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Who Was Mister Rogers? · Dirt Nap City - History's Most Interesting Dead People

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Give me a little check, check, check.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, cool.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Dirtnap City.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we are back with another story about an interesting person who happens to be dead.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this week it's my turn to pick somebody out, and I've got somebody really awesome that Alex is gonna just love once he knows who it is, but currently he doesn't know who it is, even though uh you have it in the title and on the thumbnail.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Alex does not know that because this all happens before the title and the thumbnail even exist.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, Alex, how are you today?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great, Kylie.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have a good Halloween?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: I did not have a very eventful Halloween.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: We usually get about uh seven trick-or-treaters.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um we maybe got uh about 20 this time, but they come.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh and then we uh I had a big argument with my wife about um when it's too old to trick-or-treat.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um I found the 845 people that um are you know 14, 15, 16, 18 years old a little annoying.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but she tells me they're just trying to stay children as long as they can, and we should embrace that.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um but honestly, I felt like I was being mugged.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess you don't want to know that uh Jody and I went trick-or-treating last night together.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: The kids stayed home.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: They they passed out candy while we trick-or-treated.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: At least were you wearing costumes?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was uh I was the the weird neighbor, and she was the hot trophy wife.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So you weren't wearing costumes.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: We we did it right.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, you know, we made it through October.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's now November, and uh a little bit of fall in the air.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And today we have somebody that I think you're gonna really enjoy learning about because he's a pretty amazing person.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is a guy, and I'm gonna give you some clues, and uh, I want you to feel free to guess as I give you these clues.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll start by telling you he was born in Pennsylvania in 1928.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: He was an actor, a writer, an author, and out of left field, he was a minister.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Presbyterian minister.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is that how I would know him?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Most people I didn't know he was a minister until recently, actually.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would know him as an actor?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you would know him as an actor.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Did you say singer?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he was a musician, and he did sing, and he uh was an accomplished pianist.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: He had more than 40 honorary degrees from different uh colleges.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: He was at toward the end of his life, he was a favorite uh commencement speech giver.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh people love to have him.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think he did over 150 commencement speeches in his career.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is this Andrew Carnegie?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: But interesting you said Carnegie, because so many people say Carnegie.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Probably is Carnegie.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: When you said Pittsburgh, that's that's yeah, that's the what's that's what I thought of.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And when you said commencement speaker.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, he he uh won a lifetime achievement Emmy in 1997.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: When did he move to Dirt Knap City?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he moved there in 2003.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: His uh grandfather founded a brick company called the McFeely Brick Company in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I got it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: I got it then.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: I got it.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: That was the one that did it.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Mr.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Mr.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Friggin' Rogers, yes, yes.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And did you know that his middle name was McFeely?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Fred McFeely Rogers.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't, but I remember the I think it was the mailman was Mr.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Feel.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Speedy Delivery, Mr.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: McFeely, yeah, yeah.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I am excited about this because Mr.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers, um, I had a um pretty strong relationship with when I was a kid.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I watched Sesame Street, I watched Electric Company, I watched Zoom, but Mr.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers was the one that I actually really looked forward to.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um when the book and documentary came out last um a few years back, I was really into that.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: I never saw the Tom Hanks um movie, but the documentary I loved.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I'm I'm really excited about hearing about this.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here's here's an interesting fun fact.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Tom Hanks is actually his sixth cousin.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: He was Mr.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers' sixth cousin, yeah.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I can't wait to hear about Fred Rogers.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Fred McPeely Rogers, born March 20th, 1928.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, passed away February 27th, 2003.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was, of course, a television host, author, producer, Presbyterian minister, and he was, of course, the one that created and ran Mr.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers' neighborhood from 1968 until 2001.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: It had a very, very long run.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: His grandfather, Fred Brooks McFeely, was the founder of a brick company in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And his father, James Hillis Rogers, was the president of that um brick company.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And his mother, Nancy Rogers, whose uh, of course, maiden name was McFeely, she was a volunteer at a hospital and actually knitted sweaters for American soldiers that were fighting in Europe at the time.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she also is the one who knitted all the sweaters that were on the show with him.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Those were his mother's knitted sweaters that he would put on at the beginning.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he did have an adopted sister named Elaine.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, as I said before, uh, interestingly, he was the sixth cousin of Tom Hanks who played uh played Mr.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Which have you seen that movie?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, I just said I did I never saw that one.