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00:00Good evening and happy holidays.
00:03He is probably one of the most recognizable figures in television history, an icon in a cardigan.
00:09But Mr. Rogers is hanging up his trademark sweater and saying goodbye to his beloved neighborhood.
00:14He taped his final show just before the new year.
00:17The reason? Rogers simply feels that his program, after nearly a thousand episodes, has accomplished its mission.
00:24It was that mission that Rogers returned to again and again when he first spoke with us late last year.
00:30Here's Jeff Greenfield.
00:38Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers to you and me, has been walking through the same door for more than 30 years.
00:45It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor.
00:49Would you be mine? Could you be mine?
00:54Walking into his living room and ours, inviting our children to his neighborhood and his land of make-believe.
01:01Could you be mine?
01:03The whole idea is to look at the television camera and present as much love as you possibly could
01:13to a person who might feel that he or she needs it.
01:20There's a comforting sameness to Mr. Rogers and his neighborhood.
01:23Do you ever change your shoes when you come home from someplace?
01:26The shoes, the sweaters, we'll tell you about those sweaters.
01:30It's you, I like.
01:33The voice.
01:34It's not the things you wear.
01:37The characters, all at a slow, easy-to-absorb pace, aimed at young children.
01:43It's a particularly beautiful day in this neighborhood.
01:48We're here to have a half hour together.
01:51Let's just relax and talk about things that might be important to you and are important to me.
02:02And my rehearsal, please!
02:04And action.
02:10If it all seems a bit old-fashioned in this era of fast-paced cartoons, quick edits, and product tie-ins,
02:15that's because Mr. Rogers has some old-fashioned notions about television,
02:19notions you don't hear much these days.
02:21I believe that those of us who are the producers and purveyors of television,
02:30I believe that we are the servants of this nation.
02:35Fred Rogers didn't plan on a career in television.
02:41He was a music major at Rollins College.
02:43He wanted to be a composer.
02:45But there was something about television, then in its earliest years,
02:49something that interested and annoyed him at the same time.
02:52I got into television because I hated it so.
02:56And I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument
03:02instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen.
03:09God bless America.
03:14He started out at NBC, worked as a floor manager for Kate Smith.
03:19Then he heard that something called educational television was starting up,
03:22so he moved back home to Pittsburgh and started a show.
03:26My friends at NBC thought I was crazy.
03:28That place isn't even on the air yet, they said.
03:32And I said, well, there's something tells me that there's going to be a chance
03:37to use what's been given to me in that medium.
03:41The Children's Corner with Josie Carey and Fred Rogers, produced by WQED.
03:47That chance was in children's television.
03:49He began by writing and producing a program called The Children's Corner.
03:53You may just come and stay.
03:57Then, after a short stint on Canadian television,
04:01Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was born.
04:06That was almost 33 years ago,
04:08making it PBS's longest running show.
04:12What a fine boy.
04:14Good looking boy.
04:15Making him a star to the under-six set and their parents.
04:18It was a golden opportunity to cash in.
04:21An opportunity he never took.
04:23And when people would suggest that we have these outlandish merchandising schemes,
04:31I would simply say no.
04:34I was able to say no.
04:36And he meant it.
04:38Fred Rogers is not your average TV star.
04:41He buys second-hand clothes,
04:43drives an old car,
04:44lives simply.
04:46Does that feel comfortable, Fred?
04:47It feels fine.
04:49I never had much of a desire for a fancy life style.
04:57And I never needed a lot of fancy things.
05:03Because I like you as you are.
05:07Little has changed in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood during the last 30 years,
05:10except maybe the color of his hair.
05:12There is still a live band.
05:18He laughed when he left.
05:21Fred Rogers still watches every frame of the show.
05:24And some of the characters, like Mr. McFeely, are originals.
05:32Which one of these did my supposed to wear?
05:34So are some of the sweaters,
05:37which were all Christmas gifts knitted by his late mother.
05:40My mother made a sweater a month
05:42for as many years as I knew her.
05:45And every Christmas,
05:47she would give this extended family of ours a sweater.
05:51And she would always say,
05:53after we opened the box and put on the sweater,
05:57she would say,
05:57what kind do you all want next year?
06:00She said, I know what kind you want, Freddy.
06:03You want the one with the zipper up the front.
06:05But if life inside the neighborhood
06:07is something of a time capsule,
06:08life outside the neighborhood has changed dramatically.
