What Would Fred Do
What Would Fred Do...
"The only human being on TV to whom you would entrust the future of the world."
- Gloria Steinem
I don't sleep at night.
I go to bed around eight or eight thirty pretty much everyday after I have had break fast with my son.
I say go to bed... *lol* basically I doze in and out while my kiddo watches educational programming on PBS for a few hours, interrupted by getting juice and snacks and requests to sing the intros to Curious George, Sesame Street, Dragon Tails etc....and scoldings to not run in the house.
One morning recently, I rediscovered an icon from my childhood,
Mr. Rogers, from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
At first I was a bit skeptical expecting stodgy self righteous lectures and half baked idealism. But as I ate my favorite breakfast, (chili cheese fries) I started to smile.
What I had forgotten about why I loved this show as a child was revealed in gentle child like wonder from a sixty something year old man, sharing compassionate wisdom in simple untainted language that anyone can understand. And I fell in love again.
I wondered what kind of living inspired thirty-three years of his program, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and what kind of man Fred Rogers was that after thirty three years, children and adults alike still can't get enough of him.
What I found was unexpected and incredible. Reverend Fredrick McFeely Rogers was a modern day saint.
[Fred was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a town located 40 miles (65 km) southeast of Pittsburgh in 1928.
He was born to James and Nancy Rogers; he spent many years as an only child until his parents took in a young African American teenager named George who's mother had died and his father was unable to care for him. He was there for the whole of Fred's child hood and though twelve years older loved Fred and introduced Fred to the things he liked, music, photography and airplanes. Fred always considered George as his older brother. George went on to become one of a select group of African American pilots for the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II and taught his foster brother Fred to fly.
Following secondary school, he went to college at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire between 1946 and 1948 then transferring to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Fred received a BA in music composition there in 1951.
At Rollins, Fred met his wife, Sara Joanne Byrd, whom he married in 1952. They had two children, James (born in 1959) and John (born in 1961), and two grandchildren.
Fred initially planned to enter seminary, but after his first experience of television, when visiting at his parents home, decided to enter show business simply for the fact that he despised it, wanting to change how children's television programming was formatted and produced. He believed there was some way of using this technological instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen.
Fred applied for a job at NBC in New York. He was accepted for his degree in music.
He moved to New York in 1951 and spent three years working in the production staff for music-centered programming in NBC Opera Theater. Fred also worked on Gabby Hayes' show for children. Ultimately, he decided that commercial television's reliance on advertisement and merchandising undermined its ability to educate or enrich young audiences. Based on this experience He decided NBC was not a viable option for promoting his vision so he left.
In 1954, Fred began working at WQED, a Pittsburgh public television station, as a puppeteer on a local children's series, The Children's Corner. For seven years, he worked with host Josie Carey in unscripted live television, developing several of the puppets, characters and music used in his later work, such as King Friday XIII, and Curious X the Owl.
Rogers first began wearing his famous sneakers when he found them to be quieter than his work shoes when he moved about behind the set. The sweaters he wore on the show were hand knit by his mother.
For eight years during this time, Fred would leave the WQED studios during his lunch breaks to study theology at the nearby Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Fred, however, was not interested in preaching, and after his ordination as a Presbyterian minister in 1962, he was charged to continue his work with children's television.
Distribution of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood began on February 19, 1968. The following year, the show moved to PBS (Public Broadcasting Service). In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications, Inc. (FCI), and the company established offices in the WQED building in Pittsburgh. Initially, the company served solely as the production arm of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, but now develops and produces an array of children's programming and educational materials.
Visually, the presentation of the show was very simple; it did not feature the animation or fast pace of other children's shows. Fred composed all the music for his series. He was concerned with teaching children to love themselves and others. He also addressed common childhood fears with comforting songs and skits. For example, one of his famous songs explains how you can't be pulled down the bathtub drain—because you won't fit
On the eve of the announcement that Mister Rogers' Neighborhood would cease production of new episodes, TV Guide interviewed Fred and led the story with an anecdote.
Apparently, he had been driving the same car for years, an old second-hand Impala.
It was stolen from its parking spot near the WQED studio. Fred filed a police report and the story was picked up by local news outlets.
General shock swept across town. Within 48 hours, the car was back in the spot where he left it, along with a note saying,
"If we'd known it was yours, we never would have taken it!"
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood won four Emmy awards, including one for lifetime achievement.
