The Fred Rogers We Know

https://hazlitt.net/longreads/fred-rogers-we-know

by anarbadalov • 8 years ago

150 65 8 years ago

I recently watched the biography, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

I can remember watching Mister Rogers on TV a bit when I was younger, but only through reruns (I'm a child of the '90s), and not very regularly. Until recently, he was a faint memory in the back of my mind. He comes up now and again when there are terrible events (as the article mentions), but I wouldn't say he was a defining figure in my early development.

After seeing the movie, I can only wish that I had had more of him and his show in my life. He was truly dedicated to producing emotionally educational television for children. I think we could do with more of that these days. Children's shows just aren't what they used to be.

I think I'd give the biography a 9 out of 10. Not because it's some incredible feat of cinematic achievement, but because the message is so crucially important. Do yourself a favor and go see it.

mholmes680• 8 years ago

for what its worth, I think they do a good job with Daniel Tiger to continue his legacy. My kids love it (maybe because its the only thing i'll let them watch), and it has taught me a few things on how my kids are going to react to certain situations.

lighthazard• 8 years ago

It's also taught me how to handle myself in certain situations as well.

DonaldPShimoda2• 8 years ago

I've heard of that one! A friend watches that when she babysits her (much) younger sisters and she said she really likes it for them.

Incidentally she didn't know that Daniel Tiger was from Mr Rogers until we saw the biography together. (She never watched Mr Rogers's Neighborhood when she was younger, and had only heard of him through pop culture.)

bdamm2• 8 years ago

Agreed. Daniel Tiger is as much for me as it is for my son. It seems like they have handy little songs for many toddler challenges. We still sing the "flush and wash and be on your way" song, as well as "take a deep breath".

It's a very different format from Mr Roger's, but maybe it has to be in order to be relevant to the ages.

spraak• 8 years ago

Daniel Tiger is great, and we like it because we can watch the same episode in a few different languages (namely Swedish, German and Spanish)

swyx• 8 years ago

one really has to wonder why he had to fight for 20 million dollars for children. CHILDREN! do we not care about our kids?

it would be a fun stat to track government spending on military vs children. i dont even want to know the results.

danharaj• 8 years ago

There's plenty of money for detaining children apart from their guardians, tho.

zaccus• 8 years ago

Lately it almost seems like there's a competition to see who cares the least about children. As though giving any thought to their well being is some kind of unwarranted "won't anyone think of the chidren?!" hysteria.

Toddlers are being arbitrarily kidnapped and kept in cages, and 40% of this country just shrugs it off. Your comment is being downvoted without rebuttal. Etc. Etc.

ravenstine• 8 years ago

This is nothing new. We used to send kids to mine coal, sweep chimneys, and plant dynamite. A lot of them didn't live to see adulthood. Kids these days have it pretty good.

GauntletWizard• 8 years ago

First off, that was in the 60s, so the number today would be something more like $150 million. Secondly - Pretty much every bit of the government budget is fought for. And should be. It is incredibly important that we have robust debate on government spending. At the time, children's programming, public television - These were unproven topics, and Fred was making some of the earliest debates for them.

And third: "Think of the children" is a classic fallacy all in itself, that bears no further explanation

karmelapple• 8 years ago

The movie did a pretty good job of framing it: TV for children was not caring, and was not educational. It was predominately clowns and violence.

Fred Rogers saw the power in doing something different, and eloquently expressed that to the committee... although it's a little scary how much power that one man on the committee seemed to have over this incredibly powerful resource for children and adults.

dogruck• 8 years ago

I loved Mr. Rogers, and several other PBS shows.

I can also understand why we might not want to spend government money to produce the shows.

shams93• 8 years ago

As a kid the most valuable part we're the musical guests. Growing up in the night city undermined the abity of his message to impact me but he cultivated my life long love of jazz.

sreyaNotfilc• 8 years ago

Thanks for the heads up on the movie. I didn't know it was out in theaters yet.

I grew up in the 90s watching PBS all the time. PBS was pure magic at that time with Ghostwriter, Carmen San Deigo, Sesame Street. Mr. Rogers was my favorite program overall. I always stopped to watch him. He just made you feel calm and collected.

I just recently watched an episode on YouTube and I ended up getting teary-eyed watching it. His simple little show was so impactful. So many great memories and morals I have learned from this show. So good.

