Fred Rogers was a man who influenced the world through love and kindness. A man who broke molds and questioned authority in order share his message of love and kindness with children and adults.
In a new documentary titled ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor’, the world is able to see who Fred Rogers truly was, on and off camera. Spoiler alert, he was pretty much the same person off camera, as he was on camera.
Before Fred became ‘Mr. Rogers’, he was a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and received some grief for appearing on TV.
“He had always belonged to the Presbyterian Church, and they can be kind of stodgy sometimes,” his widow states in the documentary. “But he was ordained as an evangelist to carry on the work that he was doing in television with families and children.”
When Fred became filming Mr. Rogers, he didn’t want the show to end up being a marketing ploy to sell products. He wanted the show to be about positive growth and development for his viewers.
Fred Rogers portrayed a message during each one of his episodes. From dealing with emotions, divorce, love, hatred, war and even racism.
During the 1970’s, African Americans were treated poorly in society and Fred wasn’t having that. He didn’t want his viewers, especially children to witness hatred and racism. Fred would often times go out of his way to showcase the importance of acceptance and inclusivity.
One one early Mr. Rogers episode, Fred invited François Clemmons, who played the role of Officer Clemmons, the friendly neighborhood policeman to dip his feet into his kiddie pool.
At that time in history, white people didn’t want African Americans in their swimming pools. And so they were pouring acid and all kinds of bad things in to keep them out. Fred knew about that. That episode was having to do with exactly that. In the episode, Fred even offered to share a towel with Francois.
It was these types of things that made Mr. Rogers a true rock star of a generation. An unlikely star, who broke molds and destroyed evil with kindness.
Check out the trailer to the new documentary below! It’s pretty awesome and is sure to bring back some great memories!