06:12But for Fred Rogers,
06:13it always comes back to children,
06:15to what they need.
06:17So what's your sense of who the children of 1999 are
06:20as opposed to the children of the mid-1960s?
06:23Deep down the same?
06:26That's just what I was going to say.
06:28Deep down the same.
06:30Yeah.
06:30We all long to be lovable and capable of loving.
06:36And whatever we can do through the neighborhood
06:39or anything else to reflect that
06:42and to encourage people to be in touch with that,
06:46then I think that's our ministry.
06:48An appropriate choice of words
06:52since Fred Rogers, several years ago,
06:54became an ordained Presbyterian minister.
06:58I'd like you to meet my friends.
06:59He does not preach to or at children.
07:02Instead, he thinks the space
07:04between the TV set and the viewer
07:06is holy ground,
07:08not to be abused by television producers.
07:10But a lot of what he sees these days
07:12on television worries him.
07:13And I plead with everyone
07:16who is producing and purveying
07:20these atrocities
07:23to please remember the children.
07:30You may begin, Daniel.
07:33Fred Rogers tries to reach out to kids
07:35and to their parents
07:36during extraordinary events such as war.
07:38Children aren't responsible for wars.
07:42When we talk to him,
07:43it was in the wake
07:44of the Columbine School Massacre.
07:46What does Fred Rogers
07:47say either to the kids directly
07:50or to the parents of those kids
07:52to somehow overcome
07:55the enormous force
07:57of those terrible pictures?
07:59Those children need to know
08:01that the adults in their lives
08:04will do everything they can
08:06to keep them safe.
08:09Now, that doesn't mean
08:10that we're always going to be successful.
08:12But it does mean
08:14that we will try.
08:20Fred Rogers is 72 now
08:22and he's been reflecting
08:25on the virtues of a simple life.
08:27In my own life,
08:32as the nearer I get
08:34to the end of life
08:37on this earth,
08:38the simpler I want to become.
08:41With age and accomplishment
08:45have come awards.
08:49Recognition by his broadcasting peers.
08:51One of his sweaters
08:52is in the Smithsonian.
08:53That's something he thinks
08:54his mother would be proud of.
08:56I hereby confer upon you
08:57the degree,
08:58doctorate,
08:58if you mean letters.
08:59And a string of honorary degrees.
09:01Well, it's a beautiful day
09:03in this neighborhood.
09:04Yeah.
09:07And often when he stands up
09:09to accept the honor
09:10or to speak
09:11in an important conference
09:12like this one
09:12at the White House,
09:14he asks for something
09:15increasingly hard to find.
09:17A special moment
09:18of silence.
09:19Think about
09:20all the people
09:22in our lives
09:23who have helped us
09:25to become
09:26who we are.
09:29Anybody who has
09:31has wanted you
09:34to know
09:34that you have value,
09:37would you mind
09:38taking a half minute
09:39to think of those people?
09:41I'll watch the time.
09:42Right.
09:43Right.
09:43Right.
09:44Right.
09:45Well, whomever
09:49you've been thinking about,
09:51imagine how proud
09:52they must be
09:53to think that
09:54you felt they made
09:56such a difference
09:56in your life.
09:58He says silence
09:59offers a valuable chance
10:00to go deeper
10:01within ourselves.
10:03Indeed,
10:03he made the same challenge
10:04to us.
10:05Would you dare
10:06to give
10:07some silence
10:09on your program
10:10for the people
10:11who are watching?
10:12We'll find out.
10:25If his show
10:25delights in the familiar,
10:27so does its creator.
10:29Fred Rogers
10:29is very much
10:30a creature of habit.
10:31He swims every morning
10:32like he lives life,
10:34slowly,
10:35methodically.
10:38And except for the day
10:39we visited
10:39in the nude.
10:40He's a vegetarian
10:43and kids
10:44can't seem to resist
10:45telling him
10:46just about anything.
10:47Look at them.
10:48I think that
10:48you're a really nice man.
10:50I do think
10:51that young children
10:53can spot a phony
10:55a mile away.
10:56I have one line
10:58that I'm quoted
10:58all the time,
10:59but it's a good one.
11:01What you see
11:01is what you get
11:02with Fred.
11:04Joanne Rogers
11:05should know.
11:05In fact,
11:08she's known him
11:09since their
11:09college sweetheart days.