I'm afraid to go to the movie. I feel I will be sobbing uncontrollably at the end.

jason_slack2• 8 years ago

I went and watched the documentary after seeing this thread. It was great. At the end, not a dry eye to be found.

newswriter99• 8 years ago

"This is an article about Fred Rogers."

(inserts random paragraph about incels, misogyny and the fear of being shot at for being a woman)

Talk about a big-lipped alligator moment.

klenwell• 8 years ago

Not sure what a "big-lipped alligator moment" is, but I thought the writer tied it all together pretty lucidly in the discussion about competing models of masculinity. Also this:

Visiting the archives of Canada’s public broadcaster this past May was more complex than usual due to increased security in the building. Five days after Alek Minassian had killed ten people and injured multiple others by driving a white van through a crowd, Canadaland reported that a post had appeared on the Incels.me message board with the subject, “[Serious] our next task: shooting up CBC headquarters.”

Rogers (I learned from this article) got his start on the CBC.

sotojuan• 8 years ago

"A very bizarre scene in an otherwise normal story that veers off into the surreal or strange. Upon exiting that scene, the plot continues on like it never happened."

stormbrew• 8 years ago

I don't really know how the GP thinks it applies, but a big lipped alligator moment is a term that originated from a review of the movie All Dogs Go To Heaven about a scene that is basically irrelevant to the plot or emotional development of the characters and is literally just a musical number starring a big lipped alligator.

stan_rogers• 8 years ago

...and brought Ernie Coombs with him. If you're Canadian, you might remember Mr. Coombs as Mr. Dressup. Bob Homme (The Friendly Giant) came up for much the same reason at much the same time.

sudouser• 8 years ago

yes, for amoment thought i was reading wrong article

pwinnski• 8 years ago

I feel like this apparently general inability to string together cogent thoughts, or identify incredibly-clear connections even when laid out pretty clearly, goes a long way toward explaining the context for the very issues discussed in the article.

Mr. Rogers is a hero who directly addressed exactly the issues facing us today, and people are figuratively sticking their fingers in their ears and refusing to listen.

throwawayjava2• 8 years ago

Perhaps you missed the subtitle: With his unconventional take on children’s television, Mr. Rogers helped redefine the male role model.

The point of the piece: Mr. Rogers provides a model of maleness and masculinity that works especially well for boys and men who feel scared, alienated, or attacked by society. This model, rooted in love, contrasts with other models for that subpopulation that ground out in anger or hate.

In other words, the very thesis of the piece is that there is a salient relationship between incels/mysogyny and Mr. Rogers: the latter provides an alternative to the former.

sitkack• 8 years ago

Your comment should the hover text, or Press F1 for Help.

allemagne• 8 years ago

The Toronto attack, targeting women and fueled by an "incel" mindset, is pointed to several times in the article as an example of how Fred Rogers' message to boys and his approach to mental health could be helpful.

Honestly this was clearly the intention just from reading the paragraph in question.

ManFromUranus• 8 years ago

"big-lipped alligator moment"

The generic term being non-sequitur I would say.

pandasun2• 8 years ago

Yeah it's like writing an article about puppies and then changing the subject to the horrors of World War 2.

Apocryphon• 8 years ago

Maybe as humans we could learn from puppies how not to be inhumane to one another?

hapnin• 8 years ago

I'm a child of the 60s/early 70s who grew up watching Fred Rogers. My environment was hell as a child. His show was a small counterbalance. Every little bit helps.

8bitsrule• 8 years ago

I'd guess that his model of thoughtful kindness and calmness helped many kids (without any such neighbors) sense that alternatives to their emotional environment existed. And that they could hold onto their inner authorities.

ada19812• 8 years ago

I got a chance to see this in NYC at the Directors Guild with a q&a with the author afterward.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Jeff Erlanger in the film. He was a friend from when I was in grad school at Wisconsin - really a lovely soul.

subpixel• 8 years ago

I can watch the clip of him singing with Mr Rogers all day, there’s such pure, unadulterated joy in his eyes, his smile, and his voice. The backstory of the scene as explained in the current documentary makes it even more touching.

da02• 8 years ago

How did you get in? Are you a director or was it open to the public?

ada19812• 8 years ago

I was a guest of a member of the directors guild. My friend is a director and regularly invites me. It’s always a good time.

