Showing posts with label PBS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PBS. Show all posts

June 6, 2018

Mister Rogers: Won't You Be My Neighbor? Opens This Week

On Friday (June 8, 2018), a new movie entitled "Mister Rogers: "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" opens nationwide (although its running mainly in art-house, indie, and/or repertory cinema venues).  This particular movie is a biopic about the late host of the long-running PBS children's show entitled "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood".  The biopic will open around the fiftieth anniversary of his long-running (having run for 33 years) children's show premier in the United States, which only left the airwaves as a first-run show in 2001.

The subject of this biopic first began his television career in 1963 with a children's program that ran on Canada's CBC network.  Three years later, in Pittsburgh, he created a regional show he called "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood".  In 1968, it began its run of more than three decades (33 years' total) on PBS, where it became a gently instructive, supportive safe-harbor for several generations of children.  All told, there were about 900 episodes recorded, which is an impressive track-record.

The official trailer for the "Mister Rogers: Won't You Be My Neighbor?" movie can be viewed below, or by visiting https://youtu.be/FhwktRDG_aQ:


Fred McFeely Rogers was born in Latrobe, PA which is about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh.  Fred Rogers died in 2003 at age 74 from stomach cancer.  During his lifetime, he earned a degree in music, and was preparing to enter seminary school after graduation when he saw a television for the first time at his parents' home.  His reaction to the show was not one of thrill, but of dismay.  The show he saw featured throwing a pie in another person's face, which he saw as unnecessary violence to get a laugh at someone else's expense.  His response was "We can do better".

Fred Rogers' real calling turned out to be a kind-hearted, neighborly, nurturing connection and host to his audiences who symbolized warmth, comfort and reassurance for children on television.  Indeed, during his show's run, he addressed many tough issues including the topic of divorce which would peak in the early 1980's just as Gen X kids were growing up, as well as addressing the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986.  Those were topics that were largely ignored by most other children's shows at the time, even though they were genuine issues kids were confronting.

Mister Rogers: Internet Celebrity

In the 15 years since Fred Rogers died, he's enjoyed something of a second life as an internet celebrity.  More than a few times, usually during yet another federal government debate about budgetary priorities, someone will dig up and pass around the video of Fred Rogers' testimony before Congress about the necessity of funding PBS from May 1, 1969.  Fred Rogers testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications to argue against proposed funding cuts to PBS.  Then-Senator John O. Pastore, who was the subcommittee chairman, had clearly never even heard of the host or seen any of his shows, but after only six minutes of testimony by Fred Rogers (including one song, recited from memory, about anger management), the politician went from a gruff, dismissive foe to a lifelong fan.

The organization that honor's Fred Rogers' memory has also deftly reminded people (again, using the internet) of how Fred Rogers reassured children in the wake of any tragedy or disaster, to the point where people today almost reflexively share his simple advice to children: "look for the helpers."

"Many people would call Fred a wimp, but what you realize in that moment is that Fred was the most iron-willed person out there," Academy award winning film producer Morgan Neville behind the most recent movie about Mister Rogers, saying "It's Mister Rogers goes to Washington. It's the perfect example of somebody speaking truth to power, and winning." (incidentally, I would remind people that Senator Pastore blocked the proposed cut.)



Fred Rogers poses with Daniel Striped Tiger
Of course, these days PBS (much like NPR) receives very little funding from U.S. taxpayers anymore.  It operates largely as a commercial entity with lucrative sponsored programming (except without the regular commerical interruptions), as well as grants from various non-profit foundations.  But in 1969, PBS was still an exception seen as advancing public interests rather than being for unencumbered commerical interests.  But the insignificant amount of remaining public support for PBS and NPR continues to be a source of anger from conservatives who believe public funding has no place in broadcasting, and the resent their more balanced news coverage since conservative media are known to promote outright falsehoods to advance their particular political agenda.

But Fred Rogers enjoyed lasting success educating and entertaining children on television.  Among numerous awards for excellence and public service, Fred Rogers won 4 daytime Emmys between 1979 and 1999, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1997.

By the time Fred Rogers retired from TV at the age of 73 in 2001 (as noted, he died of stomach cancer less than two years later), the show did kind of feel like a relic, a window onto simpler times in the world of children's entertainment, like the 1950's.

But Fred Rogers didn't behave like a normal guy, either — certainly not the macho ideal that trained boys to bury their emotions deep inside.  He wore pink and lavender and he told everyone — even other grown men — that he loved them.  And he hated superheroes, which he found so phonily inspirational he brought his own show back from hiatus solely to battle the influence of the late "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve. He argued that a true hero wouldn't make a kid throw punches and jump off roofs. They'd bring peace by being peaceful.  Indeed, Fred Rogers had an unshakable sense that he was always right.

