Won’t You Be My Neighbor? An Offer Too Good to Refuse

By Katherine Monk

In the first month Mr. Rogers took to the air in 1968, it addressed the war in Vietnam and racial segregation — with puppets and a baby pool. By 1969, Fred Rogers was testifying before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on behalf of public television.

And you thought he was just the goofy fella in the coloured cardigans. Thanks to Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom), we get everything but the full Monty in this new documentary portrait. Taking us right down to the literal and proverbial Speedo, Neville unzips the nondescript knitwear to show us the side of Fred Rogers we always suspected was there, lurking behind the fake castle and falsetto voices. It had to be some different sort of grown-up, that’s for sure.

Taking us right down to the literal and proverbial Speedo, Neville unzips the nondescript knitwear to show us the side of Fred Rogers we always suspected was there, lurking behind the fake castle and falsetto voices. It had to be some different sort of grown-up, that’s for sure.

Indeed, Fred Rogers was not like the other boys. He liked being alone, making up his own fantasies and thinking about the nature of kindness. When he grew up, he wanted to be a man of god — and enrolled in theology. He was also fascinated by the emerging field of early childhood development, and when he became conscious of television’s potential, he reached out to the local Pittsburgh public broadcaster.

Fred Rogers testifies before the US Senate Commerce Committee on behalf of public television. “I think it’s much more dramatic that two men could be working out their feelings of anger… than gunfire.” See the whole clip.

The rest is Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood history. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? opens the door to every bit of the pasteboard kingdom and pokes its fingers into the puppets that inhabited North America’s collective childhood. We learn how each character was a reflection of Fred himself, especially Daniel the tiger, the shyest and most anxious of all. It also stretches a hand into that famous foyer closet, and rummages around in the hopes of finding something stashed away.

It goes there. It also touches on the spoofs and send-ups, all parodying the gentle tone and child-oriented simplifications of complex adult truths.

What makes Neville’s film so successful is how he shows us the very things we mocked Fred Rogers for were the very things that made him such a hero. The man understood children lived in a slightly different world, where anxiety was a constant. Using a soothing cadence and earnest approach, Rogers would try to defuse that ambient noise with explanations and endless patience.

What makes Neville’s film so successful is how he shows us the very things we mocked Fred Rogers for were the very things that made him such a hero. The man understood children lived in a slightly different world, where anxiety was a constant.

He told every child they were special. They were worthy of love. They deserved to be listened to. Watching him testify before the Senate’s sour-faced chairman proves just how well he could reach out to the inner child, no matter how many bitter coats of experience button it away. His goofiness was steeped in goodness. His goodness steeped in soul.

Someone so pure seems to defy the imagination these days. Yet, it seems Fred Rogers really was that odd creature among us — the man who preaches love, exercises patience and speaks truth to power when the moment demands it.

The only thing he found truly frustrating was how he was perceived by the grown-up world, and its over-simplification of his clearly complex character. This movie will certainly let his ghost rest in peace. Not only because it shows us the whole man, but because it inspires us to keep his spirit alive in the very invitation, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

@katherinemonk

THE EX-PRESS, June 19, 2018

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