Well, if Mr. Rogers were alive and on TV today he would no doubt be instantly cancelled.
Want proof?
No problem, I’ve got it.
And how said is this?
I came across this old clip from Mr. Rogers on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Mr. Rogers singles his famous song “Everybody’s Fancy” and it’s a stunner.
I mean, it shouldn’t be….but I’d like you to listen to this and tell me if he’d be allowed to say this today:
As he says, it’s the second verse that carries the punch:
Boys are boys from the beginning,
Girls are girls right from the start.
It’s almost like he KNEW what was coming in society.
Then listen as he explains it to Johnny….
He says he wrote this song because sometimes children think that they might change.
That they might have to change.
And we laugh about that, says Mr. Rogers, but we need to tell them the truth.
This man was truly a visionary and such an advocate for children.
THANK YOU FRED ROGERS FOR SPEAKING TRUTH.
Oh, and did you know he was also an ordained Pastor?
Yup.
Explains a lot doesn’t it?
From Wikipedia:
Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), better known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister.[1] He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Rollins College in 1951. He began his television career at NBC in New York, returning to Pittsburgh in 1953 to work for children’s programming at NET (later PBS) television station WQED. He graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with a bachelor’s degree in divinity in 1962 and became a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He attended the University of Pittsburgh‘s Graduate School of Child Development, where he began his 30-year collaboration with child psychologist Margaret McFarland. He also helped develop the children’s shows The Children’s Corner (1955) for WQED in Pittsburgh and Misterogers (1963) in Canada for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1968, he returned to Pittsburgh and adapted the format of his Canadian series to create Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. It ran for 33 years and was critically acclaimed for focusing on children’s emotional and physical concerns, such as death, sibling rivalry, school enrollment, and divorce.
Rogers died of stomach cancer in 2003, aged 74. His work in children’s television has been widely lauded, and he received more than 40 honorary degrees and several awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. Rogers influenced many writers and producers of children’s television shows, and his broadcasts provided comfort during tragic events, even after his death.
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