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to remember what six cousin means, though.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think we're all kind of six cousins at some point.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it it it means it means uh, you know, your sort of similar uh background heritage.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, he actually did not have an easy childhood.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: He grew up shy, introverted, um, and he had asthma as a child.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: He was also bullied because he was overweight, and people called him Fat Freddy when he was young.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of a problem for him until he got into high school, where he sort of got out of his shell a little bit, became the editor of the yearbook, um, got involved in you know, student council and national honor society and stuff like that.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was a very good student.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's the first non-troublemaker we've had.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you think?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, we'll see.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean so, so uh yeah, that's right.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's there's more onion to peel back.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um he went to school to get his uh music degree in 1951 from Rollins College in Florida.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And while he was there, he met Sarah Joanne Byrd, who was known as Joanne, and she and he married in 1952, and they were married until he died in 2003.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he had two sons named James and John.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: He graduated from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1962 and became a minister in 63.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: But prior to that, he had a couple of television shows that happened before his run with Mr.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers neighborhood, which were uh one in Canada that was just called Mr.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, and one on what was the prerunner to PBS at the time, it was called The Children's Corner, and it was on WQED in Pittsburgh.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And those were both um sort of early models for what became uh Mr.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers' neighborhood.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: But the Mr.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers show, which actually took place on uh CBC, which is Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was really where he formed the idea for Mr.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers' neighborhood.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was called Mr.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, so he just added the name neighborhood uh when he got onto PBS.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And what year was that?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that was in 1963.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: When was he on when did it get to PBS?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: When did it get to my TV?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: PBS.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not in Pittsburgh.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was that was actually in 1968.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So Mr.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers neighborhood uh premiered in 1968 on what would later become PBS.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in 1969, he actually testified before the U.S.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Senate.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Lyndon Johnson had proposed a$20 million budget for the creation of PBS, but when he left office, Nixon wanted to cut it to$10 million.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so Mr.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers was asked to come speak about why PBS was important, children's programming was important.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And apparently uh he did such a great job that he had senators crying in the audience, and they approved a budget of 22 million.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So he he went two million above.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and in 1970, Nixon actually appointed Rogers to the chair of the White House Conference on Children and Youth.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: That testimony is a great YouTube video, by the way.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you can watch a condensed version of it where he just kind of cuts to the chase and talks about and he really gets to the child and each of every one of those senators.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful thing to watch.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And something that I don't know if could happen today, where you could just melt somebody like that.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: But man, we missed Mr.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and and again, sort of laying the foundation for um for what became PBS at the time, because had the budget been cut, who knows what would have happened to it, you know, would it have survived?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's already kind of struggles, right?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, at least according to their fundraisers.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: I used to always watch PBS during the pledge drive and be like, this is the greatest channel ever.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: But then let's face it, when it's not the pledge drive, it's not as good.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: The program is not as good.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they they really put their all-stars out for the pledge drives, right?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: That sort of makes sense.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Some fun facts about Mr.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he was red, green, colorblind.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: He was also a pescatarian in 1970, he became one.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then after his father died, he became a vegetarian in the 1980s and said he couldn't eat anything that had a mother.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: That was sort of a famous quote of his.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: He was so much of a vegetarian that he co-owned the Vegetarian Times magazine.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he became the co-owner in the mid-1980s.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: He was an early adopter on vegetarianism.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't as popular as it is today.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Especially among kind of older men, right?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And let's face it, back then, there probably wasn't a lot of well, he probably didn't eat out a lot in restaurants, but it was probably a lot harder to do back then.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: How about this?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: How about this fact?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Mr.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, you know, you mentioned about going before a Senate committee and could you do that today?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Mr.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers was a registered Republican, but according to his wife, he was very independent in the way he voted.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he decided on the person, not on the party.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't really like to talk about politics because he didn't want to appear biased in one direction or the other.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: So he also avoided speaking about uh faith on the air because he believed that he could uh be a better example by being an example versus preaching.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said uh teaching through example was as powerful or more powerful than preaching.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he said you don't have to speak overtly about religion in order to get a message across.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, while you know, I think that's why a lot of people did you know he was a minister?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: I did know that, and it makes sense.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: It uh it is uh kind of a fountain head of where a lot of his messages came from.