Fred Rogers
{{Short description|American television host and author (1928–2003)}}
{{Redirect|Mister Rogers|the television series|Mister Rogers' Neighborhood{{!}}Mister Rogers' Neighborhood|the asteroid|26858 Misterrogers|other people with the surname|Rogers (surname)}}
{{Other people}}
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{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = The Reverend
| name = Fred Rogers
| image = Fred Rogers 1988.jpg
| caption = Rogers in 1988
| birth_name = Fred McFeely Rogers
| birth_date = {{birth date|1928|3|20}}
| birth_place = Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2003|2|27|1928|3|20}}
| death_place = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| resting_place = Unity Cemetery, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| other_names = Mister Rogers
| spouse = {{marriage|Joanne Byrd|June 9, 1952}}
| children = 2
| education = {{ubl|Dartmouth College|Rollins College (BM)|Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (BDiv)}}
| occupation = {{hlist|Children's television presenter|actor|puppeteer|singer|composer|television producer|author|educator|Presbyterian minister}}
| party =
| years_active = 1951–2003
| signature = FredRogersSignature.svg
| awards = Presidential Medal of Freedom (2002)
| module = {{Infobox designation list
| embed = yes
| designation1 = Pennsylvania Historical Marker
| designation1_offname = Fred McFeely Rogers (1928–2003)
| designation1_type = Roadside
| designation1_date = June 11, 2016}}
}}
Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), better known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Rogers earned a bachelor's degree in music from Rollins College in 1951. He began his television career at NBC in New York City, returning to Pittsburgh in 1953 to work for children's programming at NET (later PBS) television station WQED. He graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with a bachelor's degree in divinity in 1962 and became a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began his thirty-year collaboration with child psychologist Margaret McFarland. He also helped develop the children's shows The Children's Corner (1955) for WQED in Pittsburgh and Misterogers (1963) in Canada for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1968, he returned to Pittsburgh and adapted the format of his Canadian series to create Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It ran for 33 years and was critically acclaimed for focusing on children's emotional and physical concerns, such as death, sibling rivalry, school enrollment, and divorce.
Rogers died of stomach cancer in 2003, aged 74. His work in children's television has been widely lauded, and he received more than forty honorary degrees and several awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. Rogers influenced many writers and producers of children's television shows, and his broadcasts provided comfort during tragic events, even after his death.
Early life
Rogers was born in 1928, at 705 Main Street in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.{{cite web |last=Harpaz |first=Beth J. |title=Mister Rogers: 'Won't you be my neighbor?' fans can check out Fred Rogers Trail |website=Burlington Free Press |date=July 18, 2018 |url=https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/entertainment/2018/07/18/mister-rogers-fans-documentary-show-can-visit-fred-rogers-trail/795861002/ |agency=Associated Press| access-date=November 1, 2018}} His father, James Hillis Rogers, was "a very successful businessman"{{cite web |title=Early Life |website=Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning & Children's Media |url=http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/early-life/ |access-date=October 30, 2018 |archive-date=October 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015125316/https://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/early-life/ |url-status=live }} who was president of the McFeely Brick Company, one of Latrobe's most prominent businesses. His mother, Nancy (née McFeely), knitted sweaters for American soldiers from western Pennsylvania who were fighting in Europe and regularly volunteered at the Latrobe Hospital. Initially dreaming of becoming a doctor, she settled for a life of hospital volunteer work. Her father, Fred Brooks McFeely, after whom Rogers was named, was an entrepreneur.{{cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |date=February 28, 2003 |title=It's a Sad Day in This Neighborhood |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-feb-28-me-rogers28-story.html |access-date=October 30, 2018 |archive-date=September 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915102400/http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/28/local/me-rogers28 |url-status=live }}
Rogers grew up in a large three-story brick house at 737 Weldon Street in Latrobe.King (2018), p. 19. He had a sister, Elaine, whom the Rogerses adopted when he was eleven years old. Rogers spent much of his childhood alone, playing with puppets, and also spent time with his grandfather. He began playing the piano when he was five.{{cite news |url=http://www.wqed.org/mag/0403_remember3.shtml |title=Remembering Fred Rogers: A Life Well-Lived: A look back at Fred Rogers' life |last=DeFranceso |first=Joyce |date=April 2003 |work=Pittsburgh Magazine |access-date=January 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050103143529/http://www.wqed.org/mag/0403_remember3.shtml |archive-date=January 3, 2005}} Through an ancestor who emigrated from Germany to the U.S., Johannes Meffert (born 1732), Rogers is the sixth cousin of actor Tom Hanks, who portrays him in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019).{{Cite web |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/19/entertainment/tom-hanks-fred-rogers-related-trnd/index.html |title=Tom Hanks just found out he's related to Mister Rogers |last1=Capron |first1=Maddie |last2=Zdanowicz |first2=Christina |website=CNN |date=November 19, 2019 |access-date=November 20, 2019 |archive-date=October 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003201824/https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/19/entertainment/tom-hanks-fred-rogers-related-trnd/index.html |url-status=live }}
Rogers had a difficult childhood. Shy, introverted, and overweight, he was frequently homebound after suffering bouts of asthma. He was bullied as a child for his weight and called "Fat Freddy".{{cite web |url=https://ew.com/movies/2018/06/09/mister-rogers-relics-wont-you-be-my-neighbor/ |title=The relics of Mister Rogers: 7 emotional items from the new film Won't You Be My Neighbor? |last=Breznican |first=Anthony |date=June 9, 2018 |website=EW.com |access-date=October 20, 2018 |archive-date=August 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802212419/https://ew.com/movies/2018/06/09/mister-rogers-relics-wont-you-be-my-neighbor/ |url-status=live }} According to Morgan Neville, director of the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Rogers had a "lonely childhood{{nbsp}}... I think he made friends with himself as much as he could. He had a ventriloquist dummy, he had [stuffed] animals, and he would create his own worlds in his childhood bedroom".
File:Mr-rogers-hs-yearbook.jpg
Rogers attended Latrobe High School, where he overcame his shyness.{{cite book |last=Comm |first=Joseph A. |title=Legendary Locals of Latrobe |location=Charleston, South Carolina |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4671-0184-4 |page=52}} "It was tough for me at the beginning," Rogers told NPR's Terry Gross in 1984, "and then I made a couple friends who found out that the core of me was okay. And one of them was{{nbsp}}... the head of the football team".Gross (1984), event occurs at 4.27. Rogers became president of the student council, a member of the National Honor Society, and editor-in-chief of the school yearbook. He registered for the draft in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1948 at age 20, where he was classified 1-A (available for military service);[https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/celebrating-mr-rogers-at-the-national-archives Celebrating Mr. Rogers at the National Archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105163629/https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/celebrating-mr-rogers-at-the-national-archives |date=January 5, 2022 }} U.S. National Archives. Retrieved September 14, 2021. however, his status was changed to unqualified for military service following an Armed Forces physical on October 12, 1950. He attended Dartmouth College for one year before transferring to Rollins College, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music.{{cite news |title=Fred M. Rogers Receives Degree From Seminary |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52624931/fred-rogers-graduates-from-pittsburgh/ |access-date=June 2, 2020 |work=The Latrobe Bulletin |issue=121 |date=May 10, 1962 |volume=60 |archive-date=October 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201013213402/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52624931/fred-rogers-graduates-from-pittsburgh/ |url-status=live }}
He then attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1962 with a Bachelor of Divinity, and was ordained a Presbyterian minister by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church in 1963.{{cite web |date=1965 |title=Vol 1960–1965: Annual Catalogue of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary |url=https://archive.org/details/annualcatalogue196065pitt/page/n393/mode/2up |access-date=April 27, 2020 |website=Internet Archive |publisher=Pittsburgh Theological Seminary |page=394}}{{cite news |title=On Sunday: Fred M. Rogers To Be Ordained |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56740444/fred-rogers-ordained-a-minister/ |access-date=August 5, 2020 |work=The Latrobe Bulletin |volume=LXI |issue=145 |date=June 8, 1963 |archive-date=October 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201013213503/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56740444/fred-rogers-ordained-a-minister/ |url-status=live }} His work as an ordained minister, rather than to pastor a church, was to minister to children and their families through television. He regularly appeared before church officials to maintain his ordination.{{cite web |last=Burke |first=Daniel |title=Mr. Rogers was a televangelist to toddlers |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/23/entertainment/mister-rogers-faith-religion/index.html |date=November 23, 2019 |work=CNN.com |access-date=November 23, 2019 |archive-date=October 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003172935/https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/23/entertainment/mister-rogers-faith-religion/index.html |url-status=live }}
Career
=Early work=
Rogers wanted to enter seminary after college,{{Cite web |url=https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/fred-rogers?clip=48375 |title=Fred Rogers: On his college years |last=Herman |first=Karen |date=October 22, 2017 |website=Television Academy Interviews |publisher=Academy of Television Arts & Sciences |language=en |access-date=November 23, 2019 |archive-date=October 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201013213431/https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/fred-rogers?clip=48375 |url-status=live }} but instead chose to go into the nascent medium of television after experiencing TV at his parents' home in 1951, during his senior year at Rollins College.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/arts/television/mister-rogers-neighborhood-at-50.html |title='Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' at 50: 5 Memorable Moments |last=Deb |first=Sopan |date=March 5, 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=November 23, 2019 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=April 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402040003/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/arts/television/mister-rogers-neighborhood-at-50.html |url-status=live }} In a CNN interview, he said, "I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen".{{cite news |last=Schuster |first=Henry |title=Fred and me: An appreciation |url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/27/rogers.appreciation/ |access-date=January 21, 2019 |work=CNN.com |date=February 27, 2003 |archive-date=February 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224014346/http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/27/rogers.appreciation/ |url-status=live }}{{refn|group=note|According to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood producer Hedda Sharapan, Rogers used television to communicate his message;King, p. 266. David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on the Neighborhood, said, "Television was a vehicle for Fred, to reach children and families; it was sort of a necessary evil".King, p. 265.}} After graduating in 1951, he worked at NBC in New York City as floor director of Your Hit Parade, The Kate Smith Hour, and Gabby Hayes's children's show, and as an assistant producer of The Voice of Firestone.{{cite news |last=Hendrickson |first=Paul |title=In the Land of Make Believe, The Real Mister Rogers |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 18, 1982 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1982/11/18/in-the-land-of-make-believe-the-real-mister-rogers/7ca0e14f-5f91-48e0-932c-898e24970890/ |access-date=October 20, 2018 |archive-date=July 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709110442/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1982/11/18/in-the-land-of-make-believe-the-real-mister-rogers/7ca0e14f-5f91-48e0-932c-898e24970890/ |url-status=live }}Gross (1984), event occurs at 6.38.{{cite news |title=Highlights in the life and career of Fred Rogers |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030227timelinep5.asp |access-date=January 21, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=February 27, 2003 |archive-date=August 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804025550/http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030227timelinep5.asp |url-status=dead }}
