Original subtitles

Come on over a minute. I just had some ideas that

I'd been thinking about for quite a while,

about modulation.

It seems to me that there are

different themes in life.

And one of my main jobs, it seems to me,

is to help through the mass media, for children...

To help children through some of the difficult modulations of life.

Because it's easy, for instance, to go from C

to F.

But there are some modulations that aren't so easy.

For instance, to go from F, to F-sharp,

you've got to weave through all sorts of things.

And it seems to me if you've got somebody to help you,

as you weave... Maybe this is just too philosophical?

Maybe I'm trying to combine things

that can't be combined, but it makes sense to me.

Fourteen years ago, a television program for children,

made its inauspicious debut on Station WQED in Pittsburgh.

It's host, Fred Rogers,

an ordained minister with an abiding interest in children,

and an equally abiding belief hat they deserve more from television.

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood

A beautiful day for a neighbor

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

It's a neighborly day in this beauty Would...

A neighborly day for a beauty

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you

I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you

So, let's make the most of this beautiful day

Since we're together we might as well say

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

Won't you be my neighbor?

Won't you please, won't you please?

Please, won't you be my neighbor

- Mr. Rogers? - Yes.

Where do you live? I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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.

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?"

So I said to my parents, "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.

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 in 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.

There's 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 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 years old.

That inner child never really went away.

I had every imaginable childhood disease, even scarlet fever.

Whenever I was quarantined

I would be in bed a lot.

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

I'd have all these little figures moving around

and I'd make them talk.

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

Take that.

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?

A lion! A lion, great!

Back in the 1950s,

there was a school of people

at the University of Pittsburgh,

looking at early childhood education.

They felt that physicians needed a training ground.

So that, they had a sense of where human behavior

was coming 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 became part of the group as a student of 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

I didn't need to put on a funny hat,

or jump through the hoop

to have a relationship with the child.

So, I went to visit 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 automatic 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."

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 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 the 13th

"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 war.

He can go on fighting longer than we can.

Frightened, meow, frightened, meow.

There's nothing to be frightened about

until somebody starts shooting, Henrietta.

Meow-meow, start shooting, 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.

Oh, it's very sharp It's very sharp

Oh, my, barbed wire is very sharp

Remember our battle cry, Edgar?

Down with the changers!

Down with the changers Down with the changers

We don't want anything to change

'Cause we're on top!

That's right.

'Cause we're... At least you're on top

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

Edgar, Edgar, 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'll work.

Do you have the tags on the bottom?

Yes, I put them 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 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. Superb! Superb!

Meow, wonderful, meow!

That was the first week. That's how it got started.

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood

A beautiful day for a neighbor

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

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 were going to 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 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.

Trolley left for its house...

Into the neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Boomerang, toomerang, sumurang!

Anything could happen in Make-Believe.

But Make-Believe was not real. I mean, there was a distinction.

Fred never appeared in Make-Believe.

The 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.

I like you as you are

Exactly and precisely

I think you turned out nicely, and I like you as you are

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 falling around"

"in a 50s' living room with weird curtains?"

WGBH in Boston decided to have something called a "Mister Rogers Day."

There was just a woman 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, "Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm."

And 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 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 that 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 some day.

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 threaten stations

if they didn't behave politically.

Nixon had a problem with his budget.

He had to find money for the Vietnam War.

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 is a senator who had already

sort of made his Congressional bones by attacking television.

This is gonna be a thorough hearing.

This is gonna 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.

If you'd been watching those hearings

and you had to bet on whether or not

PBS was going to keep going... No!

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.

And I could hear in his voice, the nerves.

Senator Pastore,

this is a philosophical statement

and would take about ten minutes to read.

So, I'll not do that.

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 you're 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 mention-able and manageable,

we will have done a great service.

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 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 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 any time."

"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 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's 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 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 life.

L 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? But 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 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? Mmm-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? Mmm-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?

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.

But 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 video tape on this out here, friends.

Have you heard that word a lot today?

Yes. And I didn't know what it meant.

Well...

It means

somebody getting killed

in a sort of surprise way.

That's what happened, you know.

That man killed 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? There. 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.

L 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 3 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 a perfect interviewing trick.

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 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."

We've had it and now we can go

We don't want the snow anymore

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.

That feels good.

Oh, there's Officer Clemmons. Hi, Officer Clemmons. Come in.

Hi, Mr. Rogers, how are you? Fine. Why don't you sit down?

Oh, sure, just for a moment.

It's so warm I was just 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 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 means something special.

1-4-3? - Mmm-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.

With that 143 pound thing, drives me insane.

Try that! I can't do that!

In Fred's private numerology "I love you" is "143."

So, when the needle jumps to 143,

there's like this confirming quality.

There's 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.

We were all 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.

It's such a good...

All right, that aren't mine. Who's are these?

if we ever saw a camera lying 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.

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 Christmas time,

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?

I...

I thought... I thought of X the Owl,

so 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.

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.

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 make someone else crumble in helplessness.

What does tomorrow feel like?

That big. 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 kinda 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 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've 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 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.

Careful, Anna, I don't want you to...

I think I'm flying! I am! I'm flying! No, no, you're falling!

What is going on here? Oh, Anna 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, Anna.

You have to be really careful with super-things.

He was cool with every kid.

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

They were little bastards. They were just rowdy and...

Fred never said, "This kid's a dick. Get him outta 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.

L mean, to do a week on death...

"Oh, hi, kids! We're going to 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.

What else you like to do? Moon walking.

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 with throttle up.

Roger, go with 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 the tragedy

to feel the gravity of love.

Love is what keeps us together and afloat.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

A beautiful day for a neighbor Would you be mine?

You know, it must be tough to be Fred Rogers

with your mission in mind

and then to have parodies.

