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Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to Too Much Information, the show that brings

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Speaker 1: you the secret history and little known facts behind your

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Speaker 1: favorite music, movies, TV shows and more. We are your

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Speaker 1: neighbors of Nerdery, your cardigan wearing caretakers of kids show Cannon,

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Speaker 1: welcome to you a board the trolley of trivia. Can

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Speaker 1: you say this bit is getting tired? Sure? I need

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Speaker 1: you to. My name is mister rontog. Come on, do

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Speaker 1: the bit, do the bit with me, and I'm ex

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Speaker 1: the owl. And today we are talking about the one

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Speaker 1: and only Fred Roger is better known by his affectionate

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Speaker 1: honorific mister Rogers. Where do you even begin with him?

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Speaker 1: He was a secular saint whose influence continues to spread

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Speaker 1: long after his death twenty years ago this February. He

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Speaker 1: was a radical on a cardigan, a man who saw

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Speaker 1: the possibilities for television as a means to not just educate,

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Speaker 1: but support emotional development. He harnessed the new medium to

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Speaker 1: carry out work that was for him deeply spiritual, communicating

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Speaker 1: directly with the hearts of each and every young viewer.

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Speaker 1: But Fred didn't just see the potential in television He

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Speaker 1: also saw the potential in everyone. He began his career

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Speaker 1: in a world the valued children not for what they were,

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Speaker 1: but for what they'd become, which was, in short, a consumer.

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Speaker 1: Fred met children where they were, and that was his genius.

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Speaker 1: He later said, I don't think anybody can grow unless

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Speaker 1: they're accepted for exactly who they are. His authentic and

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Speaker 1: intimate connection with children was so total that he changed

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Speaker 1: many lives without ever having met them in person. He

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Speaker 1: loved to tell the story about how one wide eyed

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Speaker 1: kid came up to him at some in person event

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Speaker 1: and said, mister Rogers, how did you get out meaning

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Speaker 1: out of the TV? And Fred patiently explained to him

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Speaker 1: out of television worked and the kids. You know, He's

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Speaker 1: processing it thoughtfully for a few minutes before responding the

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Speaker 1: genuine concern, but are you going to get back in?

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Speaker 1: I'm keeping things light because I can't start sobbing this

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Speaker 1: early in the episode, which I absolutely will. Higel, tell

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Speaker 1: me your deepest, innermost thoughts about mister Rogers. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's like the only bit of children's entertainment from like

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Speaker 1: three to six that I've I don't think has like

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Speaker 1: aged poorly or failed me in retrospect. I mean, like

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Speaker 1: you know, when I think back on the stuff that

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Speaker 1: I remember, like on screens from this era, a lot

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Speaker 1: of it is Disney, which is all well and good

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Speaker 1: because Disney's great, but they're also at this point, like

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Speaker 1: you know, Amazon, and they create grace sludge for the

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Speaker 1: content troughs and so so that's ruined for me. And

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Speaker 1: then and then otherwise, I have mister Rogers, a nice

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Speaker 1: man from Pittsburgh who just never let anyone down. And

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Speaker 1: that's really the thing. I mean, it's like it's you know,

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Speaker 1: even with the Bob Browse episode, Like as much as

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Speaker 1: I love Bob Browse, like you still have all that

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Speaker 1: stuff with his business partners who screwed over his son,

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Speaker 1: And there's so much in this world that is corrupted

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Speaker 1: by the circumstances it exists. And except for mister Rogers,

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Speaker 1: somehow that man transcended every ugly part of existence and

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Speaker 1: you know, became a secular saint him and John Coltrane, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you're absolutely right. Before we go any further, folks,

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Speaker 1: I'll spare you all the suspense. Fred Rogers exactly the

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Speaker 1: man you want him to be, which means that he

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Speaker 1: was exactly the man you saw on television, teaching honesty

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Speaker 1: and compassion, no forgotten scandals, no skeletons, and his cardigan

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Speaker 1: filled closet. I'm sorry to disappoint you all, he said

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Speaker 1: later in life, one of the greatest gifts you can

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Speaker 1: give anybody is the gift of your honest self. I

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Speaker 1: also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile away.

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Speaker 1: And you know, like you said, he was above all,

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Speaker 1: always himself. And you know, that's really the highest compliment

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Speaker 1: I can pay anybody being always yourself. But that goes

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Speaker 1: double if yourself happens to be mister Rogers, because that's

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Speaker 1: a pretty amazing self. He opened up each episode of

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Speaker 1: the show with the same question, won't you be my neighbor?

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Speaker 1: And this wasn't some corny TV catchphrase, but a genuine

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Speaker 1: invitation for closeness and connection. He would later say, television

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Speaker 1: has the chance of building a real community out of

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Speaker 1: an entire country, and I would argue he came the

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Speaker 1: closest to achieving that dream more than anyone else who

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Speaker 1: worked in that medium. He genuinely believed in the unity

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Speaker 1: of humanity and the universe. Bore this out in a

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Speaker 1: really funny way. Tom Hanks was cast to play Fred

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Speaker 1: Rogers in the twenty nineteen biopic A Beautiful Day in

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Speaker 1: the Neighborhood, and after filming, Tom was informed that he

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Speaker 1: and Fred Rogers were actually related in the literal sense.

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Speaker 1: Ancestral dot Com proved that they were six cousins. They

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Speaker 1: shared the same great great great great great grandfather who

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Speaker 1: emigrated from Germany to America in the eighteenth century. And

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Speaker 1: if you're the kind of person who doesn't believe in coincidences,

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Speaker 1: Fred definitely did not. There was always meaning behind everything

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Speaker 1: for him. Then this was just the most perfect way

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Speaker 1: for the universe to emphasize Fred's strongly held belief that

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Speaker 1: we are, in fact all one, all neighbors, all related,

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Speaker 1: all connected, and I think that's wonderful. Well, without further ado,

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Speaker 1: let's take a journey to the neighborhood of Too Much Information,

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Speaker 1: from his oddly beautiful obsession with his weight to the

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Speaker 1: horror icon, who got his start on his set, the

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Speaker 1: troubling childhood that sowed the seeds for TV excellence, and

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Speaker 1: his passion for Monty Python. Here is everything you didn't

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Speaker 1: know about mister Rogers and his neighborhood. Every superhero needs

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Speaker 1: an origin story, and Fred Rogers is a doozy pretty

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Speaker 1: unexpected I have to say. He was a child of privilege,

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Speaker 1: born in nineteen twenty eight to two of the wealthiest

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Speaker 1: citizens of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Also the birthplace of the Banana Split.

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Speaker 1: Did you know that? And Rolling Rock Beer really from

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Speaker 1: the glass line to tanks of old Latrobe. It says

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Speaker 1: on the it says on the bottle. Wow, this place,

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Speaker 1: this place has got to be a Taurus Mecca good

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Speaker 1: good the birthplace of Fred Rogers. Yeah, the Rolling Rockberry,

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Speaker 1: the birthplace of the banana Split. Come to Latrobe. We

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Speaker 1: got it all, baby, What a way to spend the day. Seriously,

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Speaker 1: One more thing you can punch in about Latrobe. The

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Speaker 1: birthplace of Arnold Palmer. Oh my god, So you can

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Speaker 1: get yourself banana split. Chase it up with a half

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Speaker 1: and half iced tea lemonade combo or do you mean

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Speaker 1: the golfer or the drink? I mean I guess it

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Speaker 1: goes both, right. Oh yeah. Fred rogers father was the

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Speaker 1: president of the mcpheely Brick Company, one of Latrobe's most

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Speaker 1: successful businesses, and his mother was a homemaker and a

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Speaker 1: well known philanthropist. In fact, she spent much of the

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Speaker 1: Second World War knitting sweaters for American gis serving in

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Speaker 1: the frigid European theater. And Fred grew up in an

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Speaker 1: enormous three story brick home summered in Florida and had

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Speaker 1: a nearby vacation home, I think, And he was even

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Speaker 1: taken to school in a chauffeured limo because this was

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Speaker 1: just a few years after the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, and

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Speaker 1: his parents were nervous about that happening to him. As

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Speaker 1: we'll see, this made him an easy target for childhood bullies. Yes. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: even though Fred Rogers helped make childhood enjoyable or at

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Speaker 1: least bearable for generations of kids, his own childhood was

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Speaker 1: not very pleasant. He was shy and overweighted as a child,

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Speaker 1: which led to his classmates, who had already marked him

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Speaker 1: as the sissy rich kid, to nickname him Fat Freddie,

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Speaker 1: which wore him very much, making matters worse. He was

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Speaker 1: also very sick as a boy. He later said, I

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Speaker 1: had every imaginable childhood disease, even scarlet fever. The industrial

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Speaker 1: smog of western Pennsylvania exacerbated Fred's asthma, so he spent

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Speaker 1: much of his time locked inside alone in his room,

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Speaker 1: and he later said, I used to cry to myself

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Speaker 1: when I was alone, and I would cry through my

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Speaker 1: fingers and make up songs on the piano. Oh, this

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Speaker 1: is too early in the episode for this, for this

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Speaker 1: lump in my throat. To alleviate his loneliness, young Fred

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Speaker 1: began playing with puppets, which became a hallmark throughout his life,

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Speaker 1: as we'll talk about later. Those who knew Fred later

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Speaker 1: said that the sweet, shy, innocent Daniel was striped tiger

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Speaker 1: puppet was basically an unvarnished glimpse of Fred's wounded inner child,

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Speaker 1: and in fact, the actor who played mister McFeeley the Mailman,

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Speaker 1: David Newell, later observed, if there hadn't been a fat Freddy,

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Speaker 1: there likely wouldn't have been a mister Rogers. And so

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Speaker 1: for Fred, when he wasn't escaping into his imagination with puppets,

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Speaker 1: he sought comfort from his maternal grandfather, Fred McFeeley, and

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Speaker 1: Fred for the rest of his life, who recall one

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Speaker 1: visit where his grandfather said to him, you know, you

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Speaker 1: made this day a really special day just by being yourself.

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Speaker 1: There's only one person in the world like you, and

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Speaker 1: I happen to like you just the way you are,

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Speaker 1: which I have to say, is an unexpectedly compassionate, emotionally

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Speaker 1: aware of sentiment from a guy who founded a brick

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Speaker 1: company at the turn of the century. You know me, no,

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Speaker 1: but just from yeah, coming from a lineage of presumably

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Speaker 1: stern German immigrants, Yeah, exactly, making that's a very sweet thing, um.

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Speaker 1: And Fred would always remember this. Obviously, that sentiment became

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Speaker 1: basically his sign off for his TV show, and he

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Speaker 1: would name the neighborhood mailman mister McFeely in his honor.

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Speaker 1: So you're starting to see it all come together. Puppets, sweaters, McFeeley,

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Speaker 1: well chosen words of encouragement. It's all there. And eventually

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Speaker 1: Fred overcame his shyness in high school, telling mprs Terry

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Speaker 1: Gross in nineteen eighty four, it was tough for me

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Speaker 1: at the beginning, and then I made a couple of

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Speaker 1: friends who found out that the core of me was okay.

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Speaker 1: And one of them was the head of the football team. Yes,

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Speaker 1: mister Rogers took the time honor attack to befriending the

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Speaker 1: jocks to survive high school. I love that Fred became

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Speaker 1: quite popular. He ultimately got elected class president of the

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Speaker 1: student council during his senior year, and also the editor

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Speaker 1: in chief of the yearbook. Neither of those things were

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Speaker 1: cool at my high school, but I assume they were

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Speaker 1: back in the forties. Times were different. Yes, Another big

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Speaker 1: part of Fred's youth was music. You know we mentioned

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Speaker 1: earlier he spent some time weeping at the piano, which

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Speaker 1: is just weaving through his fingers that you you have

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Speaker 1: in common with him? Sorry, does that really mean? No?

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Speaker 1: Also really accurate. So Fred spent his first year of

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Speaker 1: college at Dartmouth, but he really wanted to pursue a

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Speaker 1: musical education and he you know, I guess spoiler alert

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Speaker 1: for seventy five years shade against Dartmouth. He founded Dartmouth's

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Speaker 1: music career track music education track lacking, so he transferred

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Speaker 1: to Rawlins College, where he completed his degree in music

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Speaker 1: and graduated magna cum laude in nineteen fifty one. It

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Speaker 1: was there that he met his future wife, Joanne, who

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Speaker 1: he proposed to in a letter a short time later.

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Speaker 1: Given all of the puppets and positive reinforcement and sweaters,

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Speaker 1: it's easy to overlook the role that music played on

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Speaker 1: the Mister Rogers television show, and all of that came

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Speaker 1: from Fred. He wrote all of the music for the program,

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Speaker 1: including the main theme, which is based in part on

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Speaker 1: Beethoven's Sonata in C major Opus two number three. Shout

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Speaker 1: out to Beethoven, friend of the pod. I listened to

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Speaker 1: it a bunch and I couldn't find how quote. No.

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Speaker 1: I was gonna try to punch it them, but I

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Speaker 1: can't find it. But didn't He also inspire one of

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Speaker 1: his sonatas, also inspired the Flintstones theme. I believe that's

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Speaker 1: another team cut. Yeah, you know, we used to have

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Speaker 1: music education in this country. People, people would have heard

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Speaker 1: that stuff. Fred was something of a child prodigy. Growing

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Speaker 1: up at just five years of age, he could hear

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Speaker 1: songs in the radio and then play them back on

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Speaker 1: the piano by ear. His grandmother was very encouraging of

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Speaker 1: this habit. She persuaded him to learn box minuet in

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Speaker 1: g so that he could audition for a local respected

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Speaker 1: piano teacher, and he learned the piece in just a

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Speaker 1: few days, and he was accepted by the teacher, even

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Speaker 1: though he was younger by far than many of his

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Speaker 1: other students, and as a reward for his studies, Fred's

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Speaker 1: grandmother offered to buy him his own piano for his

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Speaker 1: tenth birthday, and Fred chose well tell him what he won.

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Speaker 1: He chose a nine foot Steinway concert Grand, which was

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Speaker 1: a three thousand dollar purchase in nineteen thirty six, the

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Speaker 1: height of the Great Depression, and about sixty five grand today.

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Speaker 1: Fred Rogers the only good rich person. He treasured the

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Speaker 1: instrument for the rest of his life. It was around

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Speaker 1: this time that he began writing original songs that he

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Speaker 1: said described how he was feeling. He would talk about

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Speaker 1: growing up in this household where it was being angry,

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Speaker 1: didn't feel like an option was available, and music became

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Speaker 1: his outlet for the feelings that he felt that he

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Speaker 1: wasn't able to express. He said, at one point, music

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Speaker 1: was my first language. I was scared to use worse.

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Speaker 1: I didn't want to be a bad boy. I didn't

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Speaker 1: want to tell people I was angry, but I could

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Speaker 1: show it through the way I played on piano, And

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Speaker 1: even as an adult, he would self soothe by sitting

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Speaker 1: and playing the theme song to his show on piano.

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Speaker 1: He talked about his passion for music during a nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety nine interview for the Archive of American Television, saying,

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Speaker 1: my first love is music. It is a unique way

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Speaker 1: for me to express who I am and what I'm feeling.

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Speaker 1: Music was always my way of saying who I was

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Speaker 1: and how I felt. I was able to cry or

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Speaker 1: laugh or say I was angry through the tips of

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Speaker 1: my fingers on the piano. I would go to the piano.

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Speaker 1: Even when I was five years old, I started to

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Speaker 1: play how I felt, and so it was very natural

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Speaker 1: for me to become a composer. Having written all of

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Speaker 1: the music for the neighborhood, I feel as if that's

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Speaker 1: one of my gifts to children. There's something very mystical

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Speaker 1: and wonderful about how music can touch us. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's elemental. It must be what heaven is like. What

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Speaker 1: do you think about that? I mean, you actually write

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Speaker 1: music and are a true musician. I mean. One of

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Speaker 1: my favorite terms for why music has a hold on

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Speaker 1: us comes from Daniel J. Levitton. It's a musicologist, and

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Speaker 1: I don't think he coined the term, but he's the

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Speaker 1: first person I saw apply it to music, which was

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Speaker 1: evolutionary cheesecake. Because we don't need music, you know, apparently

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Speaker 1: we must. Well, in terms of evolutionary psychology, you can

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Speaker 1: kind of point to, or even evolutionary biology, you can

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Speaker 1: point to like all of the different things that make

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Speaker 1: humans human and brain function, and you know, the way

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Speaker 1: our larynx has developed to communicate more complexly and and

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Speaker 1: really like the enjoyment and creation of music, even though

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Speaker 1: it fires different parts of our brains, is like not

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Speaker 1: strictly speaking necessary, you know, in terms of how we function.

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Speaker 1: And so that's why it's called evolutionary cheesecake. It's like

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Speaker 1: a cheesecake whips but you don't need it. But it's

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Speaker 1: just something that it's It's this huge it's one of

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Speaker 1: the greatest buy in my opinion, the greatest art form.

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Speaker 1: But it's a beautiful way of putting it. I think

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Speaker 1: when whenever people try and talk about why it is

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Speaker 1: beautiful and why it matters, that's what I always come

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Speaker 1: back to, because it's not really it's like the least

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Speaker 1: it gets it. Why people become so obsessed with it

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Speaker 1: even though it's simultaneously devalued and depressing, depressing and all

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Speaker 1: this other stuff. But it's like, yeah, I don't know

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Speaker 1: that was a tangent. Sorry, no, I mean, I think

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Speaker 1: that this speaks more to our different personalities that I

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Speaker 1: you know, I mean, like you just said, we've seen

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Speaker 1: remnants of early musical instruments in you know, caves from

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Speaker 1: times when people when human beings were just struggling to

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Speaker 1: eat and survive. I mean, there's clearly something there that

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Speaker 1: I choose to believe that there's some kind of energetic

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Speaker 1: connection to the divine. It's more closer to Fred Rogers

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Speaker 1: definition than yours or the Levitands definition, but yeah, I

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Speaker 1: like to believe that there's some kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: they say, like the light, we only see a tiny

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Speaker 1: percentage of the wave spectrums visible to us. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: and there's just stuff on other sides that you know,

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Speaker 1: X rays and all different kinds of waves. I just

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Speaker 1: think that there's something similar to that with sounds. Maybe

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Speaker 1: there's just all sorts of other things going on that

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Speaker 1: we can't perceive, but it is necessary. Yeah, well, I

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Speaker 1: mean it's it's vibrations, and that is the essence of existence.

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Speaker 1: Is like Brownie in movement, Like every molecule is vibrating.

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Speaker 1: It is presumably at some kind of frequency. Right, So

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Speaker 1: this has been the metaphysics portion of the musical metaphysics

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Speaker 1: portion here No, neither did I Yeah. Over the course

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Speaker 1: of fred career, he would compose over two hundred songs,

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Speaker 1: nine children's operas which I have been unable to locate.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what those are interesting and released. He

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Speaker 1: released twelve albums of children's recording in addition to the

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Speaker 1: nine hundred episodes of the TV show. Some of these

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Speaker 1: songs were released on records in the nineteen sixties, including

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Speaker 1: the theme song, which ultimately one of MC grammy, and

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Speaker 1: he even released a song protesting the practice of dying

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Speaker 1: baby chicks different colors for Easter. This was the sixties

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Speaker 1: thing called Don't pick on the Peeps, which featured the

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Speaker 1: stirring condemnation. How do you think the chickens feel? This

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Speaker 1: is where you punch in Werner Hurtz, I talking about chickens.

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Speaker 1: The enormous flat stupidity of a chicken's eyes really quite

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Speaker 1: a thing. Maybe they're distantly related. Actually the anti vast exactly.

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Speaker 1: Music really colored how Fred saw the world. In an

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Speaker 1: early interview in the six's, he used a musical term

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Speaker 1: to describe how he wanted the show to impact children's lives,

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Speaker 1: saying he wanted to have a way for children to

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Speaker 1: navigate the difficult modulations of life. And it's a great

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Speaker 1: interview clip that opens up Morgan Neville's twenty eighteen documentary

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Speaker 1: Won't You Be My Neighbor. He's sitting at his I

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Speaker 1: think it's the grand piano, that's Grandma Bottom, and he's

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Speaker 1: just kind of waxing poetic about it, and he said,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's different modulations when you play music. Some

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Speaker 1: are easy, like going from C to F because it's

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Speaker 1: mostly all white keys, and then there's tougher ones like

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Speaker 1: C F sharp and he demonstrates it on the piano.

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Speaker 1: His fingers go through all sorts of machinations and it

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Speaker 1: looks really tough, and and he said, I'm here because

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Speaker 1: I want to help kids with those more difficult modulations

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Speaker 1: in life. And then he laughs at himself. He's like,

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Speaker 1: does this make sense to anybody? I don't know, this

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Speaker 1: makes sense to me. And we're like, yes, Fred, the

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Speaker 1: sound guy, the video guy, everybody tap and was weeping. Well.

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Speaker 1: Knowing all that, it comes as no surprise to know

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Speaker 1: that when Fred did find the person to play piano

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Speaker 1: on the show, because he didn't do it himself, he

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Speaker 1: found a heavy hitter. How did the jazz pianist Johnny

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Speaker 1: Costa as the show's musical director, arranger, and keyboardist, and

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Speaker 1: Johnny held that role until his death in nineteen ninety six.