While the new biopic and a recent PBS special (see below) commemorating the anniversary of his long-running TV show have been mostly accolades (many well-deserved), its worth noting that the persona known as Mister Rogers, although largely recalled with fond memories, as noted above, was not without critics -- even among the very children whom the show was meant to serve, although memories of him are mostly fond.  

Faux (Fox) News Called Mister Rogers "Evil"

In an early (shortly after the cable network began) Fox News critique of Fred Rogers, he was described as "evil" man who "ruined a generation of children" [meaning Millennials] because his message to young children - that they were special just for being who they were — which Fox News said lead to narcissism and attitudes of entitlement.  The Fox News commentator then asked if kids believe they are special, why should they work hard and try to do better?  That early Fox News commentator no longer works in broadcasting, whereas Fred Rogers worked for more than 40 years in the medium.

In fact, the term "evil" used by Fox News to describe Fred Rogers in its nascent years was an unequivocal falsehood, because Fred Rogers was trained and ordained as a Presbyterian minister, which is the very antithesis of evil.

Mister Rogers Gets a Warm Posthumous Reception Today, But Wasn't Universally Popular

I would remind everyone that even when I was a child in the 1970's, in spite of a more indifferent reception among the kids the show targeted, nearly everyone still saw the show -- at least on occasion.  (For me, it preceded or followed The Electric Company, which I watched for the Joan Rivers' narrated character Captain Letterman, catch my reference to that at http://hgm.sstrumello.com/2013/02/joan-rivers-from-adventures-with.html).  Because of that, I occasionally watched Mister Rogers as I awaited the show I was tuned in for.

Mister Rogers was also described by kids when I was growing up as gay, even though he was recognized as a very devoted family man who was married to his college sweetheart Joanne Rogers for 50 years until his death.  The couple shared two sons.

David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on the original series, said of the couple "They were perfect together.  They were both musicians, and they had twin pianos in their living room, which they would play together."

But the term gay was never used to describe his sexual orientation, rather it was meant to be a pejorative term.  But his tone of voice (calm) and his nerdy-outfits (usually with a cardigan sweater and his un-trendy sneakers) were not considered aspirational by many kids back in the day.

SNL Eddie Murphy Parody: Mister Robinson's Neighborhood

Indeed, in 1981, Eddie Murphy introduced a parody called "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood" which was intended to be a ghetto version of the genuine, lilly-white Mister Rogers, premiered on the TV show "Saturday Night Live" (catch a 1983 clip at https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/mr-robinsons-neighborhood/n9117 for reference). 

As Wikipedia notes (see HERE for detail), in the sketch, Eddie Murphy's character, named "Mister Robinson", speaks and presents the show in a similarly stilted manner, but lives in a considerably grittier venue and engages in a number of illegal and/or unethical activities for money due to his lack of a job, which he educates his young viewers about in each episode while at the same time teaching them cynical views on the government and life in general. 

For the record Fred Rogers actually took no offense to the Eddie Murphy parody (he was acknowledged to have a great sense of humor, as the new biopic movie will show).  On the contrary, he said found it amusing and affectionate.  The parody was also initially broadcast at a time of night when his own child audience was not likely to see it.

Another Movie Starring Tom Hanks, and a Book Coming Soon

I should also acknowledge that next year, another new film about the PBS children's show host starring Academy Award winner Tom Hanks entitled "You Are My Friend" will also open, although that film is focused on a reporter and [Mr. Rogers'] relationship to his life, and how [the reporter's] whole world changes when coming in contact with Fred Rogers.  That film [will be about] "one man who's in a critical point in his life — becoming a new father, having issues with his own father — and meeting Mr. Rogers to write a piece about him, thinking it's going to be a bit of a puff piece, but it ends up changing his entire life."

Separately, a book entitled "The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers" which will be the first full-length biography of Fred Rogers written by Maxwell King is set to be released by Abrams Books on September 4, 2018.

In the end, Fred Rogers' character Mister Rogers is being celebrated for the memorable contribution he made to popular culture, and to adults who tuned into his show as children.  As the recent PBS special "Mister Rogers: It's You I Like" (originally featured at the website https://www.pbs.org/video/mister-rogers-its-you-i-nwxrdh/ which also featured a streaming version of that special, it has since been removed) featured numerous celebrities including a few Gen Xers such as Sarah Silverman.  Again, while the retrospective is mostly adoration, Fred Rogers' had occasional critics for various reasons back in the day, but his underlying legacy will be the messages he taught.  His subtle message of acceptance and tolerance made a very lasting impression on children like me who weren't necessarily even watching his show because they were regular viewers.

