KIRBY: Mr. Rogers a Man of Goodness, Mr. Rogers No Skeletor -- Thankfully

The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | March 1, 2003 | ROBERT KIRBY

[MadIvan]

I never thought the day would come when I would admit to missing Mr. Rogers. But here it is. Fred Rogers died Thursday. Bummer.

Back when I was a cop, I used to come home from work and watch "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" with my kids. Not at first though.

Initially, I refused to believe that anyone, never mind kids with the attention span of a weasel on meth, could sit through two minutes of "Howdy, Neighbor." But mine did.

In the beginning it was a fight. I would come home depressed and surly and say, "Let's watch 'Masters of the Universe,' " a violent cartoon depicting scantily clad folks thwarting the evil overlord Skeletor.

But the kids preferred Mr. Rogers. So we battled. They would hide the remote control or stand in front of the TV until I said, "Does daddy need to go get Mr. Mace again?"

As it so often happened back then, my wife would come into the room and settle things in favor of the kids. So, we watched Mr. Rogers.

At first I suspected Fred Rogers of being some kind of weirdo to behave the way he did on television. I mean what kind of a guy sings to kids while hanging up his sweater?

Not me, certainly. I was doing great if I came in the door and yelled at the kids while slinging my gear into a corner.

I wondered if the reason I hated Mr. Rogers was because I was an adult. Later, I wondered if it was because he bored me worse than church. I finally realized that I was just out of touch with plain old goodness.

We went on field trips with Mr. Rogers. Mostly we hung out in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, but once we went to a Crayola factory. We also went to a bakery, a pet shop, a fire station and a swimming pool. We learned cool stuff.

After a while I started finding Lady Aberlin attractive and thinking that Handyman Negri might actually be a handy guy to know. I never warmed up to Mr. McFeely though. Something about that name that made me pretend to fire my duty weapon at him every time he came on the screen.

Over time, my kids and I began to speak in "Roger-ese," saying stuff like, "Won't you be mine?" and "It's meow meow time for dinner meow."

I even incorporated Mr. Rogers into my field sobriety tests at work, routinely asking drunk drivers if Henrietta Pussycat was a mouse or a dog? The ones who got it wrong rode the Magic Trolley straight to jail.

Eventually, I got to the point where I looked forward to watching Mr. Rogers with my kids. It was great decompression for a guy who spent the previous 10 hours either being Skeletor or punching him out for real.

I can think of worse ways to spend an afternoon than with three warm kids in the Land of Make-Believe, trying to figure out what a bunch of puppets are doing with a baby platypus.

Fortunately, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" continues in reruns.

Maybe the day will come when I hear my grandkids say, "Grandma! Grandpa is shooting the speedy delivery man again."

[MadIvan]

I thought this was a rather nice tribute; I have seen the Mr. Rogers programme myself, it seemed something that television is rarely these days - perfectly harmless.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[billorites]

I've always been a little worried about Mr. McFeely.

[Happygal]

Well, the Bear in the Big Blue House is pretty good..for a bear! :-)

But nice post! :-)

[Cicero]

I always liked Mr. Rogers myself, but my kids were taught to make fun of him by their friends. Mr. Rogers wasn't cool. So they stopped watching it at an early age.

Marshall McLuhan rightly said that with television, the medium is the message. Which is to say that it teaches everyone who watches too much of it to think in visually violent ten-second sound bites and quick, constant visual cuts. It decreases the attention span of children. That's pretty much regardless of what the program happens to be "about."

I liked Sesame Street, which ran in the same years as Mr. Rogers, but Sesame Street was, actually, visually violent. It catered to and cultivated a short attention span.

Mr. Rogers was the one exception to all the TV I've ever seen. Sweet, calm, kind, and never visually violent or jerky or full of montages and surprises. It bored a lot of people because the medium was basically slow and continuous, like life, and they preferred jerky 10-second sound bites, abrupt cuts in the video, and constant bursts of canned laughter.

[Amelia]

I liked Sesame Street, which ran in the same years as Mr. Rogers, but Sesame Street was, actually, visually violent. It catered to and cultivated a short attention span.

There is some research to suggest that letting children watch shows like that increases the incidence of ADHD, etc.

Small children seem to love Mr. Rogers, it's their parents (as this article shows) who are skeptical...

[prairiebreeze]

For small children even pre-toddlers, the show was great. My daughter always ran to the TV with her blankie whenever she heard the ring of the trolley. She tried to snap her fingers when Mr. Rodgers did at the end of the show. As she grew older she turned to Sesame Street. But Mr. Rodgers is a show that IMO is great for young kids.

God rest Fred Rodgers.

Prairie

[glock rocks]

McFeeley is Fred Rogers' middle name.

[livius]

My husband and I were houseparents in a group home for retarded adults many years ago. The residents would come home from the sheltered workshop all wound up - loud, fighting, unable to settle down. They got home about the same time that Mr. Rogers came on, and one day, one of my small children happened to have the TV on, tuned to Mr. Rogers, when the residents trooped in. They all came in, sat down and watched absolutely enthralled for the whole program. No fighting, no yelling, nothing but blessed silence and smiles.

This became an afternoon ritual. I was always completely stunned by the effect Mr. Rogers' calm tone, mild delivery, and really pleasant program content had on our residents. I used to watch it with them, and I must admit, it had a calming effect on me, too!

[TomSmedley]

I was always completely stunned by the effect Mr. Rogers' calm tone, mild delivery, and really pleasant program content had on our residents.

I heard a writer for Esquire say on NPR that Mr. Rogers typically spent more than an hour a day in prayer. (Talk about one surprise packaged inside another!) Talk about focus, paying full attention to a mission, and carrying it out over decades!

[livius]

Mr. Rogers typically spent more than an hour a day in prayer.

That is definitely a surprise! You used the word "focus," and that was another thing that I always thought of with his programs: he was very "focused," somehow. Now I know what he was focused on...

[truthandlife]

I think you will like this article:

Everything I know about ministry I learned from Mister Rogers

[LiteKeeper]

mega-dittoes

[Vic3O3]

Mr Rogers ping...