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Speaker 1: And Johnny was no slouch. He was described as the

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Speaker 1: white Art Tatum by Art Tatum. For those of you

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Speaker 1: don't know, Art Tatum is widely considered to be the

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Speaker 1: greatest pianist of the twentieth century, unless you're like a

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Speaker 1: wonk and think it's like Arthur Rubinstein or one of

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Speaker 1: those classical guys, maybe Glenn Gould. He didn't really need

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Speaker 1: a gig on children's television, but he accepted the job

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Speaker 1: because he could remain in his native Pittsburgh to record

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Speaker 1: the show, and Fred agreed to pay him the same

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Speaker 1: amount of money that Johnny needed to pay his son's

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Speaker 1: college tuition, which is five grand or I guess what

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Speaker 1: about seventy five thousand today's money, like like fifty thousand. Ah,

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Speaker 1: we live in hell. Fred Fred called him one of

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Speaker 1: the most talented musicians he'd ever known, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of people thought that Johnny was slumming it, but Fred

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Speaker 1: refused to talk down to children, and so the music

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Speaker 1: that he played in the show was held to an

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Speaker 1: extremely high standard. Um he welcomed an early synth pioneer

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Speaker 1: named Bruce Hack and his collaborator Esther Nelson onto the

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Speaker 1: program in nineteen sixty eight to explore electronic music and

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Speaker 1: synthesizers for kids, which is not something you saw in

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Speaker 1: the rest of children's television. I imagining Barney playing like

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Speaker 1: a mogue. I was thinking like HR puff and stuff.

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Speaker 1: Although that though they would have probably messed with synths

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Speaker 1: on HR puffing. Yeah, yeah, uh. You know. Fred thought

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Speaker 1: that children intuitively responded to music, and he encouraged Johnny

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Speaker 1: Costa to play as experimentally as he and the other

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Speaker 1: guys on the gig were a basis named Carl McVicker

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Speaker 1: and drummer named Bobby ross Thorne, and they would settle

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Speaker 1: in each taping day to play the show's main theme,

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Speaker 1: the Charlie Whistle, Mister mcpheley's speedy delivery piano theme, and

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Speaker 1: the vibraphone notes as Fred fed his fish, along with

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Speaker 1: other incidental music. And they were in the TV studio

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Speaker 1: with Fred. They were playing live as they recorded it

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Speaker 1: as they taped the show, which I think is really cool.

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Speaker 1: So from Pittsburgh, the Fred now Rogers Weekday Afternoon band.

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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, that's live from the Cardigan Room. My

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Speaker 1: Cardigan quota for this episode, yeah probably. Oh, I feel

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Speaker 1: like you got to handle the urban legend section of this.

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Speaker 1: That's like your thing, It's one of my things. For

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Speaker 1: a figure as beloved, ubiquitous and squeaky clean as mister Rogers,

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Speaker 1: there naturally were some yard and downright unsavory urban legends

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00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:04,639
Speaker 1: that popped up around him. The one that I distinctly

379
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:07,159
Speaker 1: remember being told, like in school, was that he was

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00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:11,160
Speaker 1: a secret badass and the arm that he was a

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00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:14,359
Speaker 1: special Ops sniper during the Korean War, and that he

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00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 1: wore long sleeves in a cardigan all the time because

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Speaker 1: his arms were tattooed with his confirmed kills. I'd heard

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Speaker 1: he was an eighty seal. That was more interesting. Okay,

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00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:29,560
Speaker 1: neither of those things are true. He never served in

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Speaker 1: the armed forces, and one friend commented on those rumors

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00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,119
Speaker 1: by saying Fred didn't know how to use a screwdriver,

388
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 1: let alone kill a bunch of people. His draft papers

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00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,560
Speaker 1: are circulating on the Internet, and though he was classified

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Speaker 1: as fit to serve all through college just before his graduation.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty one, his status was changed to four F,

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Speaker 1: which disqualified him for military service. This was during the

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Speaker 1: Korean War, and so his impending graduation would have meant

394
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Speaker 1: that his college deferment was up, so he could have

395
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:03,119
Speaker 1: claimed conscientious objector status even his religious convictions or his

396
00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 1: extremely wealthy family could have pulled some cash register leavers. Yeah,

397
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Speaker 1: I mean there are gradiations to being disqualified for military service,

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Speaker 1: and four F is like absolutely lowest, Like you will

399
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 1: not like this, You're done, Like we don't want you ever.

400
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 1: There's I forget what all the other ones are, but

401
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,000
Speaker 1: that's like goodbye, we don't ever want to see you again. Basically,

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00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,879
Speaker 1: there are some who have a theory that Fred potentially

403
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,800
Speaker 1: expressed bisexual tendencies to the draft board, which at that

404
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 1: time was a sure fire away for the army to

405
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:35,119
Speaker 1: never want to talk to you again. A lot of

406
00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:37,360
Speaker 1: people try to get out of the Vietnam draft by

407
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,920
Speaker 1: using the same tactic. Fred reportedly discussed these sexual feelings

408
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,719
Speaker 1: relatively candidly over the years. To quote the twenty eighteen

409
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Speaker 1: biography The Good Neighbor, The Life and Work of Fred

410
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Speaker 1: Rogers by Maxwell King, quote in conversation with one of

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00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,959
Speaker 1: his friends, the openly gay doctor William Hirsch, Fred Rogers

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Speaker 1: himself concluded that if sexuality was measured on a scale

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Speaker 1: of one to ten, he said, well, you know, I

414
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: might be right smack in the middle, because I've found

415
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:07,600
Speaker 1: women attractive and I found men attractive. However, mister Rogers

416
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Speaker 1: neighborhood Cats mate Francois Clemens, who is gay he played

417
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Speaker 1: Officer Clements on the show, says in Neveral Morgan's twenty

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Speaker 1: eighteen documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? If there was

419
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Speaker 1: a gay vibe, I would have picked it up. Fred

420
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,560
Speaker 1: wasn't gay, not as far as I know. So who

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00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:27,200
Speaker 1: knows grain as salt? Yeah, then again, perhaps Fred's childhood

422
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:30,560
Speaker 1: asthma caused a lingering respiratory problem. And then there's also

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Speaker 1: the fact that Fred was very badly color blind, so

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Speaker 1: much so that he needed help telling the difference between

425
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: red tomato soup and green split pea soup. And here's

426
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:44,480
Speaker 1: something that I've tried to verify. He reportedly couldn't see

427
00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:47,639
Speaker 1: the color blue, which I don't know what that means.

428
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:49,160
Speaker 1: I don't know if that means it just comes through

429
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: as gray or what, But that's pretty wild. So yeah, Fred,

430
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: for all of his vibrant sweaters, had a hard time

431
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:59,200
Speaker 1: no oneman color they were. And you know, being colorblind,

432
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:04,000
Speaker 1: any kind of problem would definitely put a dent in

433
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:08,439
Speaker 1: your potential career as a sniper. But the thing that

434
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:10,400
Speaker 1: is weird to me is that presumably the draft board

435
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 1: would have known earlier on when he was one A

436
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 1: and fit to serve that he was color blind. So

437
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that was the reason. Yeah, I don't know.

438
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 1: And in closing, who knows? Fred Rogers medical records have

439
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:24,520
Speaker 1: long since been destroyed, But funnily enough, the military did

440
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,919
Speaker 1: go out of their way to reject the rumor that

441
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:32,080
Speaker 1: Fred Rogers was a state trained killer, and in fact,

442
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: the very first week that Mister Rogers Neighborhood was broadcast

443
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,879
Speaker 1: nationally in nineteen sixty eight, he included a puppet storyline

444
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,000
Speaker 1: and the Neighborhood make believe about war resistance, which many

445
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: took to be a I can't even say barely veiled.

446
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 1: It was an unveiled critique of the Vietnam War, and

447
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:50,560
Speaker 1: at one point in the episode, he asks viewers, isn't

448
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: peace wonderful? And in an emailed with journalist Tom Jannaud,

449
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 1: who wrote what many feel is like the definitive profile

450
00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 1: on mister Rogers and Esquire can you say Hero? They

451
00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: became friends after the peace ran and stayed friends until

452
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 1: Fred's death in two thousand and three. Fred roonim an

453
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 1: email talking about the possibility of being drafted, saying I

454
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 1: have no idea how I would have responded to a

455
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,480
Speaker 1: Cold War. I may have had to do alternative service,

456
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 1: as did the friends Quaker friends. I have a friend,

457
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,280
Speaker 1: not a Quaker friend, who was in the ambulance Corps.

458
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,120
Speaker 1: I would have probably been good at something like that.

459
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: I would not have been good at shooting people, though,

460
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:29,000
Speaker 1: I don't think I could have done that. So that's

461
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:33,120
Speaker 1: one urban legend about mister Rogers. I think done and dusted.

462
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:35,200
Speaker 1: I mean it makes sense, though, because you know Bob

463
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:37,880
Speaker 1: Ross from the Joy of Painting Mister Happy Trees, and

464
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 1: you know was a drill sergeant for I think the

465
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,320
Speaker 1: majority of his professional life. So I mean there is

466
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: a little bit of I can see how people would

467
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: extrapolate that and think that every peaceful zend out PBS

468
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: character used to be a killer in the army. I

469
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 1: don't think Bob Ross killed people. Well, we can hope.

470
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,680
Speaker 1: But there are also a few other urban legends related

471
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 1: to mister Rogers. Yeah, they's that famous screenshot supposedly from

472
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:10,639
Speaker 1: the show that has him giving the finger directly to

473
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:16,120
Speaker 1: the camera's laughing as he does it. Yeah, it's even funnier. Yeah,

474
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: it's not strictly true. He's singing the song where is Thumpkin?

475
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,679
Speaker 1: The song that bestows a name to each finger on

476
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: your hand, and the middle finger is mister Tallman, which scans.

477
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:35,040
Speaker 1: There's another one that it's probably the closest to what

478
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,359
Speaker 1: might have actually happened, which is that some neighborhood ne'er

479
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: do wells stole Fred's car, and then, learning that they

480
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: had robbed mister Rogers, they returned it. They went out

481
00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,359
Speaker 1: of their way to return it to him unharmed. And

482
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: that is not true, but a beautiful story, nonetheless, and

483
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:58,240
Speaker 1: one we can all secretly pine for. So all the

484
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,600
Speaker 1: pieces are in place for a chill TV legend. This

485
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 1: brings us to a larger question, how did Fred Rogers

486
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:07,400
Speaker 1: get involved with television in the first place. We all

487
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 1: started when Fred came home to visit his parents when

488
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:11,920
Speaker 1: he was a senior in college in nineteen fifty two,

489
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 1: and his parents had just obtained a new fangled TV,

490
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 1: probably becoming one of the first people in town to

491
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 1: do so, and this sparked for his interest, not because

492
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: he loved it, but because he absolutely hated it. One

493
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,359
Speaker 1: of the first things Fred Rogers ever saw on TV

494
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: was the image of two people throwing pies at one another.

495
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:29,919
Speaker 1: I think it was on a kids show, and this

496
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,200
Speaker 1: left him offended to his core. He was so angry

497
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 1: that this incredible new medium was being used to show

498
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:39,520
Speaker 1: kids such dribble, and so he took Gandhi's advice and

499
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:41,720
Speaker 1: decided to be the change that he wished to see

500
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 1: in the world. He vowed to use television quote for

501
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 1: the broadcasting of Grace through the Land, and though we'd

502
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 1: initially intended on attending a seminary. After graduating from Roland's College,

503
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: he informed his parents that he wanted to get into television,

504
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: and they replied, but you've barely even seen a television

505
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 1: And as he told Pittsburgh Magazine, when I first saw

506
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: children's television, I thought it was perfectly horrible, and I

507
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 1: thought there was some way of using this fabulous medium

508
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 1: to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen.

509
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 1: And you know, that's the thing about Fred Rogers. He

510
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 1: respected childhood and he knew that, you know, it was

511
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 1: more than just clowns and pies. And this respect became

512
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: a hallmark of his show. And you know, in short,

513
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 1: he was a reformer. He saw an opportunity one that

514
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,400
Speaker 1: really fit his mo which he later summed up as quote,

515
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: It's not so much what we have in this life

516
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,240
Speaker 1: that matters. It's what we do with what we have.

517
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:36,840
Speaker 1: The alphabet is fine, but it's what we do with

518
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 1: it that matters most. Making words like friend and love

519
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:43,480
Speaker 1: that's what really matters. I think he's got a sense

520
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: that TV was going to be the medium of his

521
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: generation and he wanted to use it in the best

522
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 1: way that he knew. How So, after graduating college in

523
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one, he got a job at NBC in

524
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 1: New York City as a floor director for early TV

525
00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 1: shows like Your Hit Parade, which is an old music show,

526
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: The Kate Smith Hour, and also an assistant producer for

527
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:05,760
Speaker 1: the Voice of Firestone. And this is so wild to

528
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:08,880
Speaker 1: me because mister Rogers worked at thirty Rock in Studio

529
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 1: eight h which is the famous studio where Saturday Night

530
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 1: Live is now filmed. So that means that the studio

531
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: where Eddie Murphy performed his parody of mister Rogers in

532
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: the eighties called Mister Robinson was the very same studio

533
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: where Fred Rogers first started working in television decades before.

534
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: I just think that's so cool. Again, like we say

535
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 1: at the top of the episode, there are no coincidences. Then,

536
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: after a few years of working at NBC, he was

537
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: coaxed back to his home state of Pennsylvania to work

538
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: for WQEED, which was a newly launched public access station

539
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 1: that was actually the first community sponsored TV station of

540
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,520
Speaker 1: its kind. And it's worth saying that it was a

541
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: sizeable risk to leave NBC at this time because it

542
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 1: was one of the big three networks and w QEED

543
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 1: wasn't even on the area yet. So but he decided

544
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 1: to really go I think probably where he had more

545
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 1: control and would have more of an influence over what

546
00:30:58,240 --> 00:30:59,720
Speaker 1: he was putting on the air. And so he went

547
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:02,719
Speaker 1: back home to Pennsylvania. And it was also at this

548
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 1: network that he first put his longtime love of puppetry

549
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: to use. And this happened when he was hired to

550
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,320
Speaker 1: work on a kid show called The Children's Corner, which

551
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 1: was hosted by a woman named Josie Carey. Fred was

552
00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:16,520
Speaker 1: more of a behind the scenes guy who's working as

553
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,520
Speaker 1: an organist, and his career as a children's host really

554
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: began by accident. They were going to be showing a

555
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: quick little bit of film on this show, and the

556
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 1: film strip snapped right when they're about to roll it,

557
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 1: and this was live TV, so they were forced to improvise,

558
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 1: and Fred grabbed a tiger puppet that the station manager

559
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: given him shortly before the show premiered, and he just

560
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:38,080
Speaker 1: stuck it through a hole on the set and started

561
00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:41,920
Speaker 1: improvising with the show's host. And this puppet became what

562
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: we now know as Daniel Stripe and Tiger, and it

563
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: was named after the woman who gave it to him,

564
00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 1: w QEED station manager, Dorothy Daniel, And as we said earlier,

565
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: Daniel the Tiger, he basically became mister Rodgers alter ego

566
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 1: in a sense. Fred's wife Joanne later said Daniel was

567
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,880
Speaker 1: pretty much Fred, the real Fred, And so this Children's

568
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 1: Corner show was really an early training ground for Fred,

569
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,480
Speaker 1: and that was here that he owns many if not

570
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,640
Speaker 1: all of the ten puppet characters he would ultimately perform

571
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: on Mister Rogers Neighborhood. There was King Friday the thirteenth,

572
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:16,880
Speaker 1: who was named I love this in an effort to

573
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:21,720
Speaker 1: make kids less fearful of Friday the thirteenth, which to

574
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 1: me is fairly low on the list of things that

575
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 1: I was afraid of as a kid. But go with God.

576
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 1: According to mister Rogers Neighborhood, King Friday was born on

577
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: Friday the thirteenth, which meant that Friday thirteenth was now

578
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: a day to be celebrated, not feared. The math on

579
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 1: this doesn't always work out, because sometimes there are multiple

580
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: Friday the thirteenth cent a year, but just just go

581
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: with it. The mischievous Lady Elaine Fairchild, who is horrifying,

582
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 1: was supposedly named after Fred's sister Elaine, whose parents adopted

583
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:55,240
Speaker 1: when Fred was eleven years old, and by all accounts

584
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: in his family was kind of a pill and as

585
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 1: is the character Lady a lamb, and I guess whenever

586
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:04,960
Speaker 1: Fred had to say something on Mister Rogers, like in

587
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,720
Speaker 1: his house to his sons, he delivered the news and

588
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 1: a Lady Elaine voice, which I think is a very

589
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: fascinating and slightly troubling insight, Fred Rogers Psychology. In addition

590
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:20,120
Speaker 1: to these, he also voiced X the Owl, which is

591
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,720
Speaker 1: kind of like a badass name for a fifties kids show,

592
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:28,800
Speaker 1: puppet X the Owl, and Henrietta Pussycat, who I kind

593
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: of forgot. She's the one always says like, always sticks

594
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:33,800
Speaker 1: me on my ows in between yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

595
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: Kind of annoying, but yeah, I'll give it to him. Yeah.

596
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 1: And in nineteen sixty one, after several years of working

597
00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 1: in the children's corner, Fred caught the attention with the

598
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who's head of programming told him, Fred,

599
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 1: I've seen you talk to kids. Let's put yourself on

600
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: the air. Because, again, on the children's corner, he was

601
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:52,880
Speaker 1: just a puppeteer behind the scenes, no one ever really

602
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: saw his face and no one ever really saw him

603
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,680
Speaker 1: and the magic that is Fred Rogers. So Fred, his

604
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:01,400
Speaker 1: wife Joanne, and the Two Sounds moved to Toronto to

605
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:05,480
Speaker 1: make his on camera debut in the confusedly named show

606
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: Mister Rogers All One Word. I don't really understand why

607
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 1: that choice was made. This show was essentially seen as

608
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,640
Speaker 1: an early Canadian prototype for the better known Mister Rogers

609
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 1: Neighborhood three separate words. It was only fifteen minutes and

610
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: shot in black and white, but it introduced even more

611
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 1: elements that we come familiar to Mister Rogers fans all

612
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 1: over the world, the music, the puppets, the Cardigans, as

613
00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 1: well as the neighborhood of make believe and the trolley.

614
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:34,759
Speaker 1: And actually the set pieces from Mister Rogers Neighborhood were

615
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,400
Speaker 1: actually the ones that were built by the CBC designers.

616
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 1: He would later take him back to the US when

617
00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 1: he launched Mister Rogers Neighborhood. According to the official PBS site,

618
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 1: the trolley from Mister Rogers Neighborhood, I don't understand this

619
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 1: traveled five thousand miles during each season of the show.

620
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 1: Now that's not correct, which to trust me. It's on

621
00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: like a big graphic on the PBS website. I trip,

622
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,279
Speaker 1: We'll checked it. I don't understand what they mean by that.

623
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:04,879
Speaker 1: Like the track that it travels on is like ten

624
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:07,359
Speaker 1: feet long. I know, I don't know, because I mean

625
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,040
Speaker 1: if they well they I mean, yeah, I don't know.

626
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 1: Did they run it constantly day and night? It's only

627
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 1: five thousand miles, like you know, that's that's the navigates

628
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:23,640
Speaker 1: the Earth or maybe not quite, but it's up there. Yeah. Well,

629
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,720
Speaker 1: Fred spent a full year developing this series in Canada,

630
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:29,680
Speaker 1: and many biographers have speculated, in kind of a psych

631
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:32,360
Speaker 1: one o one sort of way, that Fred's passion for

632
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:36,920
Speaker 1: television stemms really from his unhappy early life. The tiger

633
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:42,760
Speaker 1: was his mother. Yes, never mind, And so he spent

634
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:45,400
Speaker 1: three years in Canada until he returned to Pittsburgh in

635
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six and expanded his show into a full

636
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:51,719
Speaker 1: half hour. And first it was seen just in the Northeast.

637
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:53,919
Speaker 1: It was like a local it was a prepbs era,

638
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:56,840
Speaker 1: and then it picked up Sears Roebuck as a sponsor

639
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:01,200
Speaker 1: and went nationwide in February nineteen sixty eight. And so

640
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 1: Fred wasn't just working at children's television in the early sixties. Though.

641
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 1: When he wasn't filming the show, he studied at the

642
00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:12,360
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and in nineteen sixty two he became

643
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: the unordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. Friend of the pod.

644
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:28,880
Speaker 1: Now we throw to the Presbyterians, show me. Presbyterian writer

645
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:32,880
Speaker 1: Amy Hollingshorf, author of the Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, wrote,

646
00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:36,440
Speaker 1: after graduating from seminary, the Presbyterian Church didn't know what

647
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,680
Speaker 1: to do with Fred, so they gave him a special

648
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:42,160
Speaker 1: commission to be an evangelist to children through the media.

649
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:46,640
Speaker 1: The television quite literally became his pulpit, and he didn't

650
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 1: speak about it directly through the show, but it was

651
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 1: something he was very open about in interviews. So he

652
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:58,799
Speaker 1: never became a practicing preachers minister. Minister, there we go,

653
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:03,359
Speaker 1: presber preacher, but that's not right. Press evangelist, telepress evangelist.

654
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 1: He did appeared in nineteen ninety six episode of Doctor

655
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:12,360
Speaker 1: Quinn Medicine Woman as a pastor's mentor, the only time

656
00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 1: he appeared as any character other than himself on television.

