"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" indeed in the life of Mister Fred Rogers. Won't You Be My Neighbor? is a documentary not meant to push any agendas, not meant to scandalize a household name, not even meant to be groundbreaking. It is a simple reveal into why Mister Rogers worked the way he did with some funny, downright touching, behind-the-scenes stories.
For those of you who do not know, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was a children’s show on PBS that aired from 1968 until 2001. I was never a huge fan of the show personally, but I could never deny why it was such a stable for so many childhoods. It was a calming escape that managed to teach kids about tough subjects in an age-appropriate, comprehensible manner. Plus, Mister Rogers always seemed like a genuine adult who took kids seriously, which I remember being a rarity even before I was old enough to articulate it.
The audience would just relax with Mister Rogers in his house, take a trip to “Make-Believe Land” where they would have fun, and learn a lesson about love and the importance of treating people with decency. Sometimes, the lessons would be laced with what was going on in the news at the time. One of the examples this documentary portrays is the episode where one of the puppets in “Make-Believe Land”, Daniel, asks what the word “Assassination” means because of the, then-recent, assassination of Robert Kennedy. The movie shows this example with loving admiration; not only because it acknowledges children need to know the answers to these kinds of questions, but for the fact that the show answers the question with as much seriousness and sincerity as it would with an adult.
This documentary is simple and effortless. It invites you in with a warm embrace, reminding the audience of the good lessons Fred Rogers taught and why he taught them. As the film reminds us, Rogers once said, “The greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they're loved and capable of loving.” Won’t You Be My Neighbor? teaches us how Rogers learned that through a, relatively lonely, childhood. As the film teaches us, he could have used the hardships of his youth against the world, yet chose not to. In the same way that we all have the power to use our experiences for the better, Mister Rogers did so, and he dedicated his life to making sure children did not have to feel alone or learn the hard way that “feelings are manageable and mentionable”.
I recommend Won’t You Be My Neighbor? if you are looking for a nice, relaxing time to pass at the movies, and I especially recommend it if you work with young children. Mister Rogers’ main goal in life was to make sure children heard on a regular basis “I like you just as you are”. And I think that his teachings and experiences are something that mentors to young children, whatever the capacity, can benefit from.
PS: A little anecdote for y’all. I had this friend whose last name is Rogers. For the sake of his privacy, we’ll call him Ed. Ed was in middle school when Mister Rogers died, and since the two of them share a last name, he thought he would use it to his advantage. Ed put on his best sad face for each of his teachers, and managed to convince them that he was related to the famous Mister Rogers, thus almost earning a few nights of no homework. However, one of the teachers called his parents to offer their sympathies, and his victory was short-lasted. Nevertheless, a noble effort Mister Ed Rogers J
