WEBVTT - Invisible to the Eye 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:05.360 I yeah, we're excited. What I want to do is 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:10.240 a long distance grandparent podcast because I grew up with 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.160 grandparents in the home head. A. Shapin was a producer 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.160 on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. She has a story she likes 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.360 to tell about her grandkids. When I babysit for my 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:28.120 grandchildren in Chicago, when the phone rings, they both scream out, 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.800 don't answer it, don't answer it. It might be a telemarketer. 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.520 Don't answer, don't answer it might be a telemarketer. With 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:40.519 this fervor and terror almost so, one day, the four 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:42.480 and a half year old came to me and she said, Graham, 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.200 I never asked this question before, but I really want 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.879 to know what happens if you do answer it and 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:56.280 it's a telemarketer? She said, do the police come. This 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:00.000 is a phenomenal world we live in, and it's very 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:06.000 complicated to a young child. There's so many things that 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:10.360 kids just don't understand, and that's why they ask why 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.319 all the time, why the street lights turn red, why 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.240 water goes down the drain, where someone goes when they 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.240 leave the room, or whether they will even come back. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:26.360 Kids fill that void with wonder, sometimes with magical ideas, 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:31.800 and sometimes they fill that void with monsters and with fear. 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:37.280 There's a quote from Mr rogers favorite book, The Little Prince. 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:43.600 What is essential is invisible to the eye. Fred spent 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.360 his whole life learning how to see the invisible insides 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.440 of children in his audience, learning about that essential thing, 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.080 how kids make sense of the world, how we all 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:58.800 make sense of the world. Fred understood that childhood is 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:03.120 the essence of who we be calm, and these things 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.760 that we work on in our childhood and the way 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:15.079 we resolved them stay with us through our lives. I'm 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.880 Carvel Wallace and this is Finding Fred, a podcast about 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.560 Fred Rogers from I Heart Media and Fatherly in partnership 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:31.560 with Transmitter Media. For years, for centuries, maybe we didn't 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.800 know much about children. They were assumed to be like 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.440 tiny adults who just needed some discipline, some training to 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.840 grow up and be well mannered people. But after World 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:46.079 War Two, a new field of research emerged, child development, 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.960 and with it the revolutionary idea that kids aren't simply 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.280 blank slates waiting to be stamped with ideas and personalities. 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.360 People started to understand that kids are constantly sampling the 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:01.040 world around them and assembling an identity a way of 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:05.200 being in the world, because the important question is not 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.120 so much what can we give children onto them, what 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.000 can we produce for them? The really important question is 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.320 what are they bringing to us? For more than fifty years, 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.160 head A. Shapan has worked with the production company founded 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:22.680 by Fred Rogers in Pittsburgh. What's fascinating is that Pittsburgh 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:28.400 was such a hub for understanding early childhood as the 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:33.240 beginning of the journey to adulthood. In the nineteen fifties, 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.200 the University of Pittsburgh was home to pioneering work in 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.440 the field of child development. Eric Erickson, who coined the 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.720 term identity crisis, was a professor there. He was among 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:46.560 the first psychologists to take seriously the inner lives of children. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.120 Benjamin Spock was also there for much of the twentieth century. 