File:Josie Carey, Fred Rogers, and Various Puppets.jpg
In 1953, Rogers returned to Pittsburgh to work as a program developer at public television station WQED. Josie Carey worked with him to develop the children's show The Children's Corner, which Carey hosted. Rogers worked off-camera to develop puppets, characters, and music for the show. He used many puppet characters developed during this time, such as Daniel the Striped Tiger (named after WQED's station manager, Dorothy Daniel, who gave Rogers a tiger puppet before the show's premiere),Tiech, p. 10. King Friday XIII, Queen Sara Saturday (named after Rogers' wife),{{cite web |title=Fred Rogers |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-people/fred-rogers/ |website=Pioneers of Television |publisher=PBS.org |access-date=January 22, 2019 |date=2014 |archive-date=January 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107035320/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-people/fred-rogers/ |url-status=live }} X the Owl, Henrietta, and Lady Elaine, in his later work.{{cite web |title=Early Years in Television |website=Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning & Children's Media |url=http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/mister-rogers-neighborhood/early-years-in-television/ |access-date=November 1, 2018 |archive-date=December 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214194452/https://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/mister-rogers-neighborhood/early-years-in-television/ |url-status=live }}Tiech, p. 9. Children's television entertainer Ernie Coombs was an assistant puppeteer. The Children's Corner won a Sylvania Award for best locally produced children's programming in 1955 and was broadcast nationally on NBC.{{cite web |title=Sunday on the Children's Corner, Revisited |website=Presbyterian Historical Society |date=February 15, 2018 |url=https://www.history.pcusa.org/blog/2018/02/sunday-childrens-corner-revisited |access-date=November 1, 2018 |archive-date=September 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919194336/https://www.history.pcusa.org/blog/2018/02/sunday-childrens-corner-revisited |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://uv201.com/TV_Pages/sylvania_award.htm |title=Sylvania Award |last=Schultz |first=Mike |publisher=uv201.com |access-date=January 22, 2019 |archive-date=November 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109191338/http://uv201.com/TV_Pages/sylvania_award.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Fred Rogers Biography |website=Fred Rogers Productions |date=2018 |url=https://www.fredrogers.org/fred-rogers/bio/ |access-date=November 1, 2018 |archive-date=July 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729173153/https://www.fredrogers.org/fred-rogers/bio/ |url-status=dead }} While working on the show, Rogers attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development,{{cite web |last=Flecker |first=Sally Ann |title=When Fred Met Margaret: Fred Rogers' Mentor |date=Winter 2014 |website=Pitt Med |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |url=https://www.pittmed.health.pitt.edu/story/when-fred-met-margaret |access-date=October 26, 2018 |archive-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730212846/https://www.pittmed.health.pitt.edu/story/when-fred-met-margaret |url-status=live }} where he began working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland—who, according to Rogers' biographer Maxwell King, became his "key advisor and collaborator" and "child-education guru".King, p. 126. Much of Rogers' "thinking about and appreciation for children was shaped and informed" by McFarland. She was his consultant for most of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood{{'}}s scripts and songs for 30 years.
In 1963, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto contracted Rogers to come to Toronto to develop and host the 15-minute black-and-white children's program Misterogers; it lasted from 1963 to 1967.{{cite book |last=Broughton |first=Irv |title=Producers on Producing: The Making of Film and Television |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-7864-1207-5 |page=51}}King (2018), p. 145. It was the first time Rogers appeared on camera. CBC's children's programming head Fred Rainsberry insisted on it, telling Rogers, "Fred, I've seen you talk with kids. Let's put you yourself on the air".{{cite web |last=Roberts |first=Soraya |title=The Fred Rogers We Know |date=June 26, 2018 |url=https://hazlitt.net/longreads/fred-rogers-we-know |work=Hazlitt Magazine |publisher=Penguin Random House |access-date=October 28, 2018 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105162500/https://hazlitt.net/longreads/fred-rogers-we-know |url-status=live }} Coombs joined Rogers in Toronto as an assistant puppeteer. Rogers also worked with Coombs on the children's show Butternut Square from 1964 to 1967. Rogers acquired the rights to Misterogers in 1967 and returned to Pittsburgh with his wife, two young sons, and the sets he developed, despite a potentially promising career with CBC and no job prospects in Pittsburgh.{{cite book |last=Matheson |first=Sue |chapter=Good Neighbors, Moral Philosophy and the Masculine Ideal|editor1-last=Merlock Jackson |editor1-first=Sandra |editor2-last=Emmanuel |editor2-first=Steven M. |title=Revisiting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Essays on Lessons about Self and Community |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Publishers |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-1-4766-2341-2 |page=25}}King, p. 150. On Rogers' recommendation, Coombs remained in Toronto and became Rogers' Canadian equivalent of an iconic television personality, creating the children's program Mr. Dressup, which ran from 1967 to 1996.{{Cite news |url=https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/television/how-mr-rogers-and-mr-dressups-road-trip-from-pittsburgh-to-toronto-changed-childrens-television-forever |title=How Mr. Rogers and Mr. Dressup's road trip from Pittsburgh to Toronto changed children's television forever |last=Gillmor |first=Don |date=July 11, 2018 |website=National Post |access-date=October 26, 2018}} Rogers' work for CBC "helped shape and develop the concept and style of his later program for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the U.S."{{cite web |title=Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Beyond |website=Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning & Children's Media |url=http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/mister-rogers-neighborhood/mister-rogers-neighborhood-and-beyond/ |access-date=October 28, 2018 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331095125/http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/mister-rogers-neighborhood/mister-rogers-neighborhood-and-beyond/ |url-status=live }}
=''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''=
{{Main|Mister Rogers' Neighborhood}}
File:François Clemmons and Fred Rogers Having Foot Bath.jpg having a foot bath in 1969, breaking a well-known color barrier{{cite news | url=https://www.biography.com/news/mister-rogers-officer-clemmons-pool | work=Biography | title=Fred Rogers Took a Stand Against Racial Inequality When He Invited a Black Character to Join Him in a Pool | date=May 24, 2019 | access-date=August 8, 2020 | archive-date=November 28, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128212147/https://www.biography.com/news/mister-rogers-officer-clemmons-pool | url-status=live }}]]
File:Fred Rogers Changing Shoes.jpg
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (also called the Neighborhood), a half-hour educational children's program starring Rogers, began airing nationally in 1968 and ran for 895 episodes.{{cite magazine |last=Bahr |first=Lindsey |title=Mister Rogers pic in development with 'Little Miss Sunshine' directors |url=https://ew.com/article/2013/09/27/mister-rogers-movie-development/ |access-date=March 21, 2019 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=September 27, 2013 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105163630/https://ew.com/article/2013/09/27/mister-rogers-movie-development/ |url-status=live }} It was videotaped at WQED in Pittsburgh and broadcast by National Educational Television (NET), which later became the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).{{cite news |title=Children's TV Host Fred Rogers Dies At 74 |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/remember-jan-june03-rogers_02-27 |access-date=March 21, 2019 |work=PBS NewsHour |date=February 27, 2003 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105162615/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/remember-jan-june03-rogers_02-27 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Burns |first=Asia Simone |title=Mister Rogers Is Coming Back To Your Neighborhood, On A Stamp |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/02/07/583970831/mister-rogers-will-appear-forever-on-a-stamp |access-date=March 21, 2019 |work=NPR.org |date=February 7, 2018 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105162431/https://www.npr.org/2018/02/07/583970831/mister-rogers-will-appear-forever-on-a-stamp |url-status=live }} Its first season had 180 black-and-white episodes. Each subsequent season, filmed in color and funded by PBS, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, and other charities, consisted of 65 episodes.King, p. 164.{{cite news |last=Estrada |first=Louie |title=Children's TV Icon Fred Rogers Dies at 74 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/02/28/childrens-tv-icon-fred-rogers-dies-at-74/8f5b9796-3588-42cf-aa84-45daec1f0583/ |access-date=March 31, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=February 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206060251/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/02/28/childrens-tv-icon-fred-rogers-dies-at-74/8f5b9796-3588-42cf-aa84-45daec1f0583/ |url-status=live }} By the time it ended production in December 2000, its average rating was about 0.7% of television households or 680,000 homes, and it aired on 384 PBS stations. At its peak in 1985–1986, its ratings were 2.1%, or 1.8 million homes.{{cite news |last=DeFranceso |first=Joyce |title=A Life Well-Lived |url=http://www.wqed.org/mag/0403_remember3.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050103143529/http://www.wqed.org/mag/0403_remember3.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 3, 2005 |access-date=March 22, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Magazine |date=April 2003}}{{cite news |last=Montgomery |first=David |title=For Mister Rogers, a Final Day in the Neighborhood |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/09/01/for-mister-rogers-a-final-day-in-the-neighborhood/6c6b6bdd-82f6-4a7e-92c0-af5493837953/ |access-date=March 22, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=September 1, 2001 |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029203142/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/09/01/for-mister-rogers-a-final-day-in-the-neighborhood/6c6b6bdd-82f6-4a7e-92c0-af5493837953/ |url-status=live }} The last original episode aired in 2001, but PBS continued to air reruns, and by 2016 it was the third-longest-running program in PBS history.{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Kathy Merlock |last2=Emmanuel |first2=Steven M |title=Revisiting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Essays on Lessons about Self and Community |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-1-4766-2341-2 |page=1 |chapter=Introduction}}
