“The child is in me still and sometimes not so still”
March 20, 2018 11:44 AM   Subscribe

On what would have been his 90th birthday, Focus Features has dropped the first official trailer for a new documentary about Fred Rogers’ life and legacy: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom), Won’t You Be My Neighbor? features interviews with cast members from his acclaimed PBS children’s show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood — including Elizabeth Seamans (Mrs. McFeely) and François Clemmons (Officer Clemmons).

Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom), Won’t You Be My Neighbor? features interviews with cast members from his acclaimed PBS children’s show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood — including Elizabeth Seamans (Mrs. McFeely) and François Clemmons (Officer Clemmons).

Archival footage from the show as well as conversations with producer Margy Whitmer and rare interviews with Rogers himself — who died in 2003 at the age of 74 — will also color the documentary.
posted by not_the_water (85 comments total) 66 users marked this as a favorite
 
Dear Academy:

How about we just save everyone some time and you announce right now that this will be the winner for the Best Full-Length Documentary Oscar next year, because everyone knows already that that's what's going to happen.

Thanks.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:48 AM on March 20, 2018 [34 favorites]


Crying at my desk 30 seconds into the trailer. I love and miss Mr. Rogers so much.
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 11:51 AM on March 20, 2018 [49 favorites]


It had better be the Best Full-Length Documentary Oscar, or you Academy fuckos are up against the wall thirty seconds after they open the envelope.

Wait. That's not the right thing to say, given the context. I guess this dust in my eyes is making me cranky...
posted by Samizdata at 11:56 AM on March 20, 2018 [4 favorites]




How is it possible for someone to live to 74 and still die so, so young?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:19 PM on March 20, 2018 [33 favorites]


CRYING!
posted by k8t at 12:20 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I just watched the trailer and the only thing I want to know -- the only thing in the world that I care about right now -- is how she answers the kitty who asks what assassination is. How does she answer the kitty? How do you DO that? I want to know. I have to know. Poor, confused, assassination kitty. I want to help.
posted by The Bellman at 12:20 PM on March 20, 2018 [10 favorites]


To the extent that I have any celebrity role models, it's Mister Rogers. When I'm being my best me, I'm trying hard to channel my inner Fred Rogers.
posted by DingoMutt at 12:23 PM on March 20, 2018 [8 favorites]


I just watched the trailer and the only thing I want to know -- the only thing in the world that I care about right now -- is how she answers the kitty who asks what assassination is.

I was similarly curious. The recap of that episode is here and is kind of fascinating.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:26 PM on March 20, 2018 [10 favorites]


Meanwhile, the feature film starring Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, based on the now-famous Tom Junod GQ article continues apace as production details for this fall's shooting have been announced.
posted by briank at 12:30 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


He was OK, but were there ping-pong balls falling over his head? I think not.
posted by thelonius at 12:31 PM on March 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


Don't forget that Twitch.tv is airing 90 'favorite' episodes of Mister Rogers for his birthday, starting today! And when that wraps up they're going to air all the episodes! This is pretty much all that will be playing at the DingoHousehold for the next several weeks.
posted by DingoMutt at 12:33 PM on March 20, 2018 [15 favorites]


Is this the one that was on PBS the other day? I suddenly love Michael Keaton right now.

So glad they're re-airing All The Episodes again...I missed too many of them the first time around, and this is Very Important.
posted by Melismata at 12:42 PM on March 20, 2018


I saw a great meme the other day about how Mr Rogers is (one version of) what non-toxic masculinity looks like. Amen.
posted by lunasol at 12:48 PM on March 20, 2018 [31 favorites]


After you watch the trailer, here's a clip from 1999 when Jeff Erlanger, the boy in the wheelchair, returns to honor Mr. Rogers as an adult.

Such good neighbors.


Here's the original segment with Jeff Erlinger, too. It's special.
posted by AgentRocket at 12:48 PM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


I wish my goddamned neighbors would stop cutting onions
posted by Philipschall at 12:57 PM on March 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


I am probably going to cry throughout the whole dang thing. My only concern is that they might portray him as a singular godlike person rather than an epitome of what we all can do. Fingers crossed.
posted by rhizome at 1:06 PM on March 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


Watching that original Jeff Erlinger segment, it is quite interesting how Mr. Rogers focused on Jeff the person. He didn't offer to help Jeff do anything at all, either, leading with the true assumption that Jeff was/is quite capable all by himself. He gets down on Jeff's level, but otherwise seems to ask empowering questions, and showcases some of Jeff's skills.
posted by jillithd at 1:07 PM on March 20, 2018 [7 favorites]


Mister Rogers defends PBS funding before the Senate is always worth a rewatch.