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.200 His book on Children was the second best selling work 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:57.560 after The Bible. But then there was doctor Margaret McFarland, 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.320 not as well known as the other two, but perhaps 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:04.320 the most gifted of them all. Ericson himself once said 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.720 that quote, she knew more than anyone in this world 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:13.000 about families with young children. It was Margaret McFarland that 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:17.040 Fred Rogers chose as his mentor. I was a student 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:21.800 of Margaret McFarlane's in grad school, and one thing she 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.760 would do was tell stories. She would give us the 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.920 context for things. She would talk about a child who 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.279 was sad because his mother had to go out and 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.279 he was left with the babysitter, and he sulked for 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:41.360 a while and cried. But then what he did was 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:45.040 he got up into her rocking chair and he took 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.120 a magazine and sat there with it in his hands. 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.719 It was even upside down, but that's what she would do. 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:56.120 It was as if he needed to recreate her and 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:00.120 have her with him so that he wouldn't miss are 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:05.000 so much. One of the beauties of Fred's work with 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.080 Margaret is that, and with all of us, is that 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:13.400 she would help us see the things that were beyond 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.400 our eyes. Fred met Dr McFarland in the nineteen fifties. 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.320 He took her graduate level child development classes at the 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.440 University of Pittsburgh. Later, when he was making television, he 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.480 encouraged had to Sherepin to do the same. They were 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.080 taping at night, so it worked out with my schedule. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:38.000 In the daytime, I was learning this complex child development theory, 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.159 and at night I would come into the control room 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:45.599 and I would see Fred live out all the things 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.839 I was learning about. How do you help children with aggression? 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:50.960 What do you do with the mad that you feel? 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:56.159 Ritual transitions? He says, we are going to go now 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.680 into it's time for the neighbor to make but he 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:04.680 led us to the next step separation. Separation anxiety was 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.919 a kind of recurring theme on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Fred 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:11.719 found all sorts of ways to talk with kids about 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:20.520 that scariest thing, being abandoned. I'm really sorry, Daniel, are you. 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:28.200 I can see by your face that you're really sad. Yeah, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:34.719 it feels so awful to get forgotten. I know, why 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:39.240 did you forget me? I was hurrying around so much. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:43.560 I just wasn't thinking straight. Has that ever happened to you? 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:52.880 What somebody forgetting you? Yes? It has. Oh, could you 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:59.600 tell me about it? Well? It was my birthday party 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.800 and my very best friend forgot to come to my party. 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.280 She did. I waited and waited for her to come 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.840 to the door with a present, and what happened? She 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:17.040 was gone to her grandmother's house. I couldn't even get 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:21.240 her on the telephone. Was she mad at you? No, 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:27.840 she just forgot. Could you tell me again why you 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:35.320 didn't come for me one more time? I forgot? I know. 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.120 They are over nine hundred episodes of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.000 and each week Fred would walk down the street script 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.800 in hand to Dr McFarland's office. I can remember one 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.240 time when I wrote something about bees and she said, well, 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.760 do you know what bees mean? Too? Young children? Betsy 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.720 Siemens worked on Fred's show in the nineteen seventies. She 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.679 told me that Margaret McFarland helped them make a show 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.840 that spoke right to kids experience. She's, well, you know, 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.840 they if they sting you, you know, it has to 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.920 do with body integrity, and they you know, it's a violation. 