During the 1997 Daytime Emmys, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Rogers. The following is an excerpt from Esquire Magazine's coverage of the gala, written by Tom Junod:
Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the award — and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone,
"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. Ten seconds of silence."
And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked at his watch, and said, 'I'll watch the time."
There was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter. As people realized that he wasn't kidding… that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked.
So they did.
One second, two seconds, seven seconds —
and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier.
Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said softly, "May God be with you," to all his vanquished children.
via videosift.com
During the controversy surrounding the introduction of the household VCR, Rogers was involved in supporting the manufacturers of VCRs 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 recording of his television programs, for instance, by families in order to watch together at a later time. This testimony contrasted with the views of others in the television industry who objected to home recording or believed that devices to facilitate it should be taxed or regulated.
The Supreme Court considered the testimony of Rogers in its decision that held that the Betamax video recorder did not infringe copyright.
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:
Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "Neighborhood" at hours when some children cannot use it ...
I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the "Neighborhood" off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "Neighborhood" because that's what I produce, that 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." Maybe I'm going on too long, but 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.|Frederick Rogers|
The Home Recording Rights Coalition later stated that Fred was "one of the most prominent witnesses on this issue."
Fred had been a supporter of VCR use since the very early days of the VCR.
In his final week of episodes of the original run in 1976, Rogers used a U-Matic VCR to show scenes from past episodes, as a way to prepare viewers for repeats that would begin the following week.
In 1969, Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications. His goal was to support funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in response to significant proposed cuts.
In about six minutes of testimony, Rogers spoke of the need for social and emotional education that public television provided.
He passionately argued that alternative television programming like his Neighborhood helped encourage children to become happy and productive citizens, sometimes opposing less positive messages in media and in popular culture.
He even recited the lyrics to one of his songs.
The chairman of the subcommittee, John O. Pastore, was not previously familiar with Mr. Rogers' work, and was sometimes described as gruff and impatient. However, he reported that the testimony had given him goosebumps, and declared, "Looks like you just earned the $20 million." The subsequent congressional appropriation, for 1971, increased PBS funding from $9 million to $22 million.
Pittsburgh Magazine dedicated their April 2003 issue to commemorate Fred's' life and mourn his passing. Included in the magazine is a table of information that measures the impact Mr. Rogers had. Among the items cited:
• 1: Number of times Rogers appeared on television as someone other than himself (he played a preacher on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman)
• 4: Number of Emmys that Rogers won
• 5: The age at which Rogers began playing piano
• 8: The percentage of households tuned in to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood at its ratings peak, in 1985.
• 10 ½: Fred Rogers' shoe size
• 24: The number of cardigans Rogers had over the course of his career
• 25: Number of pages the magazine would have had to use to print every award and recognition that Rogers had received
• 33: Number of seasons that Mister Rogers' Neighborhood produced new episodes
• 40: Number of honorary degrees awarded to Rogers
• 60: Number of seconds of silence that Rogers would ask for at speaking engagements; he would instruct the audience to use the minute of silence to remember those who helped them become who they were.
• 200: Number of songs Rogers wrote during his career
• 998: Number of episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Fred Rogers has been the subject of a number of persistent but false rumors, mostly to the effect that he hid a violent or criminal past. These include rumors that he served in the military during the Vietnam War or Korean War, particularly as a sniper or a Navy SEAL, with a large number of confirmed kills; rumors that he had tattoos on his arms (supposedly gotten while in the military), and wore long-sleeved cardigans so as to keep them hidden; rumors that he was a convicted child molester, and that this had led to his becoming the host of a television program for children; and a rumor that he "flipped the bird" to his young audience during the taping of his last show. These rumors have been thoroughly debunked.
For instance, not only is there no record of Fred having served in the military, but there are not even any gaps in his career during which he might have done so, and he was too old for military service during the Vietnam War.1]
As for the rumor that he was a pedophile who was secretly sexually degenerate with children… I am sure that if this was so he would not have been allowed to have a Children's Show on Public Broadcasting for thirty three years.
The parents and children would have come forward and spoken out against him. As of yet, everyone who knew him says the same thing, he was the same gentle kind and loving man he was on Mr Rogers' Neighborhood.
I am truly humbled by this man's life. All I have left to say is…
Thank You Mr. Rogers, for loving so many of us into being.
Your Neighbor,
Devah
The Majority of this blog was taken from WikiPedia and edited and reworded by me to express my love for Mr. Rogers.