657
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:18,960
Speaker 1: He appeared on Sesame Street and on the animated PBS

658
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:23,680
Speaker 1: series Arthur, but Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman holds the honor

659
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:26,400
Speaker 1: of getting Fred out of costume for the first and

660
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:30,560
Speaker 1: only time. He also guessed on Letterman, which is very

661
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: weird demands yeah yeah, more of a Jimmy Fallon kind

662
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:36,920
Speaker 1: of guy in that Jimmy Fallon is no. This was

663
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 1: in his like Letterman's Way Out era. This was in

664
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:43,080
Speaker 1: like the early eighties. This is when like Jerry Lawler

665
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 1: was decan Andy Kaufman like yeah, but speaking of chat shows, yeah,

666
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:51,560
Speaker 1: he also started in nineteen to seventy eight, while on

667
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:55,680
Speaker 1: hiatus from the children's show Mister Rogers, wrote, produced, and

668
00:37:55,840 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 1: hosted a thirty minute interview program for adults on CBS

669
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:07,319
Speaker 1: called Old Friends, New Friends, featuring esteemed guests the likes

670
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 1: of Milton Burrell, Georgia on My Mind, composer Hoogi Carmichael,

671
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 1: and Robert Frost's daughter Leslie. I think it only lasted

672
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 1: like twenty episodes, it was, apparently, and they talk about

673
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:23,720
Speaker 1: this in the Morgan Neville documentary sort of Unwatchable. Well,

674
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 1: just wasn't his medium, and you gotta work really hard

675
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 1: to make Leslie Frost seem uninteresting. In addition to his

676
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,640
Speaker 1: theological studies, Fret also took courses at the University of

677
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he met fellow

678
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:46,479
Speaker 1: adults who studied children, you know, the socially acceptable way,

679
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 1: no white vans. These included doctor Benjamin Spock, the childrearing

680
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:57,960
Speaker 1: icon of the baby Boom era, and Eric Ericson, What

681
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,239
Speaker 1: a terrible name. I'm so sorry. He's developmental psychologist and

682
00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:05,720
Speaker 1: psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychological development. He coined

683
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 1: the phrase identity crisis, something I refer to almost daily,

684
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: So shouts to Eric Ericson. Both of these experts helped

685
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 1: shape Rogers's ideas for how to connect with children through

686
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,960
Speaker 1: his show. But the most crucial was his connection to

687
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 1: doctor Margaret McFarlane, co founder and director of the Arsenal

688
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 1: Family and Children's Center in Pittsburgh. And she would go

689
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:29,839
Speaker 1: on to be a consultant on his show for over

690
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:32,759
Speaker 1: thirty years. But you know, he was far from a

691
00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:36,160
Speaker 1: chilli academic. There are just all of these stories, not

692
00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:40,399
Speaker 1: just from the Tom Janoude, the journalist who became very

693
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 1: close to him, but many others Rest and Tom Janoude

694
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:49,560
Speaker 1: and the rest. But he wrote, you know, as you

695
00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 1: mentioned before, probably the definitive profile and fred in Esquire

696
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:55,680
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, and he wrote, he worked hard on

697
00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:59,200
Speaker 1: his friendships. He prepared for his friendships, he took notes

698
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,400
Speaker 1: on his friendship. He even kept files on his friendships.

699
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:04,719
Speaker 1: And not long ago I found out he'd kept a

700
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:07,520
Speaker 1: file on me. The files are in his archives at

701
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:11,400
Speaker 1: Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Apparently they are extensive box

702
00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:15,120
Speaker 1: after box of information and inspiration concerning those he loved,

703
00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:17,319
Speaker 1: and in one of those boxes are the names of

704
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: my wife, my dogs, and one of my nieces who

705
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,120
Speaker 1: was facing trouble and for whom he prayed. There were

706
00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:25,960
Speaker 1: also print outs of our correspondence and notes he took

707
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:29,880
Speaker 1: on our phone conversations, written on yellow legal pads in

708
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 1: his eerily calligraphic hand. Does this freak me out? No,

709
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,359
Speaker 1: because I used to wonder how he did it, how

710
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 1: he was available to so many people on so many

711
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 1: different occasions. Now I know. I also remember that, for

712
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 1: all his scrupulous preparation, his conversation was never canned, but

713
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:51,480
Speaker 1: rather questing and free. Fred had a very overarching emphasis

714
00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 1: on egalitarianism, to the degree that his office didn't have

715
00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 1: a desk because he didn't want to place objects between

716
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 1: him and his guests, so he had a sofa and armchairs.

717
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 1: And interviewers actually found him to be a tricky subject

718
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:12,000
Speaker 1: to interview because he would ask questions of the interviewers

719
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:15,800
Speaker 1: instead of giving answers. And this wasn't because he was

720
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 1: trying to be evasive or duck their questions. He was

721
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,719
Speaker 1: just curious about their lives and that was his way

722
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:26,400
Speaker 1: of getting closer to people. He pioneered the celebrity selfie

723
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:30,040
Speaker 1: long before the age of Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift.

724
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,759
Speaker 1: He was in the habit of getting photos with interviewers

725
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 1: and would even send them little albums of the time

726
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: that they spent together. One of your favorite anecdotes that

727
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 1: you dropped in here when he was being chauffeur to

728
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,000
Speaker 1: a PBS executive's house for dinner, and he asked what

729
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: the driver was going to do between drop off and

730
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:48,839
Speaker 1: when it was time to take him back. The driver

731
00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:50,960
Speaker 1: replied he was just going to wait outside, which is

732
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: pretty much power for the course for the life of

733
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,920
Speaker 1: a limo driver. Fred wouldn't hear of it, and he

734
00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 1: insisted that the driver come into the PBS executive's house

735
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,560
Speaker 1: to eat dinner with them, and then on the ride

736
00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 1: back home, Fred sat in the front of the car

737
00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:07,840
Speaker 1: with the driver. The driver says, Oh, we're passing my

738
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:10,480
Speaker 1: house on the way back to Fred's house, and Fred

739
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 1: asked if he could stop in and meet his family,

740
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:16,359
Speaker 1: and so the driver acquiesced and described it as one

741
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:19,360
Speaker 1: of the best nights of his life. He said, Fred

742
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:22,439
Speaker 1: played piano for them and chatted with them until late

743
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 1: in the night. Again, I've spent weeks researching this episode.

744
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:33,520
Speaker 1: I have not found a single, remotely, dark, stormy negative

745
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:39,960
Speaker 1: thing about Fred Rogers, which makes me very happy. We're

746
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 1: going to take a quick break, but we'll be right

747
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 1: back with more too much information in just a moment,

748
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:02,879
Speaker 1: king up dinner with Fred. He was a staunch vegetarian

749
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 1: for most of his life, and this was for moral reasons.

750
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:07,480
Speaker 1: He later said, I don't want eat anything that has

751
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:11,600
Speaker 1: a mother really puts the rest of us in an

752
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:14,840
Speaker 1: awkward position. That's a health of ways to do do it.

753
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:19,080
Speaker 1: And it probably becomes no surprise that Fred Rogers didn't

754
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,800
Speaker 1: drink or smoke either. He co owned the Vegetarian Times

755
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 1: magazine for a time in the eighties, which he sold

756
00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:28,560
Speaker 1: in the nineties for what was reportedly a healthy prophet

757
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:32,480
Speaker 1: good for Fred, and he also took major corporations to task.

758
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:37,400
Speaker 1: When Burger King had the guts to parody mister Rogers

759
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:41,280
Speaker 1: and one of their ads, how Dare They, Mister Rogers

760
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 1: called them out in a big press conference, effectively shaming

761
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:48,360
Speaker 1: the company into canceling the ad. Ironically, Tofu Burgers is

762
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:51,319
Speaker 1: one of mister Rogers's favorite metals. He was very much

763
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:53,760
Speaker 1: a creature of habit. For breakfast, mister Roger, He's usually

764
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 1: had milk and cereal or fresh fruit and toast. Lunchtime

765
00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 1: found the meaning yogurt and crackers or cotted cheese with peaches,

766
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:03,319
Speaker 1: and for dinner he often favored tofu and vegetables. And

767
00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:05,800
Speaker 1: as a result, he kept a very spelt one hundred

768
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 1: and forty three pounds, and he reportedly weighed himself each

769
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:12,760
Speaker 1: day to ensure that he kept that exactly the same weight.

770
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,160
Speaker 1: And he told writer Tom Jennold for his profile and esquire,

771
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:18,520
Speaker 1: the number one hundred and forty three or one four

772
00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:21,200
Speaker 1: three means I love you. It takes one letter to

773
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: say I and four letters to say love and three

774
00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 1: letters to say you. One hundred and forty three I

775
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:31,719
Speaker 1: love you. Isn't that wonderful? So for Fred Rogers, one

776
00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:33,879
Speaker 1: hundred and forty three wasn't just his weight, but also

777
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:37,319
Speaker 1: a sort of cosmic confirmation of who he was. And

778
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:40,279
Speaker 1: Jannold later said that Fred would email him from an

779
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:45,879
Speaker 1: AOL account, and his AOL address was ZZZ one four

780
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 1: three at aol dot com and the zzz signified the

781
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: fact that Fred slept soundly through the night, and the

782
00:44:53,160 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 1: one forty three was I love you It's incredible. But yes,

783
00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:02,720
Speaker 1: as I said, Fred Rogers was very much a creature

784
00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:05,839
Speaker 1: of habit and kept a very strict daily regiment. Uh.

785
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:08,319
Speaker 1: In fact, being mister Rogers sort of sounds like being

786
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 1: in boot camp. He was up at five thirty every

787
00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:12,680
Speaker 1: morning for a prayer and some studying. He would do

788
00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:15,040
Speaker 1: a little writing, make some phone calls, and then he

789
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:17,400
Speaker 1: was off to take his daily swim at the Pittsburgh

790
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 1: Athletic Club. But naked. Yes, Yes, my favorite part of

791
00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 1: the it's my favorite part of that Esquire profile. It's

792
00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 1: just so like it's it's again, just like it's stuff

793
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,480
Speaker 1: about him that would kind of be creepy and weird.

794
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:37,440
Speaker 1: It's like if you actually found out at any point

795
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:42,200
Speaker 1: that someone had bad things to say about him. The vegetarianism,

796
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:47,399
Speaker 1: the swimming in the nude, the over familiarity with strangers,

797
00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:51,040
Speaker 1: the obsession with like classical piano, like all of it

798
00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 1: is something that could very easily be hallmarks of a

799
00:45:53,520 --> 00:46:00,640
Speaker 1: serial killer. Yeah, you know, and then you're just like, oh, no,

800
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 1: just just a sweet weird man. He was definitely eccentric. Yeah,

801
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 1: I mean this in this Touch and od profile, I

802
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:10,920
Speaker 1: think it opens actually with Anne in the locker room

803
00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:13,640
Speaker 1: with mister Rogers and mister Rogers is stripping off. I mean,

804
00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:16,439
Speaker 1: it's a great callback to the opening of the Mister

805
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:18,799
Speaker 1: Rogers TV show when he takes off his jacket. It's

806
00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:22,439
Speaker 1: it's actually brilliant. He's mister Rogers in the dress room,

807
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,360
Speaker 1: takes off his suit coat, takes off his tie, takes

808
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:30,280
Speaker 1: off his shirt, and keeps going, keeps going, and finally

809
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:33,359
Speaker 1: he was naked. And Fred looks at the writer Tom

810
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:36,640
Speaker 1: jan Oden says, well, Tom, I guess you've already gotten

811
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 1: a deeper glimpse into my daily routine than most people have. Amazing.

812
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 1: Arguably the most precious part of Fred's day was when

813
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:49,320
Speaker 1: he attended to his fan mail, and early in his career,

814
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:51,440
Speaker 1: he and his wife Joe Anne would write their responses

815
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:54,399
Speaker 1: on the dining room table together fairly quickly, but as

816
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:56,920
Speaker 1: the number of letters swelled between fifty and one hundred

817
00:46:56,960 --> 00:47:00,600
Speaker 1: letters a day, he began to oversee the respects with

818
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:03,839
Speaker 1: the help of a personal assistant before personally signing each

819
00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,319
Speaker 1: one himself, but his assistant later clarified that no one

820
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:10,759
Speaker 1: received a form letter from mister Rogers. Heather Arnott, who

821
00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:13,360
Speaker 1: was an assistant on mister rodgers neighborhood, told the Pittsburgh

822
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 1: Post Gazette he respected the kids who wrote. He never

823
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:19,279
Speaker 1: thought about throwing out a drawing or a letter. They

824
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:22,640
Speaker 1: were sacred and often in these fan letters, these kids

825
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:24,839
Speaker 1: were pouring their hearts out to him about a loss

826
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:27,520
Speaker 1: of a family member or a pet, and Fred felt

827
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:29,319
Speaker 1: it was the least he can do to respect them.

828
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 1: He later said, anyone who does anything to help a

829
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,879
Speaker 1: child in his life as a hero to me, and

830
00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:38,440
Speaker 1: this is really sweet. Some of Fred Rogers fan letters

831
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:42,160
Speaker 1: were published in an eighteen ninety six compilation, Dear mister Rogers,

832
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:45,920
Speaker 1: does it ever reign in the Neighborhood? And some of

833
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:48,960
Speaker 1: them are really cute too. And then, after all this work,

834
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:52,319
Speaker 1: mister Rodgers frequently took a midday nap before turning in

835
00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 1: for bed at nine thirty every night, where he'd sleep

836
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:58,799
Speaker 1: for an uninterrupted eight hours, secure in the knowledge that

837
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:02,959
Speaker 1: he was the most beloved man on the planet. Now,

838
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:05,680
Speaker 1: such a punishing workload was bound to wear on anyone

839
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,080
Speaker 1: and Fred Rogers expressed his frustration not by swearing, but

840
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:13,799
Speaker 1: by uttering mercy, not on like Uncle Jesse from Full

841
00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:18,080
Speaker 1: House orson in Pretty Woman. It was a one that

842
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:20,279
Speaker 1: he said frequently as he sat down the tackle his

843
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: pile of fan mail. But generally this was the strongest

844
00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:26,359
Speaker 1: word in his personal lexicon. But that's not to say

845
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 1: he lacked a sense of humor, even for body or

846
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:33,920
Speaker 1: jokes and gags. Surprisingly, he actually really enjoyed a lot

847
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:36,680
Speaker 1: of the mister Rogers parodies. He said that the first

848
00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:39,120
Speaker 1: time he met Eddie Murphy, who regularly parodied him on

849
00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:42,160
Speaker 1: SNL as mister Robinson, he threw his arms around the

850
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:45,239
Speaker 1: comedian and gave him a giant hug and they took

851
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:47,640
Speaker 1: a selfie together with a polaroid, which they showed off

852
00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:50,919
Speaker 1: on The David Letterman Show, which is hilarious. And Fred

853
00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:53,440
Speaker 1: told David Letterman that he believed that these parodies were

854
00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:56,799
Speaker 1: done quote with kindness in their hearts. But it was

855
00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,320
Speaker 1: not easy being mister Rogers when he wasn't writing original music,

856
00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:03,800
Speaker 1: answering fan mail, or giving an endless stream of the

857
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 1: two hundred commencement speeches he delivered at points in his career,

858
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:13,160
Speaker 1: fundraising or actually taping the eight hundred ninety five regular

859
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:17,040
Speaker 1: season episodes of his show, he would write it, and

860
00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:20,239
Speaker 1: writing it was a complicated process, more than you'd think.

861
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:22,880
Speaker 1: Maxwell King, author of the book The Good Neighbor, The

862
00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:25,360
Speaker 1: Life and Work of Fred Rogers, wrote in The Atlantic

863
00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 1: that Fred meticulously chose his words when writing scripts for

864
00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:30,400
Speaker 1: the show because he wanted to make sure he was

865
00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:33,600
Speaker 1: communicating in the most effective way to young children who

866
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:37,200
Speaker 1: tend to think in extremely literal fashion. This is really

867
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:40,719
Speaker 1: interesting the man, and this could lead to some inadvertent miscommunications.

868
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:44,759
Speaker 1: And King said that Fred was extraordinarily good at imagining

869
00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:49,160
Speaker 1: where children's minds might go, adding the mister Rogers wrote

870
00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:51,920
Speaker 1: a song called you can Never Go down the Drain

871
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:54,359
Speaker 1: because he knew that this was a fear shared by

872
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:58,480
Speaker 1: many children. In the book, King describes the nine step

873
00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:02,440
Speaker 1: process that Fred would to translate an ordinary adult sentence

874
00:50:02,719 --> 00:50:05,319
Speaker 1: to one that Rogers felt would resonate with children by

875
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:09,279
Speaker 1: validating their fears and providing what the children needed. So

876
00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:12,120
Speaker 1: a sentence like it is dangerous to play in the

877
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:15,960
Speaker 1: street becomes your favorite. Grown ups can tell you where

878
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:18,479
Speaker 1: it is safe to play. It is important to try

879
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,200
Speaker 1: to listen to them, and listening is an important part

880
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,319
Speaker 1: of growing. Another example is that in one episode, there's

881
00:50:24,360 --> 00:50:26,680
Speaker 1: a scene in a hospital in which a nurse inflating

882
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 1: a blood pressure cuff says, I'm going to blow this up,

883
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:33,879
Speaker 1: and Fred insisted that they redub the line as I'm

884
00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:36,600
Speaker 1: going to puff this up with some air, because blow

885
00:50:36,640 --> 00:50:40,239
Speaker 1: it up might sound like there was an explosion. And

886
00:50:40,280 --> 00:50:42,720
Speaker 1: then he was worried that children would cover their ears

887
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:48,600
Speaker 1: and not hear what was happening. Next once, he enlisted

888
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:51,200
Speaker 1: one of his writers to write a manual intended to

889
00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:54,360
Speaker 1: teach doctors how to talk to children, and this woman

890
00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:56,719
Speaker 1: worked hard on it, using all of her education and

891
00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:59,640
Speaker 1: experience in the field of child development. But when she

892
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:03,080
Speaker 1: did him her opening, he crossed out what she had

893
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 1: written and replaced it with six words you were a

894
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:09,520
Speaker 1: child once two. Fred learned early on in his TV

895
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:12,840
Speaker 1: career to pretend that he was speaking to just one child.

896
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:15,680
Speaker 1: He also made sure to speak at a very specific

897
00:51:15,680 --> 00:51:17,960
Speaker 1: pace of no more than one hundred and twenty four

898
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:21,920
Speaker 1: words per minute. This is thought to be the ideal

899
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:26,719
Speaker 1: pace for children ages three to five to process. The

900
00:51:26,800 --> 00:51:29,759
Speaker 1: speed and clarity also made it extra intelligible. To non

901
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:34,560
Speaker 1: native speakers, and many people, including Ricky Martin, credit the

902
00:51:34,600 --> 00:51:38,680
Speaker 1: show with helping them learn English. Since Fred was so

903
00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:42,759
Speaker 1: deliberate about his word choice, speed, and cadence, it makes

904
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:44,800
Speaker 1: sense that he was not a big fan of ad living.

905
00:51:45,760 --> 00:51:47,520
Speaker 1: He felt that he owed it to his young viewers

906
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:50,480
Speaker 1: to make sure that every word was thought out. It's

907
00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:54,080
Speaker 1: worth reiterating that Fred Rogers wrote and edited all of

908
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:57,040
Speaker 1: the episodes, wrote and saying most of the two hundred

909
00:51:57,040 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 1: songs created, all of the characters, both puppet and human,

910
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:05,280
Speaker 1: played most of the significant puppet roles, hosted every episode, produced,

911
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 1: and approved every detail of the program, So that's a lot.

912
00:52:10,960 --> 00:52:14,800
Speaker 1: The show went national a year before another PBS children's juggernaut,

913
00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:18,160
Speaker 1: Sesame Street, premiere in nineteen sixty nine, and though the

914
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:20,759
Speaker 1: two were often lumped together, they were seen as two

915
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:24,720
Speaker 1: sides of the same coin. Sesame Street focused on cognitive learning,

916
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:28,120
Speaker 1: where Mister Rogers Neighborhood focused on young children's social and

917
00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:32,840
Speaker 1: emotional needs. Writer Kathy Murlock Jackson said, while both shows

918
00:52:32,840 --> 00:52:36,239
Speaker 1: target the same preschool audience and prepare children for kindergarten,

919
00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:41,160
Speaker 1: Sesame Street concentrates on school readiness skills, while Mister Rogers

920
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:44,600
Speaker 1: Neighborhood focuses on the child's developing psyche and feelings and

921
00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 1: sense of moral and ethical reasoning and fashion. I was

922
00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:54,600
Speaker 1: more influenced by the fashion. Yeah, let's see that. Yeah,

923
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:58,880
Speaker 1: Louise was a pretty badass. Oh, I mean Oscar the

924
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:03,040
Speaker 1: Grouch in that I aspired to live in a trash can.

925
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:07,759
Speaker 1: Much the same way that Fred was strict about the

926
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:12,000
Speaker 1: writing on his show, he demanded excellence from his guest stars.

927
00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:16,400
Speaker 1: After Roger's death, Joe Nigrie, who played the royal handyman

928
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:19,120
Speaker 1: in the Neighborhood of Make Believe, told the Associated Press

929
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,480
Speaker 1: that Fred didn't take kindly to celebrity guests who seemed

930
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:25,160
Speaker 1: to be phoning their performances in because they were on

931
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:28,719
Speaker 1: a kiddie show. Yeah. I like to imagine as soon

932
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:31,000
Speaker 1: as he got off camera he broke into like Arlie

933
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:37,640
Speaker 1: Ermi's voice. You call that an inspirational speech, maggot. The

934
00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:41,239
Speaker 1: guest list for Mister Rogers is impressive. Tony Bennett, Yo

935
00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:44,759
Speaker 1: Yo Ma, Julia Child went in Marsalis, the cast of

936
00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 1: Stomp Okay Sure LeVar Burton, Bill Nye, Astronaut, Al Warden.

937
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:58,040
Speaker 1: Children's book author Eric Carl magician David Copperfield, among many others.

938
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:00,480
Speaker 1: Fred later said of his guests, the thing that I

939
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:03,080
Speaker 1: remember best about successful people I've met through all the

940
00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:06,400
Speaker 1: years is their obvious delight in what they're doing, and

941
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:08,960
Speaker 1: it seems to have very little to do with worldly success.

