Wednesday, February 20, 2008

40 Years of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

He was the perfect argument in favor of the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian Perfection. Although, as an ordained Presbyterian minister, he might object to that conclusion

Anyway, Neatorama has a roundup of links about Fred Rogers, including this list of 15 Reasons Why Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever:

Mister Rogers was known as one of the toughest interviews because he’d often befriend reporters, asking them tons of questions, taking pictures of them, compiling an album for them at the end of their time together, and calling them after to check in on them and hear about their families. He wasn’t concerned with himself, and genuinely loved hearing the life stories of others. Amazingly, it wasn’t just with reporters. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this. My wife is a huge Mr. Rogers fan. She'll love this list.

TN Rambler said...

Thank you Mister Rogers for being you. Thanks John for the memories.

greg milinovich said...

mr. rogers is my hero.