Many of the sets and props in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, like the trolley, the sneakers, and the castle, were created for Rogers' show in Toronto by CBC designers and producers. The program also "incorporated most of the highly imaginative elements that later became famous",King, p. 158. such as its slow pace and its host's quiet manner.King, p. 146. The format of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood "remained virtually unchanged" for the entire run of the program.{{cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Mark J. P. |title=The World of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge Publishers |location=New York |isbn=978-1-315-11008-0 |page=16}} Every episode begins with a camera's-eye view of a model of a neighborhood, then panning in closer to a representation of a house while a piano instrumental of the theme song, "Won't You be My Neighbor?", performed by music director Johnny Costa and inspired by a Beethoven sonata, is played.{{cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |title=From the Archives: It's a Sad Day in This Neighborhood |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-fred-rogers-20030228-story.html |access-date=April 25, 2019 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105163606/https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-fred-rogers-20030228-story.html |url-status=live }} The camera zooms in to a model representing Mr. Rogers' house, then cuts to the house's interior and pans across the room to the front door, which Rogers opens as he sings the theme song to greet his visitors while changing his suit jacket to a cardigan (knitted by his mother){{cite web |last=Jackson |first=Christine |title=The Importance of Sweaters and Sneakers in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood |url=https://www.rewire.org/pbs/sweaters-sneakers-rogers-neighborhood/ |website=Rewire.org |publisher=PBS |access-date=April 10, 2019 |date=March 20, 2017 |archive-date=February 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207163832/https://www.rewire.org/pbs/sweaters-sneakers-rogers-neighborhood/ |url-status=live }} and his dress shoes to sneakers, "complete with a shoe tossed from one hand to another".Wolfe, p. 11. The episode's theme is introduced, and Mr. Rogers leaves his home to visit another location, the camera panning back to the neighborhood model and zooming in to the new location as he enters it. Once this segment ends, Mr. Rogers leaves and returns to his home, indicating that it is time to visit the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Mr. Rogers proceeds to the window seat by the trolley track and sets up the action there as the Trolley comes out. The camera follows it down a tunnel in the back wall of the house as it enters the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The stories and lessons take place over a week's worth of episodes and involve puppets and human characters. The end of the visit occurs when the Trolley returns to the same tunnel from which it emerged, reappearing in Mr. Rogers' home. He then talks to the viewers before concluding the episode. He often feeds his fish, cleans up any props he has used, and returns to the front room, where he sings the closing song while changing back into his dress shoes and jacket. He exits the front door as he ends the song, and the camera zooms out of his home and pans across the neighborhood model as the episode ends.{{refn|group=note|See Wolfe, pp. 9–16, for a complete description of the structure of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.}}
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood emphasized young children's social and emotional needs, and unlike another PBS show, Sesame Street, which premiered in 1969, did not focus on cognitive learning.King, p. 145. Writer Kathy Merlock Jackson said, "While both shows target the same preschool audience and prepare children for kindergarten, Sesame Street concentrates on school-readiness skills while Mister Rogers Neighborhood focuses on the child's developing psyche and feelings and sense of moral and ethical reasoning".{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Kathy Merlock |editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Kathy Merlock |editor2-last=Emmanuel |editor2-first=Steven M. |title=Revisiting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Essays on Lessons about Self and Community |publisher=McFarland & Company, Publishers |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-1-4766-2341-2 |page=11 |chapter=Social Activism for the Small Set |date=February 17, 2016}} The Neighborhood also spent fewer resources on research than Sesame Street, but Rogers used early childhood education concepts taught by his mentor Margaret McFarland, Benjamin Spock, Erik Erikson, and T. Berry Brazelton in his lessons.King, p. 134. As The Washington Post noted, Rogers taught young children about civility, tolerance, sharing, and self-worth "in a reassuring tone and leisurely cadence".{{cite news |last=Estrada |first=Louie |title=Children's TV Icon Fred Rogers Dies at 74 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/02/28/childrens-tv-icon-fred-rogers-dies-at-74/8f5b9796-3588-42cf-aa84-45daec1f0583/ |access-date=April 10, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=February 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206060251/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/02/28/childrens-tv-icon-fred-rogers-dies-at-74/8f5b9796-3588-42cf-aa84-45daec1f0583/ |url-status=live }} He tackled difficult topics such as the death of a family pet, sibling rivalry, the addition of a newborn into a family, moving and enrolling in a new school, and divorce. For example, he wrote a special segment that dealt with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy that aired on June 7, 1968, two days after the assassination occurred.King, p. 192.
File:Fred Rogers and X the Owl Look Magazine photo 1969.png in 1969]]
According to King, the process of putting each episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood together was "painstaking"King, p. 184. and Rogers' contribution to the program was "astounding". Rogers wrote and edited all the episodes, played the piano and sang for most of the songs, wrote 200 songs and 13 operas, created all the characters (both puppet and human), played most of the significant puppet roles, hosted every episode, and produced and approved every detail of the program.King, p. 204. The puppets created for the Neighborhood of Make-Believe "included an extraordinary variety of personalities".King, p. 216. They were simple puppets but "complex, complicated, and utterly honest beings".King, p. 219. In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications, Inc. (FCI, now Fred Rogers Productions), to produce the Neighborhood, other programs, and non-broadcast materials.{{cite web |title=Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Beyond |url=http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/mister-rogers-neighborhood/mister-rogers-neighborhood-and-beyond/ |website=Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning & Children's Media |access-date=April 25, 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331095125/http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-us/about-fred/mister-rogers-neighborhood/mister-rogers-neighborhood-and-beyond/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Jefferson |first=Robin Seaton |title=Siefken Heads Up Fred Rogers Company, Keeping Mister Rogers' Message Relevant For Next Generation |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinseatonjefferson/2017/03/23/siefken-heads-up-the-fred-rogers-company-keeping-mister-rogers-message-relevant-for-next-generation/#7ef935881e9b |access-date=April 25, 2019 |work=Forbes |date=March 23, 2017 |archive-date=January 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107040858/https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinseatonjefferson/2017/03/23/siefken-heads-up-the-fred-rogers-company-keeping-mister-rogers-message-relevant-for-next-generation/#7ef935881e9b |url-status=live }}
In 1975, Rogers stopped producing Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood to focus on adult programming. Reruns of the Neighborhood continued to air on PBS.King, pp. 230–231. King reports that the decision caught many of his coworkers and supporters "off guard".King, p. 231. Rogers continued to confer with McFarland about child development and early childhood education, however.King, p. 240. In 1979, after an almost five-year hiatus, Rogers returned to producing the Neighborhood; King calls the new version "stronger and more sophisticated than ever".King, p. 243. King writes that by the program's second run in the 1980s, it was "such a cultural touchstone that it had inspired numerous parodies", most notably Eddie Murphy's parody on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s.
Rogers retired from producing the Neighborhood in 2001 at age 73, although reruns continued to air. He and FCI had been making about two or three weeks of new programs per year for many years, "filling the rest of his time slots from a library of about 300 shows made since 1979". The final original episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood aired on August 31, 2001.King, p. 338.
=Other work and appearances=
File:Fred Rogers testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, 1969.ogv, chaired by John Pastore, on May 1, 1969. As part of his testimony, he recites the lyrics to "What Do You Do with the Mad that You Feel?"]]
In 1969, Rogers testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, which was chaired by Democratic Senator John Pastore of Rhode Island. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson had proposed a $20 million bill for the creation of PBS before he left office, but his successor, Richard Nixon, wanted to cut the funding to $10 million.{{cite news |last=Frank |first=Steve |title=Mr. Rogers offers timeless defense of PBS funding…in 1969 |url=http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/mr |access-date=November 13, 2019 |work=MSNBC.com |date=September 6, 2013 |archive-date=November 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191113183811/http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/mr |url-status=live }} Even though Rogers was not yet nationally known, he was chosen to testify because of his ability to make persuasive arguments and to connect emotionally with his audience. The clip of Rogers' testimony, which was televised and has since been viewed by millions of people on the internet, helped to secure funding for PBS for many years afterward.King, pp. 170–171.King, p. 176. According to King, Rogers' testimony was "considered one of the most powerful pieces of testimony ever offered before Congress, and one of the most powerful pieces of video presentation ever filmed".King, p. 172. It brought Pastore to tears and also, according to King, has been studied by public relations experts and academics. Congressional funding for PBS increased from $9 million to $22 million. In 1970, Nixon appointed Rogers as chair of the White House Conference on Children and Youth.King, p. 175.
File:Fred Rogers and Willie Stargell.jpg in 1980]]
In 1978, while on hiatus from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted a 30-minute interview program for adults on PBS called Old Friends{{nbsp}}... New Friends.{{cite news |last=Neuhaus |first=Cable |title=Fred Rogers Moves into a New Neighborhood—and So Does His Rebellious Son |url=https://people.com/archive/fred-rogers-moves-into-a-new-neighborhood-and-so-does-his-rebellious-son-vol-9-no-19/ |access-date=May 25, 2019 |work=People |date=May 15, 1978 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105162501/https://people.com/archive/fred-rogers-moves-into-a-new-neighborhood-and-so-does-his-rebellious-son-vol-9-no-19/ |url-status=live }}King, p. 230. It lasted 20 episodes. Rogers' guests included Hoagy Carmichael, Helen Hayes, Milton Berle, Lorin Hollander, poet Robert Frost's daughter Lesley, and Willie Stargell.King, p. 233.
In September 1987, Rogers visited Moscow to appear as the first guest on the long-running Soviet children's TV show Good Night, Little Ones! with host Tatyana Vedeneyeva.{{cite news |last=Mesce |first=Deborah |title=Beautiful Day For Mr. Rogers And Soviet Counterpart |url=https://apnews.com/2fd550e6546cf0745419821966f207f2 |access-date=June 10, 2020 |work=Associated Press |date=November 20, 1987 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105163828/https://apnews.com/2fd550e6546cf0745419821966f207f2 |url-status=live }} The appearance was broadcast in the Soviet Union on December 7, coinciding with the Washington Summit meeting between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C.{{cite news |last=Ogintz |first=Eileen |title=Neighborhood Hero |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-03-06-8804050228-story.html |access-date=May 25, 2019 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=March 6, 1988 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105162501/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-03-06-8804050228-story.html |url-status=live }} Vedeneyeva visited the set of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in November. Her visit was taped and later aired in March 1988 as part of Rogers' program.{{cite news |last=Brennan |first=Patricia |title='Neighborhood' Detente |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1988/03/06/neighborhood-detente/7d383212-b74d-4d0b-bc38-2dee4689ea11/ |access-date=June 10, 2020 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=March 6, 1988 |archive-date=June 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611003138/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1988/03/06/neighborhood-detente/7d383212-b74d-4d0b-bc38-2dee4689ea11/ |url-status=live }} In 1994, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted a special for PBS called Fred Rogers' Heroes, which featured interviews and portraits of four people from across the country who were having a positive impact on children and education.King, p. 232.{{cite news |last=Williams |first=Scott |title='Mr. Rogers' Heroes' Looks at Who's Helping America's Children |url=https://apnews.com/97b26c623a7b246ce802492b7be046dd |access-date=May 25, 2019 |work=AP News |agency=Associated Press |date=September 2, 1994 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105163807/https://apnews.com/97b26c623a7b246ce802492b7be046dd |url-status=live }} The first time Rogers appeared on television as an actor, and not himself, was in a 1996 episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, playing a preacher.