942
00:54:09,320 --> 00:54:11,480
Speaker 1: They just love what they're doing, and they love it

943
00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:14,200
Speaker 1: in front of others. Another notable guest of the show

944
00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:17,160
Speaker 1: was Margaret Hamilton, best known as the Wicked Witch of

945
00:54:17,160 --> 00:54:20,480
Speaker 1: the West and Wizard of Oz. Fred invited her onto

946
00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:22,320
Speaker 1: the show in nineteen seventy five because he knew that

947
00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:26,560
Speaker 1: kids were still terrified of her, as evidenced by the

948
00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:30,080
Speaker 1: famous band episode of Sesame Street that aired once in

949
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:33,319
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six before being yanked from reruns from being

950
00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:37,239
Speaker 1: too scary, presumably featuring Margaret Hamilton. Yeah, oh yeah, that

951
00:54:37,320 --> 00:54:39,680
Speaker 1: was the episode. She had guessed that on Sesame Street

952
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:42,479
Speaker 1: and it was so terrifying, and so many parents wrote

953
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:44,880
Speaker 1: in the complaint, which was sad because I think the

954
00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:47,080
Speaker 1: whole episode of her on Sesame Street was about how

955
00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:52,640
Speaker 1: she was like misunderstood. Yeah, it was so freaky that

956
00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:55,640
Speaker 1: it was yanked off the air, and for years it

957
00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:58,319
Speaker 1: was like, oh, on the top ten list of like

958
00:54:58,760 --> 00:55:01,440
Speaker 1: lost media that p I wanted to see, and it

959
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:04,840
Speaker 1: only very recently came out. I think last summer. Somebody

960
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 1: found it and put it on YouTube and I watched

961
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:10,799
Speaker 1: clips from it, and it is indeed pretty creepy. Yeah,

962
00:55:10,840 --> 00:55:14,520
Speaker 1: and then later that would serve as the plot of Wicked. Yeah.

963
00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:18,719
Speaker 1: Woh yeah. Well, we can't talk about fellow humans on

964
00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:23,200
Speaker 1: Mister rogers neighborhood without discussing mister Speedy delivery himself, Mister McFeeley.

965
00:55:23,680 --> 00:55:26,520
Speaker 1: That character was named after Fred's maternal grandfather and his

966
00:55:26,600 --> 00:55:29,840
Speaker 1: own middle name. And Yeah. Years after the show ended,

967
00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:32,640
Speaker 1: Fred Rogers admitted that he wished he chose in a

968
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:34,799
Speaker 1: different name for the delivery man because he was sick

969
00:55:34,840 --> 00:55:37,839
Speaker 1: of all the dirty jokes that came from it. Mister

970
00:55:37,880 --> 00:55:40,800
Speaker 1: McFeeley was played by David Nuwell, who was originally hired

971
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:44,080
Speaker 1: onto the show as a public relations manager, and Tred

972
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:47,200
Speaker 1: apparently liked his vibe and cast him in the role

973
00:55:47,200 --> 00:55:51,600
Speaker 1: of mister McFeeley basically on the spot and ego eyed.

974
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:54,520
Speaker 1: Fans of Mister Rogers have noted that mister Rogers never

975
00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:58,320
Speaker 1: shakes mister mcfeeley's hand, just once in the series finale,

976
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:01,160
Speaker 1: and also during a Christmas special ironic for a man

977
00:56:01,239 --> 00:56:04,799
Speaker 1: named mcpheely. The other main human on Mister rodgers neighborhood

978
00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:07,759
Speaker 1: is the beautiful and talented Lady Aberlin. She is King

979
00:56:07,800 --> 00:56:10,479
Speaker 1: Friday's niece who acted as kind of a surrogate older

980
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:12,799
Speaker 1: sibling or parent to the characters in the Land of

981
00:56:12,840 --> 00:56:15,840
Speaker 1: Make Believe. Lady Aberlin was played for thirty three years

982
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,680
Speaker 1: by Betty Aberlin, who came from more of an avant

983
00:56:18,719 --> 00:56:21,719
Speaker 1: garde underground arts background than the one might expect for

984
00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:24,680
Speaker 1: a Mister Rodgers intimate. She owsted a late night radio

985
00:56:24,719 --> 00:56:27,319
Speaker 1: show with free jazz and spoken word pieces in the

986
00:56:27,360 --> 00:56:29,640
Speaker 1: mid seventies, and she also worked with the comedy deal,

987
00:56:29,719 --> 00:56:33,040
Speaker 1: The Smotherest Brothers and most interesting to Me. She is

988
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:36,399
Speaker 1: a long standing association with director Kevin Smith and has

989
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:40,040
Speaker 1: appeared in guest roles in the movies Dogma, Jersey, Curl

990
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:43,880
Speaker 1: Zach and Mary Make a Porno, and Red State. And

991
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:47,120
Speaker 1: the only other truly reoccurring live character most of the

992
00:56:47,160 --> 00:56:50,360
Speaker 1: time on Mister Rogers are his fish, which he always

993
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:54,480
Speaker 1: made a big display of feeding, presumably saving the lives

994
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:58,040
Speaker 1: of countless family goldfish given the children as pets these

995
00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:02,680
Speaker 1: frequent reminders to feed the fish. It probably helped Fred

996
00:57:02,680 --> 00:57:04,439
Speaker 1: always announced when he was going to feed the fish

997
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:06,680
Speaker 1: because he once received a letter from a five year

998
00:57:06,719 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 1: old blind fan reading, Dear mister Rodgers, please say when

999
00:57:10,080 --> 00:57:12,440
Speaker 1: you're feeding your fish, because I worry about them. I

1000
00:57:12,480 --> 00:57:14,680
Speaker 1: can't see if you're feeding them, so please say you're

1001
00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:17,360
Speaker 1: feeding them out loud. And this was always one of

1002
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:19,120
Speaker 1: my favorite moments of the show because it was always

1003
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:22,840
Speaker 1: so quiet and meditative, and these little moments was something

1004
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:25,960
Speaker 1: that Fred made true to include throughout the show, and

1005
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:28,360
Speaker 1: in fact, in the intro to each episode, you'll notice

1006
00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:31,520
Speaker 1: the stoplight, which he inexplicably has in his living room

1007
00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:34,040
Speaker 1: is always on yellow when he walks in, and that's

1008
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:37,600
Speaker 1: a subliminal reminder to both kids and parents to slow down,

1009
00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:42,680
Speaker 1: which I thought was cute. Fred had absolutely no fear

1010
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:45,720
Speaker 1: of dead air. In one episode, he invited a marine

1011
00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:48,840
Speaker 1: biologist to teach kids about fish and specifically how they eat,

1012
00:57:49,200 --> 00:57:51,880
Speaker 1: so for one segment, they wanted to demonstrate how fish ate,

1013
00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:54,360
Speaker 1: so they tossed the mic into the tank and waited,

1014
00:57:54,520 --> 00:57:57,640
Speaker 1: but the fish weren't hungry. The biologist started to tap

1015
00:57:57,680 --> 00:57:59,280
Speaker 1: the tank and try to get the fish to eat,

1016
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:01,919
Speaker 1: but they just weren't own for it, and the crew thought,

1017
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:04,400
Speaker 1: you know, we'd probably need to retape this, but Fred

1018
00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:06,400
Speaker 1: didn't want to. He thought it was a great lesson

1019
00:58:06,480 --> 00:58:10,560
Speaker 1: in teaching kids the importance of being patient. And interestingly,

1020
00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:14,160
Speaker 1: a Yale study examining the difference between Sesame Street viewers

1021
00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:17,479
Speaker 1: and Mister Rodgers viewers determined that kids who watched Mister

1022
00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:20,640
Speaker 1: Rogers had a much higher what's called tolerance of delay,

1023
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:24,560
Speaker 1: meaning they were more patient. So that's interesting. But mister

1024
00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:28,600
Speaker 1: Rodgers was very against quick cuts, and Tom jannatas quoted

1025
00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:31,520
Speaker 1: as saying he was in favor of media being human,

1026
00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:34,320
Speaker 1: meaning there should be mistakes, there should be accidents, and

1027
00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:36,200
Speaker 1: if that was the way it was filmed, then that

1028
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:40,240
Speaker 1: was how it should stay. Many television critics have noted

1029
00:58:40,240 --> 00:58:42,439
Speaker 1: how Fred used time in a different way than many

1030
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:45,400
Speaker 1: other TV hosts. He would do things like, we don't

1031
00:58:45,440 --> 00:58:47,560
Speaker 1: know how long a minute is here, let me show you,

1032
00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:50,240
Speaker 1: and then just sit there for a minute of dead air.

1033
00:58:51,520 --> 00:58:53,200
Speaker 1: And I can't even call it dead air because that

1034
00:58:53,280 --> 00:58:56,360
Speaker 1: implies that it's wasted time. It's just slow time. And

1035
00:58:56,400 --> 00:59:00,000
Speaker 1: there was another lengthy segment where Fred's showcases his breathing technique.

1036
00:59:00,480 --> 00:59:03,280
Speaker 1: It's all part of zen, the art of mister Rogers,

1037
00:59:03,440 --> 00:59:06,120
Speaker 1: and he later said, I think silence is one of

1038
00:59:06,160 --> 00:59:08,840
Speaker 1: the greatest gifts we have. And I mean, if you

1039
00:59:08,920 --> 00:59:12,400
Speaker 1: watch mister Rogers now and compare it to like, I'm

1040
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:15,480
Speaker 1: sure any Bluey whatever, what are the New Kids shows.

1041
00:59:15,480 --> 00:59:18,439
Speaker 1: I don't even know. The speed of it is just

1042
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:22,200
Speaker 1: it's unlike anything on the air now. But it's amazing.

1043
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:24,919
Speaker 1: But it like it's kind of has like the joy

1044
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:27,560
Speaker 1: of painting quality to it. It's very calming him in

1045
00:59:27,680 --> 00:59:31,880
Speaker 1: the Beckett Samuel Beckett, Oh my god, every word is

1046
00:59:31,880 --> 00:59:38,960
Speaker 1: like an unnecessary stain on nothingness, waiting for mcpheely. And

1047
00:59:39,040 --> 00:59:42,080
Speaker 1: there we come to mister Rogers true co stars his sweaters.

1048
00:59:43,080 --> 00:59:45,480
Speaker 1: I am hard pressed to name a man more strongly

1049
00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:49,680
Speaker 1: associated with my favorite garment. Maybe Bill Cosby, but I

1050
00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:53,960
Speaker 1: think that honor has been revoked at this point. Everyone

1051
00:59:54,400 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 1: can picture in your mind's eye the way that mister

1052
00:59:56,920 --> 00:59:58,920
Speaker 1: Rodgers zips his card again all the way up at

1053
00:59:58,920 --> 01:00:01,440
Speaker 1: the beginning of each episode and then brings the zipper

1054
01:00:01,480 --> 01:00:05,760
Speaker 1: back down to mid level, much more casual. They originally

1055
01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:08,240
Speaker 1: had buttons on his cardigans for the first couple episodes,

1056
01:00:08,240 --> 01:00:10,360
Speaker 1: but they took too long to fasten, so he switched

1057
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:13,000
Speaker 1: his zippers very smart. This is also the part of

1058
01:00:13,040 --> 01:00:16,360
Speaker 1: the show where he switches his shoes from wingtips to sneakers,

1059
01:00:16,360 --> 01:00:18,640
Speaker 1: which I had assumed was part of his way of

1060
01:00:18,640 --> 01:00:20,760
Speaker 1: signaling if they were going to have a fun, relaxing

1061
01:00:20,800 --> 01:00:23,760
Speaker 1: time together. That's only part of the reason. This satorial

1062
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:28,080
Speaker 1: choice was also dictated partially by necessity because his fancy

1063
01:00:28,160 --> 01:00:30,720
Speaker 1: dress shoes made too much noise when walking on the set,

1064
01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:35,360
Speaker 1: so he switched to Sperry topsiders or convers And for

1065
01:00:35,400 --> 01:00:36,840
Speaker 1: those of you who want to get the fool Fred

1066
01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:39,560
Speaker 1: Rogers look, I have bad news for you. You cannot.

1067
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:42,360
Speaker 1: For the majority of the series, his cardigans were made

1068
01:00:42,440 --> 01:00:45,800
Speaker 1: especially for Fred by his mother Nancy. We mentioned at

1069
01:00:45,840 --> 01:00:47,720
Speaker 1: the top of the episode that she did her part

1070
01:00:47,760 --> 01:00:50,640
Speaker 1: for the war effort during World War Two by knitting

1071
01:00:50,680 --> 01:00:53,320
Speaker 1: sweaters for the local boys serving in Europe to keep

1072
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:56,360
Speaker 1: them warm, and she continued to knit a sweater a

1073
01:00:56,400 --> 01:00:58,840
Speaker 1: month for the rest of her life, giving them out

1074
01:00:58,880 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 1: to her family members, including Fred, as Christmas presents, and

1075
01:01:02,200 --> 01:01:05,520
Speaker 1: Fred ultimately amassed a collection of more than twenty distinctive

1076
01:01:05,600 --> 01:01:08,560
Speaker 1: Varsity Next sweaters, which and he wore them on TV

1077
01:01:08,680 --> 01:01:10,720
Speaker 1: as his way of saying hello to his mother, which

1078
01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:13,760
Speaker 1: is adorable. It's like Carol Burnt tugging her ear to

1079
01:01:13,800 --> 01:01:17,440
Speaker 1: say hello to her grandmother in the every episode. Yeah.

1080
01:01:17,640 --> 01:01:20,720
Speaker 1: During one episode of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Fred actually explained

1081
01:01:20,760 --> 01:01:22,960
Speaker 1: the background of his sweaters, holding one up to the

1082
01:01:22,960 --> 01:01:24,520
Speaker 1: camera so they could do a close up on his

1083
01:01:24,600 --> 01:01:27,800
Speaker 1: mother's handywork, and he told viewers she makes sweaters for

1084
01:01:27,880 --> 01:01:30,200
Speaker 1: many different people. That's one of the ways that she

1085
01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:33,880
Speaker 1: says she loves somebody. Though Fred's mother, Nancy, died in

1086
01:01:33,960 --> 01:01:36,680
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, he continued to wear her sweaters for many,

1087
01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:40,000
Speaker 1: many years, but after a while, sadly, they started to

1088
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:45,080
Speaker 1: become afraid and decidedly not camera worthy, and finding replacement

1089
01:01:45,120 --> 01:01:49,760
Speaker 1: cardigans for Mister Rogers proved oddly difficult. The colors needed

1090
01:01:49,760 --> 01:01:53,040
Speaker 1: to be appropriately vibrant and the zipper exceptionally smooth so

1091
01:01:53,120 --> 01:01:56,680
Speaker 1: wouldn't get stuck and delay the shoot, and they really

1092
01:01:56,680 --> 01:01:59,560
Speaker 1: found themselves stuck until one day the show's art director,

1093
01:01:59,600 --> 01:02:02,880
Speaker 1: a woman and Kathy Borland, saw a postal worker walking

1094
01:02:02,880 --> 01:02:05,280
Speaker 1: down the street in Pittsburgh, and she realized that his

1095
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:09,040
Speaker 1: cardigan was a perfect facsimile of Fred's. And she called

1096
01:02:09,040 --> 01:02:11,480
Speaker 1: the local post office supply and got a bunch of

1097
01:02:11,520 --> 01:02:14,959
Speaker 1: standard issue mail carrier cardigans. I guess those were really

1098
01:02:14,960 --> 01:02:17,160
Speaker 1: close to the style those mom made. And she got

1099
01:02:17,160 --> 01:02:19,680
Speaker 1: them all done in white so she could die them herself.

1100
01:02:20,560 --> 01:02:23,400
Speaker 1: And hilariously, this art director, Kathy Borland, she'd worked as

1101
01:02:23,440 --> 01:02:26,240
Speaker 1: an art director on George Romero's Day of the Dead,

1102
01:02:26,600 --> 01:02:30,200
Speaker 1: making outfits for five hundred zombies. So she's made outfits

1103
01:02:30,200 --> 01:02:33,680
Speaker 1: for five hundred zombies and mister Rogers, I cannot imagine

1104
01:02:33,720 --> 01:02:35,800
Speaker 1: that there's anybody else on the planet who can claim

1105
01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:39,560
Speaker 1: that honor. But dyeing these sweaters was no easy task.

1106
01:02:39,920 --> 01:02:42,520
Speaker 1: She had to buy an industrial size soup pot from

1107
01:02:42,520 --> 01:02:46,080
Speaker 1: a restaurant supply company, which, at seventy dollars, took a

1108
01:02:46,160 --> 01:02:49,800
Speaker 1: sizeable chunk out of her budget. And then she would

1109
01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:52,080
Speaker 1: throw all these white sweaters in in the backyard and

1110
01:02:52,120 --> 01:02:54,480
Speaker 1: mix it with a giant yard stick like the mom

1111
01:02:54,720 --> 01:02:58,440
Speaker 1: from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I guess you

1112
01:02:58,480 --> 01:03:01,200
Speaker 1: know the scene. Then she them dry on a clothesline

1113
01:03:01,200 --> 01:03:03,440
Speaker 1: in her backyard and that was that, and she waxed

1114
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:06,280
Speaker 1: the zippers herself for a smoother pool, but she later

1115
01:03:06,320 --> 01:03:08,760
Speaker 1: told the Smithsonian dot Com, every time he put that

1116
01:03:08,800 --> 01:03:10,960
Speaker 1: sweater on during a shoot, my heart would go into

1117
01:03:11,040 --> 01:03:13,120
Speaker 1: my feet, and it was only after he got a

1118
01:03:13,160 --> 01:03:17,040
Speaker 1: smooth zip that she could relax. And speaking to the Smithsonian,

1119
01:03:17,320 --> 01:03:19,640
Speaker 1: Fred donated one of his cardigans, the red one, to

1120
01:03:19,720 --> 01:03:22,520
Speaker 1: the National Museum of American History, in nineteen eighty four,

1121
01:03:22,840 --> 01:03:25,800
Speaker 1: where it is still on display for all to see.

1122
01:03:26,280 --> 01:03:29,200
Speaker 1: We should get you a red zip cardigan. I know,

1123
01:03:29,640 --> 01:03:31,680
Speaker 1: I'm surprised I don't have one, although I don't you

1124
01:03:31,720 --> 01:03:33,680
Speaker 1: know what, I don't really look good in cardigans. I

1125
01:03:33,720 --> 01:03:36,760
Speaker 1: look a little too. I look like I mean it.

1126
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:40,360
Speaker 1: You would look good in cardigans because everyone would know

1127
01:03:40,400 --> 01:03:42,880
Speaker 1: you didn't mean it. He looked like you mean it.

1128
01:03:45,560 --> 01:03:47,760
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I do? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

1129
01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:51,360
Speaker 1: I do. Mister Rogers Neighborhood is one of the longest

1130
01:03:51,440 --> 01:03:56,320
Speaker 1: running programs in TV history, having produced nearly nine hundred episodes,

1131
01:03:56,760 --> 01:04:00,880
Speaker 1: almost five times as many as Friends. Until nineteen seventy five,

1132
01:04:01,240 --> 01:04:04,520
Speaker 1: Rogers and his colleagues were making sixty five episodes a year,

1133
01:04:05,280 --> 01:04:08,600
Speaker 1: and then, presumably buckling under this punishing workload, he took

1134
01:04:08,600 --> 01:04:11,360
Speaker 1: a hiatus until nineteen seventy nine, at which point he

1135
01:04:11,600 --> 01:04:15,040
Speaker 1: produced around fifteen episodes a year on average until two

1136
01:04:15,080 --> 01:04:18,480
Speaker 1: thousand and one. During this hiatus we mentioned earlier, he

1137
01:04:18,520 --> 01:04:23,800
Speaker 1: attempted to launch Mister Rogers After Dark, featuring a friend

1138
01:04:23,800 --> 01:04:30,000
Speaker 1: of the Pod, Leslie Frost, but he decided that he

1139
01:04:30,040 --> 01:04:35,000
Speaker 1: wanted to stop for good during this hiatus, essentially feeling

1140
01:04:35,040 --> 01:04:38,120
Speaker 1: that he after doing five hundred and eighty five episodes

1141
01:04:38,160 --> 01:04:41,360
Speaker 1: at that point over like eight years, he said all

1142
01:04:41,440 --> 01:04:44,400
Speaker 1: he'd had to say. But by nineteen seventy nine he

1143
01:04:44,440 --> 01:04:48,400
Speaker 1: felt moved to return for an unusual reason. This was

1144
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:51,240
Speaker 1: soon after the Christopher Reeves Superman movies became a big

1145
01:04:51,280 --> 01:04:54,400
Speaker 1: success at the box office, leading to scores of children

1146
01:04:54,680 --> 01:04:58,640
Speaker 1: tying homemade capes around their backs and try and imitate him,

1147
01:04:58,960 --> 01:05:01,800
Speaker 1: which obviously didn't end well if they were jumping from

1148
01:05:01,800 --> 01:05:06,000
Speaker 1: great heights. A lot of kids were injured killed around

1149
01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:09,880
Speaker 1: this time, and Fred Rogers was outraged because he felt

1150
01:05:09,880 --> 01:05:12,520
Speaker 1: that the producers of these films were being irresponsible by

1151
01:05:12,560 --> 01:05:14,520
Speaker 1: not going out of their way to explain to them

1152
01:05:14,560 --> 01:05:19,800
Speaker 1: that Superman and every other superhero were just pretend. So

1153
01:05:19,840 --> 01:05:22,520
Speaker 1: he vowed to do a return of his show for

1154
01:05:22,560 --> 01:05:27,000
Speaker 1: a themed week of superhero programming, and these themed weeks

1155
01:05:27,040 --> 01:05:29,120
Speaker 1: were really the hallmark of the latter years of the show,

1156
01:05:29,240 --> 01:05:33,600
Speaker 1: tackling difficult topics. It is like death, divorce, children, getting lost,

1157
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:37,200
Speaker 1: and even the nuclear arms race. So say what you

1158
01:05:37,200 --> 01:05:40,440
Speaker 1: will about Fred Rogers, but he was unflinching when it

1159
01:05:40,520 --> 01:05:45,120
Speaker 1: came down to giving kids really the truth, just phrased

1160
01:05:45,160 --> 01:05:49,280
Speaker 1: in a different way of divorce. He said, some people

1161
01:05:49,320 --> 01:05:52,000
Speaker 1: get married and after a while they're so unhappy they

1162
01:05:52,040 --> 01:05:57,400
Speaker 1: don't want to be married anymore, which is accessible and unvarnished.

