the good neighbor the life and work of fred rogers

Rogers was an emphatic and empathetic Christian who wanted to impart those values to his audience, but by the author’s account, he saw the world-or at least the show he built-with the eyes of a child and insisted that those who worked for him do the same. Raised in the hardscrabble Rust Belt, Rogers escaped, going to work as a floor manager in the early days of TV and making a mark with the 1951 production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, “a high point in NBC’s creative period.” He could have followed a path to an executive role with the network, but he returned to Pittsburgh and pioneered a different kind of TV aimed at children-different because, King writes, it actually respected its audience. An engaging story, rich in detail, The Good Neighbor is the definitive portrait of a beloved figure, cherished by multiple generations.“The man who conveyed a Zen-like calm on television saw a psychiatrist for decades.” So writes Pittsburgh-based nonprofit CEO King at one of many points in which he emphasizes that the beloved star of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was a sometimes-contradictory fellow.įred Rogers (1928-2003) was no saint, given to occasional outbursts of anger and not above a little deception in order to get out of sticky situations, as when he tried to separate himself from a company he effectively owned during a strike. Drawing on original interviews, oral histories, and archival documents, Maxwell King traces Rogers's personal, professional, and artistic life through decades of work, including a surprising decision to walk away from the show to make television for adults, only to return to the neighborhood with increasingly sophisticated episodes, written in collaboration with experts on childhood development. The Good Neighbor, the first full-length biography of Fred Rogers, tells the story of this utterly unique and enduring American icon. Rogers was fiercely devoted to children and to taking their fears, concerns, and questions about the world seriously.

As the creator and star of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, he was a champion of compassion, equality, and kindness. Fred Rogers (1928-2003) was an enormously influential figure in the history of television and in the lives of tens of millions of children.

The good neighbor the life and work of fred rogers