Fred Rogers

Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003) was an American television personality, musician, puppeteer, writer, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was known as the creator, composer, producer, head writer, showrunner and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968–2001). The show featured Rogers's kind, neighborly persona,[1] which nurtured his connection to the audience.[2] 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."[3]

Trained and ordained as a minister, Rogers was displeased with the way television addressed children. He began to write and perform local Pittsburgh-area shows for youth. In 1968, Eastern Educational Television Network began nationwide distribution of Rogers's new show on WQED. Over the course of three decades, Rogers became a television icon of children's entertainment and education.[4]

Rogers advocated various public causes. In the Betamax case, the U.S. Supreme Court cited Rogers's prior testimony before a lower court in favor of fair-use television show recording (now called time shifting). Rogers also testified before a U.S. Senate committee to advocate for government funding of children's television.[5]

Rogers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 40 honorary degrees,[6] and a Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and was recognized in two congressional resolutions. He was ranked number 35 of the TV Guide 's Fifty Greatest TV Stars of All Time.[7] Several buildings and artworks in Pennsylvania are dedicated to his memory, and the Smithsonian Institution displays one of his trademark sweaters as a "Treasure of American History". On June 25, 2016, the Fred Rogers Historical Marker was placed near Latrobe, Pennsylvania in his memory.[8]

Early life
Main Street, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Rogers's birthplace.

Photo of Fred Rogers as a senior in high school.

Rogers was born on March 20, 1928, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania 40 miles (65 km) southeast of Pittsburgh, at 705 Main Street,[9] to James and Nancy Rogers. James was "a very successful businessman"[10] who was president of the McFeely Brick Company, one of Latrobe's largest businesses. Nancy's father, Fred Brooks McFeely, after whom Rogers was named, was an entrepreneur.[11] Nancy knitted sweaters for American soldiers from western Pennsylvania who were fighting in Europe and regularly volunteered at the Latrobe Hospital. Initially dreaming of becoming a doctor, she settled for a life of hospital volunteer work. Rogers grew up in a three-story brick mansion at 737 Weldon Street in Latrobe.[12][9] He had a sister, Elaine, who was adopted by the Rogerses when he was 11 years old.[12] Rogers spent much of his childhood alone, playing with puppets and spending time with his grandfather. He learned how to play the piano when he was five years old.[6]

Rogers had a difficult childhood; he had a shy, introverted personality and was overweight. He was frequently homebound after suffering bouts of asthma.[10] He was bullied and taunted as a little boy for his weight, and was called "Fat Freddy."[13] According to Morgan Neville, director of the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Rogers had a "lonely childhood... I think he made friends with himself as much as he could. He had a ventriloquist dummy, he had [stuffed] animals, and he would create his own worlds in his childhood bedroom."[13]

Rogers attended Latrobe High School, where he overcame his shyness.[14] "It was tough for me at the beginning," Rogers told NPR's Terry Gross in 1984. "And then I made a couple friends who found out that the core of me was OK. And one of them was...the head of the football team."[15] Rogers served as president of the student council, was a member of the National Honor Society and was editor-in-chief of the school yearbook.[14] He attended Dartmouth College for one year before transferring to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida; he graduated in 1951 with a degree in music composition.[6]

Rogers graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained a minister of the United Presbyterian Church in 1963.[16]

Early work
Rogers wanted to enter seminary after college, but instead chose to go into television, after encountering one at his parents' home in Latrobe in 1951. In an interview with CNN, Rogers said, "I went 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".[18] After graduating in 1951, he worked at NBC in New York City, as floor director of Your Hit Parade, The Kate Smith Hour, and Gabby Hayes' children's show, and as an assistant producer of The Voice of Firestone.[19][20][21]

In 1953, Rogers returned to Pittsburgh to work as a program developer at public television station WQED. Josie Carey worked with Rogers to develop the children's show The Children's Corner, which Carey hosted. He worked off-camera with Carey to develop the puppets, characters, and music for show. Rogers used many of the puppet characters developed during this time, such as Daniel the Striped Tiger (named for WQED's station manager, Dorothy Daniel, who gave Rogers a tiger puppet before the show's premiere), King Friday XIII, Queen Sara Saturday (named for Rogers' wife),[22] X the Owl, Henrietta, and Lady Elaine, in his later work.[23][24] Children's television entertainer Ernie Coombs was an assistant puppeteer.[25] The Children's Hour won a Sylvania Award for best locally produced children's show in 1955 and was broadcast nationally on NBC.[26][27][28] While working on The Children's Hour, Rogers attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development,[29][28] when he began working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland, who according to Rogers biographer Maxwell King, became his "key advisor and collaborator" and his "child-education guru".[30] Much of Rogers' "thinking about and appreciation for children was shaped and informed" by McFarland.[29] She was his consultant for most of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood's scripts and songs for 30 years.[30]