Author P.S., July 31, 2018: The Associated Press (AP) and other news sources reported that PBS stations plan to air the acclaimed documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" as part of the "Independent Lens" showcase.  An airdate for "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" wasn't announced at that time, so they advise viewers to keep abreast of the schedules for their local PBS station and the "Independent Lens" showcase that airs on the network.  (see https://apnews.com/481f0064a4354f8eb13e1408272a0f7f for the AP news article). Beyond the PBS premier, it is also coming to the free streaming service (with a library card from a number of public library systems) known as Kanopy, see https://www.kanopy.com/wayf/video/mister-rogers-its-you-i for details on that).

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February 8, 2013

Joan Rivers: From "The Adventures With Letterman" to the Freedom Old Age Brings

Like many Gen X kids, I literally grew up listening to Joan Rivers' raspy but distinctive voice.  I feel like I've known her for my whole life, and in a way, I actually have.

Joan Rivers was the narrator for the original PBS show "The Electric Company", although her work on the show began in Season 2 (around 1973) in a segment known as "The Adventures of Letterman" produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop).  At the time, I was too old (or, so I thought, was too smart) for "Sesame Street", but about the right age for "The Electric Company".  The cast of the original "Electric Company" was truly all-star, including Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman and Gene Wilder (yes, the original Willie Wonka's voice was that of Letterman on "The Electric Company"), just to name a few.  Check out this clip below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/z3y_H3SaoAY:



"The Adventures of Letterman" was a segment about a flying superhero who wore a varsity sweater and a football helmet (the voice of Letterman was none other than the original Willie Wonka Mr. Gene Wilder).  Letterman was routinely foiled by a character known as Spell Binder, an evil magician who made mischief by changing words into new words by replacing 1 or 2 letters.  For the record, Shout Factory! has released seasons 1 and 2 of the original version of "The Electric Company" on DVD, see https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/the-best-of-the-electric-company-vol-1?product_id=2831 for complete details.

I saw Joan Rivers' live stand-up show a few years ago in New York, and it was about what I had come to expect (I'd heard it on cassette so many times), and I have to compliment her by saying, she's really very good at keeping the content fresh and up-to-date.  Instead of talking about old, dead celebrities, these days, she targets younger celebs, and she's good at that, too.

Anyway, since I'm about the same age as Joan Rivers' daughter Melissa, I kind of look at Joan Rivers herself in much the same way as I do my parents.  She's always been a part of my life, and she's still very much alive and kicking, in spite of having had a LOT of plastic surgery (my parents, however, have not had any plastic surgery).

Joan Rivers herself used to make fun of people who had plastic surgery.  Back in the 1980s, on her album that was released on what was then a new record label Geffen Records "What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most?" (which went on to reach #22 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album) Ms. Rivers herself made fun of people who she claimed had too much plastic surgery.  One target was Anderson Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, who was, at the time, best known for her designer jeans with her signature in stitching across many women's rear ends.

Ms. Rivers talked about Gloria Vanderbilt and what a "mean bitch" Ms. Vanderbilt was, and said when she asked for her [Ms. Vanderbilt's] autograph, "... she wrote on my ass!".  She moved on to say she thought Gloria Vanderbilt had one too many face lifts, and that her face had been "pulled too tight" noting "with that pullback face on her, every time she sits down, her mouth pops open".  I guess we can now safely say to Joan "look at the pot calling the kettle black"!

Even before that time, as Ms. Rivers wrote in her first biography "Enter Talking" about how she began her entertainment career "off, off, off Broadway" with another young singer/actress from the same part of Brooklyn known as Barbra Streisand.  Joan Rivers is even better known for her stand-up comedy, some of which I quote in reference to Gloria Vanderbilt.  My grandparents told me they saw Joan Rivers' stand-up comedy show back in the late 1960s Las Vegas when they drove out to California, and while they weren't overly critical since it was, in fact, stand-up comedy, my grandmother did comment that "she [Joan Rivers] had a very sharp tongue".

Of course, that is WHY people go to see comedians/comediennes.

Ms. Rivers also had a big run as Johnny Carson's guest/co-host when "The Tonight Show's" Mr. Carson was sick, travelling or unable to appear for whatever reason.  Although Mr. Carson mentored Ms. Rivers, when she discovered she was not even being considered as a potential replacement for Mr. Carson upon his retirement, the comedienne decided (along with her husband who managed her career) to leave that job.  In her 1986 autobiography "Enter Talking" she wrote about the fact that she was hurt she wasn't even being considered for the role, and she felt betrayed by Johnny Carson, but she felt she had to look out for herself.

At the time, a soon-to-launch startup network known as Fox Television gave her a late night talk show of her own called "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers".  The show was scheduled to compete directly with NBC's longstanding "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson".  Mr. Carson claims he learned about the show from Fox, not Ms. Rivers.  It may well be that is true, although Ms. Rivers says she tried calling Johnny Carson, and he hung up on her.  That may also be true, but it could well be that Fox, eager to make a name for itself, could have told Mr. Carson before Ms. Rivers had even signed a contract with them.  Who cares.  It's history now, and Johnny Carson is toast.

