DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
With His Film Playing in Your Neighborhood, It's Time to Remember Mister Rogers
November 28, 2019  | By Mike Hughes  | 1 comment
 


TV critics are used to pomp and hype, to overstuffed praise for shows in development.

So it's refreshing when we get the opposite: That was the day Fred Rogers showed up to the Television Critics Association (TCA) Press Tour.

It springs to mind now – almost 22 years later – because of the odd (and oddly wonderful) movie, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Here is Tom Hanks playing a gentle man who happened to be an important TV producer-writer-composer-star; people might wonder: Was Rogers really like that?

Apparently. And that's what we got that January day in 1998.

The previous summer, the TCA had given Rogers its Career Achievement Award. Now he was 69, and PBS had brought him back to the TCA to mark a sort of milestone.

"For 30 years on PBS, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood has personified a place where caring and consideration for others instills good feelings," said Kathy Quattrone, the PBS programming chief.

(The number "30" was somewhat arbitrary. At that point, his 28th season was about to begin, sandwiching a two-year break. But he had also spent 14 previous seasons on public-TV in Pittsburgh and Canada.)

He was supposed to simply answer TCA questions. Instead, Rogers read a magnificent essay.

"Early last month," he said, "a small, 14-year-old boy in West Paducah, Kentucky, said to his classmates: 'Something big is going to happen.'

"A week later, that boy walked into school with earplugs in his ears and a gun in his hand, and he shot and killed three people and injured even more. That was his 'something big.'

"When I hear that story and others like it, I wonder how much our society has encouraged children to idolize the big and the flashy and the loud."

Rogers talked about a TV interview he had seen: A race driver wanted to discuss deeper things; the interviewer only wanted to discuss speed and money.

People, Rogers said, should "celebrate life and the goodness of it… But how do we celebrate? By telling our own story and encouraging others to tell theirs – not insisting that they talk about 198 miles an hour and a $2 million prize when they're aching to share their discovery of the slow and the small."

He told of pianist Andre Watts' joy in playing a quiet Franz Lizst piece. "Lizst composed some of the flashiest, loudest compositions in the piano repertoire. And yet it's this little, quiet piece which obviously nourishes Andre's spirit.

"There have been, and continue to be, programs which encourage people to believe that big is best. That loud is necessary. And that violence and cruelty are how we human beings solve our problems.

"You and I must do all we can to encourage the producers and purveyors of all mass media to help us raise children who will reject violence and cruelty – (who can) say to their families and their friends, enthusiastically and without a trace of apology, 'something little is going to happen.'"

Rogers would make four more mini-seasons, adding 45 new episodes, for a final total of 912. The last new one aired on Aug. 31, 2001… Eleven days before the world saw the opposite of his gentle philosophy. He died of stomach cancer at 74, in 2003, but his neighborhood keeps returning.

In 2012, the animated Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood debuted. Talking to the TCA, Joanne Rogers recalled an alternative side of her late husband. "He was whimsical, and he loved to be silly, and so do I. Really. I mean, we really were silly people."

And in 2018-19, more attention came – two documentaries (one in theaters, one on PBS) and now the Hanks movie. Things came full-circle.

Back in 1998, Rogers talked about cellist Yo-Yo Ma, "the most other-oriented genius I've ever known… When I hear him play, I'm convinced that he is in touch with the very heart of the eternal."

And 20 years later, Nicholas Ma – who had performed on the show with his dad – produced PBS' film. He told the TCA about "the courage (Rogers) instilled in children, whether they were in a wheelchair or, in my case, terrified of performing with my dad." Fear was conquered; kindness prevailed.

 
 
 
 
 
Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)
 
 Name (required)
 
 Email (required) (will not be published)
 
DDBRD
Type in the verification word shown on the image.
 
 
 Page: 1 of 1  | Go to page: 
1 Comments
 
 
mirandaford
Hello students. Looking for professional writing help? Your search ends here. A great site to research paper writers hire is https://hirepaperwriters.com/ who will provide high quality papers that suit your needs. With a team of experts, academic excellence and timely submission of applications are guaranteed. Be sure to use this site. Improve your writing game!
Nov 6, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
 
 Page: 1 of 1  | Go to page: