger - 25th Shuttle

Other typical episodes, Rogers would interact with live guests, like Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, and Michael Keaton, and even Koko the Gorilla! He would take field trips to a bakery, a library, a music store, a farm, etc., and he would also demonstrate on how things were made and/or used, such as candles, crayons, and noise-proof ear protectors that airport worked use on the tarmac. He would show how mechanical objects work – bulldozers, electric cars, etc.

The other half of his show would go to the  ‘Neighborhood of Make-Believe’, that featured a little trolley that would take us into the other world, and there, would be a castle, the kingdom’s citizens, including a King, Queen and their son, and X the Owl, Daniel Striped Tiger, Lady Elaine, and others. Each character, which were puppets, and all voiced by Rogers, had their own personality, which he used to further discuss and develop each theme from the show in the real world.

Artistic Style

Rogers style was created by combining his talents through television work + ministry + childhood development education + musician + puppeteer, which created Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. He was very real and down-to-earth. He spoke about real issues. He created a space where kids felt safe and understood. He created songs to make it easier to talk/share about feelings,  troublesome issues, and to make each person feel special.

Rogers would end each program by telling his viewers, "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”.  Rogers believed that children needed to hear this type of positive communication, as he said, “I don’t think anybody can grow unless he is accepted exactly as he is.”

He would slow down, take things easily, and at a real pace, in all of the shows. He used an egg timer once to show the kids what ‘one minute’ meant. So, they sat there for a whole minute in silence.

Basically, the show was very real and simple, and did not feature any animation.

A director once said, “you take all the elements of a good TV program and reverse it, you’ve got Mr. Rogers. It has low production values and a simple set. It worked because he was saying something really important”.

He had a special spiritual way of connecting to kids’ hearts. Another quote by Rogers, “I’m not that interested in ‘mass’ communications. I’m much more interested in what happens between this person and the one person watching. The space between the television set and that person who’s watching is very hold ground.”

“It seems to me thatthere are different themes in life, and one of my main jobs, is to help children through the mass media, for children to help children thru the some of the difficult modulations of life.”

“Children have very deep feelings, just the way parents do, just the way everybody does. And our striving to understand those feelings and to better respond to them is what I feel is the most important task in our world.”

As Linda Simensky, the vice president of children’s programming at PBS once said, “Fred Rogers pretty much invented social and emotional learning as a topic for a show!”

Criticism

One main criticism is that some journalists believe that Mr. Rogers had sent mixed messages to children that they were ‘special’, so then they grow up feeling entitled, and then realize that they were not special. These critics believe that one needs to work hard and be successful, then you are special. A few articles that were written are: As Junlei Li, Director of the Fred Rogers Center, translates these criticisms to say, “you told everyone that they are special. They don’t have to do anything to earn that special, that’s what’s wrong with our country, that’s what’s wrong with children today.
 * “Blame it on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel Entitled”, by Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2007
 * "The Crimes of Mister Rogers: He Meow-Meow Lied to Us”, by Aaron Gell of The Observer, March 19, 2012
 * "There Goes the Neighborhood”, by Don Feder of The Boston Herald, September 15, 2011
 * "Was Mister Rogers an Evil, Evil Man?”, by Bill White of The Morning Call, July 12, 2018

Yet, as Rogers has said, “It’s not about entitlement, and if you don’t believe that everyone has inherent value, you might as well go against the fundamental notion of Christianity, that you are the beloved son or daughter of God.”

Even at his very last commencement speech, he said what he meant by being ‘special”, “you do not have to do anything sensational for people to love you.”

Bibliography

Works

Rogers wrote many of the songs that were used on his television program, and wrote more than 36 books, including:
 * Mister Rogers Talks with Parents (1983)
 * Eight New Experiences titles:
 * Moving
 * Going to the Doctor
 * Going to the Hospital
 * Going to Day Care
 * Going to the Potty
 * Making Friends
 * The New Baby
 * When a Pet Dies


 * You Are Special: Words of Wisdom from America's Most Beloved Neighbor (1994) Published Posthumously
 * The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember (2003)
 * Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way (2005)
 * Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom for Parents and Children from Mister Rogers (2006)

Honors/Awards/Memorials

1968    George Foster Peabody Award

1975    Ralph Lowell Award   

1984    Smithsonian Institute - One of his iconic sweaters is displayed as a “Treasure of American                                      History”    

1985    Emmy Awardfor Outstanding Writing for a Children’s Series

1993    George Foster Peabody Award

1997    Emmy Awardfor Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series

1997    Lifetime Achievement Award

1999    Emmy Awardfor Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series

1999    Television Hall of Fame

2002    Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush

2003    International Astronomical Union  named asteroid 26858 after Rogers

2003    U.S. Senatepassed Resolution 16 to commemorate the life of Fred Rogers

2003    U.S. House of Representativespassed Resolution 111 to honor Rogers in his legendary service to the improvement of the lives of children

2009    The Fred Rogers Memorial Statuein Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 5th

Interesting Facts:

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was founded in 1969 and when Nixon became president, he wanted to reduce those funds (Vietnam War). Rogers went to the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications in order to preserve $20 million dollars to PBS and spoke to Senator Pastore, the chairman of the subcommittee. He was one of many who finally got Pastore to agree to give $20 million dollars to PBS! He recited a song to Pastore:

“What do you do with Mad that you feel? When you feel so mad you could bite? When the whole wide world seems oh-so wrong and nothing you do seems very right? It’s great to be able to stop when you’ve planned a thing that’s wrong and be able to do something else instead and think this song. I can stop when I want to, can stop when I wish, can stop, stop, stop any time. Know that there’s something deep inside that helps us become what we can.”

https://vimeo.com/93190081 The number, 143 was Rogers favorite number because it represented ‘I Love You’  ‘I’ = 1 letter, ‘love’ = 4 letters, ‘you’ = 3 letters. It appeared throughout his show. Also, in addition, his weight had always been 143 lbs.

Quotes:

“The feelings of a young child are every bit as powerful as our adult feelings”

“Television has the chance of building a real community out of an entire country”

“I think that those who would try to make you feel less than who you are – that is the greatest evil.”

“Repairers of Creation” – We are called to be …. For whatever we do to bring joy, light, hope, faith, pardon and love to your neighbor and to yourself.”

“Let’s take the gauntlet and make goodness attractive in this so-called next millennium. That is the real job that we have. I’m not talking about Pollyanna-ish kind of stuff. I’m talking about down-to-Earth actual goodness. People caring for each other, in a myriad of ways, instead of knocking each other off all the time. I mean, I don’t find that funny at all.”

“What changes the world? The only thing that ever really changes the world is when somebody gets the idea that love can abound and can be shared.” (shared after meeting Koko)

“Love is at the root of everything. All learning, all parenting, all relationships, Love or the lack of it, and what we see and hear on the screen is part of who we become.”