A fond farewell to Mr. Rogers.
Fred Rogers was 74. “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood” was more of a staple of my childhood years. NOT Sesame Street. It was either Mr. Rogers or Electric Company.
What I loved about his show was that it wasn’t annoyingly edited into some fast-paced MTV-like video - it actually treated me like I had a attention span and Mr. Rogers would actually spend time with little ol’ me. He was truly a “friend of the neighborhood” that was children’s TV. He’ll be missed.
Though not a huge fan, (I liked Captain Kangaroo) I really admire the guy. He stuck with an approach he believed in, never waivered, and genuinely loved kids.
Even when parodied by guys like Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live, he thought it was funny, and took it as a complement. Though he started in the 60’s, it’s interesting to note that his show’s ratings peaked in the '85-'86 season, when there were lots of other alternatives out there.
Rest in peace, Mr. Rogers.
Indeed.
He was a staple in my morning tv arsenal, along with Mr. Wizard, Captain Kangaroo, and Sesame (sp?) Street (Fraggle Rock at nights, of course).
The 80’s were the best.
At 31, I can proudly say that I was raised on Mr. Rogers. There will never be another show like his. He had the personality, the character, the charm and nobody could ever touch him.
Can you say “cardigan”? Sure. I knew you could…
I’ll miss him too. I grew up on him and all the pbs shows. Um, I do have a question. Some one told me this and I really don’t believe it, but was he a Marine Corps sniper? The person who told me was dead serious. I know he was a minister, but not a sniper.
No, he wasn’t a sniper. There was a Fred W. Rogers enlisted in the military around the time that Mr. Rogers was young, but our Mr. Rogers’ middle initial isn’t W.
my favorite part of the show was whenever he’d feed the fishes.
You want to know what a kick in the ass is? on the same day you read that the one and only Mr Rogers has died, someone tells you that Dr seuss is dead as well. where’s the justice!
regarding Mr rogers- I remember growing up in the inner-city, gangs and bad things all around. one day a bad man tried to take my favorite tonka truck, who was it that came to my rescue and put the hurt on that bully-Mr Rogers.
And who was it who told me to stop crying and clean the piss of myself when my girlfriend left me, maimed the cat and burned down my apartment building-you bet, Mr Rogers.
most sincere wishes to a remarkable human.
porter
There was an hour long documentary on PBS last night and boy did it bring back memories. I used to grow up watching him as well. My dad and brother used to make fun of me for watching that show when I was a little kid but I didn’t care. I liked watching him. Even though he was on television, he had a way of projecting himself out to you and making you feel he was right there with you.
I had so many memories watching Mr. Rogers. I remember one time when he went to the Graham Cracker factory, I told my mom to get me Graham Crackers and that’s all I wanted to eat.
There was an episode when he went to the set of The Incredible Hulk. I remember being afraid that Lou Ferrigno would eat Mr. Rogers, but to my surprise, he was very nice to him. Hey, I was very young at that time.
And that trolly kicked ass as well. I remember there was this one puppet who used to depress the shit out of me. I forgot his name, but he looked sad all the time. Hey, I was very little at that time.
What was cool also was that model design of the neighborhood. I used to think Mr. Rogers house was inside that toy model. Ahh, the memories.