1163
01:05:59,480 --> 01:06:02,640
Speaker 1: He wants said the world is not always a kind place.

1164
01:06:03,200 --> 01:06:06,080
Speaker 1: That's something all children need to learn for themselves, whether

1165
01:06:06,080 --> 01:06:08,240
Speaker 1: we want them to or not. But it's something they

1166
01:06:08,280 --> 01:06:12,240
Speaker 1: really need our help to understand. Can you say the

1167
01:06:12,280 --> 01:06:18,280
Speaker 1: grim embrace of the grave? Can you say every living

1168
01:06:18,320 --> 01:06:23,200
Speaker 1: thing dies alone? The most stark example of this comes

1169
01:06:23,240 --> 01:06:25,680
Speaker 1: just a few months into the shows around on June seventh,

1170
01:06:25,840 --> 01:06:29,680
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, just days after Robert Kennedy was killed

1171
01:06:29,720 --> 01:06:36,240
Speaker 1: by the CIA. Can you say the CIA killed MLK?

1172
01:06:41,520 --> 01:06:45,440
Speaker 1: Can you say what was the LSD dosing? Is it

1173
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:53,840
Speaker 1: mk Ultra? Can you say mk Ultra Project Monarch Children

1174
01:06:54,120 --> 01:06:58,920
Speaker 1: can you say, candidate, can children? Can you say Manchurion? Children?

1175
01:06:59,200 --> 01:07:01,800
Speaker 1: Did you know that there's a very good chance Lee

1176
01:07:01,880 --> 01:07:07,000
Speaker 1: Harvey Oswald was given LSD when he was stationed and sorry,

1177
01:07:07,960 --> 01:07:11,440
Speaker 1: that's possibly true though, because he was at one of

1178
01:07:11,440 --> 01:07:14,360
Speaker 1: the bases where they were doing that. Yeah. Yeah, Have

1179
01:07:14,480 --> 01:07:18,880
Speaker 1: you read Acid Dreams? The book? Oh man, that's a

1180
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:21,480
Speaker 1: good one. You should look that one up. Anyway. In

1181
01:07:21,520 --> 01:07:23,960
Speaker 1: this episode, they're in the Land of make Believe when

1182
01:07:24,080 --> 01:07:28,120
Speaker 1: Daniel Tiger gives Lady Aberlin a balloon which they inflate

1183
01:07:28,560 --> 01:07:32,280
Speaker 1: and let the air out slowly, and then Daniel drops,

1184
01:07:32,560 --> 01:07:40,400
Speaker 1: what does assassination mean? Is wild to watch? And do

1185
01:07:40,440 --> 01:07:43,680
Speaker 1: you think they know? Because he didn't add lib is

1186
01:07:43,720 --> 01:07:48,360
Speaker 1: actually she is actually just acting? But you know she

1187
01:07:48,480 --> 01:07:51,520
Speaker 1: has taken him back. She says, have you heard that

1188
01:07:51,560 --> 01:07:54,360
Speaker 1: word a lot today? He says yes, and I didn't

1189
01:07:54,400 --> 01:07:56,800
Speaker 1: know what it meant, and she said, well, it means

1190
01:07:56,840 --> 01:08:01,320
Speaker 1: somebody getting killed in a sort of surprise way supposed

1191
01:08:01,320 --> 01:08:05,000
Speaker 1: to a deliberate way. Fred would explain his decision to

1192
01:08:05,040 --> 01:08:07,240
Speaker 1: tackle the subject by saying, I felt I had to

1193
01:08:07,280 --> 01:08:10,120
Speaker 1: speak to the families of our country about grief, A

1194
01:08:10,200 --> 01:08:13,000
Speaker 1: plea not to leave children isolated and at the mercy

1195
01:08:13,080 --> 01:08:16,400
Speaker 1: of their own fantasy of loss and destruction. Children have

1196
01:08:16,520 --> 01:08:19,519
Speaker 1: very deep feelings, just the way parents do, just the

1197
01:08:19,520 --> 01:08:22,599
Speaker 1: way everybody does, and are striving to understand those feelings

1198
01:08:22,640 --> 01:08:25,080
Speaker 1: and to better respond to them is what I feel

1199
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:28,200
Speaker 1: is a most important task in the world. He spoke

1200
01:08:28,200 --> 01:08:29,920
Speaker 1: about death on the show when he went to feed

1201
01:08:29,920 --> 01:08:31,840
Speaker 1: his fish and discovered that one of them had died.

1202
01:08:33,240 --> 01:08:37,400
Speaker 1: They didn't fake that that fish was really dead, and

1203
01:08:37,479 --> 01:08:40,200
Speaker 1: they zoom in on it, motionless at the bottom of

1204
01:08:40,240 --> 01:08:44,320
Speaker 1: the tank, and again, in a way that could scan,

1205
01:08:44,560 --> 01:08:49,760
Speaker 1: very creepy, dispassionately points out all of the ways he

1206
01:08:49,800 --> 01:08:54,559
Speaker 1: knows it's dead, which is like a mondy python sketch. Children,

1207
01:08:54,680 --> 01:08:57,559
Speaker 1: if you want a body not to float to the surface,

1208
01:08:57,640 --> 01:09:00,280
Speaker 1: you have to puncture the lungs so that the eric

1209
01:09:00,280 --> 01:09:02,799
Speaker 1: can let out of them, and that way it'll sink easier.

1210
01:09:03,160 --> 01:09:09,040
Speaker 1: Can you say, lime, Jesus? And then he went to

1211
01:09:09,080 --> 01:09:11,519
Speaker 1: the backyard and buried it, and he used that moment

1212
01:09:11,560 --> 01:09:16,719
Speaker 1: to explain and hopefully alleviate children's fears about death. Sixty

1213
01:09:16,720 --> 01:09:19,160
Speaker 1: eight was a rough year for kids and the rest

1214
01:09:19,200 --> 01:09:22,559
Speaker 1: of the United States. King Friday thirteenth, at one point

1215
01:09:24,120 --> 01:09:28,720
Speaker 1: was Roger's entryway into the concept of civil disobedience. He

1216
01:09:28,840 --> 01:09:32,120
Speaker 1: erected a wall in his kingdom topped with barbed wire

1217
01:09:32,560 --> 01:09:36,920
Speaker 1: in an effort to keep out the changers, repeatedly saying

1218
01:09:37,160 --> 01:09:40,240
Speaker 1: down with the changers because we are on top, which

1219
01:09:40,240 --> 01:09:44,320
Speaker 1: would later become the official platform of the GOP. Ultimately,

1220
01:09:44,320 --> 01:09:48,120
Speaker 1: the neighborhood is saved through civil disobedience. Lady Aberlin and

1221
01:09:48,120 --> 01:09:50,679
Speaker 1: the other puppets send King Friday balloons over the wall

1222
01:09:50,800 --> 01:09:53,960
Speaker 1: with cards that read love and Peace, which I think

1223
01:09:54,000 --> 01:09:56,120
Speaker 1: was a John Lennon yoko on an art piece. Also

1224
01:09:56,200 --> 01:09:59,519
Speaker 1: around that same time. Tolerance was obviously a cornerstone of

1225
01:09:59,560 --> 01:10:02,800
Speaker 1: mister Roger's neighborhood, and many episodes revolved around the topic

1226
01:10:02,840 --> 01:10:05,559
Speaker 1: of racism, but Fred was a master of the show

1227
01:10:05,640 --> 01:10:09,639
Speaker 1: don't tell approach. One particularly potent example was filmed less

1228
01:10:09,680 --> 01:10:12,920
Speaker 1: than a year after the assassination of MLK. It was

1229
01:10:12,960 --> 01:10:16,320
Speaker 1: a small moment when Rogers invited his African American friend,

1230
01:10:16,400 --> 01:10:19,800
Speaker 1: Officer Clemens, to cool his feet off in his inflatable

1231
01:10:19,840 --> 01:10:23,680
Speaker 1: swimming pool. And this is not long after footage of

1232
01:10:23,840 --> 01:10:26,840
Speaker 1: segregated pools had made the rounds in the news. With

1233
01:10:27,040 --> 01:10:30,240
Speaker 1: Irate a white hotel owners dumping bleach and other cleaning

1234
01:10:30,280 --> 01:10:34,679
Speaker 1: chemicals into their pools filled with black, peaceful protesters. Pools

1235
01:10:34,680 --> 01:10:39,160
Speaker 1: had recently become desegregated, but the controversy remained, and so

1236
01:10:39,360 --> 01:10:42,120
Speaker 1: the image of these two men, one white and one black,

1237
01:10:42,240 --> 01:10:44,519
Speaker 1: doing something as simple as dipping their bare feet into

1238
01:10:44,520 --> 01:10:47,639
Speaker 1: the same pool was fairly radical and a beautiful way

1239
01:10:47,640 --> 01:10:49,719
Speaker 1: to demonstrate to children that it was okay for people

1240
01:10:49,720 --> 01:10:52,559
Speaker 1: who were different to share not just a pool, but

1241
01:10:52,680 --> 01:10:56,519
Speaker 1: to share space and ultimately friendship. The character of Officer

1242
01:10:56,520 --> 01:10:58,519
Speaker 1: Clemens is really interesting to me. He was played by

1243
01:10:58,520 --> 01:11:01,800
Speaker 1: a singer dancer named Tis Clemens, who became one of

1244
01:11:01,840 --> 01:11:04,200
Speaker 1: the first African Americans to have a recurring role on

1245
01:11:04,240 --> 01:11:07,120
Speaker 1: the children's television show, and Fred's choice to make the

1246
01:11:07,120 --> 01:11:10,360
Speaker 1: African American character on the show a cop was obviously

1247
01:11:10,400 --> 01:11:14,400
Speaker 1: an intentionally loaded choice. This African American character was both

1248
01:11:14,479 --> 01:11:17,479
Speaker 1: a beloved neighbor to mister Rogers and also a respected

1249
01:11:17,520 --> 01:11:21,639
Speaker 1: authority figure. Francois Clemens himself later admitted, I've always felt

1250
01:11:21,640 --> 01:11:24,400
Speaker 1: that the police were the most dangerous people in the neighborhood.

1251
01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:29,120
Speaker 1: Real talk. Yeah, and Fred approached Francois early in the

1252
01:11:29,120 --> 01:11:31,280
Speaker 1: show's development about playing a part on the show, and

1253
01:11:31,360 --> 01:11:34,599
Speaker 1: Francois initially blanched because he was worried it would interfere

1254
01:11:34,640 --> 01:11:37,320
Speaker 1: with his singing career, and Fred used to tease him

1255
01:11:37,320 --> 01:11:39,720
Speaker 1: about that for years, but he also said it was

1256
01:11:39,760 --> 01:11:41,360
Speaker 1: the moment that he fell in love with the guy.

1257
01:11:41,600 --> 01:11:44,280
Speaker 1: Francois claimed that mister Rogers told him it was then

1258
01:11:44,320 --> 01:11:46,640
Speaker 1: that I knew you wouldn't kiss my ass, which is

1259
01:11:46,680 --> 01:11:49,599
Speaker 1: a very unmister Rogers thing to say, but he claimed

1260
01:11:49,600 --> 01:11:52,920
Speaker 1: those were his exact words. The pair remained close for

1261
01:11:52,920 --> 01:11:55,200
Speaker 1: the rest of Fred's life, but they did have a

1262
01:11:55,479 --> 01:11:59,200
Speaker 1: kind of tense moment early in their career. Francois marriage

1263
01:11:59,240 --> 01:12:01,559
Speaker 1: dissolved in the early seventies when he came to the

1264
01:12:01,560 --> 01:12:04,400
Speaker 1: realization that he was gay, and to use his own words,

1265
01:12:04,439 --> 01:12:08,120
Speaker 1: he couldn't pray it away, so Francois began to embrace

1266
01:12:08,160 --> 01:12:11,439
Speaker 1: the side of himself and frequented gay bars, and someone

1267
01:12:11,439 --> 01:12:14,599
Speaker 1: associated with the Mister Rogers Neighborhood's show apparently found out

1268
01:12:14,640 --> 01:12:17,760
Speaker 1: about this and relate it to Fred, who told Francois

1269
01:12:17,840 --> 01:12:19,679
Speaker 1: at the time that he could no longer go there

1270
01:12:19,720 --> 01:12:22,000
Speaker 1: if he wanted to remain on the show for fear

1271
01:12:22,040 --> 01:12:24,599
Speaker 1: of some kind of scandal, and Fred also told him

1272
01:12:24,640 --> 01:12:26,439
Speaker 1: that if he came out publicly, he couldn't be on

1273
01:12:26,479 --> 01:12:30,040
Speaker 1: the show anymore either. However, there were no hard feelings

1274
01:12:30,080 --> 01:12:32,800
Speaker 1: between the Fair and Francois later said in the Morgan

1275
01:12:32,880 --> 01:12:35,639
Speaker 1: Neville documentary very tearfully that he looked at Fred as

1276
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:38,559
Speaker 1: his surrogate father, and in nineteen ninety three, when he

1277
01:12:38,600 --> 01:12:41,280
Speaker 1: retired from the show as Officer Clemens, they recreated the

1278
01:12:41,280 --> 01:12:45,120
Speaker 1: pool moment together, a friendly reminder that basic rules of

1279
01:12:45,160 --> 01:12:50,320
Speaker 1: neighborliness and civility remained unchanged. How do you feel about that?

1280
01:12:50,560 --> 01:12:54,400
Speaker 1: It's not great. It's not great. No. I don't think

1281
01:12:54,439 --> 01:12:59,479
Speaker 1: it was necessarily Fred's feelings about homosexuality. I think it

1282
01:12:59,479 --> 01:13:02,520
Speaker 1: was his feet year of what other people thought about homosexuality,

1283
01:13:02,680 --> 01:13:05,479
Speaker 1: potentially damaging what he had built, which was for the

1284
01:13:05,520 --> 01:13:08,360
Speaker 1: greater good of children. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's

1285
01:13:08,360 --> 01:13:10,599
Speaker 1: a tough that's a tough one. Yeah, there's no way

1286
01:13:10,640 --> 01:13:12,920
Speaker 1: to really like. I assume he didn't speak on it.

1287
01:13:13,520 --> 01:13:15,439
Speaker 1: I've never heard him speak on it. This was it

1288
01:13:15,479 --> 01:13:22,360
Speaker 1: was a pretty sizable element of the Morgan Leval documentary.

1289
01:13:22,960 --> 01:13:26,120
Speaker 1: Not sizeable, but they go in on it fairly extensively.

1290
01:13:26,680 --> 01:13:31,080
Speaker 1: It's also worth noting that, like for being progressive racially,

1291
01:13:31,880 --> 01:13:36,400
Speaker 1: that's a dimension of some you know, sects of Christianity,

1292
01:13:36,439 --> 01:13:41,719
Speaker 1: whereas homosexuality is pretty much a no in all of them.

1293
01:13:42,080 --> 01:13:45,000
Speaker 1: So it might have come down to his faith and

1294
01:13:45,200 --> 01:13:48,080
Speaker 1: sex outside of marriage for quite a few especially back then,

1295
01:13:48,760 --> 01:13:51,680
Speaker 1: you know, it was yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, I

1296
01:13:51,680 --> 01:13:55,599
Speaker 1: don't know, it is it's really thorny. I mean it

1297
01:13:55,640 --> 01:13:59,760
Speaker 1: was Stonewall sixty nine around the exact same time they

1298
01:14:00,000 --> 01:14:03,000
Speaker 1: shooting the scene in the pool. Yeah. So, but I mean,

1299
01:14:03,560 --> 01:14:06,439
Speaker 1: you know, that's still a kind of an underappreciated part

1300
01:14:06,439 --> 01:14:09,760
Speaker 1: of civil rights of this era. So yeah, I don't know,

1301
01:14:09,880 --> 01:14:13,000
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting to think about. It's all conjecture, right,

1302
01:14:14,680 --> 01:14:19,719
Speaker 1: Speaking of dead air, two straight guys talking about another

1303
01:14:20,240 --> 01:14:25,160
Speaker 1: long dead white guy's thoughts on homosexuality. Well, I actually

1304
01:14:25,160 --> 01:14:28,759
Speaker 1: just found a Clemens quote from the book Peaceful Neighbor

1305
01:14:28,840 --> 01:14:32,559
Speaker 1: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers. Did you quote that? Oh? No,

1306
01:14:32,760 --> 01:14:35,840
Speaker 1: I want to hear it. This is kranzois Clements talking

1307
01:14:35,880 --> 01:14:38,240
Speaker 1: about mister Rogers telling him about the not to be

1308
01:14:38,320 --> 01:14:42,040
Speaker 1: on the show, and he said, I want you to know, Frank,

1309
01:14:42,320 --> 01:14:44,400
Speaker 1: that if you're gay. It doesn't matter to me at all,

1310
01:14:44,640 --> 01:14:46,240
Speaker 1: I said, but if you're going to be on the show,

1311
01:14:46,360 --> 01:14:49,320
Speaker 1: you can't be out as gay. People must not know.

1312
01:14:49,800 --> 01:14:52,719
Speaker 1: Many of the wrong people will get the worst idea,

1313
01:14:52,920 --> 01:14:55,439
Speaker 1: and we don't want them thinking and talking about you

1314
01:14:55,560 --> 01:14:58,479
Speaker 1: like that. If those people put up enough fuss, then

1315
01:14:58,520 --> 01:15:00,920
Speaker 1: I couldn't have you on the program. It's not an

1316
01:15:00,920 --> 01:15:03,679
Speaker 1: issue for me. I don't think you're less of a person.

1317
01:15:03,960 --> 01:15:08,880
Speaker 1: I don't think you're immortal immoral. Oh yeah, I don't know.

1318
01:15:09,000 --> 01:15:11,880
Speaker 1: I don't think you're immortal, but there's only one way

1319
01:15:11,920 --> 01:15:20,439
Speaker 1: to find out. If those people put up enough fuss,

1320
01:15:20,520 --> 01:15:22,760
Speaker 1: then I couldn't have you on the program. It's not

1321
01:15:22,800 --> 01:15:24,840
Speaker 1: an issue for me. I don't think you're less of

1322
01:15:24,840 --> 01:15:28,320
Speaker 1: a person. I don't think you're immoral. Um. Yeah, So

1323
01:15:28,439 --> 01:15:30,080
Speaker 1: I think it really did come down to wanting to

1324
01:15:30,120 --> 01:15:33,439
Speaker 1: protect the show, and he told him. He said, you know,

1325
01:15:33,479 --> 01:15:37,720
Speaker 1: this doesn't mean our friendship has to end. He said, man, this,

1326
01:15:37,880 --> 01:15:40,120
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the depressing part. Clement says that

1327
01:15:40,240 --> 01:15:43,040
Speaker 1: Roger told him talent can give you so much in

1328
01:15:43,080 --> 01:15:46,800
Speaker 1: this life, but that sexuality thing can take it all

1329
01:15:46,840 --> 01:15:50,439
Speaker 1: away faster than you can ever imagine. You can have

1330
01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:52,519
Speaker 1: it all if you can keep that part out of

1331
01:15:52,520 --> 01:16:01,200
Speaker 1: the limelight. So that's that's interesting. I mean he did

1332
01:16:01,280 --> 01:16:03,760
Speaker 1: suggest we talked about you talking about him suggesting that

1333
01:16:03,800 --> 01:16:09,200
Speaker 1: he marry a woman. No, I didn't hear that. Yeah,

1334
01:16:09,360 --> 01:16:11,800
Speaker 1: I'd married a woman. Yeah, and that's what it says.

1335
01:16:11,920 --> 01:16:15,000
Speaker 1: He said, Fred told him, have you thought about getting married?

1336
01:16:15,720 --> 01:16:19,000
Speaker 1: And then he said people do make some compromises in life.

1337
01:16:19,560 --> 01:16:21,760
Speaker 1: And so he did marry a woman in nineteen sixty eight,

1338
01:16:21,800 --> 01:16:26,400
Speaker 1: but then they divorced in seventy four. And apparently Fred

1339
01:16:26,640 --> 01:16:29,160
Speaker 1: later he stopped saying that he should remain in the

1340
01:16:29,160 --> 01:16:31,160
Speaker 1: closet and he said you should find a gay man

1341
01:16:31,200 --> 01:16:33,839
Speaker 1: to be happy with. But he still refused to address

1342
01:16:33,840 --> 01:16:37,439
Speaker 1: it on the show. So, and I guess in the book,

1343
01:16:37,479 --> 01:16:40,760
Speaker 1: this book Peaceful Neighbors also talks about I was wrong

1344
01:16:40,800 --> 01:16:43,960
Speaker 1: about the Presbyterian thing, that the Pittsburgh Church, the sixth

1345
01:16:43,960 --> 01:16:49,160
Speaker 1: Presbyterian Church was apparently actually relatively welcoming to gay people

1346
01:16:49,200 --> 01:16:53,280
Speaker 1: of that faith. Oh oh god, this is this is

1347
01:16:53,320 --> 01:16:56,000
Speaker 1: this is great. On Clemen's last appearance on the show,

1348
01:16:56,680 --> 01:17:00,599
Speaker 1: Rogers wrapped up the show with his standard clothes lines.

1349
01:17:00,720 --> 01:17:02,559
Speaker 1: You know, you make every day a special day. Just

1350
01:17:02,600 --> 01:17:04,280
Speaker 1: by being you and I like you just the way

1351
01:17:04,320 --> 01:17:08,719
Speaker 1: you are. And Clemens asked him when they were finished taping.

