On Feb. 27, 2003, Fred Rogers, the beloved host and creator of his educational and Emmy award winning children's television show, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" (1968-2001), passed away unexpectedly at the age of 74.
Upon hearing the grim news, I asked myself what Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood taught me when I watched it back in the very early 70s growing up.
As a young kid, I always saw the show as another form of rather embarrassing entertainment that was more than a dozen notches below the mindless Saturday morning cartoons.
I never watched the long running Public Broadcasting series to learn anything. The same went for "Sesame Street" (1969) and "The Electric Company" (1971-1977). My enjoyment in watching "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" was seeing that remote controlled red trolley come out of its dark little tunnel to the tune of silly piano music. In every episode, the musical host in his red or blue sweater (one of which hangs in the Smithsonian Institution), would take us on a ride into the land of "make-believe." There, we'd meet such wooden puppets as King Friday, Lady Elaine Fairchild and some talking owl who lived in a tree.
Seeing episodes of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" last year in between watching the news and reruns of "Hawaii Five-O" (1968-1980) and "I Love Lucy" (1951-1957) at 6 a.m. Monday mornings, my reaction to the program was exactly the same as during my childhood days. I watched it for entertainment value. I was amused to see this tall, thin, impeccably dressed, rather nerdy looking fellow with the soft spoken, yet self-assuring voice, walk onto his set every morning always ready to share something new with his viewers from seashells to how a video cassette recorder (VCR) works.
I couldn't help but laugh at hearing the weird music every time Mr. McFeely eagerly dropped the mail off at Mr. Rogers' house. How many mailmen do you know are that excited to bring you the mail, much less stand and watch while you open up your letter or package?Then there were those moments where if the mood or tone of the show seemed to fit with a certain subject, Mr. Rogers would burst into song saying, "how special" each one of us is. It's the kind of stuff comedian Eddie Murphy joked about years later in his rendition of the PBS series on "Saturday Night Live" (1975-Present) called "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood," which Rogers reportedly found to be both "funny and affectionate" according to his obituary.
It was "make-believe" that a childhood friend of mine, Mark Depaulo, and I played whenever he came over.
Those two words ticked my dad off the most every time Mark and I got together. When it came to the world of "make-believe", Mark would start off saying "Let's pretend..." Just hearing the words "pretend" and "make-believe" was enough to send my dad off on a tirade telling us such words and phrases don't exist.
That's what the world of "make-believe" was all about on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" though. There was, however, much more to those wooden puppet shows, and it didn't hit me until after watching those few episodes that behind the world of "make-believe" was always some meaningful message the television host wanted to convey to the young ones.
I know for a fact all those times Mark and I "pretended" that not once did any of our little skits have any redeeming educational value. We didn't address such questions youngsters might have about assassinations, coping with the deaths of pets and loved ones, divorce, marriage and war in our stories. They were, however, topics Fred Rogers cleverly addressed in all his half-hour shows during its run from 1968 to 2000 (the last episode didn't air until August 2001).
I guess I could say it was Mr. Rogers who taught me how to dream up wild stories. Something that happened long before I was inspired to write my own outlandish epics after seeing science fiction reruns of "Lost in Space" (1965-1968), "Star Trek" (1966-1969), "Star Wars" (1977) and "Battlestar Galactica" (1978-1979). Looking back on the children's show today, it turns out Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood really is not as embarrassing a program as I might have thought.I am not at all ashamed to say I know the opening words of "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood." Or the song he often sang near the end of the program that started with the words, "It's such a good feeling, to know you're alive, it's such a happy feeling..."
For thirty plus years, it really was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
When he taped his final episode in 2000, Fred Rogers promised his viewers he would be back. In a way, it is almost as if he never left.
Now that he's gone, the neighborhood will never be the same.
©3/5/03