Rogers gave "scores of interviews".King, p. 326. Though reluctant to appear on television talk shows, he would usually "charm the host with his quick wit and ability to ad-lib on a moment's notice".King (2018), p. 308. Rogers was "one of the country's most sought-after commencement speakers", making over 150 speeches. His friend and colleague David Newell reported that Rogers would "agonize over a speech",King (2018), p. 326. and King reported that Rogers was at his least guarded during his speeches, which were about children, television, education, his view of the world, how to make the world a better place, and his quest for self-knowledge. His tone was quiet and informal but "commanded attention". In many speeches, including the ones he made accepting a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997, for his induction into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999, and his final commencement speech at Dartmouth College in 2002, he instructed his audiences to remain silent and think for a moment about someone who had a good influence on them.{{cite web |title=About Fred Rogers |url=https://www.misterrogers.org/about-fred-rogers/ |website=Mister Rogers.org |publisher=The Fred Rogers Company |access-date=July 30, 2019 |archive-date=January 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105162448/https://www.misterrogers.org/about-fred-rogers/ |url-status=live }}
Personal life
File:Fred and Joanne Rogers Sitting at Piano.jpg, 1975.]]
Rogers met Sara Joanne Byrd (called "Joanne") from Jacksonville, Florida, while attending Rollins College. They were married from 1952 until he died in 2003. They had two sons, James and John.{{cite news |last=Dawn |first=Randee |title=Fred Rogers' widow reveals the way he proposed marriage—and it's so sweet |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/fred-rogers-widow-reveals-way-he-proposed-marriage-it-s-t130799 |access-date=July 25, 2019 |work=Today.com |date=June 12, 2018 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106131317/https://www.today.com/popculture/fred-rogers-widow-reveals-way-he-proposed-marriage-it-s-t130799 |url-status=live }}King (2018), p. 54. Joanne was an accomplished pianist,{{cite web |last=Schlageter |first=Bill |title=Children's Museum of Pittsburgh to honor Joanne Rogers with its 2016 Great Friend of Children Award |url=https://pittsburghkids.org/pages/children-s-museum-of-pittsburgh-to-honor-joanne-rogers-with-its-2016-great-friend-of-children-award |publisher=Children's Museum of Pittsburgh |access-date=July 25, 2019 |date=February 3, 2016 |archive-date=September 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925100313/https://pittsburghkids.org/pages/children-s-museum-of-pittsburgh-to-honor-joanne-rogers-with-its-2016-great-friend-of-children-award |url-status=live }} who, like Fred, earned a Bachelor of Music from Rollins, and went on to earn a Master of Music from Florida State University. She performed publicly with her college classmate, Jeannine Morrison, from 1976 to 2008.{{cite news |last=Owen |first=Rob |title=Music plays key role in Mrs. Rogers' relationship with husband Fred |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20020409rogers0409fnp3.asp |access-date=July 25, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=April 9, 2002 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134429/http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20020409rogers0409fnp3.asp |url-status=dead }} According to biographer Maxwell King, Rogers' close associates said he was "absolutely faithful to his marriage vows".King (2018), p. 208.{{cite news |url=https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/01/14/joanne-rogers-mister-fred-rogers-widow-dies-obituary/ |title=Joanne Rogers, Widow Of Fred Rogers, Dies At Age 92 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114221912/https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/01/14/joanne-rogers-mister-fred-rogers-widow-dies-obituary/ |work=KDKA-TV |url-status=live |date=January 14, 2021 |archive-date=January 14, 2021 |access-date=January 14, 2021}}
Rogers was red-green color-blind.King (2018), p. 87. He became a pescatarian in 1970, after the death of his father, and a vegetarian in the early 1980s,{{cite AV media | people=Rick Sebak (host/producer)| date=October 19, 1987| title=My Interview with Fred| medium = video clip| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvDUUqcUP3Y| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211029/BvDUUqcUP3Y| archive-date=October 29, 2021| access-date=December 7, 2019| publisher=WQED |via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}} saying he "couldn't eat anything that had a mother".King (2018), p. 9. He became a co-owner of Vegetarian Times in the mid-1980s and said in one issue, "I love tofu burgers and beets".{{Cite magazine |last=Obis |first=Paul |date=November 1983 |title=Fred Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQgAAAAAMBAJ&q=god&pg=PA26 |magazine=Vegetarian Times |page=26 |access-date=July 25, 2019}} He told Vegetarian Times that he became a vegetarian for both ethical and health reasons. According to his biographer Maxwell King, Rogers also signed his name to a statement protesting wearing animal furs.
Rogers was a registered Republican, but according to Joanne Rogers, he was "very independent in the way he voted", choosing not to talk about politics because he wanted to be impartial.{{cite news |last=Kaufman |first=Amy |title=How befriending Mister Rogers' widow allowed me to learn the true meaning of his legacy |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-11-26/mister-rogers-widow-legacy-a-beautiful-day-in-the-neighborhood |access-date=November 27, 2019 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=November 26, 2019 |archive-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121160912/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-11-26/mister-rogers-widow-legacy-a-beautiful-day-in-the-neighborhood |url-status=live }}
Rogers was a Presbyterian, and many of the messages he expressed in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood were inspired by the core tenets of Christianity. Rogers rarely spoke about his faith on air; he believed that teaching through example was as powerful as preaching. He said, "You don't need to speak overtly about religion in order to get a message across". According to writer Shea Tuttle, Rogers considered his faith a fundamental part of his personality and "called the space between the viewer and the television set 'holy ground'". He also studied Catholic mysticism, Judaism, Buddhism, and other faiths and cultures.King (2018), p. 313. King called him "that unique television star with a real spiritual life", emphasizing the values of patience, reflection, and "silence in a noisy world".
King reported that despite Rogers' family's wealth, he cared little about making money, and lived frugally, especially as he and his wife grew older.King (2018), p. 10.King (2018), p. 336. King reported that Rogers' relationship with his young audience was important to him. For example, since hosting Misterogers in Canada, he answered every letter sent to him by hand. After Mister Rogers' Neighborhood began airing in the U.S., the letters increased in volume, and he hired staff member and producer Hedda Sharapan to answer them, but he read, edited, and signed each one. King wrote that Rogers saw responding to his viewers' letters as "a pastoral duty of sorts".King (2018), p. 328.
The New York Times called Rogers "a dedicated lap-swimmer",{{cite news |last=Lewis |first=Daniel |title=Mister Rogers, TV's Friend For Children, Is Dead at 74 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/28/arts/mister-rogers-tv-s-friend-for-children-is-dead-at-74.html |page=A00001 |access-date=July 29, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106131313/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/28/arts/mister-rogers-tv-s-friend-for-children-is-dead-at-74.html |url-status=live }} and Tom Junod, author of "Can You Say{{nbsp}}... Hero?", the 1998 Esquire profile of Rogers, said, "Nearly every morning of his life, Mister Rogers has gone swimming".{{cite magazine |last=Junod |first=Tom |title=Can You Say…Hero? |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a27134/can-you-say-hero-esq1198/ |access-date=July 29, 2019 |magazine=Esquire |date=November 1998 |archive-date=February 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200211033745/https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a27134/can-you-say-hero-esq1198/ |url-status=live }} Rogers began swimming when he was a child at his family's vacation home outside Latrobe, where they owned a pool, and during their winter trips to Florida. King wrote that swimming and playing the piano were "lifelong passions" and that "both gave him a chance to feel capable and in charge of his destiny",King (2018), p. 318. and that swimming became "an important part of the strong sense of self-discipline he cultivated". Rogers swam daily at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, after waking every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 A.M. to pray and to "read the Bible and prepare himself for the day".King (2018), p. 317. He did not smoke or drink. According to Junod, he did nothing to change his weight from the {{convert|143|lb|kg}} he weighed for most of his adult life; by 1998, this also included napping daily, going to bed at 9:30 P.M., and sleeping eight hours per night without interruption. Junod said Rogers saw his weight "as a destiny fulfilled", telling Junod, "the number 143 means 'I love you.' It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you'".
= Sexuality =
According to biographer Michael Long in a 2014 HuffPost essay, Rogers' sexuality had long been a topic of curiosity due to his lack of traditional machismo.{{Cite web |last=Ross |first=Martha |date=2019-03-07 |title=Fred Rogers celebrated as 'bisexual icon' after his comments on sexual attraction resurface |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/07/fred-rogers-celebrated-as-bisexual-icon-after-his-comments-on-sexual-attraction-resurface/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404025316/https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/07/fred-rogers-celebrated-as-bisexual-icon-after-his-comments-on-sexual-attraction-resurface/ |archive-date=2019-04-04 |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=The Mercury News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Long |first=Michael |date=2014-10-22 |title='Wasn't He Gay?': A Revealing Question About Mister Rogers |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wasnt-he-gay-a-revealing-_b_6014538 |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=HuffPost |language=en}} The 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? briefly addresses the subject, including an interview with François Clemmons, the gay actor who played Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, who stated that as far as he knew, Rogers was not gay, saying that if he had a "gay vibe," Clemmons would have noticed it.
However, in the 2018 biography The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, Rogers recounts telling openly gay friend Dr. William Hirsch that he "must be right smack in the middle" of a one-to-ten sexuality scale, because "I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive."{{Cite web |last=Street |first=Mikelle |date=2019-03-06 |title=Mr. Rogers Was Apparently Queer, Says 2015 Book |url=https://www.out.com/television/2019/3/06/mr-rogers-has-found-men-and-women-attractive |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=Out |language=en}} This led many social media users to identify Rogers as bisexual.
