12 Things I Learned Recently About Mister Rogers

You can read my book blurb about a Mister Rogers biography I completed this past weekend – called The Good Neighbor. That book blurb will come out later in the month of September. Below is a list of surprising facts or anecdotes about Fred Rogers.

1. The red cardigan sweaters that Mister Rogers wore were made by his mother over a span of 6 decades.

2. Mister Rogers was not very athletic. He received golf lessons from golf pro Arnold Palmer and Arnie said it was a struggle for him to find any athleticism in Rogers.

3. Mister Rogers’ wife called him “Roge,” because that was what his mother called him.

4. The first successful children’s TV show that Fred Rogers was on was called The Children’s Corner. After 39 weeks, it was cancelled and replaced by a new gameshow called The Price Is Right. Part of the decision leading to its cancellation was Mister Rogers refusal to never use the name of God on network television.

5. Fred Rogers’ mentor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary was William F. Orr.

6. Before Mister Rogers Neighborhood was Misterogers – a 15-minute black and white daily show on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from 1963-1967. It included those red sweaters, the puppets, the music, and the neighborhood of Make-Believe.

7. The first season of Mister Rogers Neighborhood was 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week, in black and white and includes 180 episodes.

8. Sesame Street began in 1969, about 18 months after Mister Rogers Neighborhood debuted. And Mister Rogers appeared on Sesame Street in 1974. When a friend compared his show to Sesame Street, he said, “It’s like they have 50,000 fans and you only have 1,000 fans.” Mister Rogers replied by saying, “And who are those 1,000.”

9. During the tenure of Mister Rogers Neighborhood on TV, Fred wrote about 900 of the show’ scripts, was the lead writer for 200 of its songs, played the piano in almost every episode, created every single character on the show, and hosted every show.

10. Mister Rogers was a vegetarian.

11. The only time that Rogers appeared in a fictional role on TV was for Quinn, Medicine Woman, where he played a frontier minister. The episode was called “Deal with the Devil.”

12. Those 3 numbers had special significance. It was his body weight most of his life, and he made sure of it by weighing himself every morning. It was also a reference to how many letter it took to say “I (1) love (4) you (3).” Finally, it was part of his email address – zzz143@aol.com.

Check out his acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. It is worth it. What a humble servant in television!