Mr. Rogers’ Frighteningly Accurate Prescience
A Review of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” The Netflix Documentary on Mr. Rogers.
Growing up I didn’t really watch a lot of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, but I knew what it was. I was more of a nature show watcher as a kid, however, even without watching a large number of episodes it still holds a place in my heart and my memory as a safe kind of place that featured a soft-spoken, caring man who was striving to teach us all how to be better people.
When I saw this pop up on Netflix, I stuck it on “My List” and sort of waited for the right moment to watch it. I took some desperately needed downtime (after working on marketing my book series, researching for a new podcast concept, etc., you know, indie creator life) and decided watching something calming would be a good idea.
I wasn’t expecting to not only be inspired by him but along with having my ideas about creativity validated, while, at the same time, being awestruck by how truly singular Fred Rogers was.
Fred got it, got all of it, and from the moment he first saw a TV show. He instantly understood how easily and quickly visual media could (and did) become a vehicle to push consumerism, they showcase a quote from him about it no more than 20 minutes into the show.
To paraphrase, he stated that he was concerned that studios and corporations would use TV to mold kids into things designed merely to consume products, instead of people capable of handling emotions, learning, and adapting, and that TV and Film would simply ignore the complexity of childhood emotions and it’s massive power to be educational in favor of marketing and increasingly less complex narratives.
(Looks around at the plethora of ads, clickbait, faster, faster, buy now, buy now attitudes coupled with a whole crap ton of unhealthy behavior being modeled on every level of film and books.) He nailed that one. (sigh)
Throughout his entire life, Fred Rogers had a mission, and that was to help teach kids to be better human beings, learn how to deal with complex emotions, be in touch with who they are, and accepting of others. Nothing too complicated, right? Everyone should have hopped right on that same bandwagon and gotten together to model healthy behavior in an effort to raise more empathetic human beings. Oh if only.
Fred was a minister, but, and this is what I have such high respect for, he never talked about that on the show. He never pushed his religion, and never wore anything that would make people think he was linked to a church, instead he did what religious people should do, lead by example.
His entire show was filled with lessons on how to be humble, kind, understanding, and tolerant, and he did it in a way that didn’t hit you over the head or make you feel like you’re being preached at. He used the puppets and characters he created as guides to mirror whatever situation was going on in the real world and then model healthy ways to deal with it. He addressed situations like divorce, death, and tragedies that were happening in real-time.
The Challenger disaster, Robert Kennedy’s assassination, etc, and, in real-time, creating a narrative for that episode that spoke to kids in intelligent ways about how to handle whatever emotions they were dealing with, I am pretty sure the parents tuning in got a lot of help too. He also challenged so much of the racism that was going on in the early days of the show. The picture I used is an example of that.
Even in the 60s, he incorporated this character, a cop played by an African American man. The actor who played him is gay as well, but, unfortunately, that was never addressed officially in the show. However, according to all accounts from the actor who is part of the documentary, Fred was completely accepting of who he was. It just, unfortunately, wasn’t the time.
The photo is from an episode in the 60s, at a time when white people were literally dumping cleaning chemicals on blacks who were swimming in public pools to chase them out. Fred had the courage of his convictions to have a scene where he has his feet in a kiddie pool, under the pretext that it’s a hot day, and the cop walks into the frame.
Fred invites him to share the pool with him, and rest his feet, which he does and then there are repeated camera shots of Fred using the water hose to wash both his feet and the feet of the cops, a pair of black and white feet together in a pool of water.
It’s both subtle and in your face, he’s literally washing the feet of a man that half the country would happily attack and possibly kill due to the color of his skin. (watch the scene here)
We’re often told as writers to show not tell, and this is a phenomenal example of how showing something is so much more powerful than telling. He could have chosen to lecture people about how racism is wrong and demand better from white America, but people would have just tuned it out or attacked him. Instead, he chose to showcase the evils of racism through a simple act of kindness. He always felt that kindness is the most powerful force in the world.
That is one of just many examples that you see in the documentary, but then, what you also will see is how people turn against the show. People also known as right-wing hacks who live to stir up hate, who used the premise that since one of Mr. Rogers’ major tenents was that everyone is perfect just how they are, and everyone is special, he was destroying the youth by making them feel like they didn’t have to work hard to be successful.
Sound familiar? Sound like something you’ve heard that has been used to justify working 80–100 weeks to “prove your worth”. Yeah, thought you might have.
There is so much in this show that serves both as a warning and as a challenge to creators. A warning not to be sucked into doing what is financially advantageous in favor of doing what it is that is near and dear to your heart. A warning on how the power of storytelling and narrative building can be a weapon that can easily destroy instead of inspiring and challenging.
A challenge to create something that models how you want the world to be, models better behaviors, better concepts, and healthier coping mechanisms, and it is a challenge that I feel needs to be taken up by a lot more creators out there.
I went into this show thinking I would learn a few things, have a bit of a break from writing, and came out of it fired up as all hell to create more stories that showcase characters we need to see. Characters that aren’t abusive, aren’t manipulative, are strong and compassionate. Those are the characters that I want people to read, identify with, and model.
I strongly urge every creator out there to go watch this show. Seriously, it will rock your world.
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