Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

[bunniefuu]

-Mr. Rogers? -Yes.

Where do you live?

-I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. -Oh.

Did you want to...

Pardon me? - They are gathered

in this television studio with Fred Rogers, an adult who cares just about them.

His reward is the love of millions of children.

I want to tell you something.

What would you like to tell me?

-I like you. -I like you, my dear.

Thank you very much for telling me that.

We had a director that once said to me, "if you take all of the elements

"that make good television

"and do the exact opposite, you have mister Rogers' neighborhood."

Low production values, simple set, unlikely star.

Yet, it worked.

Because he was saying something really important.

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.

He had a singular vision

of kindness and love, but a question that I think of a lot, in terms of Fred, is whether his attempt to influence America succeeded or not.

I was all set to go to the seminary

to become a minister, but I went home my senior year for a vacation, and I saw this new thing called television.

Tootsie roll! America's favorite candy...

And I saw people

throwing pies in each other's faces.

And I thought, "this could be a wonderful tool.

Why is it being used this way?"

And so I said to my parents, "you know, I don't think I'll go to seminary right away.

I think maybe I'll go into television."

And they said, "wait, but you've never even seen it."

Station wqed

is located in the heart of Pittsburgh.

His father told him about this new station that was coming along here.

It was going to be called...

It was called educational television.

Nobody wanted to do a children's program.

And I said, "well, we need a children's program."

And I said, "well, I'll produce it

"and play some music in the background.

"We'll get some free films, and, Josie, you can introduce them."

And then we discovered the awful fact that when you got free film, it was often brittle, and it would break.

And if you were on the air live, you had to do something.

Somebody had given me this little tiger puppet.

I pushed it through the clock and said, "hi, Josie. It's 5:02, and Columbus discovered America in 1492," and then just went right back in.

And that's how the puppetry began.

We never expected to use puppets.

You know that... so much of it was the necessity being the mother of that invention.

My friend, Daniel striped tiger.

How do you do? How do you do?

The interesting thing was-- dad remembered being six and seven and eight and nine years old.

That inner child never really went away.

I had every imaginable

childhood disease, even Scarlet fever.

Whenever I was, uh, quarantined, I would be in bed a lot.

I would put up my knees, and they would be mountains covered with the sheet.

And I'd have all these little figures moving around, and I'd... I'd make them talk.

I had to make up a lot of my own fun.

Eh! Take that.

Eh, eh, eh!

What's the matter?

Over time, Fred became unsatisfied with the children's corner.

He thought that it was

simple and slapstick.

And he said he really wanted to concentrate

on the seminary, so he wanted to stop for a while.

His ordination was

as an evangelist for television.

It was pretty way out there for the presbyterian church.

With television, Fred wanted to focus on the very young.

What do you think it is?

Lion!

A lion. Great.

Back in the 1950s, there was a school of people at the university of Pittsburgh

looking at early childhood education.

What was it?

They felt that physicians

needed a training ground

so that they had a sense of where human behavior was coming from from the very beginning.

Dr. Benjamin Spock was part of it.

Berry brazelton, the famous pediatrician, was a part of it.

Erik Erikson, the extraordinary psychologist, was a part of it.

And Fred's part of that group.

He-he became part of the group

as a student of Margaret mcfarland.

Margaret mcfarland: Fred, I think, to the child, the television program between you and the child is a real relationship.

For him to say, "the feelings of a young child

are every bit as powerful as our adult feelings," he was radical.

I know everyone says that, but he was radical.

I've always felt that...

That I didn't need to put on a funny hat or jump through the hoop

to have a relationship with a child.

I went to visit with a new nursery school.

I had never met these children before.

And I walked in, and there was a long stare from most of them.

And one little boy by the name of Thatcher spoke first.

And all he said was, "my doggy's ear came off in the a*t*matic washer."

And there was silence.

Just complete silence.

It was as if, "this is your test, Mr. Rogers.

Are you still in touch with childhood?"

And so I said, "sometimes that happens to toys, doesn't it?

"Their ears come off or their legs come off, "but that never happens to us.

"Our ears don't come off.

"Our noses don't come off.

Our arms don't come off."

And Thatcher's eyes were getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and he said, "and our legs don't come off?"

And I said, "no, they don't."

And immediately, all of the other children

started asking questions, and poignant questions.

It was just as if, you know, "we shall now open the door.

"You have passed the test.

You may come in."

And what he wanted to do

was to take all of that that he learned

in television work, add to that the sense of ministry

and the child development background.

It became mister Rogers' neighborhood.

A neighborhood was a place

where, at times that you felt worried, scared, unsafe, would take care of you, would provide understanding, safety.

That's what the neighborhood was for Fred.

Television has the chance of building a real community...

...out of an entire country.

The neighborhood is not a fantasy place

where all these different people got together

and everything was happily ever after.

When you have diverse people together

with their different opinions, you have conflict.

And that's what happens in the neighborhood.

You have conflict, real conflict.

Halt, trolley.

Give me your name, rank and serial number.

"King Friday xiii

"establishes border guard.

King against change."

The parallels between what is happening in the real world

and what is happening inside the neighborhood

are uncanny and undeniable.

In 1968, the country is at w*r.

He can go on fighting

longer than we can.

Frightened, meow, frightened, meow.

There's nothing to be frightened about until somebody starts sh**ting, henrietta.

Meow, meow, start sh**ting, meow!

That was the first time he knew that he was

producing something for a national audience.

King Friday was really irritated

that people were changing things.

So his reaction as the authority

was to build a wall.

Remember our battle cry, Edgar?

Down with the changers!