In his 2014 essay, Long noted that there is "no publicly available evidence" that Rogers ever had sexual relations with men. Rogers was reportedly "absolutely faithful" to Joanne Byrd, to whom he was married nearly his whole adult life.
Death and memorials
After Rogers' retirement in 2001, he remained busy working with FCI, studying religion and spirituality, making public appearances, traveling, and working on a children's media center named after him at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe with Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, chancellor of the college.King, pp. 338, 344. By the summer of 2002, his chronic stomach pain became severe enough for him to see a doctor about it, and in October 2002, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer.King, pp. 343–344. He delayed treatment until after he served as Grand Marshal of the 2003 Rose Parade, with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby, in January.King, p. 344. On January 6, Rogers underwent stomach surgery. He died less than two months later, on February 27, 2003, less than a month short of his 75th birthday{{cite news |last=De Vinck |first=Christopher |title=My friend, Mr. Rogers |url=https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2013/02/24/My-friend-Mr-Rogers/stories/201302240297 |access-date=July 5, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=February 24, 2013 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106131317/https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2013/02/24/My-friend-Mr-Rogers/stories/201302240297 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Owen |first1=Rob |last2=Vancheri |first2=Barbara |title=Fred Rogers dies at 74 |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030228rogersae1p1.asp |access-date=July 5, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134512/http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030228rogersae1p1.asp |url-status=dead }} at his home in Pittsburgh, with his wife of 50 years, Joanne, at his side. While comatose shortly before his death, he received the last rites of the Catholic Church from Archabbot Nowicki.King, p. 348.
The following day, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covered Rogers' death on the front page and dedicated an entire section to his death and impact. The newspaper also reported that by noon, the internet "was already full of appreciative pieces" by parents, viewers, producers, and writers.{{cite news |last=Kalson |first=Sally |title=Lasting connection his legacy: Children felt Mister Rogers was talking just to them |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030228frconnectfnp6.asp |access-date=July 5, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=February 28, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134441/http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030228frconnectfnp6.asp |url-status=dead }} Rogers' death was widely lamented. Most U.S. metropolitan newspapers ran his obituary on their front page and some dedicated entire sections to coverage of his death. WQED aired programs about Rogers the evening he died; the Post-Gazette reported that the ratings for their coverage were three times higher than their normal ratings. That same evening, Nightline on ABC broadcast a rerun of a recent interview with Rogers; the program got the highest ratings of the day, beating the February average ratings of Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.{{cite news |last=Simonich |first=Milan |title=Rogers' death gets front-page headlines |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030302fredcoverage6.asp |access-date=July 6, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=March 2, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134542/http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030302fredcoverage6.asp |url-status=dead }} On March 4, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution honoring Rogers sponsored by Representative Mike Doyle from Pennsylvania.{{cite news |last=McFeatters |first=Ann |title=It's a beautiful day in the U.S. House as Congress honors Fred Rogers |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030305rogers0305p4.asp |access-date=July 6, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=March 5, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134426/http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030305rogers0305p4.asp |url-status=dead }}
On March 1, 2003, a private funeral was held for Rogers in Unity Chapel, which was restored by Rogers' father, at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe. About 80 relatives, co-workers, and close friends attended the service, which "was planned in great secrecy so that those closest to him could grieve in private".{{cite news |last=Rodgers-Melnick |first=Ann |title=Friends, relatives mourn death of Mr. Rogers |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030302rogers7.asp |access-date=July 6, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=March 2, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134602/http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030302rogers7.asp |url-status=dead }} Reverend John McCall, pastor of the Rogers family's church, Sixth Presbyterian Church in Squirrel Hill, gave the homily; Reverend William Barker, a retired Presbyterian minister who was a "close friend of Mr. Rogers and the voice of Mr. Platypus on his show", read Rogers' favorite Bible passages. Rogers was interred at Unity Cemetery in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in a mausoleum owned by his mother's family.
On May 3, 2003, a public memorial was held at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. According to the Post-Gazette, 2,700 people attended. Violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma (via video), and organist Alan Morrison performed in honor of Rogers. Barker officiated the service; also in attendance were Pittsburgh philanthropist Elsie Hillman, former Good Morning America host David Hartman, The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle, and Arthur creator Marc Brown. Businesswoman and philanthropist Teresa Heinz, PBS President Pat Mitchell, and executive director of The Pittsburgh Project Saleem Ghubril gave remarks.{{cite news |last1=Vancheri |first1=Barbara |last2=Owen |first2=Rob |title=Pittsburgh bids farewell to Fred Rogers with moving public tribute |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030504rogers0504p1.asp |access-date=July 6, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=May 4, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134558/http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030504rogers0504p1.asp |url-status=dead }} Jeff Erlanger, who at age 10 appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1981 to explain his electric wheelchair, also spoke.{{cite news |last=Vancheri |first=Barbara |title=Memorable guest: It's you, Fred, that I like |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030504erlanger0504p3.asp |access-date=July 6, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=May 4, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134638/http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030504erlanger0504p3.asp |url-status=dead }} The memorial was broadcast several times on Pittsburgh television stations and websites throughout the day.{{cite news |last=Owen |first=Rob |title=Appreciation: Mister Rogers will always be part of our neighborhood |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/tv/20030503rogers0503fnp4.asp |access-date=July 6, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=May 3, 2003 |archive-date=January 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106134416/http://old.post-gazette.com/tv/20030503rogers0503fnp4.asp |url-status=dead }}
Legacy
{{quote box
| width = 30em
| quote = When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster", I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in this world.
—Fred Rogers{{cite magazine |last=Rothman |first=Lily |title=The Backstory: The Moving Mr. Rogers Clip Everyone Is Talking About |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/16/the-backstory-the-moving-mr-rogers-clip-everyone-is-talking-about/ |access-date=November 11, 2019 |magazine=Time |date=April 16, 2013 |archive-date=April 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416233956/https://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/16/the-backstory-the-moving-mr-rogers-clip-everyone-is-talking-about/ |url-status=live }}
{{break}}Whenever a great tragedy strikes—war, famine, mass shootings, or even an outbreak of populist rage—millions of people turn to Fred's messages about life. Then the web is filled with his words and images. With fascinating frequency, his written messages and video clips surge across the internet, reaching hundreds of thousands of people who, confronted with a tough issue or ominous development, open themselves to Rogers' messages of quiet contemplation, of simplicity, of active listening and the practice of human kindness.
—Rogers biographer Maxwell KingKing, p. 357.
}}
Marc Brown, creator of another PBS children's show, Arthur, considered Rogers both a friend and "a terrific role model for how to use television and the media to be helpful to kids and families".{{cite news |last=Juul |first=Matt |title=Creator Marc Brown on Mr. Rogers, Memes, and 20 Years of Arthur |url=https://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2016/10/07/marc-brown-20-years-arthur/ |access-date=June 5, 2019 |work=Boston Magazine |date=October 10, 2016 |archive-date=March 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310162456/https://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2016/10/07/marc-brown-20-years-arthur/ |url-status=live }} Josh Selig, creator of Wonder Pets, credits Rogers with influencing his use of structure and predictability, and his use of music, opera, and originality.King, pp. 353–354.
Rogers inspired Angela Santomero, co-creator of the children's television show Blue's Clues, to earn a degree in developmental psychology and go into educational television. She and the other producers of Blue's Clues used many of Rogers' techniques, such as using child developmental and educational research and having the host speak directly to the camera and transition to a make-believe world.King, p. 353. In 2006, three years after Rogers' death and the end of production of Blue's Clues, the Fred Rogers Company contacted Santomero to create a show that would promote Rogers' legacy.{{cite news |last=Santomero |first=Angela C. |date=September 21, 2012 |title=Mister Rogers Changed My Life |work=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/mister-rogers-changed-my-life |access-date=June 6, 2023 |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408141716/https://archive.nytimes.com/parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/mister-rogers-changed-my-life/ |url-status=live }} In 2012, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, with characters from and based upon Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, premiered on PBS.{{cite news |last=Owen |first=Rob |date=September 2, 2013 |title=A 'very Fred-ish' birthday for 'Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood' |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/tv-radio/2013/09/02/A-very-Fred-ish-birthday-for-Daniel-Tiger-s-Neighborhood/stories/201309020110 |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |access-date=June 14, 2019 |archive-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121155113/https://www.post-gazette.com/tv-radio/2013/09/02/A-very-Fred-ish-birthday-for-Daniel-Tiger-s-Neighborhood/stories/201309020110 |url-status=live }}
Rogers' style and approach to children's television and early childhood education also "begged to be parodied".{{cite web |title=Pioneers of Television: Fred Rogers |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-people/fred-rogers/ |website=PBS.org |access-date=June 14, 2019 |date=2014 |archive-date=January 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107035320/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-people/fred-rogers/ |url-status=live }} Comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on Saturday Night Live during the 1980s. Rogers told interviewer David Letterman in 1982 that he believed parodies like Murphy's were done "with kindness in their hearts".King, p. 267.