In 1963, CBC in Toronto contracted Rogers to develop and host the 15-minute black-and-white children's program Misterogers; it lasted from 1963-1967.[25][31] It was the first time Rogers appeared on camera. Head of CBC's children programming Fred Rainsberry insisted on it, telling Rogers, "Fred, I've seen you talk with kids. Let's put you yourself on the air."[32] Coombs joined Rogers in Toronto as an assistant puppeteer.[25] Rogers also worked with Coombs on the children's show Butternut Square from 1964–1967. Rogers acquired the rights to Misterogers in 1967 and returned to Pittsburgh with his wife, his two young sons, and the sets he developed at the CBC back with him, despite his potentially promising career with the CBC and no job prospects in Pittsburgh.[33][34] (Coombs remained in Toronto, creating the long-running children's program Mr. Dressup, which ran from 1967 to 1996.)[35] Rogers' work for CBC "helped shape and develop the concept and style of his later program for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the U.S."[36]

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Neighborhood Trolley from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood set at WQED studios in Pittsburgh.

Rogers screens the tape replay with Betty Aberlin and Johnny Costa in 1969.

A sweater worn by Rogers, on display in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History

Rogers and François Clemmons reprising their famous foot bath in 1993. The scene was a message of inclusion during an era of racial segregation.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, a half-hour educational children's program starring Rogers, began airing in 1968 and ran for 895 episodes. It aired on National Educational Television, which later became The Public Broadcasting Service. The last set of new episodes was taped in December 2000 and began airing in August 2001. At its peak, in 1985, eight percent of US households tuned into the show.[6] According to musical director Johnny Costa, every episode of the program began with a pan of the Neighborhood, a miniature diorama model,[37] with his jazzy improvisations interwoven between the titles.[38]"Consisting of two sets: the inside set (Rogers' house) and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, which included the castle" were filmed separately.[37]

Each episode had recurring motifs: Visually, the presentation of the show was very simple, and it did not feature the animation or fast pace of other children's shows, which Rogers thought of as "bombardment".[46]
 * Mister Rogers is seen coming home, singing his theme song "Won't You Be My Neighbor?", and changing into sneakers and a zippered cardigan sweater (he noted in an interview for Emmy TV that all of his sweaters were knitted by his mother).[39]
 * In a typical episode, Rogers might have an earnest conversation with his television audience, interact with live guests, take a field trip to such places as a bakery or a music store, or watch a short film.[40]
 * Typical video subjects included demonstrations of how mechanical objects work, such as bulldozers, or how things are manufactured, such as crayons.[41]
 * Each episode included a trip to Rogers' "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" featuring a trolley with its own chiming theme song, a castle, and the kingdom's citizens, including King Friday XIII. The subjects discussed in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe often allowed further development of themes discussed in Mister Rogers' "real" neighborhood.[42]
 * Mister Rogers often fed his aquarium fish during episodes. Rogers would always vocally announce to his audience he was feeding them because he received a letter from a young blind girl who wanted to know each time he did this.[43][44]
 * Typically, each week's episode explored a major theme, such as going to school for the first time.
 * At the outset, most episodes ended with a song entitled "Tomorrow", and Friday episodes looked forward to the week ahead with an adapted version of "It's Such a Good Feeling". In later seasons, all episodes ended with "Feeling".[45]

Rogers use of time on his show was a radical departure from other children's programming. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was unhurried.[47]

Rogers also believed in not acting out a different persona on camera compared to how he acted off camera, stating that "One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self. I also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile away."[48] Rogers composed almost all of the music on the program.[49][50] Rogers wrote over 289 songs over the course of the show.[49] Through his music, he wanted to teach children to love themselves and others, and he addressed common childhood fears with comforting songs and skits. For example, one of his famous songs explains how a child cannot be sucked down the bathtub drain as he or she will not fit.[51] He once took a trip to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to show children that a hospital is not a place to fear.[52]