-'Cause we're on top. -That's right.

I can't believe what a broad area we covered.

Oh, dear. -Edgar, Edgar, wh-what do you think he means by "any trouble"?

Fred didn't want you ad-libbing, putzing around with the words, because he was always trying to get a message across

in every show.

I want there to be peace in this neighborhood.

It's been a hard time for everyone.

Well, I really do hope that what you say will work.

Do you have the tags on the bottom?

Yes, I... I put 'em on.

-Look, see if you like them. -Good.

"Love," this one says.

And then we float them over into the castle

so that great uncle Friday will know

that the whole neighborhood wants peace.

Paratroopers!

Fire the Cannon!

Hold it, king Friday.

-Well, what is it? -They're not paratroopers.

They're... They're messages of peace.

Look at this: "Tenderness."

Messages of peace?

"Peaceful co-existence."

-Wait. -You see, that one was...

They're peaceful messages, sir.

Let us stop all fighting.

Stop all fighting now.

--Oh, superb! Superb!

Meow, wonderful, meow.

That was the first week.

That's how it got started.

From the early days

of mister Rogers' neighborhood

until the end of that program, he came in the door every day the same way.

Hi.

Hello.

And he changed to the sweater

to give a sense that we are gonna have

this relaxing time together.

Whoop.

Change the shoes.

Some food for the fish.

Picture picture on the wall, would you kindly tell us all, is Mr. mcfeely on his way here?

My job was to be the prop person.

And then he said, "oh, "i know you've done some... some acting.

"I'd like you to play the character

of the delivery man."

I must go off, Mr. Rogers.

I have a lot of deliveries today in the neighborhood.

So I became Mr. mcfeely on the spot.

The trolley left for its house

into the neighborhood of make-believe.

Boomerang, toomerang, soomerang!

Anything could happen in make-believe.

Oh!

But make-believe was not real.

I mean, there was a distinction.

Fred never appeared in make-believe.

Actors did. The puppets did.

There's the clock

where Daniel striped tiger lives.

Next you see king Friday xiii's castle.

King Friday xiii is one of the few remaining

benevolent despots.

These characters are... Were people in his life.

Queen Sara

would obviously be my mom.

I'd just like to say what a fine person my husband is.

Why, Sara.

None of us like to think of lady Elaine as my aunt, but we wonder about that.

In the beginning, she was a witch.

I heard that.

Here's a squirt.

What can I say?

In a beautiful tree

lived x the owl and henrietta pussycat.

Meow, meow, beautiful day, meow, meow, neighborhood.

And then, at the end of every program, we came back to Fred's television house.

And to help children understand all of these experiences, he put that into a song.

And children need to hear that.

I don't think that anybody can grow unless he really is accepted exactly as he is.

I think he was one of those people

who would do their work seriously

and they hope that someone will pick up on the seriousness

of what they're about.

There were times when he thought, "will people ever understand that I'm not just a klutzy guy

"who's fumbling around in a '50s living room with...

With weird curtains?"

Wgbh in Boston decided to have

something called a Mr. Rogers day.

There was just a woman in... in gbh who was in their PR department who loved the program, and I think her colleagues said...

You know, I think they thought it was really simple, kind of '50s, square.

And she said, "no, I really want to bring him here, and I want families to be able to come and see him."

And the line to get in

was blocks and blocks long

before they even opened the doors.

And the word got around really quickly

that there's something going on with this guy.

Mr. Rogers, Mr. Rogers.

I like you as you are.

A little boy came up to him and said, "Mr. Rogers, how did you get out?"

And so he talked to the little boy, explained what television was all about.

And the little boy's just taking it all in, going, "mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm."

And he... When Fred finished, he said...

The little boy said, "how are you gonna get back in?"

There was a whole spiritual dimension to his work in the television business

to be inclusive.

He did this without ever

identifying himself as a minister.

He didn't wear a collar. He wore a sweater.

And he preached in that context in a way more effective than anyone I've ever seen, because it wasn't a sermon like, uh, an oratorical thing.

It was a communication right into their hearts.

He was a life-long registered republican, and if you look at the values that Mr. Rogers represented, it's influenced by his faith.

His christianity was this kind of wide open christianity

that was accepting thinking from all other places

while never departing from the Christian faith.

Fred's theology was:

Love your neighbor and love yourself.

And he saw that communication

as the most deeply spiritual thing

that he could be doing.

When I look at the camera, I think of one person.

Not any specific person, but one person.

It's very, very personal.

The space between the television screen

and whoever happens to be receiving it, I consider that very holy ground.

A lot happens.

A lot happens there.

For somebody who was in television, he was just... He hated television.

Here, buddy. It's all yours.

Wow, look at this!

Hey! What about me?

In this country, the child

is appreciated for what he will be.

He will be a great consumer someday.

The quicker we can get them to go out and buy, the better.

There's so much of that in this country.

Mr. Ellison, I think you have felt strongly about some aspects of this.

Public television could make a contribution.

As the American people becomes aware of itself, it discovers itself.

We do not know as much as we should know about who we are, what we are and how we differ.

How will man use his miracles?

The answer just begins with public television.

We want most of all to enrich man's spirit, and that is the purpose of this act.

And then Nixon became president, and he wanted to cut the funding.

The beginnings of pbs

was gonna probably be dismantled by Richard Nixon, whose approach to media was to thr*aten stations if they didn't behave politically.

Nixon had a problem with his budget.

He had to find money for the Vietnam w*r.

It wasn't a lot of money in today's terms, but he wanted to cut the budget.