1352
01:17:08,760 --> 01:17:10,680
Speaker 1: He said, you know, you were looking right at me

1353
01:17:10,760 --> 01:17:12,800
Speaker 1: when you said that. Have you been talking to me

1354
01:17:13,040 --> 01:17:16,160
Speaker 1: or were you talking to me? And Fred said, yes,

1355
01:17:16,240 --> 01:17:18,640
Speaker 1: I have been talking to you for years, but you

1356
01:17:18,760 --> 01:17:22,639
Speaker 1: heard me today. Oh yeah, that was that was rough.

1357
01:17:22,800 --> 01:17:27,519
Speaker 1: That was like a very sweet part of the episode. Yeah,

1358
01:17:27,960 --> 01:17:30,320
Speaker 1: part of the movie. It is unfortunate that it came

1359
01:17:30,320 --> 01:17:33,560
Speaker 1: down to business decisions, but take some cold comfort in

1360
01:17:33,600 --> 01:17:37,840
Speaker 1: the fact that you know he was not personally bigoted

1361
01:17:37,920 --> 01:17:43,280
Speaker 1: in any way. As you meditate on that. We'll be

1362
01:17:43,400 --> 01:17:46,480
Speaker 1: right back with more too much information after these messages,

1363
01:17:56,280 --> 01:17:58,080
Speaker 1: and then we're going to talk about how Fred Roger

1364
01:17:58,160 --> 01:18:02,800
Speaker 1: was saved PBS, the VCR and pave the way for Netflix.

1365
01:18:03,479 --> 01:18:06,240
Speaker 1: Fred Rogers became a crucial pillar for the burgeoning PBS

1366
01:18:06,320 --> 01:18:08,840
Speaker 1: network in the early seventies, but there is a decent

1367
01:18:08,920 --> 01:18:12,720
Speaker 1: chance the network wouldn't have even existed without him. In

1368
01:18:12,800 --> 01:18:16,760
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, he quite literally saved the network basically

1369
01:18:16,800 --> 01:18:20,320
Speaker 1: single handedly. PBS had first been proposed by President Lyndon

1370
01:18:20,360 --> 01:18:22,800
Speaker 1: Baines Johnson in nineteen sixty eight as part of his

1371
01:18:22,840 --> 01:18:26,519
Speaker 1: sweeping social programs known as the Great Society. But when

1372
01:18:26,520 --> 01:18:29,240
Speaker 1: President Nixon took office in nineteen sixty nine, he wanted

1373
01:18:29,240 --> 01:18:32,160
Speaker 1: to cut the burgeoning networks funding from twenty two million

1374
01:18:32,200 --> 01:18:35,240
Speaker 1: to nine million, suppose the leading effort to find money

1375
01:18:35,240 --> 01:18:37,439
Speaker 1: for the war that he'd just been elected to end.

1376
01:18:38,160 --> 01:18:40,479
Speaker 1: Seeking an articulate order who is sure to tug at

1377
01:18:40,520 --> 01:18:44,080
Speaker 1: the heartstrings, the leadership at PBS taffed Fred Rogers, who

1378
01:18:44,120 --> 01:18:47,280
Speaker 1: was really relatively unknown at that point, to speak before

1379
01:18:47,400 --> 01:18:51,439
Speaker 1: congressional hearing and essentially plead for funding. And the clip

1380
01:18:51,479 --> 01:18:53,640
Speaker 1: of the speech from nineteen sixty nine has made the

1381
01:18:53,720 --> 01:18:56,760
Speaker 1: rounds on the Internet for many years, at surfaces every

1382
01:18:56,800 --> 01:18:59,840
Speaker 1: now and then, basically because it's like watching the end

1383
01:18:59,840 --> 01:19:02,840
Speaker 1: of a Robin Williams movie. I encourage everyone to pause

1384
01:19:02,920 --> 01:19:04,920
Speaker 1: this right now and go look it up, because it's

1385
01:19:05,040 --> 01:19:07,800
Speaker 1: really something special. I might punch some of an in

1386
01:19:07,880 --> 01:19:10,720
Speaker 1: in here. It's everything about it is just so cartoonish.

1387
01:19:11,080 --> 01:19:13,519
Speaker 1: The chairman of the committee is this gruff senator from

1388
01:19:13,560 --> 01:19:15,800
Speaker 1: Rhode Island named John pass Story, and he is just

1389
01:19:15,920 --> 01:19:19,599
Speaker 1: cartoonishly dickish. It's day two of these hearings, and he

1390
01:19:19,720 --> 01:19:23,040
Speaker 1: is just wildly unmoved by the plight of PBS. He's

1391
01:19:23,080 --> 01:19:26,479
Speaker 1: just so unsympathetic, and he's so over everything. He's sick

1392
01:19:26,520 --> 01:19:29,479
Speaker 1: of people reading testimony they've submitted, he's sick of the

1393
01:19:29,479 --> 01:19:32,519
Speaker 1: whole discussion, and he seems like he's inches away from

1394
01:19:32,520 --> 01:19:34,920
Speaker 1: telling the speakers to scram or get off his lawn.

1395
01:19:35,040 --> 01:19:38,320
Speaker 1: He's just hilarious. In fact, he literally says, all right, Rogers,

1396
01:19:38,400 --> 01:19:41,519
Speaker 1: you got the floor, like kick things off. It's really funny.

1397
01:19:41,800 --> 01:19:44,759
Speaker 1: And he's just a beautiful foil for Fred Rogers, who

1398
01:19:44,800 --> 01:19:46,760
Speaker 1: you know as a man who's often described as a

1399
01:19:46,800 --> 01:19:50,080
Speaker 1: cartoon character brought to life. He's just the perfect depiction

1400
01:19:50,120 --> 01:19:53,840
Speaker 1: of a wide eyed Jimmy Stewart esque innocent and within

1401
01:19:53,920 --> 01:19:57,120
Speaker 1: six minutes Fred reduces the Senator and the rest of

1402
01:19:57,160 --> 01:20:01,040
Speaker 1: the committee to a tiery puddle. He speaks simply and

1403
01:20:01,080 --> 01:20:04,360
Speaker 1: eloquently about his goals to instill confidence in children and

1404
01:20:04,479 --> 01:20:06,960
Speaker 1: lead by example, to show them how to manage their

1405
01:20:07,000 --> 01:20:10,479
Speaker 1: feelings in healthy ways to ensure they become productive members

1406
01:20:10,520 --> 01:20:14,400
Speaker 1: of society. He says, in part, this is what I give.

1407
01:20:14,880 --> 01:20:18,320
Speaker 1: I give an expression of care every day to each

1408
01:20:18,439 --> 01:20:23,519
Speaker 1: child to help him realize that he is unique. I

1409
01:20:23,680 --> 01:20:26,920
Speaker 1: end the program by saying you've made this day a

1410
01:20:27,040 --> 01:20:32,000
Speaker 1: special day by just your being you. There's no person

1411
01:20:32,040 --> 01:20:35,240
Speaker 1: in the whole world like you, and I like you

1412
01:20:35,439 --> 01:20:38,479
Speaker 1: just the way you are. And I feel that if

1413
01:20:38,520 --> 01:20:44,720
Speaker 1: we in public television can only make it clear that

1414
01:20:44,920 --> 01:20:50,320
Speaker 1: feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a

1415
01:20:50,360 --> 01:20:55,599
Speaker 1: great service. Could I tell you the words of one

1416
01:20:55,640 --> 01:20:58,760
Speaker 1: of the songs, which I feel is very important? Yes,

1417
01:21:00,400 --> 01:21:03,520
Speaker 1: this has to do with that good feeling of control

1418
01:21:03,880 --> 01:21:08,280
Speaker 1: which I feel that children need to know is there.

1419
01:21:08,880 --> 01:21:11,000
Speaker 1: And it starts out what do you do with the

1420
01:21:11,120 --> 01:21:14,240
Speaker 1: mad that you feel? And that first line came straight

1421
01:21:14,280 --> 01:21:18,080
Speaker 1: from a child. I work with children doing puppets in

1422
01:21:19,200 --> 01:21:23,360
Speaker 1: very personal communication with small groups. What do you do

1423
01:21:23,439 --> 01:21:25,920
Speaker 1: with the mad that you feel? When you feel so

1424
01:21:26,000 --> 01:21:29,759
Speaker 1: mad you could bite, when the whole wide world seems

1425
01:21:29,800 --> 01:21:33,920
Speaker 1: oh so wrong and nothing you do seems very right.

1426
01:21:35,360 --> 01:21:38,879
Speaker 1: It's great to be able to stop when you've planned

1427
01:21:38,920 --> 01:21:42,479
Speaker 1: a thing that's wrong and be able to do something

1428
01:21:42,640 --> 01:21:47,479
Speaker 1: else instead, And think this song. I can stop when

1429
01:21:47,479 --> 01:21:51,839
Speaker 1: I want to, can stop when I wish, can stop, stop,

1430
01:21:51,920 --> 01:21:57,320
Speaker 1: stop anytime. Know that there's something deep inside that helps

1431
01:21:57,439 --> 01:22:01,360
Speaker 1: us become what we can. Past story who obviously has

1432
01:22:01,400 --> 01:22:05,439
Speaker 1: never watched mister Rogers show before, is visibly teary by

1433
01:22:05,479 --> 01:22:07,759
Speaker 1: the end of Fred's a few minutes on the stand,

1434
01:22:07,840 --> 01:22:10,200
Speaker 1: he says, no, no no, I'm supposed to be a pretty

1435
01:22:10,240 --> 01:22:12,080
Speaker 1: tough guy, and this is the first time I've had

1436
01:22:12,080 --> 01:22:15,160
Speaker 1: goosebumps in the last two days. I think it's wonderful.

1437
01:22:16,240 --> 01:22:20,720
Speaker 1: I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned a

1438
01:22:20,760 --> 01:22:29,600
Speaker 1: twenty million dollars have. The room fills with applause, and

1439
01:22:29,760 --> 01:22:33,880
Speaker 1: Fred smiles sheepestly. Cue the strings. It's like the end,

1440
01:22:33,880 --> 01:22:35,960
Speaker 1: I guess, the end of a Rob Williams movie. It's

1441
01:22:35,960 --> 01:22:38,880
Speaker 1: a beautiful moment, one that has been viewed millions of

1442
01:22:38,920 --> 01:22:42,519
Speaker 1: times on YouTube. Usually it's shared in times when the

1443
01:22:42,600 --> 01:22:45,320
Speaker 1: arts funding is on the chopping block, which is every

1444
01:22:45,800 --> 01:22:49,200
Speaker 1: couple of months, and it's also studied by public relations

1445
01:22:49,200 --> 01:22:55,080
Speaker 1: experts and academics because Fred is just so compelling. Oh

1446
01:22:55,120 --> 01:22:57,880
Speaker 1: sweet man, right, I don't think I've really great put together?

1447
01:22:57,880 --> 01:23:02,080
Speaker 1: How much he kind of sounds like John Waters. Yeah,

1448
01:23:02,120 --> 01:23:05,960
Speaker 1: it's really a beautiful moment. Word of Fred's testimony reached

1449
01:23:06,000 --> 01:23:08,879
Speaker 1: Richard Nixon himself, who was so impressed that he appointed

1450
01:23:08,920 --> 01:23:11,879
Speaker 1: Fred the chair of the White House Conference on Children

1451
01:23:11,960 --> 01:23:16,240
Speaker 1: and Youth and more Germaine to our interests. It really

1452
01:23:16,320 --> 01:23:18,880
Speaker 1: kind of helped make Fred a household name. That was

1453
01:23:18,960 --> 01:23:20,840
Speaker 1: kind of one of the things that really launched him

1454
01:23:20,880 --> 01:23:24,479
Speaker 1: in the public consciousness. So by now probably a decent

1455
01:23:24,560 --> 01:23:27,439
Speaker 1: number of listeners are aware of Fred Rogers' role in

1456
01:23:27,520 --> 01:23:30,400
Speaker 1: saving PBS thanks to that viral clip. But a lesser

1457
01:23:30,439 --> 01:23:32,800
Speaker 1: known fact is that Fred Rogers also helped save the

1458
01:23:32,880 --> 01:23:36,240
Speaker 1: VCR and pave the way for Netflix. Is there no

1459
01:23:36,479 --> 01:23:39,080
Speaker 1: end to this man's string of good deeds? This was

1460
01:23:39,240 --> 01:23:41,600
Speaker 1: part of another court case in the late seventies that

1461
01:23:41,680 --> 01:23:45,120
Speaker 1: actually pertained to Sony's Betamax machine, which is the long

1462
01:23:45,160 --> 01:23:47,960
Speaker 1: dead competitor to the VCR. More than just the home

1463
01:23:48,040 --> 01:23:51,640
Speaker 1: video market, Beta Max was revolutionary for allowing consumers to

1464
01:23:51,640 --> 01:23:54,759
Speaker 1: tape live TV and watch it as often as they liked,

1465
01:23:54,800 --> 01:23:58,360
Speaker 1: whatever they liked, and the studios weren't exactly thrilled with this,

1466
01:23:58,520 --> 01:24:01,720
Speaker 1: and in nineteen seventy nine, Disney and Universal filed a

1467
01:24:01,760 --> 01:24:05,120
Speaker 1: lawsuit against Sony, claiming that the Betamax machine was a

1468
01:24:05,160 --> 01:24:08,360
Speaker 1: copyright violation that would cost the millions of dollars per

1469
01:24:08,479 --> 01:24:13,160
Speaker 1: year due to unauthorized duplication of materials. This case, Universal

1470
01:24:13,200 --> 01:24:16,280
Speaker 1: Studios versus Sony Corporation of America, also known as the

1471
01:24:16,320 --> 01:24:19,439
Speaker 1: Betamax case, went all the way to the Supreme Court

1472
01:24:19,520 --> 01:24:23,040
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three, and by my tally, the arguments

1473
01:24:23,040 --> 01:24:25,840
Speaker 1: were heard for a full year. But one of the

1474
01:24:25,840 --> 01:24:28,960
Speaker 1: most compelling of these arguments came from, of course, mister Rogers,

1475
01:24:29,000 --> 01:24:31,640
Speaker 1: and he defended the use of the VCR because he

1476
01:24:31,720 --> 01:24:34,880
Speaker 1: reasoned that it allowed working parents to sit down with

1477
01:24:34,920 --> 01:24:37,280
Speaker 1: their kids when they were home at night and watched

1478
01:24:37,360 --> 01:24:41,320
Speaker 1: television together as a family. Fred said, I've always felt

1479
01:24:41,320 --> 01:24:43,840
Speaker 1: that with the advent of all this new technology that

1480
01:24:43,880 --> 01:24:46,880
Speaker 1: allows people to take the neighborhood off the air, they

1481
01:24:46,920 --> 01:24:49,720
Speaker 1: then become much more active in the programming of their

1482
01:24:49,720 --> 01:24:53,639
Speaker 1: families television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people

1483
01:24:53,680 --> 01:24:57,800
Speaker 1: being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has

1484
01:24:57,840 --> 01:25:00,800
Speaker 1: always been you are an important and just the way

1485
01:25:00,840 --> 01:25:04,479
Speaker 1: you are, you can make healthy decisions. I feel that

1486
01:25:04,560 --> 01:25:06,960
Speaker 1: anything that allows a person to be more active in

1487
01:25:07,000 --> 01:25:09,120
Speaker 1: the control of his or her life in a healthy

1488
01:25:09,160 --> 01:25:12,799
Speaker 1: way is important. And the Supreme Court ruled in favor

1489
01:25:12,840 --> 01:25:15,320
Speaker 1: of Sony, making it legal to record a broadcast for

1490
01:25:15,400 --> 01:25:18,400
Speaker 1: later use and they even referenced Fred's testimony and their

1491
01:25:18,439 --> 01:25:23,080
Speaker 1: concluding statement. And this also, according to people with better

1492
01:25:23,160 --> 01:25:26,120
Speaker 1: legal minds than I possess, claim that this crucial breakthrough

1493
01:25:26,120 --> 01:25:29,880
Speaker 1: and home video paved the way for Netflix. So there

1494
01:25:29,880 --> 01:25:35,760
Speaker 1: you go. Fine, but that's not all. Yes, Netflix isn't

1495
01:25:35,760 --> 01:25:38,240
Speaker 1: the only thing mister Rogers has gifted us. Gave us

1496
01:25:38,240 --> 01:25:43,160
Speaker 1: an early break to future Oscar nominee and repeating two

1497
01:25:43,200 --> 01:25:46,360
Speaker 1: time Batman Michael Keaton, imagine how wild it would have

1498
01:25:46,400 --> 01:25:51,720
Speaker 1: been if I said Christian Bale or Adam West when

1499
01:25:51,720 --> 01:25:54,599
Speaker 1: Adam West and Burward were having all their weird orgies

1500
01:25:54,800 --> 01:25:57,600
Speaker 1: at the height of their yes, they had been on

1501
01:25:57,680 --> 01:26:02,519
Speaker 1: and done the BATWATTUSI with mister Rogers. Anyway, Michael Keaton's

1502
01:26:02,520 --> 01:26:05,000
Speaker 1: first job is as a volunteer stage hand on Mister

1503
01:26:05,080 --> 01:26:08,439
Speaker 1: Rogers Neighborhood, where he helped run the Picture Picture Machine

1504
01:26:08,479 --> 01:26:12,800
Speaker 1: and appeared as Purple Panda a lot of alliteration in

1505
01:26:12,840 --> 01:26:16,320
Speaker 1: that particular summary. Keaton, as expected, had a wonderful experience

1506
01:26:16,320 --> 01:26:18,559
Speaker 1: on the show, later said that Fred Rogers was one

1507
01:26:18,600 --> 01:26:22,759
Speaker 1: of the nicest, authentically good people you've ever met. Following

1508
01:26:22,760 --> 01:26:25,360
Speaker 1: Fred's death, Keaton, who at this point had not only

1509
01:26:25,360 --> 01:26:28,320
Speaker 1: been Batman, but Beetlejuice as well, and let us not

1510
01:26:28,400 --> 01:26:36,519
Speaker 1: forget Multiplicity, Guy Rice, Mister Mom and the rest at

1511
01:26:36,560 --> 01:26:41,040
Speaker 1: the Rest. He was tapped to host the PBS special

1512
01:26:41,240 --> 01:26:45,320
Speaker 1: Fred Rogers America's Favorite Neighbor, and appeared in another special

1513
01:26:45,400 --> 01:26:48,920
Speaker 1: celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the show, Mister Rogers, It's You.

1514
01:26:49,040 --> 01:26:52,880
Speaker 1: I like haven't really talked about the surprisingly rowdy atmosphere

1515
01:26:52,920 --> 01:26:55,519
Speaker 1: on the set of the show. Thanks to the fun

1516
01:26:55,600 --> 01:27:01,599
Speaker 1: loving and not vegetarian Minister crew. They love to play

1517
01:27:01,600 --> 01:27:04,840
Speaker 1: pranks on each other and also mister Rogers, and given

1518
01:27:04,920 --> 01:27:08,080
Speaker 1: his personality, you know that that tracks would be fun

1519
01:27:08,120 --> 01:27:12,400
Speaker 1: to get one over on your svelt Vegetarian Daily five

1520
01:27:12,640 --> 01:27:17,840
Speaker 1: thirty swim Bossum. Once Michael Keaton placed a blow up

1521
01:27:17,880 --> 01:27:20,760
Speaker 1: sex stall into the closet on the set, the same

1522
01:27:20,800 --> 01:27:23,280
Speaker 1: one where mister Rogers retrieves his card again at the

1523
01:27:23,320 --> 01:27:26,439
Speaker 1: start of the episode. Fred found it during a taping

1524
01:27:26,720 --> 01:27:29,200
Speaker 1: and then began waltzing around with it on the set

1525
01:27:29,320 --> 01:27:32,760
Speaker 1: before bringing it back to the closet. He's got an

1526
01:27:33,479 --> 01:27:36,120
Speaker 1: idiosyncratic sense of humor, friend does He was a big

1527
01:27:36,160 --> 01:27:39,360
Speaker 1: Monty Python fam in the Morgan Neville documentary. There's a

1528
01:27:39,400 --> 01:27:41,759
Speaker 1: story of a crew member who loved to steal people's camera,

1529
01:27:42,240 --> 01:27:44,720
Speaker 1: take a picture of himself mooning the lens, and then

1530
01:27:44,760 --> 01:27:47,640
Speaker 1: return it to where he found it. This was in

1531
01:27:47,680 --> 01:27:49,880
Speaker 1: the days when you had to, you know, drop your

1532
01:27:49,880 --> 01:27:53,559
Speaker 1: film off to get developed, so that that that's a

1533
01:27:53,600 --> 01:27:58,679
Speaker 1: long conjo a joke takes weeks to land. The stage

1534
01:27:58,720 --> 01:28:01,680
Speaker 1: hand did this to an unsuspecting mister Rogers, mooning his

1535
01:28:01,760 --> 01:28:05,799
Speaker 1: camera while wearing what they would you believe in? According

1536
01:28:05,840 --> 01:28:08,960
Speaker 1: to the anecdote, was a King Friday the Thirteenth mask.

1537
01:28:10,160 --> 01:28:13,200
Speaker 1: Mister Rogers said nothing about it for months until Christmas

1538
01:28:13,200 --> 01:28:16,040
Speaker 1: came around, and then at the holiday party he presented

1539
01:28:16,080 --> 01:28:20,280
Speaker 1: the crew member with that very photo enlarged to poster size.