*My original post should say director, not author.

gwbas1c2• 8 years ago

My daughter loves Mr. Rogers. We don't watch him very often, though. There are only about 15 episodes available through Google Play. (Nothing on Netflix or Amazon.)

I really wish there were more episodes available. She finds him captivating.

throwawayjava2• 8 years ago

There are 7 seasons available on Amazon (free with prime):

https://www.amazon.com/Mister-Rogers-Neighborhood-Volume-1/d...

And there are a ton on PBS Kids for free:

http://pbskids.org/video/mister-rogers/

ngokevin• 8 years ago

Probably YouTube has tons of them as well.

gwbas1c2• 8 years ago

Thanks, must have shown up recently!

jason_slack2• 8 years ago

There is a book coming out in September:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419727729/ref=ox_sc_sfl_t...

(not affiliated, etc)

Watching Mr. Rogers growing up really helped me handle tough situations growing up. It may sound weird but I remain calm, under pressure, under crisis, etc. I try to remind people of the positives the have and to work through the negatives without spreading negative energy.

Edit: I didn't realize the documentary was still in theaters! That is my plan for tonight then...

pandasun2• 8 years ago

"men who make up the misogynistic online subculture"

Where in the world did this come from in an article about Fred Rogers? The author sounds unstable. What a loaded article.

emptybits• 8 years ago

Big Fred Rogers fan here. I saw "Won't You Be My Neighbor" in a theatre last week and it cemented my belief that his love and dedication to childhood development is just as necessary today as it was in the 60s and 70s when I watched it. Balance for the "animated barrages" of amusement, as Rogers called them.

So does anyone know how to view/buy/rent a large (complete?) collection of all those wonderful old episodes? I would like to re-watch these with young family members. I'd happily buy a big Blu-ray or DVD set but I didn't see such a thing available on PBS' site.

s4vi0r• 8 years ago

Seasons 1-7 are available on Amazon, though I don't know if that covers all of them or not.

sekh602• 8 years ago

It does not unfortunately, there are 31 seasons.

sekh602• 8 years ago

There is no legally available full collection. Twitch did a full run with NBC (I think it was that channel) as a stream last year and a bunch of people screen-capped it and uploaded it to a few places. I got my copy from a btsync link.

gb_• 8 years ago

Amazon has almost all of them, all the way back to the first episode. We subscribe to PBS kids (through Amazon) for our daughter, but I'm not sure if that's required for the Mr. Rogers series.

aklemm• 8 years ago

Mister Rogers' interactions with other people are the purest and most kind I've ever witnessed, so I pondered for a long time how it is that he could be so humane and kind. Finally I realized the whole thing comes from his ability to take others for exactly who they are in those moments.

disqard• 8 years ago

That's very well articulated. He had no pretense and never came across as patronizing, at least in my (admittedly limited) sampling of old episodes via YouTube.

The "take others for exactly who they are" mentality captures his earnestness and utter lack of guile in his interactions. I'm sure you've seen him testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications to maintain funding for PBS [0], but I'll leave this link here anyway, for others who might not have seen this.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0AA

acjohnson552• 8 years ago

It was also clear to me that he was truly willing to devote as much of his attention as possible to another person for a solid minute or two. Not long at all, but it feels like an eternity when you see his non-judgmental, undistracted gaze locked in.

wongma• 8 years ago

He took his Christian faith very seriously and that heavily influenced his worldview and treatment of others.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus in the book of Mark 12:30-31

glial• 8 years ago

And Rogers had his own related message: "Love your neighbor and love yourself."

seoguru• 8 years ago

I'm Seeing Mr. Rogers pop up quite a bit recently.

Reminds me of a srsly good podcast episode about Mr. Rogers: https://srslywrong.com/podcast/ep-131-the-genius-of-mr-roger...

acjohnson552• 8 years ago

Having just watched "Won't You Be My Neighbor?", it's really interesting to read this piece. It overlaps the content of that documentary, but also explores other parts of Rogers' story that weren't covered in the film.

It's a really touching movie. I came away struck by the quiet radicalism of Rogers' mission to simply validate other human beings, especially children. He seemed to have honed the ability to climb the wall we put up to protect ourselves once we learn that we're on our own in this world, as that world invariably let's us down by ignoring us and invaliditating our dignity.

The Fred Rogers We Know

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