“Readinv Rainbow” would have segments where they filmed real life things that coincided with the story of the episode.
Those segments could be informative to me as an adult. I remember one about a snack cake factory.
But I only watched the show because I was with someone who was the right age.
I think the only remotely valid thing I’ve seen that comes close to criticism is that he was not as present in his own kids lives as he was in those of his viewers… but if “being a working parent” is the only thing mustered up after all these years, it’s a good sign imho.
And I’ll admit I too did not enjoy him as a kid. I never met an adult like that so he seemed phoney.
I really can’t stress how much of an effect going years or decades without kindness can warp your perceptions, something I work on to this day.
These sorts of things have actually cropped up with other mild-mannered stars. Bob Ross was once a drill sergeant, for example.
There really is not much that is edgy there with Mr. Rogers. I mean, except that he had two sons, so we know he at least occasionally did the nasty.
Read the article, then dutifully reserved a copy from my local library here in Pittsburgh.
Take advantage of your local libraries, people! There is a SHIT TON of stuff they offer. For free! You can’t beat that!
(My wife works at a local library, so I’m shamelessly plugging.)
It’s not as if family / society can’t work to make certain people feel indecent, whether or not this is actually true.
Am I the only person here who sees that the “ten principles for a more Rogers-like life” is nothing more than applied Christian beliefs.
Almost all of the men in my life behaved in similar fashion when I was a kid. Love your neighbors, put yourself second to others, be honest, reach out to others and all that jazz. I just released a book about my musical adventures growing up filled with men and women abiding by those simple beliefs.
It’s not new. He didn’t invent this. You all need to maybe look back at the past honestly without Tom Hanks’ publicist making his shitty looking movie into a talking point.
You aren’t the only person here who sees that. Most people here (and, I assume, Gavin Edwards – an author and not Tom Hanks’s publicist) know that Fred Rogers was an ordained Christian minister who took those beliefs seriously and practised them to a degree that a lot of Xtianist preachers with similar levels of fame don’t (one example of many such TV preachers).
No-one is claiming that Rogers invented those principles, just that he was particularly effective in spreading them to both adults and children via a mass medium (and in a way that didn’t demand belief in the supernatural if that wasn’t one’s bag).
Yeah the article specifically mentions Rogers’s faith as the basis for everything he did so I’m not sure where your criticism is coming from, and the article is about a book that has nothing to do with the Tom Hanks film, which wasn’t even mentioned.
I’d also point out that the idea we should “Be Nice to Others” also wasn’t invented by Christians in the first place, nor do Christians have a monopoly on it in practice.
It’s something people of any culture are usually taught as a basic plank of morality, with or without a religion.
Fred Rogers was awesome, and people are right to love him. I bet he’d say nice things about your book, if he thought it could help people get along.
You grew up in an all-white suburb surrounded by all-white families going to virtually identical Christian churches, didn’t you? So everyone was SO nice to each other. That’s not real. How do people treat those who aren’t like them: that would actually be the test for how ‘Christian’ the people in your nostalgic memory actually were.
That makes me very sad. I am glad your life got better, but any child having an experience of adults like that is so sad. It is an example of my own privilege that I grew up thinking that all families were just like a Mr. Rogers show. It was only much later that I learned how very wrong I was.
You don’t need religion to treat other people well. I knew Mr. Rogers was a minister under all that, but on tv he wasn’t about religion. So where his philosophy came from doean’t really .atter. As seen on tv, we just saw how he treated people.
Oh, the horror, a Xtian who actually seemed to practice what they preach, on a consistent basis!
I can’t stand kids, and am none too fond of religion either. But I adore Mr. Rogers, especially after seeing the documentary about him a year or two ago and learning more about his life and habits beyond what I knew from his TV show as a child. The end of that documentary really got to me- if I remember right, somebody said that if he were still alive today, his heart would be breaking as he saw the hatred and bigotry rising up despite all his best efforts to spread love and understanding. But at least he left an example to follow. I may not have his gentle, kind nature inherent to me, but if I even manage to be 10% as nice as Fred Rogers, I’ll consider that a life well lived.
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