Acclaimed Fred Rogers Documentary to Air on WHYY Saturday

0

The widely praised documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? about Fred Rogers and his neighborhood, will air on WHYY in Philadelphia on Saturday night.

If you didn't have a chance to see the film in theaters last year and don't have HBO, where it will premiere on Saturday too, this is your family's chance to see it for free. 

The film, now the most popular biographical documentary with $22 million in box-office revenue, has been critically acclaimed, though a widely expected Oscar nomination never came.

You can judge it for yourself at 8pm on Saturday as part of PBS' Independent Lens series. 

Rogers, a Latrobe, PA native, created Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1968, gently guiding generations of kids with a calm, quiet style that ran counter to most children's programming. New episodes were broadcast on PBS stations nationwide until 2001. Rogers died two years later.

If you or your kids sat through hours of Rogers putting on his red sweater and tying his blue bobo sneakers, you might want to spend a couple hours Saturday night learning how he came to understand that soft, slow and corny was a good way to reach kids. 

“In every neighborhood, all across our country, there are good people insisting on a good start for the young, and doing something about it,” said Rogers. “Anything that we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job.

"Those of us who have this particular vision must continue against all odds. Life is for service.”

If your kids have never seen Neighborhood, it can be streamed on PBS Kids.

For those of you inspired by the documentary, you can visit the Fred Rogers Exhibit at the Fred Rogers Center at St. Vincent College in his hometown of Latrobe.

Or just spend Saturday night watching a documentary on PBS about a children's show host. It's about the most Fred Rogers thing that we can think to do.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here