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it um it's interesting to know he had formal teaching that way.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people think he was a psychologist.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: He did study early early childhood development and education.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, he he had both of those things going for him as far as how he related to children.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, despite you know his wealth later in life, he actually became more frugal and uh lived simpler later in life than he did earlier in life as he had more money.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: When when he was doing uh Mr.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, he answered all the letters himself.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: That was something he would write a response to everyone.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: When he became Mr.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers on PBS and got really popular, he had to actually um stop doing that.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he had an assistant who would write responses and then he would actually sign them.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: He would read them and sign them.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that was his signature.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you wrote to Mr.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, you would get his autograph back.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: He also, in addition to writing back all the letters, he swam daily at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, and he woke up between 4:30 and 5 30 every morning to pray and read the Bible, prepare himself for the day, and then he went and swam after that.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't smoke or drink.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: So probably because of his exercise and um not smoking and drinking, he kept his weight at 143 pounds for most of his adult life, like pretty much always stayed around 143.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And do you know what he said the significance of that number was?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: 143.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said it means I love you because I is one letter, love is four letters, and three is or three is you, you is three letters.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: So is it he he loves himself?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think he loved others more than he loved himself.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: But what does that have to do with keeping trim?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he he kept his weight at 143 to prove that he loved himself and others.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're right.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: That would that would kind of mean you know he was keeping himself healthy, I guess.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And big big one here, this is this I'm a big fan of, he napped daily.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a fan of that too.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: He actually said, interestingly, in an interview on CNN that he went into television because he hated it.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: He thought it was uh sensationalized and just really didn't like what was out there.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he hated the medium, he hated the the programming that was being done, and he wanted to improve on it, and he thought it would be a great way to get to children um, you know, to teach them things and entertain them at the same time.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think that's why I got into podcasting.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like what's out there, and I feel like this is a way to teach, like if you're a sixth grader, you got a term paper coming up on Mr.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers, this is the perfect way to to uh to meet that need.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that ultimately you have to embrace the things you hate, hug your haters, and make them better.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And and and uh the things you hate to do.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, those were just kind of some fun facts about him.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um he did develop um another couple of programs later in life.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: One in 1978, he took a hiatus from Mr.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers' neighborhood and wrote and produced a show called uh Old Friends, New Friends, and it was for adults, and it featured um guests that he interviewed, and they included Hoagie Carmichael, Helen Hayes, Milton Burrell, Lauren Hollander, Robert Frost's daughter, Leslie.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the you know, I'm the daughter of a famous poet, and uh Willie Stargle.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know who stargall is the uh Pittsburgh famous Pittsburgh uh baseball player.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Was that a local Pittsburgh show or was that a national show?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was probably national.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he had he had star power at that time.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then he also visited Moscow and uh visited the set of a program called Goodnight Little Ones, that was a television show for children in Moscow, hosted by Tatiana Verdeniviva.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I'm butchering that, but uh pretty famous Moscow host of children's show over there.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then she came over, Tatiana came over um and was on Mr.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers show.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that was Soviet, that was the Soviet Union.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's when nothing was getting through.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, uh Mr.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers in 1987, when he was on Goodnight Little Ones, um, that appearance coincided with the meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't much going on between the two countries.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Every now and then you'd see a rock band go to Russia.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh didn't Billy Joel go over there?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, today it's very common.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: He also produced another program, but you didn't know he had all these shows, called Fred Rogers Heroes, where he featured interviews and portraits of people across the United States who are having a positive impact on children and education.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that was in 1994.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't see that, but I wish I did now.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure it's all available online.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: You could you could probably binge a whole lot of Fred Rogers um, you know, between between the older shows and then the uh uh old friends, new friends, Fred Rogers Heroes.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot, there's a lot of the the congressional testimony, all the interviews he did.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and the only time he played uh a character that was not himself in a television show, want to take a guess, it was in the 90s.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Was it uh WWE?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: He played he played uh he played Hulk Hogan's uh manager in WWE.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a Duran Duran video or anything.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um no wasn't girls on film, no.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I can't even imagine what it would have been.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Was it a movie or a TV show?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: TV show in the 90s.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Was it the six million dollar man?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, there's a lot of tie into that.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was actually an episode of Scooby-Doo where no, no, it wasn't that either.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I almost believed that.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know, I know that sounds actually pretty plausible.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: He appeared in Dr.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Quinn Medicine Woman as a preacher in 1996, yes.