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.880 And she wouldn't say don't use bees. She's just saying, 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:15.680 if we're going to have bees, we have to deal 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:20.240 with bees. You have to understand the implications. You have 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:25.040 to understand what that's about. From this magical world that 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.400 we have hard time accessing, you know, but she had 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.160 full access. She had a passport right into that world 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.760 and she could go there all the time. Margaret could 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:37.040 go there all the time. And she opened the door 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.240 for Fred, and Fred he held the door open for 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.319 the rest of the neighborhood. And one of the things 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:49.560 I always understood from Fred that um until basically children 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.079 lose their milk teeth as you you know, like surround six, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.440 they live in a magical world. And so I think 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.960 his thing was to to listen so hard and to 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.760 think so hard how someone who lives in another world, 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:07.920 literally in a magical world where where there's little men 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.240 up in the street lights that are making them turn 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:14.240 different colors. It's hard to access that child and hard 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.360 to communicate with that child. What a special assignment that 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.080 is to try to get access to that magical world? 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:31.120 M then Mr Rogers neighborhood. Fred brought kids magical worlds 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.880 to life. The neighborhood of make Believe was a place 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.520 where puppets were in charge, wars could be solved with balloons, 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.120 where a striped tiger named Daniel lived in a clock. 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.960 Are you ready for the Neighborhood of make Belief? Okay, 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.360 here's the trolley. Make the trolley come right around the 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:56.800 castle and think of the neighborhood of make Beliey yeah, 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.760 I mean, and you tell you yeah, yeah, I really 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:04.640 worried Daniel. You know, I think Daniel has been coughing 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.640 ever since yesterday. The Trip to Make Believe could be 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.760 playful and full of wonder, but it could also be 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:16.000 a safe place where kids could encounter their fears and 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.200 figure out how to deal with them. Betsy told me 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.240 that the Land of Make Belief segments were the most 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.800 carefully made parts of the show. I would go to 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.880 Margaret before I ever wrote out dialogue for the neighbor 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.360 to Make Believe, and then she would talk to me 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.880 about the implications. There would be a through line in 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.600 the Neighborhood of Make Believe, like a little soap opera, 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.240 and on Monday something happens and then trouble. I mean, 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:45.079 I'm thinking of a week where Daniel got left behind. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.640 Lady Everland forgot to take him somewhere, and and and 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:54.920 he was left alone. Could you tell me again why 0:10:55.040 --> 0:11:00.800 you didn't come from me one more time? I forgot? 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:09.000 I know. Does it make you feel like we aren't 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:14.920 really friends? Kind of but I don't know why, but 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:22.679 not really. No, we're friends, Daniel, Yes, it seems like 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:30.880 we just are. I'm still so sorry. I'm not as 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:35.040 sad as I was before before you came and talked 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.680 to me. Oh good. The stories in the Land of 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.360 Make Believe were reinforced by things that happened in the 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.840 rest of the show in Mr Rogers house, in the 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:50.000 real life neighborhood, the opening reality of the program, we 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.880 deal with the stuff that dreams are made of, and 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.480 then in the Neighborhood of make Believe, we deal with 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:02.400 it as if it were a dream. And then when 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:06.559 it comes back to me, we deal with a simple 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:11.280 interpretation of the dream. Anything can happen and make believe 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:16.959 and we can talk about anything in reality. One of 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:21.679 Fred's favorite sayings was if it is mentionable, it is manageable. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.560 The quote is from Margaret McFarland. She, like Fred, believed 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:30.760 that this is the real value of TV for kids communication. 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:36.240 It is less a show for children and more real 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:40.800 communication with him. And that's the only way I understand 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:45.240 that is that to the child, the television program, between 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.360 you and the child is a real relationship, and that 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.160 you are speaking to the child. As soon as the 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:57.080 television artist becomes a child before the screen, then the 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:05.800 adult child relationship is lost. Mr Rogers Neighborhood did more 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:10.800 than entertained kids. Margaret and Fred listened carefully to children 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.360 and then made a show that spoke to them, that 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.000 helped them make sense of the world, that lovingly showed 