Five Reasons Why Fred Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever

Fred Rogers has to be one of the most beloved American TV personalities there can't be many people in America who aren't familiar with his gentle style and friendly tone the 2019 film a beautiful day in the neighborhood brought Mr Rogers Neighborhood to a new audience delivering his message of Hope and kindness the same year that brought us Walkin Phoenix's unhinged Joker and Tarantino's violent Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for those who don't know and those who do let's go over five reasons wh

y Fred Rogers was the best neighbor ever number one he got into TV to make it nicer the first time Fred Rogers saw a TV show it was something horrible with people throwing pies at one another Rogers recognized that TV had incredible potential as it connected directly with people Fred Rogers is quoted as saying I went into television because I hated it so and I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch it there is no denying that he ach

ieved this goal according to him the space between the television set and that person who is watching is very Holy Ground before studying child development at the University of Pittsburgh in the early 1960s he became friends with child psychologist Dr Margaret McFarland who would help him Infuse child development theory into scripts he taught social and emotional learning and strove to validate children's feelings and experiences overall he wanted to give children the tools to cope with emotions

good and bad and he saw television as the perfect platform to do this he understood that television had the potential to be more than a source of entertainment he felt that if he could reach people through this medium it wouldn't just make television better it might also make people's lives better Mr Rogers Neighborhood first aired in the late 1960s it was a time of change and people were becoming more open with their feelings instead of repressing emotions for respectability Rogers said confro

nting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always take strength not weakness this message was important during a time when people were for the first time witnessing images of the horrors of War on their television sets Rogers felt that television should not be a pass of Pastime but should be used as an interactive tool to help and shape individuals using lowtech production and simple sense Rogers veered away from the regular children's programming that focused on the wild west or

slapstick humor instead he placed the emphasis of the show on kindness understanding and education instead of a show that kid sat back and watched he wanted to present a television visit the show started with Mr Rogers taking off his formal jacket and putting on his sweater and sneakers he engaged directly with the audience looking into the camera and using a conversational style of talking Mr Rogers helped kids make sense of the world around them by covering a wide range of difficult topics he

said the world is not a kind place that's something all children learn for themselves whether we want them to or not but it's something they really need our help to understand in the following years many shows committed to a similar format including Sesame Street Reading Rainbow and the electric company number two he advocated tolerance and acceptance Mr Rogers was not one to shy away from important issues especially regarding human rights and the acceptance of others in many instances Rogers ch

allenged the status quo and opened up meaningful discussions on one episode in 1981 he invited a boy named Jeff erlinger onto his show Erlanger had paraplegia and Rogers questioned him about his wheelchair and condition with compassion and dignity allowing erlinger to challenge any stigma regarding his disability erlinger grew up to be a disability rights Advocate and in 1999 he had the opportunity to publicly address Rogers saying when you tell people that it's you I like you know that you real

ly mean it and tonight I want to let you know that on behalf of millions of children and grown-ups it's you that I like in relation to the Cold War Rogers demonstrated issues surrounding conflict and tackled heavy subjects such as the accumulation of weapons and what drives leaders to go to war he advises his viewers to look for the helpers you will always find people are helping words that still encourage people today allowing them to see the light in the darkest moments perhaps the most famous

way Mr Rogers encouraged inclusion and AC acceptance was by casting singer Francois Clemens as the neighborhood policeman officer Clemens Clemens was shocked when he learned that Rogers wanted him to play a police officer as his experience of the police force while growing up as an African-American in the inner city had soured his view of law enforcement Rogers convinced him to take the part by stating that it was important for children to see that there are kind and friendly officers he also p

romised Clemens would have many opportunities to sing on the show amid the Civil Rights Movement when segregation was still practiced in many areas Clemens was the first African-American to have a recurring role on a children's TV show Rogers knew that some public swimming pools still prohibited Caucasians and African-Americans from swimming together so in one episode he invited officer Clemens to join him in cooling his feet in a pool of water when they were done Rogers shared his towel with Cl

emens and they both dried their feet this simple act showed many of his young viewers that issues surrounding race were unfounded and born out of fear and hatred however Rogers knew some issues could not be tackled by a kids show in the 1960s and 1970s in a memoir by Francois Clemens he revealed that Rogers had told him that he would lose his role if he came out as gay according to Clemens Rogers confronted him about his sexuality saying someone has informed us that you were seen at thecal local

gay bar downtown now I want you to know Frank that if you're gay it doesn't matter to me at all whatever you say and do is fine with me but if you're going to be on the show as an important member of the neighborhood you can't be out as gay after this Revelation Clemens began to cry and asked Rogers if it meant the end of their friendship Rogers immediately hugged his friend reassuring him that their relationship would remain unchanged so Clemens stayed firmly in the closet and married a woman

to keep up the pretense in the years that followed and as people started to be more openly gay after the Stonewall riots of 1969 Rogers changed his mind and allowed Clemens to retain his role on Mr Rogers Neighborhood after he divorced his wife and came out as gay in 1974 Rogers welcomed clemens's gay friends who visited the set and urged him to get into a long-term same-sex relationship however he still would not allow any mention of it on the show and required Clemens to remove his earring whe