In the midst of all this, Fred Rogers gets to go before congress, argue for $20 million of funding to sort of solidify pbs, in front of John pastore, who's a senator who had already

sort of made his congressional bones

by attacking television.

This is going to be a thorough hearing.

This is going to be a hearing not to reach for a headline, but to reach for a result.

There had been two days of hearings, and he hasn't been very impressed. http://worldmkv.com/

If you'd been watching those hearings and you had to bet on whether or not pbs was going to keep going-- no. http://worldmkv.com/

That educational television should permanently struggle for subsistence is intolerable.

All right, who's the next witness?

Senator pastore told the group, "I've heard everybody read your testimonies.

"I don't want anyone to read anymore.

I'm tired of hearing the reading."

When I heard about that, I thought, "uh-oh, Fred."

All right, Rogers, you've got the floor.

May I use this? - And I could hear in his voice the... the nerves.

Senator pastore, this is a philosophical statement and would take about ten minutes to read.

So I'll not do that. Uh...

One of the first things that a child learns in a healthy family is trust.

And I trust what you have said, that you will read this.

It's very important to me.

I care deeply about children.

My first children...

Will it make you happy if you read it?

I'd just like to talk about it, -if it's all right. -All right, sir.

This is what I give.

I give an expression of care every day to each child to help him realize that he is unique.

I end the program by saying, "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."

And I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service.

Uh, could I tell you the words of one of the songs, which I feel is very important?

Yes.

This has to do with that good feeling of control, which I feel that...

That children need to know is there.

And it starts out, "what do you do with the mad that you feel?"

And that first line came straight from a child.

I work with children, doing puppets in...

In very personal communication with small groups.

"What do you do with the 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 anytime.

"Know that there's something deep inside that helps us become what we can."

I think it's wonderful. I think it's wonderful.

Looks like you just earned the $20 million.

Fred Rogers is easily the star of the show, and if children had votes, public television would be on easy street tomorrow.

Oh, wow.

Everything just sort of exploded.

You know, suddenly there was press

beating a path to our door.

Good evening. I was in Pittsburgh a few days ago

doing a bit of investigative reporting

on a man named Fred Rogers.

Meow, meow, meow, meow.

Wonderful. Meow!

Mr. Rogers does ten different voices

for ten different puppets.

Well, a copperhead is poisonous, is it not?

He writes, he's the producer, he is the chief performer, and he is a marvel.

Fred Rogers, as best I can tell, has managed to escape the calloused, the embittered, the negative aspects of being a public performer.

He is doing the one thing in the world that he wishes to do, and he is by any definition a happy man.

I sometimes wonder myself how he ticked.

It's a little tough for me to have the...

Almost the second Christ as my dad.

If we were at the dinner table

and he would want to say something

that wasn't necessarily Mr. Rogers-like, he would say it in lady Elaine fairchilde's voice.

Get out here, Friday.

I need to speak with you.

That was our cue that this is the alter-ego speaking now, you know, and just letting off a little steam.

He and I both had childhoods

that you weren't allowed to be angry.

You weren't allowed to show your anger.

And we were never able to do it.

It scared us.

Music was my first language.

I was scared to use words.

I didn't want to be a bad boy.

I didn't want to tell people that I was angry.

But I could show it through...

The way I would play on the piano.

I could literally laugh or cry

or be very angry through the ends of my fingers.

I've always felt that you were someone who could understand the deep feelings or thoughts of people.

Well, it took me so long to get tame.

I try to understand how everybody else is working at it.

Sometimes it isn't easy.

No, but it's worth a try.

Daniel was pretty much Fred.

He did all the voices, but, uh...

But I think Daniel was the real Fred.

Maybe I could talk about clocks and loving...

And things like that.

A, b, c, d, f, g, j, k, l, m, s...

Oh, lady aberlin, I just can't go to school tomorrow.

Why not, Daniel?

Because I don't know everything.

Daniel is articulating the fears and anxieties and feelings that Fred had as a child, but that many children have.

He never forgot how vulnerable it was to be a kid.

You know, you're this little thing.

Everything else in the world is bigger than you are, and you have to learn everything that helps you get through in life.

I think that it just never left him.

Whatever those scars of his life were, he wanted to help heal that wound, maybe?

It's a lot easier, even as an adult, for me to have Daniel say...

"I'm really scared.

Do you think maybe you could give me a hug?"

You know?

That would be hard for me to say, "I'm really scared.

Do you think you could give me a hug?"

So the difference from the... From here to here, that doesn't seem very far, but...

It was efficacious, to say the least.

A car ran over the jaw of your cat?

-Mm-hmm. -And what happened?

It was bleeding.

Oh.

They tried and fixed it, but they fixed it for a half a day, but then it died.

-But then it died? -Mm-hmm.

Oh, I think that's scary.

All you had to do was see Fred

inhabit Daniel to...

Really kind of figure it out.

I mean, they were symbiotic.

As strange as it is to see a grown man

have a symbiotic relationship with kind of a dingy, you know, worn-out little sock puppet, he definitely had that.

Would you give me a hug?

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

'Cause I needed that.

I better go back in the case, Mr. Rogers.

Okay, Daniel.

He's really nice.

You could talk to him.

Okay, Daniel.

Just a minute. I want to show you something.

Okay.

Wonder what.

It's a balloon.

Oh, a balloon.

Could you blow it up for me?

Surely.

So, this is the first year of mister Rogers' neighborhood.

Daniel striped tiger is there with lady aberlin, asking her to blow a balloon up and then let the air out.

You wonder why this is in there.

Uh, they can't hear. Can you hear on any of these?

There's something I want to ask you.

What does "assassination" mean?

