Television's Fred Rogers leaving the neighborhood
| • | Rogers won't stray far from neighborhood |
By Robert Bianco
USA Today
After 50 years in television, Fred Rogers remains a gentle, quiet man. You might even call him shy.
Associated Press
But don't call him retiring.
Rogers opened every episode by changing into his trademark sweater and sneakers, and singing "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood."
"The thing that is hard for me to deal with is people asking me, 'How do you like retirement?' " says Rogers, whose final original episodes of his long-running PBS classic, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," have aired this week, with the last one airing today. "I'll always be involved in some kind of project for children and families."
At 73, Rogers' rejection of the word "retirement" is more than semantics. It speaks to the essence of a man who has dedicated his life to serving children, and who, in his own graceful way, set a standard for excellence in children's TV. During its 33-year PBS run, his series has won every major television award, from the Emmy to the Peabody, many of which are crammed into an old display case in his unpretentious office. His sweaters and sneakers have become national icons, spoofed by comedian Eddie Murphy and treasured by the Smithsonian.
No fuss over last episode
| Finale | |
| • | Mister Rogers' Neighborhood final original episode |
| • | 6 a.m. today |
| • | PBS |
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In typical Rogers fashion, no fuss will be made on the "Neighborhood" about the show's final new episodes. Some viewers may not
even notice the show has ceased production because there are enough episodes in the tape library for the
series to run, without repeats, for nearly a year. (While more than 900 "Neighborhoods" have been produced, only the 300 latest are in the current rotation.)
On his last day of production in February, Rogers' enthusiasm and dedication seemed undimmed. (But then, Rogers does everything full throttle: He's so committed to recycling, he brought trash back to Pittsburgh from his vacation home in Florida because there was no recycling program there.) Watching himself make pottery with a Native American woman in a clip from the upcoming shows, Rogers exclaimed, "Children will love this! I'm playing in the mud."
Time for a change
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If children will love it, why end the series? As he often does, Rogers answers with a question.
Millions of children have followed the show's trolley to the Neighborhood of Make Believe.
"Have you ever been in a situation where you know it was just the right time to make a change? I admire opera singers who know when it's time not to do opera anymore. I feel sorry for people who feel that they have to continue in one certain field because they're expected to."
Still, children can expect to see reruns of the "Neighborhood" on TV for the foreseeable future. The show has a year-to-year contract with PBS, but the service is negotiating for a long-term extension. The show airs on 304 stations, reaching 96 percent of U.S. television households. Like all long-running broadcast series, it has suffered a decline in ratings over the decades, but it still does well for PBS among its target preschool audience.
Cable TV gets a clue
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Rogers' impact, however, expands beyond public television to such popular cable shows as Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues." "Mister Rogers is a person we try to emulate in so many ways at Nick Jr.," says Brown Johnson, the cable service's senior vice president. "The way he connects with preschoolers and with his TV audience, with a sincere gentleness, he represents the earliest phase of interactive television."
David Newll, who played "speedy delivery" man Mr. McFeely since the 1960s, was a frequent visitor to the neighborhood during the show's 33-year PBS run.
Charren's only regret is that more shows haven't copied Rogers' low-key approach. She's not convinced the show has influenced network executives, but she is sure of its influence on parents and children. "I think one of the most effective parts of the show is it teaches parents how to talk to their children, if they listen to it. I used it myself."
Rogers' kindly TV persona, and the sense of unhurried calm it creates, is no accident: Everything in the "Neighborhood" is geared toward Rogers' belief that preschool children need the comfort provided by a slow, simple format. He always follows the same basic routine: He enters his TV home, changes into his sweater and sneakers, and speaks directly and distinctly to his preschool audience by looking straight into the camera.
Because he's careful to distinguish fantasy from reality, children have to follow the show's trademark trolley to the Neighborhood of Make Believe, where Rogers provides the voices for many of the show's hand puppets, including Daniel Striped Tiger, King Friday XIII, X the Owl, Henrietta Pussycat, and Lady Elaine Fairchilde.
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It's easy for adults and older children to mock Rogers' earnest simplicity (almost any post- "Neighborhood" child can re-create Rogers' deliberately slow cadence). But there's a method and sophistication behind Rogers' approach that have allowed him to address serious issues, from a child's fear of separation, to death and divorce, to the need in a multicultural society to respect people's differences.
Rogers provided voices for many hand puppets, including Daniel Striped Tiger.
"People think this is a syrupy, sweet, nothing-much-happens program, and it's not that at all," says associate producer Hedda Sharapan, who has worked with Rogers since 1966. "He's really dealing with the tasks of the world — living together, relationships."
Even so, the show's appeal is mostly limited to very young children and their parents. While psychologist Robert Simmermon believes Rogers sparked a re-examination of masculinity, of how fathers should relate to children, he also feels the show is too passive, which bores older children.
"I wanted that sweater to have a hole in it," Simmermon says. "Something that would make him more accessible."
Off to Pittsburgh
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Born in 1928 in the western Pennsylvania town of Latrobe, Rogers was working for NBC in New York in 1953 when he heard Pittsburgh was starting an educational station. "I thought, 'What a wonderful institution to nourish people,' " he said, and he left for fledgling WQED.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood got its start in 1963, when Rogers became host of a 15-minute children's show in Canada called "Misterogers." Three years later, he moved it to Pittsburgh.
("My friends thought I was nuts," he said.)
He went on the air in 1954 with one of the station's first programs, "The Children's Corner." Josie Carey was the host; an unseen Rogers did the puppets, including Daniel Striped Tiger, who was born as a party favor at the station's launch party.
He took a break from television in the early '60s to become an ordained Presbyterian minister and to get his master's degree in child development.
The day after he graduated in 1963, he got an offer to become host of a 15-minute children's show in Canada, which was dubbed "Misterogers." Three years later, he moved the show back to Pittsburgh because he and his wife, Joanne, wanted to raise their family there. (Married since 1952, Rogers and his wife have two sons and two grandsons.)
While television has changed over the years, Rogers' heartfelt approach to children's entertainment has remained much the same. Early in the run, he had an offer to move the show to a broadcast network. Talks were going well, until an executive asked him what kind of costume he was planning to wear.
"I said, 'I really think that our interview is over.'
"The greatest gift you can give anyone is your honest self. It's the only unique gift anyone can give. Whatever I did, I would have to be myself, because I believe that is what children respond to. It's a privilege to be trusted by children. And I don't take it lightly."
Yet in an age when so many other seemingly moral people have let us down, there's reluctance in some quarters to take Rogers at face value. Can he really be as good as he seems?
"That's a common question," says Chuck Aber, who has played Neighbor Aber since the early '80s. "He's exactly like what you see. People just can't believe he can be that genuine, but he is. You always hear of people being disappointed when they meet their idols. I don't think anyone would be with Fred."