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, he had some really great quotes about um life, and one of them was that when he was a boy, he would see scary things in the news, and this was the quote look for helpers, you will always find people who are willing to help.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: That is also a quote from Albus Dumbledore, if you are a Harry Potter fan.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: They ripped that off of Mr.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think it might have been inspired because because uh because that's what Albus Dumbledore says to Harry uh when he first comes to Hogwarts is uh help can always be found for those who need it.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Look for the helpers.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of a paraphrase.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, Mr.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers was an inspiration.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, unfortunately, he died in 2003.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: He had stomach cancer, um, which is you know a little ironic because he was a vegetarian and kept in good health, but you know, not everybody can escape cancer, unfortunately, and he was a victim of it at the age of 75, or actually three weeks short of his 75th birthday.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Neither Matthew McConaughey nor Hulk Hogan spoke at his funeral, but um violinist Itzok Pearlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma both played, as did organist Alan Morrison.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: They all played in honor of Mr.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, and then some famous people that were at his uh at his funeral were and spoke were David Hartman, who was a Good Morning America host, and then the author of the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carl, spoke.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: That would have been one of the saddest funerals to go to, I think.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that yeah, just it's dev I wish they would have shown that on on uh television.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I would have definitely watched uh what a what an influence he had on me and a lot of people from my generation.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, Evil King Evil did too, you know, but um this uh cut to our soul for our particular different kind of influence, right?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um I'm constantly wondering, you know, what if he was around today?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Could he change things?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Could he make things more civil?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then I also wonder why there can't be.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Why can't somebody fill that void?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: But nobody has yet.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, who would be the modern day Mr.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I I'd I'd nominate Dave Grohl, although, you know, he's a little rock and roll for he's he's a grungier, Mr.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're right, though.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good um that's a really uh different kind of response, but um, I can't really argue with that.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean Yeah, I mean you always see videos of Dave Grohl uh letting kids come up on stage and play with the band, right?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh giving giving just just seems like a a a regular down-to-earth kind of guy, um, but probably eats meat and drops F-bombs occasionally, you know.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know about the second part.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he eats meat.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um Well, I I I'll give you a couple of more Mr.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers quotes um that I think are pretty good.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: You have to love yourself.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think the Beebs said that same thing.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's true.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Love yourself.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Another one that is pretty good and would actually be really good for today is forgiveness.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is a strange thing.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: It can be hardest to forgive the people we love.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like all of life's important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentment may only take root when we love ourselves.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love those messages.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just love those.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, I think our when we were kids, I think our teachers were actually um also influenced by Mr.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when you think about it, if he was on TV in 1968, yeah, I probably started watching it in 1973, 1974, you know.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I think I think uh at that time kindness was something that was definitely needed when you when you think about um things like uh integration and all the problems.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Vietnam my gosh, they were uh Watergate, all these distrust, uh mistrust, um, all this turmoil that was going on in the country.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: It seemed like he came around at a perfect time for children of our generation.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: One thing, one thing, you know, speaking of integration, um, he did have uh a famous scene, and I forget the actor's name now.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a famous um person who is now in theater, but an African-American man, and he did a scene where he uh had his feet in a soaking tub with that man.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: The man was supposed to be uh postman, I think.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, a policeman, actually.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: He he cast uh African-American man as a policeman in the 60s, which, you know, to cast him as that was kind of going against the norms, going against the grain.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was a lot of controversy about integration of swimming pools at the time.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, some kids had been actually had bleach poured on them to get them out of a black kids had had had bleach poured on them to get them out of a pool that was supposed to be for whites only.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And his response was to share, share a little um kind of baby pool foot soak with uh with the policeman who was also African American.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he he wasn't afraid of it.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he just embraced it and said, you know, here we are, enjoying this together, two people, two friends.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's that's actually in the movie that that takes place takes place in the uh Tom Hanks movie.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, so many great things.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then of course, that movie I would recommend it because uh Tom Hanks does a good job of portraying him, and there are some moments in it like that are supposed to be based on reality where he was on a bus or a train and everybody just spontaneously started singing, you know, and he started singing too, and just this joy that he brought wherever he went.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think the problem with that movie is it came out too close to the documentary, and the documentary, the documentary was perfect.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And for me at least, I didn't I didn't then want to see a fake version of it.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was so such a good movie.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, I would definitely have run to that movie if it had come out independent of that doc.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about it, if if um uh if you're considering or on the fence about seeing it, it's actually not about Mr.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, it's about the the author.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know if he's New York Times or what what magazine.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's the it's the magazine art author.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's Esquire.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: The story's really about him.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Esquire, yes.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and he's supposed to just do a short uh little fluff piece about Mr.