What really struck me this time was the sheer perfection of hitting blustery angry Important Men with "what do you do with the mad that you feel?"
posted by Drastic at 1:08 PM on March 20, 2018 [22 favorites]


The pride of Pittsburgh.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:17 PM on March 20, 2018 [13 favorites]


For the love of Pete, I came to the Blue to find an Actifry recipe for Brussel sprouts and now I'm crying my goddamn face off.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:28 PM on March 20, 2018 [15 favorites]


Did Mr. Rogers ever say "yinz" on the show?
posted by rhizome at 1:28 PM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I just watched the trailer and the only thing I want to know -- the only thing in the world that I care about right now -- is how she answers the kitty who asks what assassination is.

I was similarly curious. The recap of that episode is here and is kind of fascinating.

You can watch it.

The answer is somebody getting killed in a sort of surprise way.

It's a very sweet episode, but almost unbearably painful.
posted by maxsparber at 1:30 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


Mr. Rogers in 2011, speaking to adults:

"I'm just so proud of all of you who have grown up with all of us, and I know how tough it is some days to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead. But I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger - I like you just the way you are.... Its such a good feeling to know that we're lifelong friends."
posted by anastasiav at 1:47 PM on March 20, 2018 [14 favorites]


Did Mr. Rogers ever say "yinz" on the show?

He was from Latrobe, home of the glass-lined tanks.

Although it isn't on the neighborhoodarchive.com site, the sheet music for Won't You Be My Neighbor and a few other songs is available on the PBS site.
posted by lagomorphius at 1:53 PM on March 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


All this beautiful Mr Rogers stuff is so well-timed. When the world is so batshit, and I'm exhausted from resisting, and we're about to get the 4th Nor'easter in three weeks, here's a friendly neighbor inviting you to rest your feet in his kiddie pool (I couldn't find a clip) and telling you "When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed." I wrote that quote in my dayplanner a few weeks ago so I'd always have it with me. MeFites, thank you for being my neighbors.
posted by Ruki at 1:56 PM on March 20, 2018 [41 favorites]


Did Mr. Rogers ever say "yinz" on the show?

He grew up in Latrobe, PA which is outside the hardcore Pittsburghese Yinz Zone, so probably not. You can definitely catch some spectacular Pittsburgh accents during the segments where he goes out to meet people in the community.

I'm one degree of separation from Fred Rogers (a lot of Pittsburghers are) and it's hard to disentangle my feelings about him from my feelings about my entire community. And I don't think I'm alone in that. There are reminders everywhere of Fred Rogers. The building he lived in (blocks from the WQED studios), statues, memorials (the big official one down on the North Shore is hideous but also includes an audio track of his songs and messages and it will make you cry even as you're horrified by the actual statue), permanent museum exhibits and displays, artifacts. You'll just be driving around and you'll get a reminder that you're special, and you're loved just the way you are. it keeps me honest.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:57 PM on March 20, 2018 [28 favorites]


I like Mr. Rogers as a kid, but in truth he's been a much, much bigger gift to me as an adult.
Thank you Fred, and happy birthday.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 2:01 PM on March 20, 2018 [30 favorites]


The dark pall that today's school shooting in Maryland cast over my office is lifting (or at least shifting) after watching this
posted by Hermione Granger at 2:04 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


Like so many people, I love revisiting Mr. Rogers and his neighborhood. It's unmixed goodness, and it makes my heart glad.

However. I have discovered that an alarming number of younger folk - people who didn't grow up with him at all - find him creepy. They tell me to my face that they would never trust their children with a man like that. They often cite rumors they can't seem to find citations for. They believe something terrible about him is waiting to be exposed.