Video of Rogers' 1969 testimony in defense of public programming has experienced a resurgence since 2012, going viral at least twice. It first resurfaced after then presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested cutting funding for PBS.{{Cite web |url=https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/tv-radio/2017/03/17/Mister-Rogers-testimony-Trump-budget-cuts-Pittsburgh-PBS-kids-shows/stories/201703180040 |title=Fred Rogers re-emerges as champion for PBS |last=Eberson |first=Sharon |date=March 17, 2019 |website=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |language=en |access-date=November 14, 2019 |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308154742/https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/tv-radio/2017/03/17/Mister-Rogers-testimony-Trump-budget-cuts-Pittsburgh-PBS-kids-shows/stories/201703180040 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=https://slate.com/culture/2012/10/mister-rogers-senate-testimony-defending-pbs-watch-video.html |title=Watch Mister Rogers Defend PBS In Front of the U.S. Senate |last=Harris |first=Aisha |date=October 5, 2012 |website=Slate Magazine |language=en |access-date=November 14, 2019 |archive-date=August 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810185951/https://slate.com/culture/2012/10/mister-rogers-senate-testimony-defending-pbs-watch-video.html |url-status=live }} In 2017, video of the testimony again went viral after President Donald Trump proposed defunding several arts-related government programs including PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.{{Cite web |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mr-rogers-pbs-budget-cuts_n_58ca8d6fe4b0be71dcf1d440 |title=The Best Argument For Saving Public Media Was Made By Mr. Rogers In 1969 |last=Strachan |first=Maxwell |date=March 16, 2017 |website=HuffPost |language=en |access-date=November 14, 2019 |archive-date=February 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211215819/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mr-rogers-pbs-budget-cuts_n_58ca8d6fe4b0be71dcf1d440 |url-status=live }}
A roadside Pennsylvania Historical Marker dedicated to Rogers to be installed in Latrobe was approved{{cite web |title=Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Approves 21 New State Historical Markers |url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pennsylvania-historical-and-museum-commission-approves-21-new-state-historical-markers-248424551.html |website=PR Newswire |publisher=PR Newswire Association LLC |access-date=June 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602050755/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pennsylvania-historical-and-museum-commission-approves-21-new-state-historical-markers-248424551.html |archive-date=June 2, 2020 |date=March 4, 2014 |url-status=live}} by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission on March 4, 2014.{{cite web |title=State Marker in Latrobe to Honor Mr. Rogers |url=https://www.fredrogerscenter.org/2014/03/state-marker-in-latrobe-to-honor-mr-rogers/ |website=Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media at Saint Vincent College |publisher=Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media |access-date=June 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602045514/https://www.fredrogerscenter.org/2014/03/state-marker-in-latrobe-to-honor-mr-rogers/ |archive-date=June 2, 2020 |date=March 5, 2014 |url-status=live}} It was installed on June 11, 2016, with the title "Fred McFeely Rogers (1928–2003)".{{cite web |title=Pennsylvania Historical Marker Search |url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/apps/historical-markers.html |website=Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission |access-date=June 2, 2020 |archive-date=March 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329102807/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/apps/historical-markers.html |url-status=live }}
Won't You Be My Neighbor? director Morgan Neville's 2018 documentary about Rogers' life, grossed over $22 million and became the top-grossing biographical documentary ever produced, the highest-grossing documentary in five years, and the twelfth-largest-grossing documentary ever made.{{cite news |last=McNary |first=Dave |title='Won't You Be My Neighbor', 'RBG' Nab Producers Guild Documentary Nominations |url=https://variety.com/2018/film/news/producers-guild-documentary-nominations-2019-1203033482/ |access-date=August 18, 2019 |work=Variety |date=November 20, 2019 |archive-date=November 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122092109/https://variety.com/2018/film/news/producers-guild-documentary-nominations-2019-1203033482/ |url-status=live }} The 2019 drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood tells the story of Rogers and his television series, with Tom Hanks portraying Rogers.
According to Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post, Rogers became a source for parenting advice; she called him "a timeless oracle against a backdrop of ever-shifting parenting philosophies and cultural trends".{{cite news |last=Gibson |first=Caitlin |title=How Mister Rogers became a timeless oracle of parenting wisdom |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/how-mister-rogers-became-a-timeless-oracle-of-parenting-wisdom/2019/08/10/810f79dc-b488-11e9-951e-de024209545d_story.html?wpisrc=nl_optimist&wpmm=1 |access-date=August 18, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 12, 2019 |archive-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190818180117/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/how-mister-rogers-became-a-timeless-oracle-of-parenting-wisdom/2019/08/10/810f79dc-b488-11e9-951e-de024209545d_story.html%3Fwpisrc%3Dnl_optimist%26wpmm%3D1 |url-status=live }} Robert Thompson of Syracuse University noted that Rogers "took American childhood—and I think Americans in general—through some very turbulent and trying times", from the Vietnam War and the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 to the 9/11 attacks in 2001. According to Asia Simone Burns of National Public Radio, in the years following the end of production on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 2001 and his death in 2003, Rogers became "a source of comfort, sometimes in the wake of tragedy".{{cite news |last=Burns |first=Asia Simone |title=Mister Rogers Still Lives In Your Neighborhood |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/02/18/584669284/mister-rogers-still-lives-in-your-neighborhood |access-date=June 14, 2019 |work=NPR.org |date=February 18, 2018 |archive-date=January 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120212019/https://www.npr.org/2018/02/18/584669284/mister-rogers-still-lives-in-your-neighborhood |url-status=live }} Burns has said Rogers' words of comfort "began circulating on social media" following tragedies such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, the Manchester Arena bombing in Manchester, England, in 2017, and the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
=Awards and honors=
File:President George W. Bush Presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award to Fred Rogers.jpg by President George W. Bush in the East Room of the White House on July 9, 2002]]
==Museum exhibits==
File:Fred Rogers sweater.jpg's Museum of American History. Fred Rogers' mother, Nancy Rogers, knitted all the sweaters he wore on the program.]]
- Smithsonian Institution permanent collection. In 1984, Rogers donated one of his sweaters to the Smithsonian.{{cite web |title=Mister Rogers' Sweater |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_680637 |publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of American History |access-date=July 21, 2019}}
- Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Exhibit created by Rogers and FCI in 1998. It attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors over ten years. It included, from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, one of his sweaters, a pair of his sneakers, original puppets from the program, and photographs of Rogers. The exhibit traveled to children's museums throughout the country for eight years until it was given to the Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans as a permanent exhibit to help them recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2007, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh created a traveling exhibit based on the factory tours featured in episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.{{cite news |last=Lorando |first=Mark |title=Mister Rogers to open a New Orleans neighborhood |url=https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/article_d7e9f16a-e900-54ea-a154-d1c18d91d78e.html |access-date=July 24, 2019 |work=The Times-Picayune |date=June 19, 2017 |location=New Orleans, Louisiana}}{{cite news |title=Kids explore exhibit featuring Mister Rogers |url=https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Kids-explore-exhibit-featuring-Mister-Rogers-490671631.html |access-date=July 24, 2019 |work=WCAX.com |date=August 12, 2018 |archive-date=July 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724034156/https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Kids-explore-exhibit-featuring-Mister-Rogers-490671631.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Hamill |first=Sean D. |title=It's Still a Beautiful Day in His Neighborhood |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/us/17pittsburgh.html |access-date=July 24, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=March 16, 2010 |archive-date=July 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724204208/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/us/17pittsburgh.html |url-status=live }}
- Heinz History Center permanent collection (2018). In honor of the 50th anniversary of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and what would have been Rogers' 90th birthday.{{cite news |last=McMarlin |first=Shirley |title=New Mister Rogers 50th anniversary display opens March 20 at Heinz History Center |url=https://archive.triblive.com/aande/museums/new-mister-rogers-50th-anniversary-display-opens-march-20-at-heinz-history-center/ |access-date=July 23, 2019 |work=Trib Total Media |date=March 19, 2018 |archive-date=July 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724034159/https://archive.triblive.com/aande/museums/new-mister-rogers-50th-anniversary-display-opens-march-20-at-heinz-history-center/ |url-status=live }} Exhibits include the iconic King Friday's blue castle, the Owl's tree and a tricycle ridden by courier Mr. McFeely.{{cite web | url=https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/visit/heinz-history-center | title=Heinz History Center | access-date=November 25, 2022 | archive-date=November 25, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125214012/https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/visit/heinz-history-center/ | url-status=live }}
- Louisiana Children's Museum. The museum contains an exhibit of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which debuted in 2007. The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh donated the exhibit.
- Fred Rogers Exhibit. The Exhibit displays the life, career, and legacy of Rogers and includes photos, artifacts from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and clips of the program and interviews featuring Rogers. It is located at the Fred Rogers Center.{{cite web |title=Visit the Exhibit |url=https://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-the-center/visit-the-exhibit |website=Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media |access-date=May 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531224613/https://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about-the-center/visit-the-exhibit |archive-date=May 31, 2020 |url-status=live}}
==Art pieces==
Several pieces of art are dedicated to Rogers throughout Pittsburgh, including an {{convert|11|ft|adj=on|spell=in}} tall, {{convert|7000|lb|adj=on}} bronze statue of him in the North Shore neighborhood. In the Oakland neighborhood, his portrait is included in the Martin Luther King Jr. and "Interpretations of Oakland" murals. A dinosaur statue titled "Fredasaurus Rex Friday XIII" originally stood in front of the WQED building and, as of 2014, stood in front of the building containing the Fred Rogers Company offices. There is a "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe" in Idlewild Park and a kiosk of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood artifacts at Pittsburgh International Airport.{{cite news |title=Visual Legacy |url=https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/January-2015/Visual-Legacy/ |access-date=July 23, 2019 |work=Pittsburgh Magazine |date=December 18, 2014 |archive-date=July 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724034206/https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/January-2015/Visual-Legacy/ |url-status=live }} The Carnegie Science Center's Miniature Railroad and Village debuted a miniature recreation of Rogers' house from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 2005.{{cite news |last=Yates |first=Jennifer C. |title=Science Center celebrates Mister Rogers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52542077/indiana-gazette/ |access-date=May 31, 2020 |work=The Indiana Gazette |agency=Associated Press |issue=206 |date=March 19, 2005|volume=101 }} In Rogers' hometown of Latrobe, a statue of Rogers on a bench is situated in James H. Rogers Park—a park named for Rogers' father.{{cite news |last1=Bertrand |first1=Amy |author2=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |author2-link=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=2019-12-10 |title=It's a beautiful day in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood: the town of Latrobe, Pa. |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2019/12/10/its-a-beautiful-day-in-mr-rogers-neighborhood-the-town-of-latrobe-pa/ |url-status=live |work=Chicago Tribune |language=en |issn=2165-171X |oclc=7960243 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240815163921/https://www.chicagotribune.com/2019/12/10/its-a-beautiful-day-in-mr-rogers-neighborhood-the-town-of-latrobe-pa/ |archive-date=2024-08-15 |access-date=2024-08-15}} In 2021, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood—a {{convert|7|ft|spell=in|adj=on}} tall, {{convert|3000|lb|adj=on}} bronze statue by Paul Day—was dedicated at Rollins College. The memorial depicts Rogers and Daniel Tiger speaking with a group of children and features lyrics from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood's theme on the base.{{cite news |last1=Humphreys |first1=Rob |date=2021-05-28 |title=Crafting an Icon |url=https://www.rollins.edu/news/crafting-an-icon/ |url-status=live |language=en |publisher=Rollins College |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501035830/https://www.rollins.edu/news/crafting-an-icon/ |archive-date=2023-05-01 |access-date=2024-08-15 |quote=How renowned British sculptor Paul Day created a Rollins monument to the College's most famous alum.}}
==Honorary degrees==
File:Fred Rogers Giving Commencement Speech at Middlebury College in 2001.ogg in 2001]]
Rogers has received honorary degrees from over 43 colleges and universities. After 1973, two commemorative quilts, created by two of Rogers' friends and archived at the Fred Rogers Center at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, were made out of the academic hoods he received during the graduation ceremonies.{{cite news|last=Erdley|first=Debra|date=March 23, 2018|title=Thiel College remembers Mister Rogers|work=Tribune-Review|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|url=https://archive.triblive.com/local/regional/thiel-college-remembers-mister-rogers/|access-date=September 1, 2021|archive-date=September 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901025824/https://archive.triblive.com/local/regional/thiel-college-remembers-mister-rogers/|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=Academic Hood Quilt |url=https://www.fredrogerscenter.org/portfolio_page/academic-hood-quilt/ |website=Fred Rogers Center |access-date=July 15, 2019 |location=Latrobe, Pennsylvania |date=2018 |archive-date=July 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716223346/https://www.fredrogerscenter.org/portfolio_page/academic-hood-quilt/ |url-status=dead }}
Note: Much of the below list is taken from "Honorary Degrees Awarded to Fred Rogers", unless otherwise stated.