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:21.640 them how to be in the world. But needless to say, 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:25.080 that is not how most of children's television turned out 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:50.200 more after the break. When I was a parenting advice 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.079 columnist for Slate, one question we always got from parents 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.720 was about how to protect kids from media and from 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.520 all the bad things they might find on YouTube in 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.800 the Internet. For a lot of us, this fear leads 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.520 to a suspicion of maybe even an outright panic about 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:11.880 media and technology, because it does feel next to impossible 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.920 to figure out how to shield your kids when so 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:19.320 much stuff is flying at them. But that feeling of 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.720 threat is not new. Television, in terms of children's TV, 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:30.400 started nationally in with Howdy Dooty, and it couldn't be 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.000 more manic. David being Cooley is a long time TV critic. 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:38.160 Some of the characters were more violent, were more rowdy. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.760 We can't play you any of the footage from those 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.360 early days of TV because it is all astronomically expensive, 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.960 even seventy plus years later. But The show's basically sounded 0:14:49.320 --> 0:15:06.560 like this, Ye kids, tell your parents you want Ovaltine, 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.880 tutsie rolls, Twinkies, Colgate, toothpaste, wonder Bread, shoes and hats 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:15.160 and toys and Whirlpool dryers. The children who were in 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.040 the TV studio were called the Peanut Gallery, and they 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.600 were all amped up on sugar products. And it was 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:27.680 a crazy place, and it was a hugely promotional in 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:32.120 terms of pushing products for the kids to buy. A 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:38.080 catalog had twenty four pages filled with products licensed by 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:42.680 Howdy Duty alone. It included puppets and toys, clothing, cereals, 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:50.880 and candies. There are those people who sometimes say the 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:57.200 television doesn't affect us all that much. Well, all I 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:03.000 can say is, then why were advertisers pay so much 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:09.280 money to put their messages on a medium that doesn't 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:15.320 affect us all that much? In Fred Rogers came home 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.560 to the Trobe from his college in Florida. He discovered 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:21.640 that his parents owned one of the first TVs in town. 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:27.000 His first reaction was curiosity. His next, as best we 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.880 can tell, was discussed. It was a program where people 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:35.360 were dressed up in some kinds of costumes or something 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:39.120 and they were. They literally were putting pious in each 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:45.200 other's faces. And I was astounded at that, and I thought, 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:52.760 this could be a wonderful tool for education. Why is 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:57.120 it being used this way? And so I said to 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.040 my parents, you know, I don't think i'll go to 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.040 seminary right away. I think maybe I'll go into television. 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.240 And I said, but you've never even seen it. And 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.359 I said, well, I've seen enough of it here. I 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.560 just thought, hey, let's see what we can do with this. 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.399 He was a music major who was getting up to 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:20.080 go to theological seminary, and suddenly he was shipping off 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.320 to NBC in New York to make TV. He starts 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:27.120 making connections, climbing the ladder. He's making it in New 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:42.240 York City, and then Pittsburgh calls. Not only was Pittsburgh 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.720 a hub for studying child development in the nineteen fifties, 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.399 it was also one of the most innovative places in 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:51.520 the country for technology, R and D. It was the 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.320 home to Alcoa Westinghouse, the forerunner of what became Carnegie 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.160 Mellon University, and early in the decade, the city's mayor 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:03.240 had his own technological eureka moment he dreamed up the 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:10.200 idea of a community funded, non commercial, educational public television station. 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:15.800 In that dream became a reality, w q e D, 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:20.919 the first such public TV station in the country. I 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.800 told some of my friends at NBC that I thought 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.680 that I'd put my name in and apply for the station. 