Rogers: Come in Holly
Dobkin: Hi Mr. Rogers
Rogers: Hi
Dobkin: Hi
Rogers: Your mother and your daughter are here.
Dobkin: Oh I remember
that well
Gold: I did his sweater. I told you, I think. I fixed it for him.
Kamin: My memory of Fred is
always about how very kind he was. He came up to me after one of the shows and
said I want to thank you for what you've given the children today and he was
right there he was just very very real about it
Rogers singing: A beautiful day for a neighbor, would
you be mine? Could you be mine?
Dobkin: The dedication and the seriousness of this
show was I think the thing I take
away the most from it. There was nothing left to chance, nothing taken for granted.
Every word was carefully, carefully curated.
Sharapan: The important question is not so much what can we produce for children?
What can we give them? But the really important question is what are they
bringing to us? Is who are they?
The second year that I was in grad school
Fred got funding for Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and he asked if I would help.
There was no staff. There was no pay.
This was, could this thing work? And the great thing was we were taping at night
because Johnny Costa, who was also a CMU graduate,
Johnny was music director at KDKA-TV
and he was only available in the evenings.
And I was in grad school in the
daytime learning all this complex child development theory and at night I come
into the control room sitting next to the director and watch Fred play out all
the things that I was learning about.
The mail was always the first thing that he
looked at every day when he came in and it was very important to him that he was
answering every letter that was coming in.
Kamin: You're kind to keep me posted on your
glad-tidings.
I'm so proud of you. In some ways it
seems like yesterday when we met. I can imagine what a long road you have
traveled literally and figuratively to have accomplish all that you have. You know I
continue to wish you well.
As ever, Fred.
My first appearances were as a
character, he called me Master Mr. Magic Maker.
What's happening?
King Friday: Prince Tuesday broke my statue!
Kamin: So what ... What really got me
excited about moving from the visual art that I grew up drawing ...
The doing of
magic, you know, the idea ... of course I'd trade all this stuff in and if I could
fly like Superman.
And I found it was almost impossible to do with the other
hand because of course it would keep jumping back which was just so annoying.
That was a kid pursuit I remember my mother saying you're gonna
buy all these props and it's expensive and six months from now you'll never
touch this stuff again and she was wrong because I thought I was heading for a
different life as a visual artist in a sense I became a performing visual
artist but at the core is that 12 year old kid who loves catching people
off-guard, surprising them.
I'm very fortunate that Fred, you know, recognized that.
Rogers: I was very interested in seeing this because my mother does a lot of
knitting not with the machine but she makes lots of sweaters for us.
Gold: I graduated with a BFA in graphic design and I loved packaging and so that became
my profession I ended up creating wearable art so I always said I love
packaging and now I package people. They called me and wanted to know if I would
fix one of mr. Rogers sweaters. His mother had made the sleeves too long.
I took the sleeves off and I tried hand knitting it and I couldn't get the
stitches so I put it on my knitting machine. I just loved the fact that he
was so open to so many different kinds of people. He was kind. He was careful.
He was good to everyone. He treated everyone equally.
Clemmons singing: Wade in the water. God's gonna trouble the water.
Rogers: There's Officer Clemmons. Hi Officer Clemmons. Come in!
Clemmons: Hello Mr. Rogers, how are you?
Rogers: Fine! Won't you sit down?
Clemmons: I was constantly talking with Fred about contemporary things that were going on
we were just coming through the area of intense civil rights struggle in America.
And I had marched and I was particularly sensitive to the young children in that
those swimming pools in Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Knoxville, Baton Rouge,
everywhere there were municipal pools.
An adult hated these children so much that
they were pouring these chemicals into the pool to prevent them from swimming.
And I said Fred we've got to do something! Talk to the ministers and talk
to the people at the seminary and stuff.
He said well France, I need to think about it let's see what what can we do?
Rogers: It's so warm. I was just putting some water on my feet
Clemmons: Oh, it sure is.
Rogers: Would you like to join me?
Clemmons: That looks awfully enjoyable. But I don't have a towel or anything.
Rogers: Oh you share mine.
Clemmons: Okay!
Clemmons: We're in a constant dialogue about how we grow spiritually. How we're handed
something sometimes that is too heavy for us to carry but we we get muscles
our muscles our spiritual muscles get stronger. And he said well you remember
in the Bible in the New Testament when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples
and I said yes he said well our children all over the country are gonna have a
chance to see a black man and a white man sitting here together Francois as
friends and they're going to talk about our differences but that we are still
friends with our feet in the same pool. They are going to see me telling you to
use my towel. I'm taking the brick that was discarded.
That was no use to the builder. Black. Gay. Poor. Uneducated, relatively speaking.
And who did not come with the right kind of blue blood and that's whose feet I'm
going to dry.
Rogers: I'm so proud of you Francois.
Clemmons: Oh Thank You Fred. I like being a human being right here and now.
Kamin: We haven't had enough of that kind of kindness and empathy on
the part of not just public figures but each other it's what we what we what we
can be and what we ... it's what Lincoln called our better angels. Isn't it?
Dobkin: Fred had an
enormous impact on me and how I later in my life dealt with my children and would
deal with children. Children are much much smarter than anyone gives them
credit for. He talked to children and treated them not as adults, but he gave
them the same respect.
Sharapan: What made his work so meaningful is that he was able to
combine different backgrounds and meld them into something that was his
own out of all of this.
Clemmons: I went into a Mister Rogers' Neighborhood as a boy of 24
and I was I think 55 when we filmed it the second time. He said to me you're
not a boy anymore. You are a man. I said yes.
I know and he said Francois, you will continue to grow. Come back often.
Come back to see me. You're always welcome.
And I said to him I may be leaving the
program, but I'm not leaving you.
Rogers singing: Won't you please, won't you please?
Please won't you be my neighbor?
And so we're neighbors again today.