11:11Mother of their
11:12two sons,
11:13an accomplished
11:13concert pianist,
11:14she is also
11:15Fred Rogers'
11:16wife of 48 years.
11:18Was Fred Rogers
11:18the father
11:19of small children
11:20at home
11:20pretty much
11:21the way
11:22we would imagine
11:23him to be
11:23if we'd only
11:24known him?
11:24Yes.
11:25He had a patience
11:26the like of which
11:28I greatly admired
11:30but couldn't emulate.
11:31It's one hell of a day
11:35in my neighborhood.
11:36Perhaps because
11:37he seems too good
11:38to be true,
11:38Fred Rogers
11:39has often been
11:39parodied,
11:41most famously
11:41by Eddie Murphy
11:42on Saturday Night Live.
11:44Hello, boys and girls.
11:46We're all alone
11:47again today.
11:49You know why?
11:50My wife
11:51walked out on me.
11:54He takes it
11:55in good humor.
11:56I remember
11:56when Eddie Murphy
11:58met me for the first time.
11:59He just put his arms
12:01around me
12:01and said
12:01they're real
12:02Mr. Rogers.
12:04You're a brave boy.
12:05Good, let me get
12:06one more shot.
12:07Gentleman.
12:08Nice to get
12:08that is your first man.
12:10Whenever Mr. Rogers
12:12makes a public appearance
12:13he is surrounded
12:14by generations of fans
12:16whose gratitude
12:17can sometimes
12:18overwhelm him.
12:19Hi, Mr. Rogers.
12:20It's a pleasure to meet you.
12:21I'm glad to meet you.
12:22I watched your show
12:24as a youngster.
12:25I wasn't allowed
12:26to go to preschool
12:26because I had a disability
12:27and my mom
12:29made me watch
12:30your show every day.
12:31So thank you.
12:32Bless your heart
12:32and here you are.
12:33Thank you for my
12:33free school education.
12:35And thank you
12:36for inspiring me today.
12:38Bless your heart.
12:40Where Fred Rogers
12:40learned to express
12:41his emotions
12:42was at the piano.
12:45He still heads
12:46to the piano
12:47during a taping
12:48if things aren't
12:49going well.
12:49music is a key element
12:59not only of his program
13:00but his life.
13:02He's written
13:02more than 200 songs.
13:04There were times
13:05I can remember times
13:06going to the piano
13:07and actually
13:08being sad that way.
13:12Being sad that way.
13:15But then
13:15came the time
13:17when I started
13:18writing real songs
13:20and now
13:22of course
13:22that's a major way
13:24of saying
13:25at the end
13:26of the program
13:27for instance
13:27it's such a good
13:29feeling
13:31to know
13:32you're alive.
13:34A happy feeling
13:36you're growing inside
13:38and when you wake up
13:40ready to say
13:41I think I'll make
13:44a snappy new day.
13:46And the children
13:47all do that.
13:48You can't be around
13:49Fred Rogers
13:50for very long
13:50without getting a bit
13:51caught up yourself.
13:52Especially when he invites
13:54you to join in.
13:54Some are fancy
13:57on the outside
13:58Some are fancy
14:01on the inside
14:03Sing with him
14:05Everybody's fancy
14:06Everybody's fine
14:08Your body's fancy
14:11And some is mine
14:13Fred Rogers
14:17doesn't want you
14:17to leave
14:18without one last
14:19reminder
14:19of his philosophy
14:20that children
14:22indeed all of us
14:24are best served
14:25by simplicity.
14:26Thank you
14:27Thank you very much
14:28Bye
14:28Because in the last
14:31analysis
14:31people really
14:33are going to
14:34put aside
14:35the fancy exterior
14:37and all that's
14:38going to be left
14:39is what's inside
14:41of us
14:41and the deeper
14:42we can understand
14:43that
14:44the better.
14:45Mr. Rogers
15:10may have stopped
15:11production of his show
15:12but he isn't retiring
15:13he plans to devote
15:15more time to writing
15:16books and developing
15:17his website
15:18and Mr. Rogers
15:19neighborhood won't be
15:20disappearing from
15:21television anytime soon
15:22PBS plans to show
15:24reruns of Rogers
15:25program for many
15:26years to come
15:27so
15:31where
15:32is
15:33moving
15:33to go
15:34to the
15:34house
15:35and
15:36the
15:36people
15:37who are
15:38in
15:38the
15:38house
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