What happened? Do you know?

Somebody said he's been shot.

Let's roll some videotape on this out here, friends.

Ha-have you heard that word a lot today?

Yes.

And I didn't know what it meant.

Well...

It means...

Somebody getting k*lled...

...in a... A sort of surprise way.

That's what happened, you know.

That man k*lled that other man.

A lot of people are sad and scared about it, you know.

I'd rather talk about it some other day.

Whenever you like.

I felt that I had to speak

to the families of our country about grief.

A plea not to leave the children isolated

and at the mercy of their own fantasies

of loss and destruction.

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 a most important task in our world.

He realized that if he really wanted to communicate, the most important thing is to listen.

'Cause there's so many people who will just lump 'em all together and say, "hey, kids, come along.

We'll see the next cartoon."

And they couldn't care less about what that cartoon is saying to the child about such things as human dignity.

Remember what was happening

for children's television.

It was speeding up.

Fred was pretty radical in television for that day

in that he used time totally differently.

To Fred, silence was his delight.

Fred took an egg timer and said, "do you want to know how long a minute is?

Here. We're going to show you."

And we just sat there for the whole minute.

There's a lot of slow space.

There's no wasted space.

In.

Out.

I think silence is one of the greatest gifts

that we have.

His questions are direct, simple, short, and then he waits.

He interviewed me, and he put his face about three inches away from my face, says, "it's so nice to see you and to be with you."

It scared the living daylights out of me.

But I realized this is what children do with adults.

And sometimes after they answer, he doesn't say anything else.

So they say a little bit more.

It's-it's a... it's a perfect interviewing trick.

Very funny. Very funny.

Very funny.

I'm not falling for it.

Very good.

Handyman negri and officer clemmons, I presume.

Correct as always, your highness.

Could we take a close look at, uh, your badge here, officer clemmons?

My friends, I think, can read it.

P-o-l-i-c-e.

I have always felt policemen to be the most dangerous person in the neighborhood.

So, to have me playing a police officer, I was tremendously hesitant.

But there was something reluctant about Fred to let go.

And I said, "Mr. Rogers, "i would be very happy to be on your program as long as it doesn't interfere with my singing."

And he teased me.

He teased me about that for 20 years.

He'd say, "officer clemmons, "are we interfering with your career?

Are we interfering?"

He was relentless.

But he also told me, he said, "that was the moment i loved you."

He said, "because you were not going to kiss my ass."

Those are Mr. Rogers' words.

Mm, that feels good.

Oh, there's officer clemmons.

Hi, officer clemmons. Come in.

Hello, Mr. Rogers. How are you?

Come on. Why don't you sit down?

Oh, sure. Just for a moment.

It's so warm, I was just, uh, putting some water on my feet.

Oh, it sure is.

Would you like to join me?

That looks awfully enjoyable, but I don't have a towel or anything.

Oh, you share mine.

-Okay. -Sure.

Around the country, they didn't want black people

to come and swim in their swimming pools.

And Fred said, "that is absolutely ridiculous."

Today, trouble under a noon sun.

Negroes and white rabbis marched to a segregated hotel

with these results.

The manager, James Brock, told them to get off his private property, tossed, uh, cleaning chemicals inside the pool

in an effort to get the negroes to leave.

My being on the program was a statement for Fred.

Cool water on a hot day.

I think that will is the great unseen and unacknowledged ingredient in Fred's story.

The level of will that this guy brought

to really almost all phases of his life, physical and spiritual...

...there's no better manifestation of that than...

143.

Is that your address here?

Oh, no.

It-it means something special.

1-4-3?

Mm-hmm. You see, "i" is one letter, and "love"-- l-o-v-e-- is four letters, and "you"-- y-o-u-- is three letters.

Fred would go to the Pittsburgh athletic club, and he swam a mile.

He swam at a unhurried

but deliberate and determined pace.

And then he got on the scale, and the needle of the scale jumped to 143.

And he came off it with kind of a little smile on his face, and he told me that he had weighed 143 pounds

every day of his life since, like, the late '50s or early '60s.

Now, I've thought about this a lot.

What, that... that 143-pound thing drives me insane.

Try that.

I can't do that.

In Fred's private numerology, "i love you" is "1-4-3."

So, when the needle jumps to 143, there's, like, this confirming quality.

There are so many weird things that I'm not gonna tell you.

No.

Freddy was like the little rich kid

that lived in the big house.

And we were all the...

The goofball kids that lived across the alley.

We could be ourselves around Fred.

We were crazies.

We all had long hair, and we were always having fun, we were always making jokes.

Those aren't mine.

Whose are these?

If we ever saw a camera laying around, we'd grab it, I'd pull my pants down, I'd take a picture of my ass and put their camera back.

And, like, then it was film, so, like, three weeks later, you'd go to the fotomat, and you'd get your pictures back, and there's aunt Judy, and there's uncle Fred, and there's some guy's ass, you know.

And one day, Fred brought his camera into the studio, and he was taking pictures with it.

And we went behind the set, took a picture of my butt and put his camera back.

He never said anything, and, like, months later--

I think it was around christmastime-- he said to somebody, "did you give Nick his present?"

And it was a poster of that picture of me and my butt.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

-Did you make these yourself? -Mm-hmm.

I... I, um...

I thought... I-i thought of x the owl, so I... so I, um...

I drew him in his house and his little door.

Oh, these are real treasures.

-Thank you very much. -You're welcome.

Would you like to see x the owl?

You're a little happy.

That makes you just a little bit happy, huh?

Oh, hello there.

Hello, everybody.

Hi.

I'm x the owl.