1540
01:28:22,080 --> 01:28:24,840
Speaker 1: This is probably my favorite bit. Fred Rogers was also

1541
01:28:25,000 --> 01:28:30,599
Speaker 1: champion of another media legend and Pittsburgh icon, George A. Romero,

1542
01:28:31,520 --> 01:28:33,960
Speaker 1: who brought us Night of the Living Dead, Day of

1543
01:28:34,000 --> 01:28:39,040
Speaker 1: the Dead, many other dead themed films, Donna the Dead, Martin,

1544
01:28:39,760 --> 01:28:43,600
Speaker 1: the Crazies, what other stuff that he film in it

1545
01:28:43,600 --> 01:28:48,599
Speaker 1: around Pittsburgh Monroeville. Technically, mister Rogers hired George Romero when

1546
01:28:48,600 --> 01:28:50,680
Speaker 1: he was fresh out of college needed a filmmaker to

1547
01:28:50,680 --> 01:28:53,520
Speaker 1: create a series of short segments for mister rogers neighborhood.

1548
01:28:54,080 --> 01:28:56,439
Speaker 1: Romero later said Fred was the first guy who trusted

1549
01:28:56,479 --> 01:28:59,360
Speaker 1: me enough to hire me to actually shoot film. Titles

1550
01:28:59,400 --> 01:29:02,719
Speaker 1: were stuff like how light bulbs are made and mister

1551
01:29:02,840 --> 01:29:07,120
Speaker 1: Rogers gets a ton selectomy. Romero considered the latter, shot

1552
01:29:07,200 --> 01:29:11,160
Speaker 1: on location in hospital, his first major production. He added,

1553
01:29:11,200 --> 01:29:13,840
Speaker 1: I still joke that mister Rogers gets a ton Selectomy

1554
01:29:13,920 --> 01:29:17,840
Speaker 1: is the scariest film I've ever made. And then in

1555
01:29:17,840 --> 01:29:22,280
Speaker 1: this really heartwarming Fred attended a screening of Romero's breakthrough

1556
01:29:22,320 --> 01:29:25,120
Speaker 1: film Don of the Dead. God, can you imagine what

1557
01:29:25,200 --> 01:29:27,080
Speaker 1: he thought of that? Did we get his capsule review

1558
01:29:27,080 --> 01:29:31,320
Speaker 1: of that? I would love? George Romero would later cast

1559
01:29:31,400 --> 01:29:35,680
Speaker 1: another mister Rogers, vet Don Brockett, who played Chef Brocket

1560
01:29:35,720 --> 01:29:37,960
Speaker 1: as a zombie in Day of the Dead and eighty five.

1561
01:29:39,200 --> 01:29:43,679
Speaker 1: That guy also had roles in Flashdance, Fletch Lives, and

1562
01:29:44,200 --> 01:29:47,080
Speaker 1: Silence of the Lambs on the as one of the

1563
01:29:47,280 --> 01:29:51,479
Speaker 1: one of the incarcerated gentlemen sharing a block with Hannibal.

1564
01:29:51,680 --> 01:29:57,439
Speaker 1: So your degrees of Hannibal Elector and mister Rogers is

1565
01:29:58,439 --> 01:30:04,320
Speaker 1: one doesn't surprise me. In a way. Another unexpected friend

1566
01:30:04,320 --> 01:30:09,439
Speaker 1: of mister Rodgers neighborhood was Coco the Gorilla. Yes, the

1567
01:30:10,080 --> 01:30:14,040
Speaker 1: beloved primate who learned to communicate with a thousand words

1568
01:30:14,320 --> 01:30:17,400
Speaker 1: of vocabulary and American sign language. Big fan of mister

1569
01:30:17,479 --> 01:30:21,640
Speaker 1: Rogers neighborhood, Coco was and Fred found out about this

1570
01:30:21,680 --> 01:30:24,000
Speaker 1: and decided to visit her and shoot a segment, and

1571
01:30:24,040 --> 01:30:26,760
Speaker 1: as soon as he entered the room, Coco signed the

1572
01:30:26,760 --> 01:30:32,360
Speaker 1: words love you visit Coco Love before hugging him. She

1573
01:30:32,479 --> 01:30:34,080
Speaker 1: was so familiar with the show that one of the

1574
01:30:34,120 --> 01:30:37,400
Speaker 1: first things she did was unzip his cardigan and remove

1575
01:30:37,479 --> 01:30:39,600
Speaker 1: his shoes, just like he does at the beginning of

1576
01:30:39,640 --> 01:30:45,040
Speaker 1: the program, and reportedly Coco got very upset upon hearing

1577
01:30:45,080 --> 01:30:47,320
Speaker 1: the news of Fred's death in two thousand and three,

1578
01:30:48,200 --> 01:30:51,960
Speaker 1: which is something that she also felt about Robin William's death.

1579
01:30:53,840 --> 01:30:56,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call bullshow on that. I mean, who's going

1580
01:30:56,320 --> 01:31:00,160
Speaker 1: around telling gorillas that famous people died? Yeah, that's part

1581
01:31:00,160 --> 01:31:03,360
Speaker 1: of your zookeeper duties. Every day you wake up and

1582
01:31:03,439 --> 01:31:05,640
Speaker 1: check TMZ and you go read it to Cocoa to

1583
01:31:05,680 --> 01:31:13,519
Speaker 1: see if she can sign something tragic about it. Did

1584
01:31:13,520 --> 01:31:19,840
Speaker 1: you ever read the the Gawker thing? Though? When when

1585
01:31:19,960 --> 01:31:24,360
Speaker 1: Robin died BuzzFeed did. These photos of Coco Gorilla mourning

1586
01:31:24,400 --> 01:31:28,840
Speaker 1: the loss of Robin Williams are incredibly moving. So the

1587
01:31:28,960 --> 01:31:35,920
Speaker 1: Gawker post was it was all written in Gorilla, Coco, Coco, sad, Cocoa,

1588
01:31:35,960 --> 01:31:44,160
Speaker 1: water eye, uh Man, funny Coco, Cocoa man, funny, Cocoa

1589
01:31:44,200 --> 01:31:51,240
Speaker 1: hug Man funny man, hug Coco. People want water eye,

1590
01:31:51,360 --> 01:31:56,240
Speaker 1: people eye Coco, people water eye, water eyewater people want.

1591
01:31:56,240 --> 01:31:59,000
Speaker 1: And it just ends with the repeated phrase people want,

1592
01:31:59,080 --> 01:32:04,320
Speaker 1: people want, But what people want? Are you quite moving?

1593
01:32:06,640 --> 01:32:09,720
Speaker 1: Tales of mister rogers healing powers, both in person and

1594
01:32:09,800 --> 01:32:12,720
Speaker 1: through the TV are a legendary. There's a story of

1595
01:32:12,720 --> 01:32:15,400
Speaker 1: a young boy with severe autism who broke his lengthy

1596
01:32:15,520 --> 01:32:18,360
Speaker 1: silence by saying X the Owl, one of the names

1597
01:32:18,360 --> 01:32:21,320
Speaker 1: of mister Rogers' most popular puppets. That was enough for

1598
01:32:21,360 --> 01:32:23,360
Speaker 1: the boy's father to make the trip to meet the

1599
01:32:23,400 --> 01:32:25,960
Speaker 1: TV legends, and so he said to his son, let's

1600
01:32:25,960 --> 01:32:28,519
Speaker 1: go to the neighborhood and make believe. And after meeting

1601
01:32:28,520 --> 01:32:31,920
Speaker 1: Fred Rogers, the boy slowly began speaking and reading, and

1602
01:32:32,000 --> 01:32:35,000
Speaker 1: the father believed that mister Rogers saved his son's life,

1603
01:32:35,400 --> 01:32:38,200
Speaker 1: and then there's a story of actress Lauren two Is

1604
01:32:38,280 --> 01:32:40,000
Speaker 1: I think is how you say her name. That's probably

1605
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:42,320
Speaker 1: not how you say her name. She's a veteran of

1606
01:32:42,360 --> 01:32:44,840
Speaker 1: the show The love Boat, and she also felt that

1607
01:32:44,840 --> 01:32:47,400
Speaker 1: mister Rogers saved her life. She'd left The love Boat

1608
01:32:47,400 --> 01:32:49,720
Speaker 1: at the height of its popularity during her struggles with

1609
01:32:49,760 --> 01:32:52,200
Speaker 1: substance abuse, and she said that the morning that she

1610
01:32:52,320 --> 01:32:54,479
Speaker 1: hit rock bottom, she happened to look at the TV

1611
01:32:54,680 --> 01:32:57,559
Speaker 1: and see the opening of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and she

1612
01:32:57,640 --> 01:33:00,439
Speaker 1: later described the moment as quote God speaking to her

1613
01:33:00,479 --> 01:33:03,320
Speaker 1: through the instrument of mister Rogers, and felt moved to

1614
01:33:03,320 --> 01:33:06,720
Speaker 1: get sober, which she's been ever since. And if this

1615
01:33:06,760 --> 01:33:08,920
Speaker 1: isn't enough to make you believe in miracles, then listened

1616
01:33:08,960 --> 01:33:11,479
Speaker 1: to the story of Beth Usher, a young woman who

1617
01:33:11,560 --> 01:33:14,519
Speaker 1: was suffering up to one hundred seizures daily due to

1618
01:33:14,560 --> 01:33:18,120
Speaker 1: a brain issue, and for reasons I don't personally understand,

1619
01:33:18,240 --> 01:33:21,960
Speaker 1: watching Mister Rogers Neighborhood alleviated her symptoms, and in the

1620
01:33:22,040 --> 01:33:24,120
Speaker 1: lead up to a brain surgery to try to correct

1621
01:33:24,120 --> 01:33:27,479
Speaker 1: the issue, her mother contacted Fred Rogers for assigned photos

1622
01:33:27,479 --> 01:33:31,920
Speaker 1: and encouraging gift. Rogers was extremely moved and called the

1623
01:33:31,960 --> 01:33:34,400
Speaker 1: little girl that very night, and he spoke to her

1624
01:33:34,520 --> 01:33:37,320
Speaker 1: both as himself and has his puppets, and he sent

1625
01:33:37,360 --> 01:33:41,000
Speaker 1: her a giant box of memorabilia from his show. And

1626
01:33:41,040 --> 01:33:43,160
Speaker 1: then not only that, he went and visited her in

1627
01:33:43,240 --> 01:33:45,840
Speaker 1: the hospital, and the two remained friends for the rest

1628
01:33:45,840 --> 01:33:49,720
Speaker 1: of Fred's life. But perhaps the most famous child associated

1629
01:33:49,760 --> 01:33:52,559
Speaker 1: with mister Rogers is Jeff Arlinger, who appeared on the

1630
01:33:52,560 --> 01:33:54,479
Speaker 1: show as a ten year old in nineteen eighty one

1631
01:33:54,520 --> 01:33:57,479
Speaker 1: in his electric wheelchair, which he used as a result

1632
01:33:57,479 --> 01:34:00,680
Speaker 1: of the spinal tumors that limited his mobility, and in

1633
01:34:00,760 --> 01:34:03,240
Speaker 1: one of the most unforgettable scenes from the series, he

1634
01:34:03,320 --> 01:34:05,599
Speaker 1: and mister Rodgers have what I believe to be an

1635
01:34:05,640 --> 01:34:08,800
Speaker 1: impromptu duet on the song It's You I Like. You know,

1636
01:34:08,840 --> 01:34:12,800
Speaker 1: it's you I like. It's not the things you wear,

1637
01:34:12,960 --> 01:34:14,479
Speaker 1: you know, all the things, not the way you do

1638
01:34:14,560 --> 01:34:16,799
Speaker 1: your hair, the way's at the Billy Joel's song anyway,

1639
01:34:18,120 --> 01:34:20,479
Speaker 1: But they altered the lyrics for that moment too, It's

1640
01:34:20,479 --> 01:34:24,000
Speaker 1: you I Like, not your fancy chair, And the moment

1641
01:34:24,080 --> 01:34:27,479
Speaker 1: was highlighted in Morgan Neville's twenty eighteen documentary And It's

1642
01:34:28,400 --> 01:34:31,439
Speaker 1: Not a Dry Eye In the house folks. The director

1643
01:34:31,520 --> 01:34:34,360
Speaker 1: later commented, Fred often said that this was his favorite

1644
01:34:34,400 --> 01:34:37,160
Speaker 1: moment of the show. It was normalizing the kind of

1645
01:34:37,200 --> 01:34:39,120
Speaker 1: thing that we tend to brush under the carpet in

1646
01:34:39,160 --> 01:34:43,000
Speaker 1: our society. Fred felt, the differences are all superficial underneath

1647
01:34:43,000 --> 01:34:45,120
Speaker 1: it all, we all have the same fears and all

1648
01:34:45,160 --> 01:34:47,759
Speaker 1: have the same hopes. He looked at people as humans

1649
01:34:47,800 --> 01:34:51,360
Speaker 1: first and our physical conditions second. And there's also a

1650
01:34:51,439 --> 01:34:54,519
Speaker 1: very touching story from Tom Jannaud's Esquire profile where Fred

1651
01:34:54,560 --> 01:34:57,439
Speaker 1: meets a boy with cerebral palsy who was I think

1652
01:34:57,479 --> 01:35:00,280
Speaker 1: also abused by some of his caretakers, so he was

1653
01:35:00,640 --> 01:35:04,120
Speaker 1: both physically and emotionally in a very tough place. And

1654
01:35:04,280 --> 01:35:07,080
Speaker 1: at one point during their visit, the boy has some

1655
01:35:07,160 --> 01:35:09,479
Speaker 1: kind of an emotional crisis and needed to leave the room,

1656
01:35:09,880 --> 01:35:12,040
Speaker 1: and when he came back, Fred said to him, I

1657
01:35:12,080 --> 01:35:14,080
Speaker 1: would like you to do something for me. Would you

1658
01:35:14,120 --> 01:35:17,200
Speaker 1: do something for me? And on his computer that he

1659
01:35:17,320 --> 01:35:20,639
Speaker 1: uses to speak, the boy said yes, and mister Rogers said,

1660
01:35:20,760 --> 01:35:23,080
Speaker 1: I want you to pray for me? Will you pray

1661
01:35:23,120 --> 01:35:27,040
Speaker 1: for me? And the response blew this boy's mind because

1662
01:35:27,040 --> 01:35:29,400
Speaker 1: he was so used to being the object of prayers

1663
01:35:29,439 --> 01:35:33,200
Speaker 1: and being pitied and to quote the Peace. Ever since then,

1664
01:35:33,280 --> 01:35:36,040
Speaker 1: he keeps mister Rogers in his prayers and doesn't talk

1665
01:35:36,080 --> 01:35:39,120
Speaker 1: about wanting to die anymore because he figures mister Rogers

1666
01:35:39,240 --> 01:35:42,120
Speaker 1: is close to God and if mister Rogers likes him,

1667
01:35:42,200 --> 01:35:45,880
Speaker 1: that must mean God likes him too. And Tom Jenna,

1668
01:35:46,000 --> 01:35:48,519
Speaker 1: the journalist, praised Fred for knowing how to get the

1669
01:35:48,520 --> 01:35:51,400
Speaker 1: boy to feel better about himself. But Fred stops him

1670
01:35:51,400 --> 01:35:53,439
Speaker 1: in the middle of this praise and says, oh, Heavens, no,

1671
01:35:53,560 --> 01:35:56,120
Speaker 1: I didn't ask for prayers for him. I asked for me.

1672
01:35:56,479 --> 01:35:58,639
Speaker 1: I asked him because I think anyone who has gone

1673
01:35:58,640 --> 01:36:00,840
Speaker 1: through the challenges that he is gone through must be

1674
01:36:00,960 --> 01:36:03,840
Speaker 1: very close to God. I asked him because I wanted

1675
01:36:03,880 --> 01:36:12,200
Speaker 1: his intercession. Yeah. Fred's sons later admitted that it could

1676
01:36:12,240 --> 01:36:15,400
Speaker 1: sometimes be difficult living with someone who's effectively the second

1677
01:36:15,479 --> 01:36:20,879
Speaker 1: Christ in their words, and yet because in the immortal

1678
01:36:20,880 --> 01:36:24,720
Speaker 1: words of slipknot people equals. There were some who have

1679
01:36:24,800 --> 01:36:28,120
Speaker 1: dared to suggest that mister Rogers I'm glad I got

1680
01:36:27,600 --> 01:36:32,040
Speaker 1: slip slipnot reference to our mister Rogers episode. There are

1681
01:36:32,080 --> 01:36:34,559
Speaker 1: some who dared to suggest that mister Rogers was maybe

1682
01:36:34,560 --> 01:36:37,439
Speaker 1: not a good influence on children. In fact, perhaps he

1683
01:36:37,520 --> 01:36:40,559
Speaker 1: was even harmful for children, much in the same way

1684
01:36:40,640 --> 01:36:43,280
Speaker 1: that the other child growing experts of Fred Zara, especially

1685
01:36:43,320 --> 01:36:47,000
Speaker 1: Benjamin Spock, were later accused of fostering a lazy, self

1686
01:36:47,000 --> 01:36:50,479
Speaker 1: obsessed generation of kids. Some have leveled similar accusations that

1687
01:36:50,600 --> 01:36:55,120
Speaker 1: Fred for convincing viewers that their specialness is inherent, therefore

1688
01:36:55,200 --> 01:36:57,559
Speaker 1: they don't actually need to work for it and foster

1689
01:36:57,720 --> 01:37:01,320
Speaker 1: that specialness. Allow me to quote discussion Fred about mister

1690
01:37:01,400 --> 01:37:05,080
Speaker 1: Rogers on the Yahoo Answers website, which opens with this passage.

1691
01:37:05,160 --> 01:37:07,960
Speaker 1: Mister Rogers spent years telling little creeps that he liked

1692
01:37:08,000 --> 01:37:09,880
Speaker 1: them just the way they were. He should have been

1693
01:37:09,880 --> 01:37:11,800
Speaker 1: telling him there was a lot of room for improvement.

1694
01:37:12,160 --> 01:37:14,240
Speaker 1: Nice as he was and as good as his intentions

1695
01:37:14,240 --> 01:37:18,160
Speaker 1: may have been, he did a disservice. And this sentiment

1696
01:37:18,200 --> 01:37:21,280
Speaker 1: was echoed by a professor at Louisiana State University by

1697
01:37:21,280 --> 01:37:24,120
Speaker 1: the name of Dawn Chance, and he actually committed his

1698
01:37:24,200 --> 01:37:26,519
Speaker 1: feelings to the pages of the Wall Street Journal in

1699
01:37:26,560 --> 01:37:29,120
Speaker 1: a two thousand and seven article called Blame It on

1700
01:37:29,160 --> 01:37:32,920
Speaker 1: mister Rogers, Why young adults feel so entitled? And in

1701
01:37:33,040 --> 01:37:35,400
Speaker 1: the PC he states his belief that mister Rogers created

1702
01:37:35,439 --> 01:37:39,519
Speaker 1: a quote culture of excessive doting and as supposed to proof.

1703
01:37:39,680 --> 01:37:42,559
Speaker 1: Professor Chant said that the many Asian born students in

1704
01:37:42,640 --> 01:37:45,720
Speaker 1: his class except lower grades as an indication that they

1705
01:37:45,760 --> 01:37:48,559
Speaker 1: need to work harder, and he attributes this work ethic

1706
01:37:48,600 --> 01:37:50,280
Speaker 1: in part to the fact that they didn't grow up

1707
01:37:50,320 --> 01:37:54,040
Speaker 1: watching mister Rogers. And he contrasts this with American students

1708
01:37:54,080 --> 01:37:57,120
Speaker 1: infected by Fred Rogers, who quote hit you up for

1709
01:37:57,160 --> 01:37:59,240
Speaker 1: an a because they came to class and they feel

1710
01:37:59,280 --> 01:38:02,120
Speaker 1: they worked hard. This world owes you nothing. You have

1711
01:38:02,200 --> 01:38:04,679
Speaker 1: to work and compete. If you want to be special,

1712
01:38:04,720 --> 01:38:08,559
Speaker 1: you'll have to prove it. So that is according to

1713
01:38:08,600 --> 01:38:11,639
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal. Believe it or not, mister Rogers

1714
01:38:11,720 --> 01:38:14,280
Speaker 1: was actually called a task for his message of acceptance

1715
01:38:14,320 --> 01:38:17,320
Speaker 1: on tolerance during his own lifetime, and he clarified and

1716
01:38:17,400 --> 01:38:19,760
Speaker 1: all he meant by all the special business was a

1717
01:38:19,760 --> 01:38:23,320
Speaker 1: secular way of expressing that you are a beloved son

1718
01:38:23,479 --> 01:38:26,720
Speaker 1: or daughter of God. He said, your special means you

1719
01:38:26,760 --> 01:38:29,720
Speaker 1: don't have to do anything sensational for people to love you.

1720
01:38:30,560 --> 01:38:33,200
Speaker 1: And for Fred, love was elemental. He's quoted as saying

1721
01:38:33,280 --> 01:38:36,520
Speaker 1: love is at the heart of everything, all learning, all parenting,

1722
01:38:36,600 --> 01:38:40,840
Speaker 1: all relationships, love and the lack of it, and one

1723
01:38:40,840 --> 01:38:43,120
Speaker 1: of his favorite quotes is from the book The Little Prince.

1724
01:38:43,680 --> 01:38:46,479
Speaker 1: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.

1725
01:38:46,880 --> 01:38:50,880
Speaker 1: What is essential is invisible to the eyes. But nothing

1726
01:38:50,880 --> 01:38:54,799
Speaker 1: gold can nothing all that glitters, nothing gold can fade.

1727
01:38:56,439 --> 01:39:02,080
Speaker 1: Makes cliche which all the glitters is gold is not gold?

