TV personality and all - round nice guy rope Fred Rogers is the subject ofa popular documentaryandnew picture starring Tom Hanks . But there was more to Mister Rogers than was seen on idiot box . Here are five thing you might not know about him .
1. He Had a Lonely Childhood
Fred Rogers was an only fry until he was 11 — a shy , chubby outsider who was browbeat by other fry . In the Scripture " I ’m Proud of You , " author Tim Madigan tells how Rogers ' life was turned around by a popular high-pitched school schoolfellow named Jim Stumbaugh . Stumbaugh was an jock who was injured and laid up in the infirmary and Rogers volunteered to take him his schoolbooks . At the shoal ’s fiftieth year course reunification , Rogers recalled in a speech how their friendly relationship free him . " There he was , probably the substantially - screw , smartest , most active person in our grade and he welcomed me daytime after daylight . And what ’s more , he seemed to want to get to know me . I learned to trust him and tell him some of my deepest flavour … By the prison term he make out of the infirmary and back to school , he was telling all of his friend that ' that Rogers kid is OK . ' In fact , he quietly included me in everything he thought I ’d like . " Rogers die on to become student council president and editor program of the yearbook " largely because I had somebody who believe in me and was n’t afraid to say so . "
2. He Originally Hated TV
Yes Quaker , Mister Rogers hated some stuff too . And one of them was television . After graduating from Rollins College with a degree in medicine competition , he worked for a few year as a floor managing director for some NBC television set shows , which he did n’t revel . " People throwing pies at each other ’s faces " just seemed " demeaning . " Rogerstold CNNthat " I got into television because I hated it so . And I thought there ’s some direction of using this fab instrument to parent those who would watch and mind . "
3. He Was an Ordained Minister
While analyze at seminary , Rogers also take off educate a show that was a herald to " Mister Rogers ' Neighborhood . " He also took classes in child development . Although he was ordained a parson in the Presbyterian church in 1962 , he never had a church of his own . He saw " Mister Rogers ' Neighborhood " as his ministry . " He believed … that he was warm enough to enter into battle withthat — that machine that medium — and to wrestle with it until it yielded to him , until the ground touched by its blue tincture became sacred and this thing called telly came to be used ' for the broadcasting of grace of God through the land , ' " Tom Junod wrote in avery famous Esquire profileof Mister Rogers .
4. He Was a Quiet Radical
Although Rogers was not out protest in the street , he was very in line with the issues of the Clarence Day . During the week that " Mister Rogers ' Neighborhood " first air in 1968 , he shared his antiwar beliefs on boob tube . That same class , he also introduced a black lineament , Francois Clemmons , as Officer Clemmons . He was the first African - American to have a recur role on a nipper ' tv set show ( " Sesame Street " debuted in 1969 . ) Clemmons at first did n’t want to take the role , as he had a negatively charged opinion of policeman . But he stop up stay for decades in the part . One famous scene has the two men resting their substructure together in a tub of water .
" The icon Fred Rogers not only was showing my brown skin in the tub with his white tegument as two friends , but as I was getting out of that vat , he was help me dry out my feet,“Clemmons recalledin an interview with NPR in 2016 .
However , the show was criticise for not accept the diversity of other children ’s idiot box show . William Penn Adair Rogers only introduced one more recurring nonage character to the neck of the woods , in 1975 . Clemmons , who was also gay , was asked by Rogers to keephis gender in the closetor else he would be transfer from the show . Clemmons went along with it but said he matt-up Rogers convert his views over fourth dimension — as did many Americans .
5. The Show Was a Model for ‘Blue’s Clues.’
Ginger Rogers saw his show as less about teaching Kyd to read and more about " instruct them to read the look on [ their ] mother ’s face,“as he once said . Many of the episodes dealt with feeling and inner worth , and the show ’s pacing was much slower than that of a distinctive fry ’s show . Angela Santomero , the creator of " Blue ’s Clues , " pronounce she modeled the pacing of her hit kids ' show off of his .
" We used to speak a lot about the pausing and pacing , and how by design slow it was . This came from Fred : When you babble out to camera , and you step it adequately , you ’re operate to lecture back to him . That ’s what I did . I mouth to him . I believed he liked me just the way that I was,“she saysin a story for Mental Floss .