I hear you drew a picture of me.

This is a book

on all of the different tapes that we have.

Here are the tapes. Here.

At that point, he thought

he had done enough programs that they could be repeated.

Those are all different visits...

Television visits that we have on tape.

He was writing, he was hosting, he was singing, he was composing.

And it took a lot out of him.

I think he wanted a breather.

Well, next week, we'll start to show all of these visits so everybody can see them the whole way through.

Well, I'll look forward to that.

Let's take a look at this one.

When you think about all of those episodes, there's only so many stories you can tell, right?

What's in the future for Fred Rogers?

I understand that you are ceasing production this spring of the neighborhood shows.

Well, it's going to give us time to make some things that I've wanted to do for a long time.

-Hi, Katie. -Hi, Fred.

And, John, wait till you see this quilt.

He wanted to do some prime-time stuff for adults, and so he got funding to do a show called old friends... New friends.

I wonder what it is that makes one person

push on in the face of difficulty

and makes someone else crumble in helplessness.

What does tomorrow feel like?

That big. I feel...

I feel that big.

There's no feeling for tomorrow.

Feeling is dead for me in here.

He was incredibly open.

He was scarily open.

He wanted to speak to adults.

He kind of put the puppets away.

But have you watched some of these?

The feeling that...

This instrument is a place, that it is a country, that it's somewhere that you go to say something.

What... what does this have to do with our world?

I don't know any store that's like this.

Any television program that's like this.

A flower is like this.

A child is like this.

Nobody but Fred would have thought

of doing that for adults.

Take number 19.

Thank you for your poems and your thoughts about loving poetry and music.

You really inspired us to make this program.

I'll be with you next time.

But he wasn't making the kind of connections with adults on television that he thought he might be able to make.

I remember opening the paper

and reading about a child jumping off a roof with a towel around his neck

because he was playing superman.

And there had been a lot of stories like that.

Some children died because of the injuries.

I read it to Fred.

It hit him, because he thought he had covered

all that there was to say in child development, but this was new.

Fred didn't become angry a lot, but he just became so angry about the fact

that people would mislead a small child.

And angry that it was his medium that was doing this.

Yeah, superman.

I am tired of hearing people who have long ago set aside the concerns of childhood, telling everybody what children really need.

I'll tell you what children need.

They need adults who will protect them from the ever-ready molders of their world.

That was the moment Fred said, "i wonder if we could do a week on superheroes, talking about the pretend-ness of it."

Very quickly, we came back with the show.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, careful, Ana.

-I don't want you to... -I think I'm flying.

-I am! I'm flying! -No, you're falling!

What is going on here?

Oh, Ana was trying to fly.

I was using my super-skirt, and I was going through the air.

Yes, but you were going down, and you might have gotten hurt.

That's right, Ana.

You have to be really careful with super-things.

He was cool with every kid.

That's the whole thing. I mean, there were little...

Kids that were... They were little bastards.

They were just rowdy, and Fred never said, "this kid's a d*ck. Get him out of here."

You know, I mean, i sure would've.

Fred used to say that the outside world of children's lives has changed, but their insides haven't.

He realized that his work wasn't through.

I'm Fred Rogers, and I'd like to talk

with you about make-believe.

When it goes to the next level

is in the 1980s when he goes to the theme weeks.

I mean, to... to do

a week on death...

"Oh, hi, kids.

We're gonna do a week on death."

On divorce.

Some people get married, and after a while, they're so unhappy with each other that they don't want to be married anymore.

On children getting lost.

Man, that's guts.

Help! Help, help!

Help, please, everybody!

There's a piece of paper that I accidentally ran into.

And he typed in this little sheet of paper

about how he couldn't do it, that he didn't think he was up to the task.

"Am I kidding myself

"that I'm able to write a script again?

"Am I really just whistling Dixie?

"I wonder.

"If I don't get down to it, I'll never really know.

"Why don't I trust myself?

"After all these years, "it's just as bad as ever.

"The hour cometh, and now is when I've got to do it.

"Get to it, Fred. Get to it.

"But don't let anybody ever tell anybody else

"that it was easy.

It wasn't."

The time that I was with him

going on a New York City subway, all the children in that crowded subway car

began singing the neighborhood song.

He might as well have been an animated figure

stepped into real life.

Could I try that?

I brought my skates with me.

I can try.

Whoa.

-What else do you like to do? -Moonwalk.

Moonwalk? You got it. Yeah.

People thought he was

such an important American figure, they wanted him to speak out on the issues of the day.

And so Fred grew pretty comfortably

into more of a public role.

You know, the earth is a name for the place where everybody lives.

And the moon

is the name for the place

where the astronauts go.

Every time we went through a national or international tragedy, my impulse was always to call Fred

and put him on the radio.

What shall we tell our children

about the things that are in the news

that seem so difficult, so tragic?

Pilot Mike Smith, followed by christa mcauliffe, teacher in space.

Christa has been rehearsing

the lessons she'll teach from space.

Good morning.

This is christa mcauliffe, live from the challenger.

The lessons will be seen

nationwide on public television.

Five, four, three...

Two, one...

And liftoff!

Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission, and it has cleared the tower.

Challenger, go at throttle up.

Roger. Go at throttle up.

God, no!

How do we put it to children

so they will understand?

And part of Fred's answer was always to tell children

that we, the parents, would take care of them.

Sometimes I found that a difficult message myself as the parent of a young child.

Sometimes I felt I was lying.

I knew that there were things in this world that I couldn't protect my child from.

Sometimes we need to struggle

with a tragedy to feel the gravity of love.