I really don't have an answer for their apprehensions. And that makes me sad.
posted by Caxton1476 at 2:11 PM on March 20, 2018 [5 favorites]


Caxton1476 -- I wonder whether some of that is due to Bill Cosby's crimes? TBH I don't really want to know what rumors people have started about him. I don't put Rogers on a total pedestal but I do still see him as a bastion of peace whereas I never felt that way about Cosby.
posted by Hermione Granger at 2:18 PM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


However. I have discovered that an alarming number of younger folk - people who didn't grow up with him at all - find him creepy. They tell me to my face that they would never trust their children with a man like that. They often cite rumors they can't seem to find citations for. They believe something terrible about him is waiting to be exposed.

I grew up with Mr Rogers, but if a similar show were to air now, I'd distrust it, too. They grew up with the scandals, so it would be hard to imagine someone who genuinely did care for children in the way Fred Rogers did.
posted by Ruki at 2:19 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


This classic comment from a previous Mr Rogers thread is evergreen apropos to the "creepy" thing.
I think I know why he strikes people as creepy. It's because his isn't at all 'cool'. There is no cynicism, no irony, no condescension in him at all. He is not simply unhip, he is ahip. And this is what people calling him creepy are picking up on.
posted by Drastic at 2:26 PM on March 20, 2018 [38 favorites]


I got to see this at the Portland International Film Festival a few weeks back. It’s really great. They talk about how Daniel Striped Tiger basically is Fred Rogers, and there’s this really sweet scene where you see Daniel talking with Lady Aberlin, and you realize that it’s just Mr. Rogers voicing some of his own fears/concerns with her.
Really, really beautiful.
posted by blueberry at 2:33 PM on March 20, 2018 [10 favorites]


I just watched the trailer and the only thing I want to know -- the only thing in the world that I care about right now -- is how she answers the kitty who asks what assassination is.

King Friday pops up and makes shadowy allusions to the Illuminati and the Cubans.
posted by dr_dank at 3:30 PM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


Obligatory “Can You Say Hero?” previous post that I can’t believe no one linked here.

Read that if you haven’t. It’s the best thing. I’ve read it at least half a dozen times and I cry every time.

Mr. Rogers may be the best famous man we ever produced. Maybe the best man, period. I want to be like him and yet I am so very much not.
posted by middleclasstool at 3:44 PM on March 20, 2018 [11 favorites]


They've brought Mister Rogers Neighborhood back to the PBS kids app in anticipation of this, I think. I put on an episode for my 2 and 6 year old last night and despite their usual preference of loud and irreverent cartoons, they were both immediately enthralled. When the episode ended they demanded more and were sad it was bed time. Both are big fans of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, which is a show produced by the Fred Rogers Company which carries over a lot of the songs and talk about emotions, but nothing compares to Mister Rogers.
posted by sleeping bear at 3:46 PM on March 20, 2018 [13 favorites]


I'm not going to lie. In this era of all the celebrity failings and scandals, I deeply deeply fear that someone will uncover something bad about Mr. Rogers. I don't know if I could handle that.
posted by drewbage1847 at 4:12 PM on March 20, 2018 [7 favorites]


Drewbage, one day back in 1979, Mr. Rogers was cut off while driving on the freeway and he scowled (scowled!) and muttered, sotto voce, "wishing you a slightly less than terrific day".
posted by parki at 4:29 PM on March 20, 2018 [22 favorites]


Snopes is going to find that rumor false - Pittsburgh doesn't have freeways!
posted by Chrysostom at 4:37 PM on March 20, 2018 [5 favorites]


Obligatory xkcd link.
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 4:46 PM on March 20, 2018 [11 favorites]


Oh! And thanks for letting me know today is Mr Rogers' birthday. It's also one of my closest friend's birthday, so I left her a FB comment letting her know of the connection with a video of "You are my friend." It was, to put it mildly, very well received.
posted by Ruki at 4:50 PM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


Mr. Rogers wouldn't like any of you to engage in misogyny or toxic masculinity, so just say "this is making me cry" instead of "it is dusty here" or "there are onions here."

Implying that crying is only for the weak (and by "the weak" you mean "girls") is incredibly anti-Rogersian.
posted by tzikeh at 5:04 PM on March 20, 2018 [47 favorites]


When I was in school, there were people convinced that Fred Rogers was a sniper in Vietnam or some other crazy macho bullshit. Now granted, Bob Ross was in the Air Force so that might be the source of the rumor, but it's not anywhere near the same.