Rogers frequently tackled complex social issues on his program including the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, racism and divorce.[53] On one notable episode, Rogers soaked his feet alongside Officer Clemmons (François Clemmons), who was African-American, in a kiddie pool on a hot day. The scene was a subtle symbolic message of inclusion during a time when racial segregation in the United States was widespread.[54]

In addition, Rogers championed children with disabilities on the show.[55] In a 1981 segment aired in Season 11, Episode 4, Rogers met a young quadriplegic boy, Jeff Erlanger, who showed how his electric wheelchair worked and explained why he needed it. Erlanger and Rogers both sang a duet of the song "It's You I Like." Before the taping, Erlanger had long been a fan of the program, and his parents wrote a letter to Rogers requesting they meet.[55] Years later, when Rogers was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999, Erlanger was a surprise guest to introduce Rogers. Rogers "leaped" out of his seat and straight onto the stage when Erlanger appeared.[56][57]

Rogers based the show on his Christian values,[58] but never explicitly mentioned his faith on the show. "He wasn't doing that to hide his Christian identity," Junlei Li, co-director of the Fred Rogers Center, explained. "I think Fred was very adamant that he didn't want any viewer — child or adult — to feel excluded from the neighborhood."[59]

During the Gulf War (1990–91), he assured his audience that all children in the neighborhood would be well cared for and asked parents to promise to take care of their children.[60]

Other television work and legacy
In 1978, while on hiatus from taping new Neighborhood episodes, Rogers hosted an interview program for adults on PBS called Old Friends...New Friends.[61] On the show, Rogers interviewed "actors, sports stars, politicians, and poets." The show was short-lived, lasting only 20 episodes.[62]

In 1994, Rogers created a one-time special for PBS called Fred Rogers' Heroes, which consisted of documentary portraits of four persons whose work helped make their communities better. Rogers, uncharacteristically dressed in a suit and tie, hosted the show in wraparound segments that did not use the "Neighborhood" set.[63]

The only time Rogers appeared on television as someone other than himself was in 1996 when he played a preacher on one episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.[6]

In the mid-1980s, the Burger King fast-food chain lampooned Rogers' image with an actor called "Mr. Rodney", imitating Rogers' television character.[64] Rogers found the character's pitching fast food as confusing to children, and called a press conference in which he stated that he did not endorse the company's use of his character or likeness. Rogers made no commercial endorsements during his career, though, over the years, he acted as a pitchman for several non-profit organizations dedicated to learning. The chain publicly apologized for the faux pas and pulled the ads.[65] In contrast, Fred Rogers found Eddie Murphy's parody of his show on Saturday Night Live, "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood," amusing and affectionate.[66] Rogers visited the Saturday Night Live studios in 1982. According to David Newell, "Fred knocked on Eddie's dressing room door. When Eddie opened it, he took a step back, surprised, then got a big smile on his face and said 'The REAL Mister Rogers' and hugged Fred."[67]

Rogers voice-acted himself on the "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers" segment of the PBS Kids series Arthur.[68]

In 1998, Rogers appeared as himself in an episode of Candid Camera as the victim of one of the show's pranks. The show's staff tried to sell him on a hotel room with no television. Rogers quickly caught on to the fact that he was being filmed for the show and surprised the show's producers by telling them he did not really need a television. Rogers was amused by his appearance on the show and by host Peter Funt's immediate recognition of him.[69]

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' 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.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Rogers taped public service announcements for parents about how to discuss tragic world news events with their children.[71]

"We at Family Communications have discovered that when children bring up something frightening, it's helpful right away to ask them what they know about it," Rogers said. "Probably what children need to hear most from us adults is that they can talk with us about anything, and that we will do all we can to keep them safe in any scary time."[71]

In 2012, following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, as people grappled with the gravity of the situation, a Rogers quote went viral on social media, advising people during troubling times to "look for the helpers."[71] On NBC's Meet the Press program, host David Gregoryread the Rogers' quote on the air and added, "May God give you strength and at least you can know there is a country full of helpers here to catch you when you feel like falling."[71]

The quote continues to circulate widely following tragic news events.[72]

Emmys for programming
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood won four Emmy Awards, and Rogers himself was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1997 Daytime Emmy Awards,[73] as described by Esquire 's Tom Junod:

Works
Rogers wrote many of the songs that were used on his television program, and wrote more than 36 books, including: Published Posthumously
 * 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)
 * 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)

Advocacy
Rogers speaks to Congress in 1969 in support of PBS.