L always wanted to live in a house like yours my friend

Maybe when there's nobody home I'll break in

I married a woman who said she was rich

Spent all her money Walked out on the bitch

Won't you be my, won't you be my, won't you be my neighbor?

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 Mister Rogers."

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

On the left. On the left, yeah.

Now, how do you react to that?

Well, some of them aren't very funny.

But I think that a lot of them are done

with real kindness in their hearts.

I'm moving to a new neighborhood where I've made 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 P-B-S 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.

But what about Rogers?

Experts have cast aspersions on his manhood itself.

Fred was watching 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 Mister Rogers?

You can feel the momentum actually swinging towards Child.

And what just happened there? He cracked a puppet!

Oh, look at this!

He's hitting Child with the loveable 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.

L think that

those who would try

to make you feel less than who you are,

I think that's the greatest evil.

I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you

So, let's make the most of this beautiful day

Since we're together, we might as well say

Would you be mine, could you be mine...

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 disappointments 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.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm a mistake

I'm not like anyone else I know

When I'm asleep or even awake

Sometimes I get to dreaming that I'm just a fake

I'm not like anyone else

I think you are just fine as you are

You do?

I really must tell you I do...

Lady Aberlin is saying to Daniel

what Fred himself wanted to say,

not only to his childhood self but to all children.

You're not a fake You're no mistake

You are my friend

And then you think, "Okay, then Daniel's gonna say,

"'Oh, thank you. That helped me a lot."'

I wonder if I'm a mistake I think you are just fine as you are

I'm not like anyone else I really must tell you...

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.

Isn't it true that the strong never break?

When you're sleep When you're wake

I'm not like anyone else I know You're not a fake

You're no mistake You're my friend I'm not like anyone else

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.

Every valley

Every valley

Shall be exalted

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.

The feeling you know you're alive!

Really nice, Francois!

I went to a gay bar downtown called the Play Pen.

Oh, God, did I have a lot of fun!

But somebody told the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood people

about it, and he asked me, "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 and 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 Francois just came a little too soon maybe, you know?

Oh, yes. Oh, my yes. Heavens.

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 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 other part is I spent enough time with him

that if he had... If there was a gay vibe, I would've picked it up.

Nope. Not as far as I know.

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. Mmm-hmm.

Okay.

I like him.

I know.

Bye-bye.

That was one of the things that I responded to.

He's terrific. Wow.

I definitely saw another way of being a man.

I'm sure you've heard all these rumors about

Fred being a Navy SEAL and killing people.

Was Fred a Navy SEAL? Did Fred have tattoos?

And that, you know, 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 kill 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.

Francois Clemmons, hi, welcome.

Thank you. How you doin'?

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 them 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.

There are many ways to say "I love you"

There are many ways to say "I care about you"

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, Francois.

Oh, thank you, Fred.

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...

Cast. A halo cast.

Metal rim and then cast on his shoulders and bolted all together...

All the way down his trunk. Yeah.

He may not have survived the surgery.

And, so, we said, you know, "What would you like to do?"

"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 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. When you were four. Mmm-hmm. 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.

'Cause, I was sort of surprised,

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

Well, you know, this is totally... Not even "What song?"

It's you I like

It's not the things you wear

It's not the way you do your hair

But it's you I like

The way you are right now

The way down deep inside you

Not the things that hide you

Not your fancy chair! Chair!

That's just beside you

But it's you I like

Every part of you

Your skin Your eyes

Your feelings

Whether old or new

I hope that you'll remember

Even when you're feeling blue

That it's you I like

It's you, yourself It's you

It's you

I like

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 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.

L 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 shooting 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.

Right. 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 was a weird kind of a thing,

but you realize there was something kind of magical going on there.

What? Love?

Well, that was very nice.

Thank you, Koko.

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

Let me ask you about what we've been discussing for the last three hours.

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 wasn't 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, it's a pleasure to meet you.

Hi. 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.

Thank you... Bless your heart and here you are.

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 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.

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.

It's such a good feeling to know you're alive

It's such a happy feeling You're growing inside

And when you wake up ready to say

I think I'll make a snappy new day

It's such a good feeling

A very good feeling, the...

This place has been condemned.

Oh, it's been condemned. Oh, well. You got two days to move out.

Okay, thanks. See ya.

That was wonderful!

Years ago, it wasn't so weird that

somebody as nice as Fred was around.

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

So, we must have regular reunions.

Yeah. How about Tuesday?

Yeah, I'll have forgotten about everyone by Monday.

So, Tuesday will bring it all back.

We did it! Can you believe it? We did it!

Mercy!

When he did stop making the programs,

I felt that he was depressed.

And I mentioned it to him

and he said, "Well, I miss my playmates."

- Okay. Okay, slate out. - That's fine.

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 going to do."

And I just remembered saying,

"Fred! How can you say that?"

When the horror of 9-11 really hit him,

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 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 tikun 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 anything. 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...

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 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 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?"

It's an invitation for

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.

"L said," Are you condemning Fred? Are you saying that he was gay?

"What's happening?"

And they were saying that, "No, no, he just... He tolerated gays."

And so, they were intolerant of the tolerance.

And the thing that struck me that day 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 knew that if Fred had seen 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've given up,

but this is daunting.

I think he would be trying to mend...

Mend 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.

Mmm.

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.

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?

Thank you.

It's such a good feeling to know you're alive

It's such a happy feeling you're growing inside

And when you wake up ready to say

"I think I'll make a snappy new day"

It's such a good feeling A very good feeling

The feeling you know that we're friends

Please welcome, Jeffrey Erlanger.

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 you're being yourself.

There is nobody else in the whole world who's exactly like you.

And people can like you exactly as you are.

You are special.