Pittsburgh, my home town, is often called the City of Champions, the City of Bridges, and the Steel City. But it was also the home of Dr. Jonas Salk; industrialists and philanthropists Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon; entertainers from Gene Kelly to Michael Keaton; artists like Andy Warhol and August Wilson; Arnold Palmer; and Mr. Rogers.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor (Fred Rogers) – For those of us who grew up in Pittsburgh, Fred Rogers was an icon. From his earliest days on Pittsburgh’s PBS station, WQED, as part of Josie Carey’s The Children’s Hour to the creation of his own masterpiece, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Rogers was a comfortable, fatherly, rational voice to kids in turbulent times. His heavy Pittsburgh accent never detracted from his amazing sense of what children wanted and needed to hear and know.
An accomplished musician, writer, producer, and puppeteer, Rogers was rarely appreciated for his multiple talents but was lauded for his almost singular focus on educating children. He talked to them about important subjects like death, divorce, race, assassination, disabilities, war and fear just as he talked with them about friendship, acceptance, sadness and, above all, love.
Rogers believed that the human condition was all about love. He connected with kids because he listened to them, identified with them, and believed they were moved by the same things as adults.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor is a stunning, emotional documentary playing in many mainstream theaters. While it is, naturally, a love letter to Rogers, it also deals with some of the controversy that came later in his life from those who believed that his message that “every kid is special” helped breed a generation of narcissists.
Neighbor provides great insight into Rogers from his own childhood as a shy, insecure kid to his education as a Presbyterian minister. But rather than head to a church, he established his congregation on TV, a new medium in the early 1950s. By the time he built his own neighborhood in the mid-1960s and donned his cardigans, Rogers was syndicated nationwide and burned a lasting imprint on generations of children.
In a year with some impressive documentaries, Won’t You Be My Neighbor is a must-see.