1728
01:39:02,439 --> 01:39:06,240
Speaker 1: Stay gold, pony boy. It must have dawned on Fred

1729
01:39:06,320 --> 01:39:08,360
Speaker 1: Rogers by the dawn of the twenty first century that

1730
01:39:08,439 --> 01:39:11,519
Speaker 1: we didn't deserve him. So yeah, so by the turn

1731
01:39:11,560 --> 01:39:13,400
Speaker 1: of the turn of the century. In the year two thousand,

1732
01:39:13,439 --> 01:39:15,760
Speaker 1: he decided he was ready to retire the age of

1733
01:39:15,800 --> 01:39:19,160
Speaker 1: seventy two. The final episode of the show was taped

1734
01:39:19,240 --> 01:39:22,479
Speaker 1: that December and aired on August thirty first, two thousand

1735
01:39:22,520 --> 01:39:26,320
Speaker 1: and one. In typical understated Fred Rogers fashion, there was

1736
01:39:26,360 --> 01:39:29,759
Speaker 1: no publicity about it, no media on set, and then

1737
01:39:30,080 --> 01:39:33,639
Speaker 1: less than two weeks later nine to eleven. Fred felt

1738
01:39:33,680 --> 01:39:36,200
Speaker 1: compelled to make a public statement about nine to eleven,

1739
01:39:36,720 --> 01:39:38,759
Speaker 1: which he did on the first anniversary of the attacks,

1740
01:39:39,120 --> 01:39:41,840
Speaker 1: although he did not mention them by name. Speaking to

1741
01:39:41,920 --> 01:39:44,680
Speaker 1: adult viewers, he told them, I'm so grateful to you

1742
01:39:44,840 --> 01:39:46,840
Speaker 1: for helping the children in your life to know that

1743
01:39:46,920 --> 01:39:50,160
Speaker 1: you'll do everything you can to keep them safe. This

1744
01:39:50,160 --> 01:39:53,680
Speaker 1: proved to be his final television visit. Though it is

1745
01:39:53,920 --> 01:39:59,280
Speaker 1: so ungodly sad, so we're gonna just gloss over it

1746
01:39:59,400 --> 01:40:05,479
Speaker 1: for ours, yes, not yours. Fred's wife Joanne said that

1747
01:40:05,520 --> 01:40:08,280
Speaker 1: he'd seemed somewhat depressed after he stopped doing the show,

1748
01:40:08,560 --> 01:40:10,639
Speaker 1: and she would ask him about it, and he would

1749
01:40:10,720 --> 01:40:15,240
Speaker 1: respond by saying, I miss my playmates, which is crushing.

1750
01:40:16,320 --> 01:40:19,639
Speaker 1: Making things worse, He began to experience intense stomach pains

1751
01:40:19,640 --> 01:40:22,080
Speaker 1: around this time, and in December two thousand and two,

1752
01:40:22,600 --> 01:40:25,320
Speaker 1: shortly after the airing of his last TV message, he

1753
01:40:25,360 --> 01:40:29,519
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He underwent surgery the following month,

1754
01:40:30,120 --> 01:40:32,960
Speaker 1: reportedly delaying it slightly so that he could serve as

1755
01:40:33,080 --> 01:40:36,000
Speaker 1: Grand Marshal of the two thousand and three Rose Parade

1756
01:40:36,160 --> 01:40:39,920
Speaker 1: with the creator of Candid Camera, Art Link Letter and

1757
01:40:40,080 --> 01:40:45,360
Speaker 1: Bill Cosby, so that that didn't age well. But these

1758
01:40:45,479 --> 01:40:47,639
Speaker 1: medical efforts failed to slow the spread of the disease,

1759
01:40:47,720 --> 01:40:55,680
Speaker 1: and Fred spent his last weeks studying the Bible and ruminating, pondering, pondering.

1760
01:40:57,360 --> 01:40:59,600
Speaker 1: One night, while speaking to his wife, he evoked the

1761
01:40:59,640 --> 01:41:02,800
Speaker 1: story of the Sheep and the Goats. The metaphor from

1762
01:41:02,800 --> 01:41:05,120
Speaker 1: the Bible, in which God is the shepherd, separating the

1763
01:41:05,160 --> 01:41:10,240
Speaker 1: cheeps from the goats, in other words, and undesirables from

1764
01:41:10,280 --> 01:41:14,280
Speaker 1: the desirables. I guess there's the message of that from

1765
01:41:14,320 --> 01:41:16,960
Speaker 1: the bad, because from the bad, what's so bad about goats?

1766
01:41:17,240 --> 01:41:24,439
Speaker 1: Goat cheese is delicious, bait, trash You God. They have

1767
01:41:24,479 --> 01:41:27,519
Speaker 1: a new sound of the text notification from you. I'm

1768
01:41:27,760 --> 01:41:31,800
Speaker 1: I'm upgrading God, downgrading God from an enemy of the blood.

1769
01:41:32,960 --> 01:41:41,120
Speaker 1: Just under Jeffrey Katzenberg, this passage is paraphrase and knocked

1770
01:41:41,160 --> 01:41:43,799
Speaker 1: and boiled down to whatever you did for the least

1771
01:41:44,160 --> 01:41:47,960
Speaker 1: of your brethren you did to me, which is you know,

1772
01:41:48,760 --> 01:41:51,760
Speaker 1: the Fred Rogers ethos as well. In his final weeks,

1773
01:41:51,960 --> 01:41:54,519
Speaker 1: Rogers asked his wife joe Anne if he was a

1774
01:41:54,560 --> 01:41:58,160
Speaker 1: sheep or a goat, and she assured him that he

1775
01:41:58,200 --> 01:42:01,680
Speaker 1: was the former. I just think it's it's it's poignant

1776
01:42:01,760 --> 01:42:04,760
Speaker 1: that even looking back on his entire life, he was

1777
01:42:04,800 --> 01:42:08,200
Speaker 1: so humble that he wasn't sure yeah that he had yeah,

1778
01:42:08,600 --> 01:42:13,960
Speaker 1: you know yeah. To find that really sad, not tragic,

1779
01:42:14,439 --> 01:42:16,519
Speaker 1: but very fitting of the kind of guy who was.

1780
01:42:16,560 --> 01:42:19,080
Speaker 1: I guess, well, you know, I mean, it's it's He's

1781
01:42:19,200 --> 01:42:23,599
Speaker 1: very human. Everybody has doubts. Everybody, even somebody is universally beloved,

1782
01:42:23,720 --> 01:42:26,960
Speaker 1: can on their deathbed think did I do enough? What

1783
01:42:27,040 --> 01:42:30,200
Speaker 1: did I do? Yeah? What did I do Yeah. An

1784
01:42:30,200 --> 01:42:32,719
Speaker 1: interview with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Joe Anne talked about

1785
01:42:32,720 --> 01:42:35,200
Speaker 1: their final discussion, in which she let him know that

1786
01:42:35,240 --> 01:42:38,320
Speaker 1: he could leave if he was in pain. She said,

1787
01:42:38,360 --> 01:42:40,280
Speaker 1: there was a feeling of real relief when I could

1788
01:42:40,320 --> 01:42:42,960
Speaker 1: say to him, you know, we're going to be okay,

1789
01:42:43,080 --> 01:42:45,719
Speaker 1: We're going to be all right, the boys will be fine,

1790
01:42:45,840 --> 01:42:48,320
Speaker 1: and I'm going to try to be fine. So when

1791
01:42:48,360 --> 01:42:50,559
Speaker 1: he went, I could feel he went at peace, and

1792
01:42:50,680 --> 01:42:53,479
Speaker 1: even with joy, I really feel he went with joy.

1793
01:42:55,000 --> 01:42:58,719
Speaker 1: Fred Rogers died on February twenty seventh, two thousand and three,

1794
01:42:58,760 --> 01:43:01,439
Speaker 1: at his home in Pittsburgh, with Joanne at his side.

1795
01:43:02,520 --> 01:43:05,800
Speaker 1: Following his death, PBS published a guide for parents for

1796
01:43:05,880 --> 01:43:09,840
Speaker 1: their kids to talk about what had happened, which is

1797
01:43:09,840 --> 01:43:12,599
Speaker 1: something that he surely would want it. Do you think

1798
01:43:12,640 --> 01:43:14,760
Speaker 1: he wrote it in advance? Ah? You know what, I

1799
01:43:14,760 --> 01:43:17,639
Speaker 1: don't know. I haven't been able to confirm that, but

1800
01:43:18,000 --> 01:43:20,439
Speaker 1: it reads a little bit like it. We have some

1801
01:43:21,040 --> 01:43:24,080
Speaker 1: we like to share now because families are so important

1802
01:43:24,120 --> 01:43:26,160
Speaker 1: to young children. They may want to know that Fred

1803
01:43:26,240 --> 01:43:29,439
Speaker 1: Rogers had a loving and caring family. He had a wife,

1804
01:43:29,720 --> 01:43:32,240
Speaker 1: two sons, both of whom were grown and married, and

1805
01:43:32,320 --> 01:43:35,519
Speaker 1: two grandsons. His family helped to care for him all

1806
01:43:35,520 --> 01:43:39,519
Speaker 1: through his illness. Some children may express disbelief, saying, but

1807
01:43:39,640 --> 01:43:42,160
Speaker 1: I just saw him on TV. You can help them

1808
01:43:42,240 --> 01:43:45,280
Speaker 1: understand that when people die, they don't come back to life.

1809
01:43:45,640 --> 01:43:48,760
Speaker 1: But mister Rogers put his programs on videotape so they

1810
01:43:48,760 --> 01:43:51,920
Speaker 1: can be shown over and over again. It's okay to

1811
01:43:52,040 --> 01:43:55,200
Speaker 1: cry in front of children. Fred Rogers talked about seeing

1812
01:43:55,240 --> 01:43:58,439
Speaker 1: his father grieving when his own father, Fred's grandfather died,

1813
01:43:58,920 --> 01:44:00,519
Speaker 1: and that helped him to know that it was okay

1814
01:44:00,520 --> 01:44:03,320
Speaker 1: for men to show their feelings. It helps children know

1815
01:44:03,680 --> 01:44:06,280
Speaker 1: that it's okay for children and adults to cry, but

1816
01:44:06,400 --> 01:44:09,240
Speaker 1: we can deal with our feelings and smile again later on.

1817
01:44:10,160 --> 01:44:13,080
Speaker 1: Remember that Fred Rogers has always helped children know that

1818
01:44:13,160 --> 01:44:16,160
Speaker 1: feelings are natural and normal, and that happy times and

1819
01:44:16,240 --> 01:44:23,240
Speaker 1: sad times are part of everyone's life. Yeah. I said

1820
01:44:23,240 --> 01:44:25,599
Speaker 1: this a moment ago. I just think it's really sweet

1821
01:44:25,680 --> 01:44:28,000
Speaker 1: to hear of Fred's himility. Towards the end of his life,

1822
01:44:28,080 --> 01:44:30,800
Speaker 1: questioning the impact he had and the life he led,

1823
01:44:31,760 --> 01:44:34,280
Speaker 1: and he'd achieved and nearly every accolade a person in

1824
01:44:34,280 --> 01:44:37,160
Speaker 1: his position could receive. In two thousand and two, one

1825
01:44:37,240 --> 01:44:39,520
Speaker 1: year before his death, he was presented with the Presidential

1826
01:44:39,520 --> 01:44:41,720
Speaker 1: Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor in

1827
01:44:41,720 --> 01:44:45,479
Speaker 1: the United States. The medal commemorated his quote contribution to

1828
01:44:45,479 --> 01:44:48,479
Speaker 1: the well being of children, career in public television that

1829
01:44:48,520 --> 01:44:53,200
Speaker 1: demonstrates the importance of kindness, compassion, and learning. He also

1830
01:44:53,280 --> 01:44:57,120
Speaker 1: won two Peabody Awards and any Lifetime Achievement award, and

1831
01:44:57,200 --> 01:45:00,360
Speaker 1: not only that, he basically earned every major television award

1832
01:45:00,360 --> 01:45:03,080
Speaker 1: for which he was eligible. And in nineteen ninety eight

1833
01:45:03,200 --> 01:45:05,639
Speaker 1: he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1834
01:45:06,080 --> 01:45:08,520
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety nine, he was inducted into the Television

1835
01:45:08,520 --> 01:45:11,360
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, and he even had an asteroid named

1836
01:45:11,360 --> 01:45:16,360
Speaker 1: after him. And yet these uncertainties about himself persisted. There's

1837
01:45:16,400 --> 01:45:18,960
Speaker 1: a surprising bit in Morgan Neville's documentary where they found

1838
01:45:18,960 --> 01:45:23,040
Speaker 1: the note from Fred written in uncharacteristically hostile negative terms,

1839
01:45:23,880 --> 01:45:27,599
Speaker 1: and this note was written to himself. It reads, in part,

1840
01:45:27,920 --> 01:45:29,800
Speaker 1: am I kidding myself? But I'm able to write a

1841
01:45:29,800 --> 01:45:32,840
Speaker 1: script again, Am I really just whistling? Dixie? I wonder

1842
01:45:33,080 --> 01:45:35,000
Speaker 1: if I don't get down to it, I'll never really know.

1843
01:45:35,240 --> 01:45:38,600
Speaker 1: Why can't I trust myself? Really, that's what it's all about.

1844
01:45:38,640 --> 01:45:40,680
Speaker 1: That and not wanting to go through the agony of

1845
01:45:40,720 --> 01:45:44,080
Speaker 1: creation after all these years, it's just as bad as ever.

1846
01:45:44,439 --> 01:45:46,960
Speaker 1: I wonder if every creative artist goes through the torches

1847
01:45:46,960 --> 01:45:49,800
Speaker 1: of the damned trying to create. Oh, well, the hour

1848
01:45:49,880 --> 01:45:51,880
Speaker 1: cometh and now is when I've got to do it.

1849
01:45:52,040 --> 01:45:54,599
Speaker 1: Get to it, Fred, get to it. But don't let

1850
01:45:54,640 --> 01:45:58,040
Speaker 1: anybody ever tell anybody else that it was easy. It

1851
01:45:58,160 --> 01:46:02,280
Speaker 1: wasn't away. The insecurities that plagued Fred as a child

1852
01:46:02,360 --> 01:46:05,080
Speaker 1: remained with him through adulthood, as is the case for

1853
01:46:05,240 --> 01:46:08,040
Speaker 1: probably all of us. And in a way, that's what

1854
01:46:08,120 --> 01:46:10,519
Speaker 1: made Fred so good at connecting with children and the

1855
01:46:10,640 --> 01:46:13,520
Speaker 1: child and all of us. He never forgot how vulnerable

1856
01:46:13,520 --> 01:46:20,800
Speaker 1: it was to be a kid. This is tough, man, Yeah, yeah,

1857
01:46:22,320 --> 01:46:28,920
Speaker 1: he wow, I this is the one that finally got me. Um. Sorry,

1858
01:46:28,960 --> 01:46:33,040
Speaker 1: I'm not expecting this. It's just so sweet man, It's yeah.

1859
01:46:33,200 --> 01:46:37,760
Speaker 1: Not many of these episodes are us, you know, addressing

1860
01:46:37,800 --> 01:46:41,559
Speaker 1: a being of pure love? Well, we did do Dolly

1861
01:46:41,680 --> 01:46:45,800
Speaker 1: last week? Oh that's true. Yeah. He gave dignity to

1862
01:46:45,920 --> 01:46:49,280
Speaker 1: children by respecting their emotions, and in many cases, those

1863
01:46:49,280 --> 01:46:52,360
Speaker 1: emotions from childhood are still there deep inside all of us.

1864
01:46:52,840 --> 01:46:54,640
Speaker 1: And in that way he was able to touch the

1865
01:46:54,680 --> 01:46:58,080
Speaker 1: deepest part of us. And you know, there's no way

1866
01:46:58,080 --> 01:47:00,360
Speaker 1: we're going to sum up all of Fred Rogers like so,

1867
01:47:00,400 --> 01:47:02,679
Speaker 1: I'm not even going to try. But perhaps the biggest

1868
01:47:02,720 --> 01:47:04,960
Speaker 1: legacy are the lumps in the throats of these two

1869
01:47:05,080 --> 01:47:07,479
Speaker 1: thirty five year old men mourning the loss of a

1870
01:47:07,520 --> 01:47:10,040
Speaker 1: TV host we never met who died twenty years ago.

1871
01:47:10,720 --> 01:47:13,639
Speaker 1: Fred Rogers dreamed of using television to build a community

1872
01:47:13,680 --> 01:47:16,559
Speaker 1: out of an entire country, and two decades after his death,

1873
01:47:16,600 --> 01:47:20,640
Speaker 1: that bond between television neighbors is still very real. The

1874
01:47:20,680 --> 01:47:23,519
Speaker 1: expression of care that he offered had a significant effect

1875
01:47:23,520 --> 01:47:26,800
Speaker 1: on generations of children who felt genuinely loved by him.

1876
01:47:27,080 --> 01:47:30,479
Speaker 1: But in classic fashion, he was quick to remind others

1877
01:47:30,479 --> 01:47:33,200
Speaker 1: that they're loved by many who lived outside the television

1878
01:47:33,200 --> 01:47:36,879
Speaker 1: neighborhood too. There was a practice that he routinely employed

1879
01:47:36,880 --> 01:47:39,240
Speaker 1: when speaking to large groups of people, and I'd like

1880
01:47:39,280 --> 01:47:40,840
Speaker 1: to share it with you now so you can hear

1881
01:47:40,880 --> 01:47:44,120
Speaker 1: it in his own words. This was from nineteen ninety seven,

1882
01:47:44,160 --> 01:47:48,040
Speaker 1: when he was accepting the Lifetime Achievement Emmy. It's his

1883
01:47:48,240 --> 01:47:51,439
Speaker 1: biggest honor to date, yet he gave a tremendous gift

1884
01:47:51,479 --> 01:47:54,479
Speaker 1: to the audience. I'd like you all to experience it now.

1885
01:47:56,720 --> 01:47:59,519
Speaker 1: So many people have helped me to come to this night.

1886
01:48:00,479 --> 01:48:05,400
Speaker 1: Some of you are here, some are far away, some

1887
01:48:05,520 --> 01:48:10,360
Speaker 1: are even in heaven. All of us have special ones

1888
01:48:10,439 --> 01:48:14,719
Speaker 1: who have loved us into being. Would you just take

1889
01:48:15,160 --> 01:48:19,960
Speaker 1: along with me ten seconds to think of the people

1890
01:48:20,000 --> 01:48:25,720
Speaker 1: who have helped you become who you are, those who

1891
01:48:25,800 --> 01:48:30,040
Speaker 1: have cared about you and wanted what was best for

1892
01:48:30,160 --> 01:48:35,719
Speaker 1: you in life. Ten seconds of silence. I'll watch the time.

1893
01:48:50,479 --> 01:48:54,960
Speaker 1: Whomever you've been thinking about how pleased they must be

1894
01:48:55,160 --> 01:48:59,360
Speaker 1: to know the difference you feel they've made. It's pretty good,

1895
01:49:00,080 --> 01:49:06,120
Speaker 1: powerful man, I know I know well. To end, I'd

1896
01:49:06,160 --> 01:49:09,040
Speaker 1: like to share a quote generally attributed to Fred Rogers.

1897
01:49:09,080 --> 01:49:11,200
Speaker 1: I've actually been unable to track down the source, but

1898
01:49:11,320 --> 01:49:14,000
Speaker 1: it seems legit, and even if it's not, the spirit

1899
01:49:14,000 --> 01:49:16,840
Speaker 1: of the words is certainly true to his intent. These

1900
01:49:16,840 --> 01:49:21,160
Speaker 1: are mister rodgers three keys to success and happiness. Quote.

1901
01:49:21,160 --> 01:49:24,120
Speaker 1: The first way is to be kind, the second ways

1902
01:49:24,160 --> 01:49:27,240
Speaker 1: to be kind and the third ways to be kind.

1903
01:49:29,720 --> 01:49:39,799
Speaker 1: Sign of a pitch da damn him to hell. Laura's

1904
01:49:39,800 --> 01:49:41,479
Speaker 1: part was my dad came up to me earlier and

1905
01:49:41,560 --> 01:49:47,439
Speaker 1: was like, what's wrong. I just watched some Mister Rodgers clip. Yeah. Yeah,

1906
01:49:47,439 --> 01:49:55,719
Speaker 1: it's fair, it's fair. Who Well, this is a TMA. First, folks,

1907
01:49:55,760 --> 01:50:00,439
Speaker 1: thank you for bearing with us. George and has done

1908
01:50:00,439 --> 01:50:03,559
Speaker 1: his usual heroic job of editing so you did not

1909
01:50:03,720 --> 01:50:06,800
Speaker 1: get through multiple breaks that it took two grown men

1910
01:50:06,840 --> 01:50:11,479
Speaker 1: to repeatedly collect themselves. This has been a special edition

1911
01:50:11,520 --> 01:50:17,559
Speaker 1: of TMI. Oops, all sobbing. I'm Alex Hegel and I'm

1912
01:50:17,680 --> 01:50:25,799
Speaker 1: Jordan Runtalg. We'll catch you next time. Too Much Information

1913
01:50:25,880 --> 01:50:29,240
Speaker 1: was a production of iHeartRadio. The show's executive producers are

1914
01:50:29,320 --> 01:50:32,760
Speaker 1: Noel Brown and Jordan Runtog. The show's supervising producer is

1915
01:50:32,840 --> 01:50:36,400
Speaker 1: Michael Alder June. The show was researched, written and hosted

1916
01:50:36,400 --> 01:50:39,439
Speaker 1: by Jordan Runtog and Alex Hegel, with original music by

1917
01:50:39,479 --> 01:50:42,240
Speaker 1: Seth Applebaum and the Ghost Funk Orchestra. If you like

1918
01:50:42,320 --> 01:50:44,479
Speaker 1: what you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review.

1919
01:50:44,720 --> 01:50:49,080
Speaker 1: For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

1920
01:50:49,240 --> 01:51:03,720
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.