Love is what keeps us together and afloat.

You know, it must be tough to be Fred Rogers...

...with your mission in mind and then to have parodies.

Eddie Murphy did that mister Robinson's neighborhood, and I remember meeting him, and he just threw his arms around me

the first time he saw me, and he said, "the real Mr. Rogers."

That's, uh, Mr. Rogers there in the, uh...

-On the left. -On the left, yeah.

Uh, now, how do you react to that?

Well, some of them aren't very funny.

But I think that, uh... That a lot of them are done with real kindness

-in their hearts. -Mm-hmm.

I'm moving to a new neighborhood where I've made a... A new friend.

Can you say "hooker"?

There were some that...

Were not as kind

in nature, and if they made fun of the philosophy, that was the only thing that offended him, I think.

The battle of the pbs stars.

The crowd is literally buzzing with excitement

as Mr. Rogers enters the ring.

Oh, look out there, Fred!

Fred had such a great sense of humor, for the most part.

There's child, obviously in shape

-and ready for this fight. -Thank you.

But what about Rogers?

Experts have cast aspersions on his manhood itself.

Fred would watch them with the rest of us, and everybody would be laughing, and I just wonder...

If a little bit of fat Freddy came back.

Just before getting to adolescence, he didn't have an easy time making friends, I don't think.

He got a good taste of what bullying was all about.

I've often wondered, if there hadn't been a fat Freddy, would there have been a Mr. Rogers?

You can feel the momentum actually swinging toward child.

And what just happened there?

He grabbed a puppet!

Oh, look at this!

He's hitting child with the lovable king Friday!

And the French chef is down.

A laughter record.

Used to play one like this when I was a young boy.

You see, I felt that the adults around me were pressuring me to be what I couldn't be yet.

"Act like a grown-up," I'd hear them say.

Well, I was afraid they'd laugh at me when I tried.

So I found a record like this, and I could make the laughs start and make them stop whenever I wanted to.

For someone who hated to be laughed at, it was a good feeling to be in charge of at least this laughter.

I think that those who would try to make you feel less than who you are...

I think that's the greatest evil.

There was a wonderful quote from Fred.

Oh, that's hard.

The most important learning-- it's the ability to accept and expect mistakes and deal with the disappointment that they bring.

Hi, neighbor.

Had a little trouble with my zipper there.

I'll get these shoes tied and then...

Try the zipper again.

And Fred also understood

that there's a deeper level.

You know something, -lady aberlin? -What, Daniel?

I've been wondering about something myself.

Something about Mr. skunk?

Something about mistakes.

What is it?

I've been wondering if I was a mistake.

If you were a mistake?

And I will tell you, sitting in the studio listening to that, that day, I said to myself, "i can't believe Fred had the courage to put that into words."

Sometimes I wonder if I'm too tame.

You do?

Lady aberlin is saying to Daniel what Fred himself wanted to say, not only to his childhood self, but to all children.

"Okay, then Daniel's going to say, 'oh, thank you. That helped me a lot.'"

and I thought to myself, "thank you, Fred, for reminding us

that it's not so easy to quiet a doubt."

But make it a duet so that it's not just your fears, but you'll hear my support.

I think you are just fine exactly the way you are.

The way I look?

Yes.

The way I talk?

Well, yes.

The way I love?

Especially that.

There were black kids watching the show.

They needed a black figure who would not let them down.

So, if I came out as gay and there was some kind of scandal, that would not serve the race.

I carried that all the time.

Really nice, Fran�ois.

I went to a gay bar downtown called the play pen.

Oh, god, did I have a lot of fun.

But somebody, uh, told the

mister Rogers' neighborhood people about it, and he asked me, "did you... Were you downtown at that bar?"

And I said, "yes."

He said, "you can't go back there anymore."

I wanted to show this film to you.

Okay, on picture picture.

Here's Mrs. clemmons at home.

In '68, I got married.

I'm not stupid.

There's the portrait of the king and queen.

If I came out publicly, he said, "you cannot be on the show anymore."

The sponsors, Johnson & Johnson, and sears, they are not going to support an openly gay man.

Fred was not prepared to lose that market.

My marriage failed miserably.

And I discovered you can't pray it away.

Eventually, Fred came around to it.

I think Fran�ois just came a little too soon, maybe, you know?

Oh, yes. Oh, my, yes. Heavens.

Um...

You gotta forgive me for this, but I have to ask you something that may sound impertinent, and I don't mean for it to for a second.

Are-are...

Are you square?

I mean, are you a straight guy? I mean, you're just...

Are you really the way you are?

First of all, no, he's not gay.

I tell everyone who asks me, "no, he's not gay."

But the, uh... The other part is--

I spent enough time with him that if he had the...

If there was a gay vibe, i would've picked it up.

Nope, not as far as I know.

I mean, I think that anybody who looked at Fred looked at somebody that they couldn't compare with anybody else.

There's something inside you that hasn't been lost.

Thank you, Daniel.

-Your childhood. -Mm-hmm.

Okay.

I like him.

I know.

-Bye. -Bye-bye. Okay.

That was one of the things

that I responded to.

That's terrific.

Wow.

I definitely saw another way of... of being a man.

I'm sure you've heard all these rumors about Fred being a Navy seal and k*lling people.

Was Fred a Navy seal?

Did Fred have tattoos?

And that, you know, he wore...

He wore the sweater to cover the tattoos.

Fred was born a rich kid.

He didn't know how to use a screwdriver, let alone k*ll a bunch of people.

That, to me, is just, like, a classic example of people looking at Fred

in all his eccentricity and singularity, and trying to basically say, "well, that can't be.