Many years ago I remember seeing him on 60 Minutes and he spent a lot of time talking about silence and the importance of it. And this was before everybody had a cell phone.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 5:13 PM on March 20, 2018 [6 favorites]


Implying that crying is only for the weak (and by "the weak" you mean "girls") is incredibly anti-Rogersian.

This is an excellent point. I just realized yesterday that my instinct if I get choked up while reading something moving to my kids is to try to contain it. And that’s not just stupid, it’s teaching them a harmful and wrong lesson about feelings.
posted by middleclasstool at 5:21 PM on March 20, 2018 [12 favorites]


"Fred Rogers was a sniper in Vietnam" is perfectly hilarious; it all makes sense now.
posted by parki at 5:22 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I won't even entertain conversations in which Mr. Rogers is referred to as "creepy" or having a shady or violent past. It's funny how people stop joking around when you unexpectedly get all serious about something.

In my estimation he's one of the greatest human beings that has ever existed and am glad to have been alive at the same time as he was and that he was a part of my life, even if only over the television.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 5:25 PM on March 20, 2018 [27 favorites]


I think the 'sense of creepy' thing is that we as a culture don't know what to do with that level of earnestness in an adult. It's *daunting* and hard to believe that we have the same capacity, if we're brave.

I'm not sure I'll ever be that brave.
posted by Space Kitty at 5:36 PM on March 20, 2018 [34 favorites]


I run in hip, ironic, lefty circles and Mr. Rogers is one of the few agreed upon Good. Happy birthday, Mr. Rogers, and thank you.
posted by mmmbacon at 5:46 PM on March 20, 2018 [6 favorites]


Linking to it again because I love this story:

This is one of an actor acquaintance's best-loved Facebook photos by far. As he tells it - he went to the same preschool as the girl who was "Mr. McFeely's" daughter, and one day the class was on a trip to an art museum and they happened to bump into Fred Rogers, who was there on his day off. He joined the kids for the rest of their trip, just sort of hanging out and talking art with them all. Someone had the presence of mind to get this picture and send him home with it.

His father later worked with the show, and he reports "he went to the trouble of having two precise replicas of his own office chair made to scale for small children, so when kids came to his office they would have an equally important looking place to sit."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:55 PM on March 20, 2018 [16 favorites]


I’m in my 50s and vividly remember regularly watching and loving Mr. Rogers. He has always been the epitome of kindness and gentleness to me.
I really don’t think I could bear it if any sort of scandal ever came to light about him.
posted by bookmammal at 5:55 PM on March 20, 2018 [6 favorites]


Let's do this

I still have friends with whom I can quip "meowmeow kitty meowmeow."
posted by rhizome at 5:59 PM on March 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


Do we have any comparable figures in modern children's media? Anyone even in the same galaxy as Mr. Rogers?

I hope so, but I sure doubt it.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 6:51 PM on March 20, 2018


I think the impulse to find Mr. Rogers creepy is understandable, if misguided. We live in a predatory culture and carry the trauma of that with us, and so it’s both reflexive and generally adaptive to mistrust someone who presents as so straightforwardly kind. Part of fighting against that culture of predation, though, is to acknowledge the possibility that a person can transcend it via exerting the willpower to choose to do good at every opportunity. I really like the comment above by rhizome hoping that the documentary doesn’t deify him, because I doubt that it’s easy, whatever your baseline disposition, to exert that willpower so consistently. It’s evident to me that Mr. Rogers did the work, and a lot of it, and that’s something that’s very accessible. Not easy (I don’t think my track record is particularly outstanding on that score), but accessible. That’s why he’s such a great role model: he’s not some genetically gifted, Olympian hero of goodness, he’s just a guy who worked really hard at every juncture to take the kindest path.
posted by invitapriore at 8:03 PM on March 20, 2018 [18 favorites]


My pet theory is that Christ came back, decided to scrub the whole 'Rapture' idea, and called himself Fred Rogers.

I think Fred Rogers was a bodhisattva. And he's one of the few people I'm not worried that bad things will come to light about later.
posted by Lexica at 8:39 PM on March 20, 2018 [26 favorites]


I grew up watching Fred Rogers on television. Like, literally all my life. I continue to seek him out when I'm not feeling well and am at home during the day.