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:31.520 They said, you are nuts. That place isn't even on 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.399 the air yet, and you're in line to be a 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.400 producer or a director or anything you want to be here, 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:41.800 And I said, now I have. I have the feeling 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.720 that educational television might might be, at least for me, 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:53.159 the way of the future. And I applied and was 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.159 one of the first I think one of the first 0:18:55.320 --> 0:19:02.800 six to be hired at w q D, which true, 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:06.600 it wasn't on the air yet. We didn't go on 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:12.800 the air until April one nine. Fred was part of 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:17.520 a new show called The Children's Corner. Fred wasn't the host, 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.919 that was a local actor named Josie Carey, but he 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.439 was present in every scene, composing and playing the music 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:29.600 and performing with some very familiar puppets. I'd like everybody 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.440 to meet a very very good friend of mine, a 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:36.880 pame tiger, which is not wild. Ready, stand up, say 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.760 I'd like you to me my friend Daniel F. Tiger. 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:51.760 One of my very earliest TV memories is I remember 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.800 Children's Corner. It was just a local TV show in Pittsburgh, 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:01.879 but it was captivating then because of how sweet it 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:07.679 was and how different from everything else on TV. It 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:12.000 was quiet, it was it was laid back, and it 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.480 took its time. A few years and a few more 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:20.280 puppets later, Fred was center stage on camera. From the 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:24.040 very beginning, Fred stood apart from his on air peers. 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.880 He wasn't pandering too kids. He wasn't selling them toys 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.680 or candy. He was using his complex understanding of child 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:38.040 psychology to create a real relationship with his audience. He 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:44.560 understood the value of repetition for young viewers. He understood 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:50.040 the value of structure to offer the same sort of 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:57.000 elements over and over again. He understood slow pacing and 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.760 which is not the same thing as being boring, but 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:09.000 it's just taking your time. Television is an exceedingly personal medium. 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:20.080 It reflects the story back to us whatever we happened 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:25.040 to be watching. We bring our own story to the screen, 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:32.560 and so consequently it's it's like a dialogue. I do 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:39.080 feel that what we see and hear on the screen 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:45.800 is part of who we become. After World War Two, 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.280 a television boom hit the US. A couple of years 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.800 before Fred Rogers started making programs, fewer than a million 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.520 households in the US had a TV, but two decades later, 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:01.880 in when Fred Rogersighborhood was a year old, there were 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:08.280 forty four millions such households. Advertisers got more aggressive. This 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:11.840 flashy new medium could make people feel sweeping emotions and 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:17.920 then sell them on toys and gadgets, maybe even on ideas. Meanwhile, 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:21.520 to attract new audiences to sell more stuff, shows got 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:26.240 louder and faster and more violent. During the sixties, you 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:29.320 see a wave of growing violence and unrest in the world, 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:34.159 assassinations and uprisings, and people wanted to know whether TV 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:40.119 was playing a role in this escalating mess. One such 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:46.840 person was John pass Story. By nineteen sixty nine, he 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:49.119 had served as the governor of Rhode Island and was 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.840 now a sitting senator. President Nixon was leaning on Congress 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:56.000 to shrink its funding to public broadcasting, and past Story 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:59.600 was skeptical about whether there was anything worth salvaging, and 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:03.679 TV a small delegation of public broadcasters was called to 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:07.400 Washington to advocate for and defend the medium in front 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:16.080 of Senator past Story. Fred Rogers was among them. Head A. 