{{Incomplete list|date=August 2019}}{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
- Thiel College, 1969. Thiel also awards a yearly scholarship named for Rogers.
- Eastern Michigan University, 1973
- Saint Vincent College, 1973
- Christian Theological Seminary, 1973
- Rollins College, 1974
- Yale University, 1974
- Chatham College, 1975{{cite news |title=Versatile Reardon Returns To Musicals |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56922493/fred-rogers-received-honorary-doctorate/ |access-date=August 8, 2020 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |issue=31 |date=July 24, 1977 |volume=94 |archive-date=September 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923193424/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56922493/fred-rogers-received-honorary-doctorate/ |url-status=live }}
- Carnegie Mellon University, 1976
- Lafayette College, 1977
- Waynesburg College, 1978
- Linfield College, 1982
- Slippery Rock State College, 1982
- Duquesne University, 1982
- Washington & Jefferson College, 1984
- University of South Carolina, 1985
- Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 1985
- Drury College, 1986{{cite web |title=Four to receive recognition at Drury weekend ceremonies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/310826617/ |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=Springfield News-Leader |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411081013/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/310826617/ |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |date=May 8, 1986 |url-status=live}}
- MacMurray College, 1986{{cite web |title=Mr. Rogers in the neighborhood |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/jacksonville-journal-courier-may-19-1986-p-14/ |website=NewspaperArchive.com |publisher=Jacksonville Journal Courier |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411052044/https://newspaperarchive.com/jacksonville-journal-courier-may-19-1986-p-14/ |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |page=14 |date=May 19, 1986 |url-status=live}}
- Bowling Green State University, 1987{{cite news |last=Obereigner |first=Dagmar |title=Father Jenco, Mister Rogers Among Graduation Speakers |url=https://www.apnews.com/045d8f7af45ac61971220e8d8c494bd5 |access-date=July 16, 2019 |work=AP News |agency=Associated Press |date=May 9, 1987 |archive-date=July 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716223339/https://www.apnews.com/045d8f7af45ac61971220e8d8c494bd5 |url-status=dead }}
- Westminster College (Pennsylvania), 1987{{cite news |title=Dr. Rogers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52505524/fred-rogers-receives-honorary-degree/ |access-date=May 31, 2020 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |issue=261 |publisher=PG Publishing Co. |date=June 1, 1987 |volume=60 |archive-date=September 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919034520/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52505524/fred-rogers-receives-honorary-degree/ |url-status=live }}
- University of Indianapolis, 1988{{cite web |title=Eighty-Third Annual Baccalaureate/Commencement |url=https://uindy.edu/archives/files/commencement/1988.pdf |website=University of Indianapolis |publisher=Frederick D. Hill Archives |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411062926/https://uindy.edu/archives/files/commencement/1988.pdf |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |page=6 |date=May 21, 1988 |url-status=live}}
- University of Connecticut, 1991{{Cite web |url=https://honorarydegree.uconn.edu/honorary-degree-recipients/1990s/ |title=Honorary Degree Recipients—1990s |publisher=University of Connecticut |access-date=July 17, 2019 |date=August 29, 2016 |archive-date=August 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804110244/https://honorarydegree.uconn.edu/honorary-degree-recipients/1990s/ |url-status=live }}
- Boston University, 1992{{cite news |title=BU Yesterday |url=https://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2001/09-14/bu-yesterday.html |access-date=July 17, 2019 |work=B.U. Bridge |publisher=Boston University Office of University Relations |volume=5 |number=5 |date=September 14, 2001 |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308042512/https://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2001/09-14/bu-yesterday.html |url-status=live }}
- Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1992{{cite news |last=Slater |first=Mary Ann |title='It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood' as 2,900 received degrees |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/14024288/ |access-date=May 31, 2020 |work=The Indiana Gazette |agency=The Indiana Gazette |issue=228 |publisher=Indiana Printing and Publishing Company |date=May 18, 1992 |volume=88 |archive-date=September 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923193722/https://www.newspapers.com/image/14024288/ |url-status=live }}
- Moravian College, 1992{{cite news |last=Muschick |first=Paul |title=What celebrities have honorary degrees from Lehigh Valley colleges? |url=https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-opi-honorary-degrees-desales-moravian-muhlenberg-lafayette-muschick-20180502-story.html |access-date=July 16, 2019 |work=The Morning Call |date=May 7, 2018 |location=Allentown, Pennsylvania}}
- Goucher College, 1993{{cite web |last=Maushard |first=Mary |title=Mr. Rogers Brings Message to Goucher |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-05-15-1993135031-story.html |work=The Baltimore Sun |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411052855/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-05-15-1993135031-story.html |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |date=May 15, 1993 |url-status=live}}
- University of Pittsburgh, 1993{{cite web |title=Fred Rogers to Deliver Pitt's 1993 Commencement Address |url=https://documenting.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt:pittpressreleases19930100 |website=Documenting Pitt - Historic Records of the University of Pittsburgh |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411072356/https://documenting.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt:pittpressreleases19930100 |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |page=1 |date=April 9, 1993 |url-status=live}}
- West Virginia University, 1995{{Cite news |url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/413703/WV-UNIVERSITY-TO-HONOR-A-NEIGHBOR-MR-ROGERS.html |title=W.V. University to Honor a Neighbor: Mr. Rogers |date=April 6, 1995 |work=Deseret News |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |access-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331121553/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/413703/WV-UNIVERSITY-TO-HONOR-A-NEIGHBOR-MR-ROGERS.html |url-status=dead }}
- North Carolina State University, 1996{{cite web |title=1996 Spring Commencement |url=https://ocr.lib.ncsu.edu/ocr/LD/LD3928-A23-1996/LD3928-A23-1996.pdf |website=NC State University Libraries |publisher=North Carolina State University |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411063945/https://ocr.lib.ncsu.edu/ocr/LD/LD3928-A23-1996/LD3928-A23-1996.pdf |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |page=6 |date=May 11, 1996 |url-status=live}}
- Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, 1998{{Cite web |url=http://edinboro.edu/news/detail.html?inode=6d993663-5526-48d0-afb1-edb24721aa38 |title=Pa. Physician General, nearly 800 EU students receive degrees |website=edinboro.edu |publisher=Edinboro University |access-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331150517/http://edinboro.edu/news/detail.html?inode=6d993663-5526-48d0-afb1-edb24721aa38 |url-status=live }}
- Marist College, 1999{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/23/nyregion/commencement-fordham-class-hears-magician-and-peacemaker.html |title=Commencement; Fordham Class Hears Magician and Peacemaker |work=The New York Times |date=May 23, 1999 |page=1001036 |access-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331094236/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/23/nyregion/commencement-fordham-class-hears-magician-and-peacemaker.html |url-status=live }}
- Westminster Choir College, 1999{{cite web |title=Commencement Speakers, Charges and Honorary Degrees |url=https://www.rider.edu/wcc/about/historic-westminster/commencement-speakers-charges-and-honorary-degrees |website=Westminster Choir College |date=August 11, 2010 |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411045341/https://www.rider.edu/wcc/about/historic-westminster/commencement-speakers-charges-and-honorary-degrees |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |url-status=live}}
- Old Dominion University, 2000{{Cite news |url=https://www.odu.edu/news/news-archive/2000/05/MISTERROGERSO_5190#.XZvt40ZKiUk |title=Mister Rogers of PBS Fame Gives Old Dominion Graduates Advice for Life |access-date=October 7, 2019 |publisher=Old Dominion University |location=Norfolk, Virginia |date=July 3, 2014 |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308193939/https://www.odu.edu/news/news-archive/2000/05/MISTERROGERSO_5190#.XZvt40ZKiUk |url-status=live }}
- Marquette University, 2001{{Cite web |url=http://www.marquette.edu/universityhonors/speakers-rogers.shtml |title=Honorary Degrees:Fred Rogers |publisher=Marquette University |date=2001 |location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin |access-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-date=April 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403082805/https://www.marquette.edu/universityhonors/speakers-rogers.shtml |url-status=live }}
- Middlebury College, 2001{{cite web |title=Middlebury to Award Honorary Degrees to Rogers and Six Others |url=http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/archive/archive/2001/node/263948 |website=Middlebury |publisher=Middlebury News |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411041235/http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/archive/archive/2001/node/263948 |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |date=April 11, 2001 |url-status=live}}
- Dartmouth College, 2002
- Seton Hill University, 2003 (posthumous){{Cite news |url=https://www.michigansthumb.com/news/article/Seton-Hall-Will-Have-Tribute-to-Rogers-7351821.php |title=Seton Hall Will Have Tribute to Rogers |date=April 17, 2003 |work=Huron Daily Tribune |location=Bad Axe, Michigan |access-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331151848/https://www.michigansthumb.com/news/article/Seton-Hall-Will-Have-Tribute-to-Rogers-7351821.php |url-status=dead }}