He has to be this way."

The universal question about Fred is-- was he that way in real life?

And the answer is yes.

Fran�ois clemmons, hi. Welcome.

Thank you. How you doing?

-I'm fine. How are you today? -Fine.

My feet were tired, so I thought I'd just soak them for a while in this water.

-Does it make 'em feel better? -It does.

-Would you like to try? -Sure.

On the show, he would say, "i love you just the way you are."

One day, I said, "Fred, were you talking to me?"

And he looked at me, and he said, "yes, I've been talking to you for two years, and you finally heard me today."

And I just collapsed into his arms.

I was... I started crying. I...

That's when I knew that I loved him.

No man had ever told me

that he loved me like that.

I needed to hear it all my life.

My dad never told me.

My step-father never told me.

So, from then on, he became my surrogate father.

I'm so proud of you, Fran�ois.

Oh, thank you, Fred.

-Thank you. -May I help you here?

Thank you.

The people who have had a lot of struggle in their lives, those are the people who really impress me.

There was an interview with a little boy by the name of Jeff erlanger.

We wrote because Jeff was going to have a spinal fusion and be in a... What they call a halo, uh...

-Cast. A halo cast. -Metal rim, and then cast on his shoulders and bolted all together and...

-All the way down his trunk. -Yeah.

We weren't sure... -Howard: He may not have

survived the surgery, and so we said, you know, "what would you like to do?

"Uh, this is going to be a really big task for you, "and so we want to kick it off with something that would be really special."

Mr. Rogers?

Hey, Jeff.

-I'm glad to see you. -Hi.

Thank you very much for coming by.

Can you tell my friends what it is that made you need this wheelchair?

Sure.

Well, when I was about seven months old, I had, um...

I had a tumor, and it broke the nerves to tell my hands and legs what to do.

I see.

And I got a wheelchair when I was four years old.

-That was your first one? -Mm-hmm.

-When you were four. -Uh-huh.

He told Jeff before they started that they would have a chat and then sing a song together.

I think he said, "we might sing a song."

-I remember. -Yeah.

'Cause, I mean, i was sort of surprised.

"What? He's going to start singing a song?"

Well, you know, this is totally...

Not even what song.

-And it is you I like, Jeff. -Thanks.

And there must be times when you do feel blue.

Uh-huh.

I'm not feeling blue right now, though.

Me, neither.

I'm so glad that you came today.

Thanks.

I remember asking one of the...

One of the staff people that was there, "well, you know, what do you think?

Did it go okay?"

"Oh, this is good. This is good."

He had his surgery.

He survived.

Certainly, Mr. Rogers had an impact on who Jeff became.

His sense of self.

You obviously have a power now.

I mean, that you wouldn't have had when you first started the show.

Well, it might sound very ingenuous, but I don't feel that.

Behold. These shall be your minions.

I would hope that anybody who sets himself or herself out

to produce mass programming for children...

...could have the kind of respect of childhood that I have.

Because it's not all clowns and balloons.

What do you mean, you don't agree with me?!

Some television programs are loud and scary, with people sh**ting and hitting other people.

You know, you can do something about that.

When you see scary television, you can turn it off.

We need to help our children become more and more aware that what is essential in life is invisible to the eye.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

As he got older, it was

more important for him to be strong in his beliefs.

Maybe that was how he was getting his anger out.

His anger that people didn't take him seriously.

They didn't get him.

They didn't get the depth of the show.

He started out being Daniel, soft and quiet and shy; developed into king Friday.

That is not correct.

Now do it again and do it perfectly.

Wasn't king Friday

a wonderful insight into his character?

His determination and his ambitions.

As a king, I must see that the world runs smoothly.

Farewell to you both.

That gruffness was his way

of getting what he wanted across.

Fred Rogers wanted something very badly and would do what he felt was necessary in order to get it.

Let's take the gauntlet

and make goodness attractive

in this so-called next millennium.

That's the real...

That's 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, rather than people 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.

You're doing a great job.

Dad never stood up and said, "look at what I've done. Look at this.

Isn't this wonderful?"

The only time I ever saw him come even close to anything like that was when he did the interview with koko the gorilla.

Great.

That's a happy sound.

Is it?

That's a purr.

Like that?

Can you teach me how to do that?

Isn't that a nice way to welcome someone and say that you're happy?

It's... it was a weird kind of a...

Kind of a thing, but, uh...

You realize there was something kind of magical going on there.

What? Love?

"Love you," she said.

-Oh, is that...? Oh. -"Love you. Visit. Love."

-Oh. -Well, that was very nice.

Thank you, koko.

There's so much to think about, isn't there?

Let me ask you something about what we've

-been discussing for the last three hours. -Woman: Yeah.

-Yeah. -Mr. Rogers and the narcissistic society that he gave birth to

because he told every kid that they were important.

Do you believe his philosophy destroyed a generation?

This evil, evil man.

The criticism goes like this:

"You told everyone they're 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."

He didn't say, "if you want to be special, you're gonna have to work hard."

And now all these kids are growing up, and they're realizing, "hey, wait a minute.

Mr. Rogers lied to me. I'm not special."

I'm sure by then Fred had heard the criticisms, but he's not talking 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.

-Hi, Mr. Rogers. -Hi.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

I'm glad to meet you. Thank you.

I watched your show as a youngster.

I wasn't allowed to go to preschool

'cause I had a disability, and my mom made me watch your show every day.

So thank you.

Bless your heart, and here you are.

Thank you for my preschool education.

And thank you for inspiring me today.

At the very end of Fred's

very last commencement speech, he said what he meant when he'd say, "you're special."