n appearing on the program despite all this Clemens never resented Rogers and understood that his sexuality would threaten the future of the show he later stated it was not a personal statement of how he felt about me it had to do with the economics of the show and I relied on the fact that this was his dream he had worked so hard for it I knew Mr rogers's neighborhood was his whole life although Rogers didn't tackle gay rights headon he did engage in subtle activism as a presbyterian Minister e

vangelicals would sometimes ask him to condemn homosexuality publicly Rogers would simply reply God loves everyone just the way they are Rogers displayed acceptance through actions not just words and his displays of unconditional acceptance won the hearts and minds of his viewers his kindness was so well known and infectious that when news outlets ran the story that his old Impala had been stolen the car was returned to the spot it was taken with a note reading if we had known it was yours we ne

ver would have taken it number three he saved public television and the VCR not only did Fred Rogers understand the value of Television but he also publicly fought for it in 1969 president Richard Nixon proposed cutting the funding for public television Mr Mr Rogers Neighborhood had just been syndicated nationally and upon hearing the news Rogers traveled to Washington DC to try and change their minds he appeared before Congress and gave a speech about the importance of public television and how

his show helped children navigate their emotions in a healthy way he argued that he was providing a service for mental health helping children understand that emotions are both mentionable and manageable when he started his speech he faced a group that had already decided to cut funding to public television by the end of his testimony Senator John pastor of Rhode Island admitted that he had goosebumps and remarked looks like you just earned that $20 million in the 1970s Rogers would be instrume

ntal in another case in 1975 the betamax video recorder was introduced to America this futuristic bit of Kit promised that it could time shift television programs so that they could be watched at a more convenient time while While most people were wowed at the thought of this incredible technology large Studios were less than impressed in 1976 Universal Studios and Walt Disney Productions filed a lawsuit to Halt the sale of the betamax claiming that producers would lose millions of dollars throu

gh unauthorized copying and distribution of their content the case outlasted the popularity of betamex and eventually went to the Supreme Court in 1983 when VCRs were in almost half of American homes the head of the Motion Picture Association Jack Valente argued the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as The Boston Strangler is to the woman Home Alone on the other side of the case Rogers testified with his usual calm dignity saying I have always felt that with the Advent

of all this new technology that allows people to tape the neighborhood off the air they then become more active in the programming of their family's television life I feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life in a healthy way is important the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the vcr's maker Sony and agreed with Rogers that it is a real service to families to be able to record children's programs and to show them at appropriate times number four h

e preferred the Personal Touch Fred Rogers as Mr Rogers was Inseparable from his show and just as his character reflected his real personality he Incorporated many aspects of his life into the show Rogers had received a degree in music in 1951 and composed all the songs on the show himself he knew he wanted to deliver great music so Rogers persuaded gifted jazz musician Johnny Costa to work with him telling him he wanted to give children the best Rogers wrote over 200 songs Penning The Melodies

and the lyrics but giving Costa the freedom to arrange the music in a more sophisticated ated way as well as putting himself into the show he included several family members by naming characters after them Queen Sarah was named after his wife and the postman was given the same name as his beloved maternal grandfather Mr mcy he also included friends calling a striped tiger puppet Daniel after Dorothy Daniel the station manager who had given Rogers a tiger puppet before the show premiered rogers's

Wife and Kids appeared on the show several times allowing the vi ERS to get a glimpse of his real life due to his honest approach to the production he made it clear that the house on the show was not his real house but probably the sweetest way he included his family was by wearing the sweaters that his mother knitted these sweaters became as iconic as the man himself and were a way for him to pay tribute to his mother Nancy Rogers and show viewers that people expressed love in many ways includ

ing spending the time to create homemade gifts number five he helped Michael Keaton get into Show Business after graduating from college one of Michael Keaton's first jobs was working for a Public Broadcasting Service in Pittsburgh where they filmed Mr Rogers Neighborhood he worked as a production assistant pitching in wherever he could Keaton's first time on screen was in early episodes of Mr Rogers Neighborhood where he played one of the flying Zucchini Brothers and he has quoted as saying I'm

pretty sure I dressed up as black and white Panda Katon clearly had a lot of respect for Mr Rogers saying Fred was a really nice man and had a really great sense of humor and he was one of the nicest authentically good people you've ever met after Rogers died in 2003 Katon hosted a PBS Memorial tribute and in 2018 he hosted a 50th Anniversary Special of the series called Mr Rogers it's you I like so without Mr Rogers we might have ended up with with Beetlejuice being played by Arnold schwarzene

ger or Pierce brzin as Batman if that doesn't make him a good neighbor I don't know what does how would you like to get a deeper understanding of History impress your friends and predict the future more accurately based on past events if this sounds like something you might be into then check out the brand new captivating history bookl by clicking the first link in the description to learn more about the history of America check out our book Fred Rogers a captivating guide To The Man Behind Mr R

ogers Neighborhood it's available as an ebook paperback and audiobook if you found the video captivating please hit the like button and subscribe for more videos like this