Let the Little Children Come to Me: Fred Rogers, the Good Man as TV Educator

Abstract

Fred Rogers (1928–2003) was an exceptional man and a major American TV personality, whose show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968–1975, 1979–2001) became an iconic feature of US TV. This chapter examines Rogers’ essential goodness and detoxed masculinity as represented in the biography by Maxwell King The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers (2018), the documentary by Morgan Neville Won’t You Be my Neighbor? (2018), and the fiction film by Marielle Heller A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). Rogers’ irreproachable, honest dealing with little children shows, in these times when adult men’s interest in children is always viewed with suspicion, that extremely positive role models may emerge from encouraging sensitive men like him to approach little children.