And what that ultimately means, of course, is that you don't ever have to do anything sensational for people to love you.

It is really a matter of believing that you're endowed by your creator with good.

You know, there are many different ways of saying, "i love you."

In fact, I like to think about times when I've seen people showing their love.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Show 1765.

This is the last scene of the last show of the last day, the last taping day of the interior of mister Rogers' neighborhood.

This place has been condemned.

Oh, it's been condemned. Oh, well.

-You got two days to move out. -Okay, thanks. See you.

That was wonderful.

Years ago, it wasn't so weird that... that somebody as nice as Fred was around.

Now there-there isn't room for a nice person on TV.

So, we must have, uh, regular reunions.

Yeah.

How about Tuesday?

Yeah, I'll have forgotten by...

About everyone by Monday, so Tuesday will...

-Tuesday will bring it all back. -Bring it all back.

We did it. We did it.

-Can you believe it? -We did it!

Ooh, mercy.

When he did stop making the programs, I felt that he was depressed.

I mentioned it to him, and he said, "well, I miss my playmates."

Mm-hmm. Okay.

That's fine.

Okay. Okay, slate out.

We decided to have Fred back

to do some promos about 9/11.

He was very troubled, and I said, "Fred, what's wrong?" And he said, "i just don't know what good these are gonna do."

And I just remember saying, "Fred, how can you say that?"

When the horror of 9/11 really hit him, i-i think it was a real eye-opener.

He was realizing that...

It was just so big.

It's always going to be an ongoing struggle

to overcome evil.

I remember thinking, "okay, "this is the time that you need to pump him up

"because he doesn't understand

"this... this is really important.

People listen to you."

Okay.

No matter what our particular job, especially in our world today, we all are called to be tikkun olam, "repairers of creation."

Thank you for whatever you do, wherever you are, to bring joy and light and hope and faith and pardon and love to your neighbor and to yourself.

Fred didn't like going to the doctor's office.

He had stomach problems for a long time.

I mean, for several years.

Oh, what's that right down there?

Take a look at the aquarium.

Do you see a dead fish?

A dead fish would be one that isn't swimming or breathing or anything at all.

Look down there and see, will you?

See if you see any.

Oh, yes, right there, isn't it?

He told me that he was sick.

I played a bach sarabande for him over the phone.

It's like sending a little loving message.

When he was very ill, he talked a lot about dying well.

To die with the hopes in...

With the hopes intact.

Before he became comatose, he said, "do you think I'm a sheep?"

And we knew what he was talking about because he had been reading in the Bible

about the last days, with the... with the judgment.

It will be decided at the end

who is a sheep and who is a goat.

And I think the need was always there for being loved, for being capable of being loved.

There was a... A little silence, and then I said, "Fred, if ever there was a sheep, you're one."

Well, I suppose it's an invitation, "won't you be my neighbor?"

Uh, it's an invitation for...

Uh, somebody to be close to you.

You know, I think everybody longs to be loved and longs to know that he or she is lovable.

And consequently, the greatest thing that we can do

is to help somebody know

that they're loved and capable of loving.

Across the street from Fred's funeral, there's this hubbub, and there's all these people

holding up signs saying, "god hates fags."

And I went and talked to them because Fred would have it no other way.

I said, "are you condemning Fred?

"Are you saying that he was gay?

Wh-what's... what's happening?"

And they were saying that, "no, no, he just...

He-he tolerated gays."

And so they were... they were intolerant of the tolerance.

And the thing that... the thing that struck me that day, uh, more than anything else was the children that were there.

Children that had been drafted into doing this work, into standing there with their parents

and holding up signs and screaming.

And those kids looked so unhappy.

Those kids looked so exhausted.

Those kids looked so ill-treated.

It was just heart-breaking.

And I... and I knew that if Fred had seen that, that that's where his heart would have gone.

I can't think how he would feel

about the things that have come out

that seem to set us back so far.

And I wonder if he wouldn't simply

put down his tiger and just stay home, forget about even trying.

He's not a person who would have given up, but this is daunting.

I... I think he would be trying to mend...

Mend the...

...the split.

He would be trying to find some way

to find something positive.

When I was a boy

and I would hear about something scary, my mother would tell us, "always look for the people who are helping.

You'll always find somebody who's trying to help."

I think there are a lot of people out there like Fred Rogers.

A lot more than we really want to believe.

In response to the question, "what would Fred Rogers do?"

It's not a question that you can answer.

The most important question is:

"What are you going to do?"

From the time you were very little, you've had people who have smiled you into smiling, people who have talked you into talking, sung you into singing, loved you into loving.

When he was giving speeches, he would say, "now, think about somebody who's helped you along the way

"for one minute.

I'm going to time you."

Let's just take some time

to think of those extra special people.

Hmm.

Some of them may be right here.

Some may be far away.

Some may even be in heaven.

No matter where they are, deep down, you know they've always wanted

what was best for you.

They've always cared about you beyond measure

and have encouraged you to be true

to the best within you.

Thank you.

My mother.

How I got to this point, because it was my grandfather's doing.

There was this woman named viola who used to take care of me when I was little.

She was our babysitter.

I thought about Fred.

How about you?

Yeah.

Mm.

Thank you.

Please welcome Jeffrey erlanger.

Oh, my. http://worldmkv.com/

Hi.

I am so glad to see you.

-Thank you. You, too. -Oh!

What a surprise.

You help to make each day a special day

by just your being yourself.

There's nobody else in the whole world

who's exactly like you.

And people can like you exactly as you are. http://worldmkv.com/

You are special.