Bob CollinsThere’s a mistaken impression that today is the 50th anniversary of the first Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood on PBS. It’s not. That comes next Feb. 19 (the first version of what would become Mr. Rogers Neighborhood actually was in 1953). But it’s never not a good day to hold on to the goodness of Fred Rogers.
Whenever inhumanity defines a day on the planet, Mr. Rogers makes a reappearance to a new generation, reminding us to “look for the helpers — because if you look for the helpers, then you’ll know there’s hope.”
Today is, again, one of those days.
Hope would be easier if there were still a Mr. Rogers, but he died in 2003 and no one ever took his place in popular culture. Bravado is in now; kindness is — too often — considered a weakness.
Bullies win now.
“Mister Rogers’ neighborhood was, in many ways, a suburb, and, today, it retains the limitations of a typical suburb; it’s mostly white, conservative in its values, blandly Protestant in its sensibility,” Phillip Maciak, assistant professor of English and Film at Louisiana State University, writes on Slate.
But the show’s emotionality was and is radical. The route to good feeling, for Mister Rogers, was empathy; the path to happiness was the control of anger; the climax of every episode was conflict resolution.
It’s easy to mistake this as a nostalgic paean for a bygone era, to read a defense of this show as a modulated call to Make America Great Again. But Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood doesn’t represent another time so much as another way of seeing, another way of entering the world.
The neighborhood is not an idealized version of American life; it’s a counterfactual experiment in imagining an American life that is founded in tolerance, kindness, and imperturbable calm. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood debuted in 1968 to speak to children in an era of fear and anger and mistrust. This doesn’t seem nostalgic. It seems contemporary. It’s TV that hails you as a neighbor, and that tells you what to do with the mad that you feel right now.
On Twitter today, author Anthony Breznican tells the story of his encounter with Mr. Rogers.
A lot of people are sharing this quote after the heartbreak in Manchester. It's also the 50th anniversary of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. 1/ pic.twitter.com/zDnTrTcJ8v
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
Fred Rogers was the real thing. That gentle soul? It was no act. 3/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
I was having a hard time. The future seemed dark. I was struggling, lonely, dealing with a lot of broken pieces and not adjusting well. 5/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
It was easy to feel hopeless. One span was especially bad. Walking out of the dorm, I heard familiar music: 🎶Won't you be my neighbor… 7/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
It feels silly to say – it felt silly then – but I stood mesmerized. His show felt like a cool hand on a hot head. I left feeling better. 9/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
I can't believe it. I get in and he nods at me. I do back. I think he could sense a geek-out coming. But I kept it together. 11/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
The doors open, he lets me go out first. I go, but turn around. "Mr. Rogers… I don't mean to bother you. But I wanted to say thanks." 13/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
Opens his arms, lifting his satchel for a hug. "It's good to see you again neighbor." I got to hug Mr. Rogers, y'all! 15/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
As he went out the door, I said (in a kind of rambling gush) that I'd stumbled on the show again recently, when I really needed it. 17/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
This is what set Mr. Rogers apart. No one else would've done this. He goes, "Do you want to tell me what was upsetting you?" 19/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
I like to think I didn't go on and on, but pretty soon he was telling me about his grandfather & a boat the old man bought him as a kid. 21/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
He still wished the old man was here. Wished he still had the boat. You'll never stop missing the people you love, Mr. Rogers said. 23/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
He didn't have either now, but he had that work ethic, that knowledge that the old man encouraged with his gift. 25/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
Finally, I said thank you. And apologized if I made him late for an appointment. "Sometimes you're right where you need to be," he said. 27/
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
I never saw him again. But that "helper" quote? That's authentic. That's who he was. For real. 29/ pic.twitter.com/VQ6vt6Lr3c
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) May 23, 2017
Related: 9 times Mister Rogers said exactly the right thing (Vox)