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, you know, just go meet him one day and do this quick little interview and talk to him.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is based on a true story.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it it turns out he gets to know Mr.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Mr.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers kind of gets under his skin, but in a way that makes him start to think about his own life and who he is, because this guy was known as writing really terrible things about people.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: He he had a reputation for dragging people through the mud.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Mr.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers helped him to realize he could do better than that, and also to reconcile with his father and have a better relationship with his wife and his newborn son.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, that's really so so.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you go to see that movie, um it's really good.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really great film.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's different than the documentary.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: As you were talking about that, I was thinking, you know, when you said that he was famous for digging up dirt, he probably went there thinking this guy is not as perfect as he seems.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that there's I'm gonna I'm gonna reveal that this guy's a fraud, which gets back to our question of why there are no Mr.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers today.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think because if there was, somebody would try to tear them down immediately.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, because nobody is perfect, um, I think I think if Mr.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers existed in the age of Twitter, people would clown him for being corny.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: People would um talk about they'd make fun of the 143 thing.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have a lot of faith in society there.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: No, I mean you know, you say people called him Fat Freddy.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Today, Twitter would probably run, they'd probably have pictures of him when he was a little kid, and then people would, you know, hashtag fat Freddy would probably uh trend for a little while, and people would make fun of him.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: I just uh it's not about me not having faith uh in society, it's about when people get together, that's one of the first things they do is clown somebody who does who seems too good to be true, you know.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um I just don't think in this in this time, I think he lived in his time and he it wouldn't he wouldn't fit in this time, but man, I wish he would.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what would what would Margaret Green say about him?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Who's Margaret?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Who's Margaret Green?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, that that that uh senator Oh Marjorie Taylor Green.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well that was the next thing I was gonna ask you is that you know, in the documentary they run some clips um from I think Fox News where people are uh saying about how Mr.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers ruined our generation, and saying that um people in Gen X are coddled, entitled brats who just want their self-esteem, uh self-esteem at all costs, and that's because um, in fact, I think in one of the documentaries they called Mr.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers the devil or something.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: They said he was an evil person for uh ruining our generation.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, final thoughts on Mr.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers, at least from me, is that you're right, he was somebody that fit his time well, was needed during that time.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I do think he's needed today, but I don't think his uh approach would work as well today.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think even young kids today are a lot more um sort of jaded and sarcastic than they were back then.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, uh they kind of grow up seeing more they they get they get older sooner these days, it seems like kids do, you know, because they're exposed to more stuff that would have been, they would have been protected from back then.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I don't know that his uh brand of um communication and quietness and and pure love would fly as well uh today as it would back then, but I do think that he in a very positive way impacted people like us.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: As we said, we've had a lot of troublemakers on this show, but I think you know, as much as Evil Kinevil might have been an inspiration to people to go out and try uh to push themselves to do crazy stuff, um Mr.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers was an inspiration to people to not be afraid to show love.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I don't know if you mentioned that uh I think I the last time I remember Mr.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: Rogers uh being out in the public was after 9-11.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think he actually had some sort of a special where he was interviewing helpers.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're right, you're right, he did, yeah, yeah.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: I did I did see something about that.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he was interviewing first responders after 9-11.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: And um I remember at that time thinking, oh, there's an old, you know, uh, an old friend from the past.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I wish this guy was still uh around more.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he got older, you know, he wasn't around and he got sick, but uh, but man, I wish somebody would would fill that void, like I said before.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I think I've told you this, but maybe I haven't in probably 1998, 97, something like that.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I used to work for a company, and one of the things we did, I worked for a staging audiovisual company, and one of our clients was PBS.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so we did several PBS meetings in um various places, including uh Los Angeles, you know, where they would do like roll out the new shows, and also in Phoenix for some reason, they had several PBS things, they would do their uh fundraising, etc.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the speakers one year was Mr.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was the technical director.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: I got to shake his hand, meet him, and have my picture taken with him, which it was really cool.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, he walked around every person on the crew during the rehearsals and introduced himself and asked what we did, and basically kind of like he got us behind schedule because he was just chatting everybody up and thanking everybody for their role, and and then he sat down at the piano and played for us because he had to do a sound check anyway, and he said, I'm gonna dedicate this to the crew who's gonna make me look great tomorrow.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he played, you know, played the piano for a bit and then uh let us all take pictures with him individually and as a group, and then he uh gave a great speech the next day.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: But that was that was a pretty cool thing to get to meet him, yeah.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of what they say about Paul McCartney that he is aware that whenever he meets somebody, it's the greatest day of their life, and he's he's um gracious, but yeah, very gracious and um but also keenly aware that people are expecting a certain thing from him.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can't disappoint them.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Mr.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers was one of a kind, and uh, I'd love to hear what other people think about Mr.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Fred McPheely Rogers, and we really appreciate you tuning in.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: We got more shows coming up, and we'll see you next time on Dirt Map City.