My Fred Rogers memory -- he was on Dianne Rehm and she asked him close to the end of the program how he was feeling and he said he had "a bit of a tummy ache". Just a few months later he was dead of stomach cancer.

He was kind until the end, even expressing his distress in the least distressing way possible.
posted by hippybear at 8:49 PM on March 20, 2018 [7 favorites]


^^^ hippybear, I can just hear Mr. Rogers saying this, in exactly those words, and I'm tearing up. What a good, kind man he was.

(I grew up watching "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," too -- his show and "Sesame Street" got off the ground when I was a preschooler, in the late '60s-early '70s. Lots of fond memories.)
posted by virago at 8:59 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


virago: cohorts indeed. I don't even think my parents knew the lessons I was being taught by PBS. They seem surprised by the adult I've grown into today. (I'm 50)
posted by hippybear at 9:01 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I think Fred Rogers was a bodhisattva.

Sounds about right to me.
posted by praemunire at 9:15 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


All I know is, he taught me all that is right about the world, and then the world utterly disappointed me by being so cruel and unfair and wrong.

So yay Fred, and boo World!
posted by hippybear at 9:53 PM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


> hippybear:
"All I know is, he taught me all that is right about the world, and then the world utterly disappointed me by being so cruel and unfair and wrong.

So yay Fred, and boo World!"


So, all you can do is put your Fred lessons to work to make a more Fred world.
posted by Samizdata at 10:36 PM on March 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


> tzikeh:
"Mr. Rogers wouldn't like any of you to engage in misogyny or toxic masculinity, so just say "this is making me cry" instead of "it is dusty here" or "there are onions here."

Implying that crying is only for the weak (and by "the weak" you mean "girls") is incredibly anti-Rogersian."


No. I just don't like crying and I have stuff to do that doesn't involve tears and their invariable companion snot all over the place. I do NOT cry gracefully. So, pointing fingers and accusing people falsely of bad acts as well as complaining about people using a long running previously accepted running joke here is not something that I think is a very Fred act either. Have a good day!
posted by Samizdata at 10:59 PM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


My dad just reminded me that the reason we (meaning me, my dad, and my mom) use "meow meow" as hello, goodbye, and I love you is because Mr. Rogers did. We never quite ventured into hugga-mugga mode, but I think I will should I be blessed enough to have little ones in my life for whom that is comforting.
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:04 AM on March 21, 2018


> My pet theory is that Christ came back, decided to scrub the whole 'Rapture' idea, and called himself Fred Rogers.

I think Fred Rogers was a bodhisattva.


Or maybe one of the Tzadikim.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:04 AM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


I love the shot in the trailer where the model neighborhood dissolves into an overhead shot of an actual Pittsburgh neighborhood. Sometimes you really do feel like you're living in Mr. Roger's neighborhood when you live here. We really do know everyone on our street and if we're sitting on our porch in the summer, random neighbors will show and hang out for a while.
posted by octothorpe at 5:11 AM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


This is one of the last pure things from my childhood that I feel good about. And I will hold on to it for as long as possible.
posted by Fizz at 6:44 AM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Mod note: Couple comments deleted; the basic point's been made, and we don't need to have an extended accusatory sidebar about how people talk about crying on Metafilter. If that has to happen it should happen in Metatalk.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 7:37 AM on March 21, 2018


I was a child of the 70s and watched Fred Rogers daily. I've always thought that my anger about injustice came from child abuse I suffered and the lack of justice I received, but perhaps some of my bent toward justice came from Mr. Rogers and that can't be bad. He is one of the only men that I can say I truly ever put trust in.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:59 AM on March 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


Tried to introduce Little Purr to Mr Rogers today (though now their current obsession is Wild Kratts), and the randomly-picked episode was a visit to the local shoe store, and talks about sharing and friendship. This particular episode amazed me because it centered around not having to share even if someone else really wanted what you had. Sometimes I think today's children's programming focuses on "share always", so we've been trying to instill more of a consent-based idea around sharing instead. The fact that Mr Rogers eloquently talked about not sharing if it is something that is "very special to you" is wonderful.