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:19.160 Sheripin was working with Fred by this time and recalls 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.240 how invested he was in reaching past Story with his 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:27.600 finely crafted message. Fred worked long and hard on his speeches, 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:34.520 revision and revision revision. So when I heard the Senator 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:37.639 past Story, who was the head of the Communications Committee, 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:41.520 said I don't want anyone to read their speeches any 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:44.960 I'm tired of hearing people read. Just tell me what 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:52.960 you want, I thought, Oh, good luck. Fred past Story 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:56.679 had sat through two days worth of testimony, mostly people 0:23:56.760 --> 0:24:00.240 reading prepared statements focused on the dollars and cents involved 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:03.439 in cutting public TV's budget. He barks that he's not 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:09.520 interested in anymore reading Senator past Story, this is a 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:14.040 philosophical statement and would take about ten minutes to read, 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:18.119 so I'll not do that. My first children make you 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:21.760 happy if you read it, I'd just like to talk 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:26.040 about it if I'm very much concerned as I know 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:30.679 you are, about what's being delivered to our children in 0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:38.320 this country. I read an article about Senator past story 0:24:38.320 --> 0:24:42.920 that he was really troubled by the violence on television. 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:47.440 And I have a sense that Fred did his homework 0:24:48.720 --> 0:24:52.000 and understood that that was something important to him. Because 0:24:52.080 --> 0:24:55.240 Fred was like that, he wanted to know who his 0:24:55.320 --> 0:25:00.159 audience was. He wanted to know who you are so 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:05.440 that he could relate in most meaningful, relevant kind of way. 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:09.040 I give an expression of care every day to each 0:25:09.160 --> 0:25:14.280 child to help him realize that he is unique. I 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:17.679 end the program by saying, You've made this day a 0:25:17.800 --> 0:25:22.719 special day by just your being you. There's no person 0:25:22.800 --> 0:25:26.000 in the whole world like you, and I like you 0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:29.080 just the way you are. Well, I'm supposed to be 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:31.080 a pretty tough guy, and this is the first time 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:35.880 I've had goose bumps for the last two days. Well, 0:25:35.880 --> 0:25:38.919 I'm grateful not only for your goose bumps, but for 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:45.040 your interests in in our kind of communication. Fred spoke 0:25:45.240 --> 0:25:50.080 from the heart, with passion, with clarity. It's not just 0:25:50.600 --> 0:25:56.720 to influence someone, it's to help them feel something. That's 0:25:56.760 --> 0:25:59.720 what will help you take it in. I think it's 0:25:59.720 --> 0:26:03.240 one that if it evokes something in you, I think 0:26:03.280 --> 0:26:07.760 it's wonderful. It looks like you're just done A twenty 0:26:07.760 --> 0:26:25.639 million Fred always quoted the Little Prince, what is essential 0:26:26.160 --> 0:26:31.240 is invisible to the eye. The full quote from the book, however, 0:26:31.600 --> 0:26:34.720 is it is only with the heart that one can 0:26:34.760 --> 0:26:38.720 see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye. 0:26:40.520 --> 0:26:44.920 Sometimes the most important feelings we have, the most essential 0:26:45.000 --> 0:26:50.800 ones are the quiet, nearly invisible ones, the tiny feeling 0:26:50.840 --> 0:26:53.240 of regret that nags at us when we think we 0:26:53.320 --> 0:26:56.960 might be hurting someone, the small tingle we feel when 0:26:57.000 --> 0:27:01.199 we see something that we love. And maybe when we 0:27:01.240 --> 0:27:05.680 are children, these feelings are louder in us, more intense. 0:27:06.359 --> 0:27:09.040 But the thing is, as children, we don't yet know 0:27:09.160 --> 0:27:12.720 which feelings are to be ignored, like the fear that 0:27:12.760 --> 0:27:15.920 the police will come if the telemarketers call, and which 0:27:15.960 --> 0:27:20.640 ones are important, like the feeling that someone you trust 0:27:21.400 --> 0:27:25.959 maybe trying to hurt you. We count on the adults 0:27:26.080 --> 0:27:28.160 in our lives to help us sort that out as 0:27:28.200 --> 0:27:33.200 we grow. So what happens when the adults who are 0:27:33.240 --> 0:27:38.080 teaching us are themselves unable to listen with the heart, 0:27:38.800 --> 0:27:41.880 when they don't pay attention to how we're feeling or 0:27:42.000 --> 0:27:45.600 what we need. What happens when adults can't help us 0:27:46.000 --> 0:27:49.720 because their lives are too busy or too loud or 0:27:49.760 --> 0:27:54.160 too full of fear, when we're left alone with feelings 0:27:54.160 --> 0:27:57.879 we don't understand or know what to do with. What 0:27:58.000 --> 0:28:00.679 kind of world does that make for all of us? 0:28:02.560 --> 0:28:05.560 And what kind of world could we have if we 0:28:05.560 --> 0:28:09.960 were better at listening to those quiet cues from children, 0:28:10.640 --> 0:28:26.320 especially the kids that still live somewhere inside us. Next time, 0:28:27.400 --> 0:28:30.000 if you're vulnerable on camera, and if you let people 0:28:30.000 --> 0:28:31.840 know when you don't know, or if you let people 0:28:31.840 --> 0:28:33.919 see you break, or if you let people see you 0:28:34.000 --> 0:28:37.040 like sweat like, then they connect with you on a 0:28:37.160 --> 0:28:43.960 human level. Finding Fred is produced by Transmitter Media. The 0:28:43.960 --> 0:28:47.000 team is Dan O'donnald, Jordan Bailey, and Mattie Foley. Our 0:28:47.120 --> 0:28:50.720 editor is Sarah Nicks. The executive producer for Transmitter Media 0:28:50.880 --> 0:28:54.640 is Greta Cohne. Executive producers that Fatherly are Simon Isaacs 0:28:54.720 --> 0:28:57.800 and Andrew Berman. Thanks to the team at I Heart Media, 0:28:58.320 --> 0:29:01.920 Fred Watchers interviewed tape courtesy of the Television Academy Foundation Interviews. 0:29:02.240 --> 0:29:05.280 The full interview is available at Television Academy dot com 0:29:05.400 --> 0:29:09.360 slash Interviews. Our show is mixed by Rick Kwan, music 0:29:09.360 --> 0:29:12.120 by Blue Dot Sessions and Alison Layton Brown. If you 0:29:12.200 --> 0:29:15.040 like what you're hearing, rate the show, review the show, 0:29:15.160 --> 0:29:18.959 and tell a friend I'm Carlo Wallace and thanks for listening. 0:29:20.960 --> 0:29:21.000 H