- Union College, 2003 (posthumous){{Cite news |url=https://muse.union.edu/newsarchives/2003/06/15/joanne-rogers-accepts-husbands-41st-honorary-degree/ |title=Joanne Rogers accepts husband's 41st honorary degree |date=June 15, 2003 |work=Union College News Archives |location=Schenectady, New York |access-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331150312/https://muse.union.edu/newsarchives/2003/06/15/joanne-rogers-accepts-husbands-41st-honorary-degree/ |url-status=live }}
- Roanoke College, 2003 (posthumous)
{{div col end}}
Filmography
=Television=
Published works
=Children's books=
- Our Small World (with Josie Carey, illustrated by Norb Nathanson), 1954, Reed and Witting, {{OCLC|236163646}}
- The Elves, the Shoemaker, & the Shoemaker's Wife (illustrated by Richard Hefter), 1973, Small World Enterprises, {{OCLC|969517}}
- The Matter of the Mittens, 1973, Small World Enterprises, {{OCLC|983991}}
- Speedy Delivery (illustrated by Richard Hefter), 1973, Hubbard, {{OCLC|11464480}}
- Henrietta Meets Someone New (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1974, Golden Press, {{OCLC|950967676}}
- Mister Rogers Talks About, 1974, Platt & Munk, {{OCLC|1093164}}
- Time to Be Friends, 1974, Hallmark Cards, {{OCLC|1694547}}
- Everyone is Special (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1975, Western Publishing, {{OCLC|61280957}}
- Tell Me, Mister Rogers, 1975, Platt & Munk, {{OCLC|1525780}}
- The Costume Party (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1976, Golden Press, {{OCLC|3357187}}
- Planet Purple (illustrated by Dennis Hockerman), 1986, Texas Instruments, {{ISBN|978-0-89512-092-2}}
- If We Were All the Same (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House, {{OCLC|15083194}}
- A Trolley Visit to Make-Believe (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House, {{OCLC|17237650}}
- Wishes Don't Make Things Come True (illustrated Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House, {{OCLC|15196769}}
- No One Can Ever Take Your Place (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House, {{OCLC|990550735}}
- When Monsters Seem Real (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House, {{OCLC|762290817}}
- You Can Never Go Down the Drain (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House, {{ISBN|978-0-394-80430-9}}
- The Giving Box (illustrated by Jennifer Herbert), 2000, Running Press, {{OCLC|45616325}}
- Good Weather or Not (with Hedda Bluestone Sharapan, illustrated by James Mellet), 2005, Family Communications, {{OCLC|31597516}}
- Josephine the Short Neck-Giraffe, 2006, Family Communications, {{OCLC|1048459379}}
- A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers Neighborhood (illustrated by Luke Flowers), 2009, Quirk Books, {{OCLC|1042097615}}
;First Experiences series illustrated by Jim Judkis:
- Going to Day Care, 1985, Putnam, {{OCLC|11397421}}
- The New Baby, 1985, Putnam, {{OCLC|11470082}}
- Going to the Potty, 1986, Putnam, {{OCLC|1123224708}}
- Going to the Doctor, 1986, Putnam, {{OCLC|12751383}}
- Making Friends, 1987, Putnam, {{OCLC|1016110382}}
- Moving, 1987, Putnam, {{OCLC|13526459}}
- Going to the Hospital, 1988, Putnam, {{OCLC|16472458}}
- When a Pet Dies, 1988, Putnam, {{OCLC|16130718}}
- Going on an Airplane, 1989, Putnam, {{OCLC|18589040}}
- Going to the Dentist, 1989, Putnam, {{OCLC|17954325}}
;Let's Talk About It series:
- Going to the Hospital, 1977, Family Communications, {{OCLC|11287782}}
- Having an Operation, 1977, Family Communications, {{OCLC|11394237}}
- So Many Things To See!, 1977, Family Communications, {{OCLC|704507774}}
- Wearing a Cast, 1977, Family Communications, {{OCLC|11287804}}
- Adoption, 1993, Putnam, {{OCLC|608811678}}
- Divorce, 1994, Putnam, {{OCLC|228437876}}
- Extraordinary Friends, 2000, Putnam, {{OCLC|40838701}}
- Stepfamilies, 2001, Putnam, {{OCLC|35192315}}
=Songbooks=
- Tomorrow on the Children's Corner (with Josie Carey, illustrated by Mal Wittman), 1960, Vernon Music Corporation, {{OCLC|12316162}}
- Mister Rogers' Songbook (with Johnny Costa, illustrated by Steven Kellogg), 1970, Random House, {{OCLC|34224058}}
=Books for adults=
- Mister Rogers Talks to Parents, 1983, Family Communications, {{OCLC|704903806}}
- Mister Rogers' Playbook (with Barry Head, illustrated by Jamie Adams), 1986, Berkley Books, {{OCLC|1016158916}}
- Mister Rogers Talks with Families About Divorce (with Clare O'Brien), 1987, Berkley Books, {{OCLC|229152864}}
- Mister Rogers' How Families Grow (with Barry Head and Jim Prokell), 1988, Berkley Books, {{OCLC|20133117}}
- You Are Special: Words of Wisdom from America's Most Beloved Neighbor, 1994, Penguin Books, {{OCLC|1007556599}}
- Dear Mister Rogers, 1996, Penguin Books, {{OCLC|1084686063}}
- Mister Rogers' Playtime, 2001, Running Press, {{OCLC|48118722}}
- The Mister Rogers Parenting Book, 2002, Running Press, {{OCLC|50757046}}
- You are special: Neighborly Wisdom from Mister Rogers, 2002, Running Press, {{OCLC|50402664}}
- The World According to Mister Rogers, 2003, Hyperion Books, {{OCLC|52520625}}
- Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers, 2005, Hyperion Books, {{OCLC|56686439}}
- The Mister Rogers Parenting Resource Book, 2005, Courage Books, {{OCLC|60452524}}
- Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom For Parents And Children, 2019, Hachette Books, {{OCLC|1082231639}}
Discography
- Around the Children's Corner (with Josey Carey), 1958, Vernon Music Corporation, {{OCLC|12310040}}
- Tomorrow on the Children's Corner (with Josie Carey), 1959{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i_G4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131 |title=Horne's: The Best Place to Shop After All |last=Savage |first=Letitia Stuart |date=November 18, 2019 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-4671-3835-2 |pages=131 |language=en}}
- King Friday XIII Celebrates, 1964{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39155656/misterogers_neighborhood_of/ |title=Misterogers' neighborhood of make-believe is on records |date=June 13, 1964 |work=The Ottawa Citizen |department=TV Weekly |pages=22 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=November 17, 2019 |archive-date=November 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117152539/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39155656/misterogers_neighborhood_of/ |url-status=live }}
- Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 1967{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvgZAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Won't+You+Be+My+Neighbor |title=Current Biography Yearbook |date=1972 |publisher=H. W. Wilson Company |pages=355 |language=en}}
- Let's Be Together Today, 1968
- Josephine the Short-Neck Giraffe, 1969
- You Are Special, 1969
- A Place of Our Own, 1970
- Come On and Wake Up, 1972{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kbw7nzfOgQsC |title=Biography Today Performing Artists: Profiles of People of Interest to Young Readers |date=February 1, 2004 |publisher=Omnigraphics Incorporated |isbn=978-0-7808-0709-9|editor-last=Abbey|editor-first=Cherie D. |pages=126 |language=en|editor-last2=Hillstrom|editor-first2=Kevin}}
- Growing, 1992
- Bedtime, 1992
- Won't You Be My Neighbor? (cassette and book), 1994, Hal Leonard, {{OCLC|36965578}}
- Coming and Going, 1997{{Cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iQ0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA70 |title=Almost 30, 'Neighborhood' Is Still Central To Kids' TV; Youngheart Eyes Mainstream |last=McCormick |first=Moira |date=January 31, 1998 |magazine=Billboard|access-date=November 17, 2019 |pages=70}}
- It's Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers, 2019, Omnivore Recordings, posthumous release{{Cite web|date=October 4, 2019|title=Mister Rogers — It's Such A Good Feeling: The Best Of Mister Rogers|url=https://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/its-such-a-good-feeling/|access-date=July 9, 2020|publisher=Omnivore Recordings|language=en-US|archive-date=July 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709180538/https://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/its-such-a-good-feeling/|url-status=live}}
See also
- Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 2018 documentary
- Mister Rogers: It's You I Like, 2018 documentary
- A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, 2019 biographical drama film
- List of vegetarians
Notes
{{reflist|group=note}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Works cited
- Gross, Terry (1984). [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1178498 "Terry Gross and Fred Rogers".] Fresh Air. NPR.
- King, Maxwell (2018). [https://books.google.com/books?id=aNdQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT269 The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers.] Abrams Press. {{ISBN|978-1-68335-349-2}}.
- Tiech, John (2012). Pittsburgh Film History: On Set in the Steel City. Charleston, North Carolina: The History Press. {{ISBN|978-1-60949-709-5}}.
External links
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
- {{IMDb name|0736872}}
- [http://pbskids.org/rogers/ PBS Kids: Official Site]
- [http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/ The Fred M. Rogers Center]
- [http://www.fci.org/ The Fred Rogers Company] (formerly known as Family Communications)
- {{emmytvlegends name|fred-rogers}}
- {{Cite news |title=It's a Beautiful 50th Birthday for 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' |date=February 19, 2018 |work=Fresh Air |publisher=NPR}} 1984 interview with Fred Rogers.
- [https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/pop/fred-rogers The Music of Mister Rogers—Pittsburgh Music History]
- {{Discogs artist|Fred Rogers}}
- [http://voicechasers.com/database/showactor.php?actorid=6391 Fred Rogers at Voice Chasers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120070946/http://voicechasers.com/database/showactor.php?actorid=6391 |date=November 20, 2018 }}
- {{C-SPAN|13574}}
- {{Charlie Rose guest|76}}
{{Mister Rogers' Neighborhood}}
{{Navboxes
| title = Awards for Fred Rogers
| list =
{{Daytime Emmy Award Lifetime Achievement}}
{{Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming}}
{{TCA Career Achievement Award}}
{{1999 Television Hall of Fame}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Fred}}
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