PBS funding
In 1969, Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications.[5] His goal was to support funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in response to proposed budget cuts.[76] In about six minutes of testimony, Rogers spoke of the need for social and emotional education for children. He argued that alternative television programming like his Neighborhood helped encourage children to become happy and productive citizens, sometimes opposing less positive messages in commercial media and in popular culture. He recited the lyrics to one of his songs.[77]

The chairman of the subcommittee, John O. Pastore, was not familiar with Rogers' work and was sometimes described as impatient.[78]However, he reported that the testimony had given him goosebumps, and declared, "I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the $20 million." The subsequent congressional appropriation, for 1971, increased PBS funding from $9 million to $22 million.[79]

VCR
During the controversy surrounding the introduction of the household VCR, Rogers was involved in supporting VCR manufacturers in court. His 1979 testimony, in the case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., noted that he did not object to home recordings of his television programs by families in order to watch them together at a later time.[80] His testimony contrasted with the views of others in the television industry who objected to home recording or believed that VCRs should be taxed or regulated.[81][82]

When the case reached the Supreme Court in 1983, the majority decision considered the testimony of Rogers when it held that the Betamaxvideo recorder did not infringe copyright.[83] The court stated that his views were a notable piece of evidence "that many [television] producers are willing to allow private time-shifting to continue" and even quoted his testimony in a footnote:

Personal life
Rogers met Sara Joanne Byrd (called "Joanne") from Jacksonville, Florida, while he attended Rollins College. They were married in 1952 and remained married until his death in 2003. They had two sons, James and John.[85][86] According to biographer Maxwell King, close associates said that Rogers was "absolutely faithful to his marriage vows."[58]

Rogers became a vegetarian in the 1970s, saying he couldn't eat anything that had a mother. He became a co-owner of Vegetarian Times in the 1980s and said in one issue "I love tofu burgers and beets".[87][88]

Though he largely avoided politics, Rogers was a lifelong Republican.[89][90] In reference to Donald Trump, his widow Joanne has stated that "his values are very, very different from Fred’s values - almost completely opposite." According to her, if Rogers were alive, "he might have to" speak up against modern political leaders whose values he differed from.[91]

Death and memorials
The Fred Rogers Memorial Statue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Created by Robert Berks, and opened to the public on November 5, 2009.

Rogers was diagnosed with stomach cancer in December 2002, and underwent surgery in January 2003.[92] A week earlier, he had served as grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby.[93]

Rogers died on the morning of February 27, 2003, at his home with his wife by his side,[94] less than a month before he would have turned 75. His death was such a significant event in Pittsburgh that most of the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published the next day and an entire section of the paper devoted its coverage to him.[95] The Reverend William P. Barker presided over a public memorial in Pittsburgh. More than 2,700 people attended the memorial at Heinz Hall, including former Good Morning America host David Hartman; Teresa Heinz Kerry; philanthropist Elsie Hillman; PBS President Pat Mitchell; Arthur creator Marc Brown; and Eric Carle, the author-illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.[96]Speakers remembered Rogers's love of children, devotion to his religion, enthusiasm for music, and quirks. Teresa Heinz Kerry said of Rogers, "He never condescended, just invited us into his conversation. He spoke to us as the people we were, not as the people others wished we were."[97]

Rogers is interred at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe.[98]

At the 2003 Daytime Emmy Awards, host Wayne Brady and some of the cast of Sesame Street, including Big Bird, Elmo, Grover, Zoe, and Rosita, paid tribute to Rogers by singing a medley of some of his most popular songs, including "Won't You Be My Neighbor", "It's You I Like", "Everybody's Fancy", "Many Ways to Say I Love You", and "It's Such a Good Feeling".[99] Once they finished, a small clip of Rogers accepting an Emmy was played, which led the audience to give a standing ovation.[100]

In January 2018, it was announced that Tom Hanks would portray Rogers in an upcoming biographical film titled A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood directed by Marielle Heller.[101] That same year, the documentary film Won't You Be My Neighbor? based on the life and legacy of Rogers, was released to critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing biographical documentary film of all time.[102]