I also noticed that the pace is now glacially slow compared to most modern television. It almost seemed awkward, but it did allow for the content to breathe and for Little Purr to make their own conclusions.
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 9:13 AM on March 21, 2018 [12 favorites]


Did you see how Mr Rogers just up and climbed on stage to greet Erlanger? Reminded me of Kris Kristoferson stumbling up on stage after unexpectedly winning the CMA for “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, except Mr Rogers was drunk on love for humanity & the enthusiam of being reunited with an old friend.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:03 AM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


In 2016, François Clemmons was on StoryCorps talking about his time in the Neighborhood:
Yeah, I discovered a friend for life. I’ll never forget one day I was watching him film a session. And you know how at the end of the program he takes his sneakers off, hangs up his sweater and he says, “You make every day a special day just by being you, and I like you just the way you are?” I was looking at him when he was saying that, and he walks over to where I was standing. And I said, “Fred were you talking to me?” And he said, “Yes, I have been talking to you for years. But you heard me today.” It was like telling me I’m OK as a human being. That was one of the most meaningful experiences I’d ever had.
posted by ceejaytee at 10:49 AM on March 21, 2018 [17 favorites]


“Yes, I have been talking to you for years. But you heard me today.”

And now I'm definitely convinced that I need that book of Mr. Rogers quotations that I just discovered existed yesterday.
posted by Ruki at 2:07 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


that françois clemmons story, no matter how many times i hear it, always always always makes me tear up and gives me chills all at once. mr. rogers was so unimaginably kind in even the smallest yet unexpectedly profound ways
posted by burgerrr at 3:01 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm on a bit of a Youtube binge and came on this clip of Fred Rogers on Rosie O'Donnell's show; there's a moment where he brings out King Friday and Daniel Tiger, and there is an audible delighted gasp from the audience each time each one appears.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:27 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I am a bitterish cynic and kind of an atheist. I do not believe in the supernatural, or magic, or anything even vaguely woo.

But I believe with all my heart that Fred Rogers was an angel on earth. He seemed to possess more love and light than most, and was so, so generous with it.

(you have to make exceptions to your own rules, sometimes. shrug.)
posted by 41swans at 4:53 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


I just read that a friend and teacher of mine who worked as a photographer for Pittsburgh Magazine/WQED in the 90s contributed a lot of still images for use in this documentary including this one.
posted by octothorpe at 5:00 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I’m a bit disappointed that the story of Mr Rogers getting his car stolen, then getting it returned once the thieves realized whose car it was Is classed as “undetermined” by Snopes.com.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 5:19 PM on March 21, 2018


I’m a bit disappointed that the story of Mr Rogers getting his car stolen, then getting it returned once the thieves realized whose car it was Is classed as “undetermined” by Snopes.com.

I heard this story first-hand in Pittsburgh in the '80s while visiting a friend who lived in, um, Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. I dunno if that gives it any credibility.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:09 PM on March 21, 2018


I heard this story first-hand in Pittsburgh in the '80s while visiting a friend who lived in, um, Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. I dunno if that gives it any credibility.

Actually, now that I've spent a few minutes thinking about it, the story was far more detailed than what's on Snopes. It was a singular thief, not thieves, and it was stolen from a specific lot where Mr. Rogers parked. It was never in the news, but the thief did figure whose car it was after we starting digging through the contents, and then left a more anguished note of apology. Can't remember much more about it, but it does seem to predate all the accounts in Snopes by a couple years.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:25 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Actually, yes. That does give more credence to the story, especially the dating.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 6:43 PM on March 21, 2018


I got to see this at the Portland International Film Festival a few weeks back. It’s really great.

I also got to watch this at a film festival recently, and would definitely recommend seeing it when it's released more broadly.
posted by JiBB at 10:55 PM on March 21, 2018


His stamp is on sale today.
posted by octothorpe at 6:21 AM on March 23, 2018 [3 favorites]


Who just bought 40 Mr Rogers stamps? This gal!

Who is probably never going to need to buy stamps again in her life? THIS GAL!
posted by Ruki at 7:29 AM on March 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


Apropos of absolutely nothing: I am watching the Twitch marathon right now and am very, very happy. :)
posted by Melismata at 11:36 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]




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