my first guest on the show today is the host of the popular children's show
mr rogers neighborhood please welcome him to our neighborhood mr fred rogers
nice of you to be here i appreciate your time um david your show uh has been on the air as
you just mentioned uh to me 15 years on pbs uh and it's different from what we think of
a children's show now uh why do you try and make it that way or who's right here
i don't know about being right or wrong all i know is that the only thing i can do is to give myself
and i feel the most important thing is just well you do it i mean you give david letterman to the
people who are watching you and well they feel your honesty and i i think that that's what the
children feel about me there's something the first time i saw the show several years ago
it it's it was so different it was a sesame street of course it was just bang bang bang bang bang
and yours was very calm and intelligent and my sister who at that time had children who watched
the show said that they the kids would sit there and nod and talk back to you on the screen uh
they talked back to me on the screen now but it's a whole different uh
whole different discussion what about uh other kind of children's shows like saturday morning
cartoons and so forth is that good for kids you think i think that that children probably
watch it a lot of television that isn't good for them i think that they watch too much television
but when there aren't alternatives it's very hard to have the the set turned off uh
i i've got some puppets maybe you'd like to ask some of them some questions why
we get a different set of notes
these are all from the neighborhood of make-believe and for some reason they were just
uh knocking on my shoulder to come out or does he know how to greet me well i think so king friday
my name is king friday the 13th mr letterman uh you ask about television uh i give the best of it
can i uh excuse me um can i go ahead and ask him something
um nice to have you on the show king oh this is a show
yeah this is as a tv i'm talking to him now tv show like uh uh what you do there in land of
make-believe yes it's the neighborhood of make-believe and i'm king freddie the 13.
as a matter of fact i could sing for you well sure that would be
do you know that little diddy propelling your craft down the stream do you know that one perhaps
your friends out there know what uh telling the crap well some people say row row row your boat
you know that yeah but yeah you know but i know i know bigger words to that
perhaps you'd like to hear a propelled propel propel your craft gently down liquid solution
ecstatically ecstatically ecstatically ecstatically existence is but an illusion
why did you ask me to come here yeah thank you very much
friday the 13th it is i i really wanted children to think of king of the king
instead of the superstitious friday the 13th and so we made a carrot we have a black pussycat
called henrietta pussycat and we have a very tame tiger daniel striped tiger who is very shy
and when children see his shyness it often helps them when they're shy you think children by nature
tend to be shy or tend to be outspoken it depends how they've been treated or how they've grown up
in their own families but daniel being very very shy himself the children will come and sometimes
he'll say that he has a new stripe and could could the children scratch his stripes
she's very very handsome hi tiger very nice well the problem is that when you meet new people
it's sometimes scary did you ever feel that way yes i do i
i mean occasionally i do i feel a little uh yeah perplexed well i just wondered if i was one of
those people who wouldn't be seen on your program no we're happy to have uh you uh and your friend
fred on the show well i guess i'm here because fred mr rogers he has played miniature golf
oh that's very nice very nice i do want to ask you one thing you mentioned the children probably
watch too much television do children enjoy watching television or is it just that it's
easier than doing something else i think we need to ask them and i i think that it has to do with
with each one personally there are some children who can
get themselves far enough away from the fantasy not to be frightened by it but there are a lot
of very frightening things on television like what would what would frighten a child well uh
something in which a an animal is taken away and hurt because they identify so within
do do you know of any studies done that would kids who watch a lot of tv what their life turns out to
be as opposed to kids who watch little tv is what i'm getting passive activity versus activity well
i just sense myself from my own sons and other children that i know that it's a lot more helpful
if they can make up their own play and that's why through the neighborhood we encourage children to
make up their own play so that the important time is after the television is turned off
that's when the program has real importance how well did it prepare them to play how well did
it help them to feel good enough about who they are that they can take the materials of the world
and make something of them and that's why we sing a song like it's you i like because i want
children to know that there are those who feel good about them just the way they are
john costa's our musical director and he's with us today you want to hear it's you i like it's you
i like it's not the things you wear it's not the way you do your hair but it's you i like
the way you are right now the way down deep inside you not the things that hide you not your toys
or your microphone they're just beside you but it's you i like every part of you
your skin your eyes your feelings whether old or new i hope that you'll remember
even when you're feeling blue that it's you i like it's you yourself it's you
it's you
i lie no matter what time of the day you're on
very nice very nice pleasure to have you here mr rogers ladies and gentlemen we'll be right back