Ultimately, Ms. Rivers' late night talk show on the fledgling Fox Television Network bombed (and with good reason).  But the show's failure also lead to the suicide of Ms. Rivers' husband (who was a native of the UK), whom she said was humiliated by Fox.  Beyond television and stand-up comedy, Ms. Rivers also appeared in the 1978 feature film which co-starred her and another young comedian named Billy Crystal known as "Rabbit Test" (Ms. Rivers was also the director and writer for that movie), and later in the feature film "The Muppets Take Manhattan" as herself, as well as a voice over role in 1987's "Spaceballs" and "Look Who's Talking" to name a few.  Aside from stand-up, she's quite well known for her voice over roles.

She's also appeared in many guest roles, including such TV shows as "Nip/Tuck" (a role she was born to play, if I don't say so myself) and countless other guest appearances.  These days, she co-hosts the E! show "Fashion Police", along Kelly Osbourne and some others.  She's also on the WE tv series "Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?".  She also built a fairly substantial fashion business on QVC, although I don't know if that's as big as it once was, since home shopping cable channels aren't quite what they used to be, especially since cable consists of hundreds of channels now.  She claims, however, that it's a billion dollar business.  Perhaps it is, I've never spent any time researching it.

My point to all of this "history" about Joan Rivers is that her presence in entertainment, for better or worse, has been in existence for my entire life.

Terri Gross from NPR's "Fresh Air" program interviewed Joan Rivers in July 2012, which can be listened to below, or by visiting: http://n.pr/V18Ewz.

At the time of the 2012 interview, Ms. Rivers was promoting yet another new book, although most of the NPR interview had absolutely nothing to do with her book (entitled "I Hate Everyone, Starting With Me").  However, Ms. Rivers talked candidly about a host of topics, including how she got into comedy because she would try to make the secretaries laugh so she could get into see agents, and how the secretaries were the ones who suggested she go into comedy.  She said by doing comedy, she could "... make $8 a night in the comedy clubs. I thought that's better than being an office temporary."  That would later lead to her writing for comedy legends Phyllis Diller and Bob Newhart.  But she also admits she was "smart enough to go through any door that opened" for her in show business.

To be sure, Joan Rivers is doing pretty well for herself approaching age 80, but she says with her age has brought her some wisdom, but she also talks about getting older, and how awful it is to be outliving so many of her friends.

She says:

"And it's terribly sad. You cannot - that's the only sad thing about age. You can't bring back the ones you really loved and that is why, little miss sunshine, when I have a fight with a friend, I never - two negatives. I never do not make up with them. I make up with them immediately if I care for them. I will not let a day go by. Life is too short these days. How about that for a nice serious stupid note?"

Aside from "Enter Talking", I have not read any of Joan Rivers' other books because I like biographies better than books that are supposed to be funny.

I think we are lucky to still have Ms. Rivers keeping us entertained.  If you're interested in adding something interesting to your Netflix queue, consider adding the documentary about Joan Rivers called "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" to your queue.  She discussed that in a 2010 NPR interview with Terri Gross just about 2 years earlier, which you can listen to below, or by visiting http://n.pr/WxdCCt:


The documentary was also covered by The New York Times at http://nyti.ms/XTfHWM.  In the 2010 interview with NPR about that documentary, Ms. Rivers also comments about how her old age has made her much more fearless.  She says:

"I am so much freer now because I always say: What are you going to do? Are you going to fire me? Been fired. Going to be bankrupt? Been bankrupt. Some people aren't going to talk to me? Happened. Banned from networks? Happened. So I can say anything I want, and it has freed me totally, totally. And I talk much more freely now than I ever dared to talk before."

Much like TV legend Betty White, time does tend to make people more willing to say and do things they wouldn't when they were young because now, they really have nothing left to lose.  They've been through it all.  Joan Rivers is proof of that.

Author P.S., September 4, 2014:  Joan Rivers, the irreverent comedian known for her sharp wit and sharper tongue, died on Thursday, September 4, 2014 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan at age 81.  News had surfaced that she was taken to Mount Sinai a week ago after reportedly losing consciousness while undergoing a procedure on her vocal cords at a doctor's office on the Upper East Side.  Doctors at the hospital placed her in a medically-induced coma.  She remained unconscious in the hospital for nearly a week, but had been moved from intensive care to a private room prior to her death.  Read her obituary at  http://nyti.ms/1t4YFVc and a New York Times blog posting about her, including some video clips, at http://nyti.ms/1ptU0bV.
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