“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (Fred Rogers documentary) in theaters June 8th

The scene where Mr Rogers is soaking his feet in the wading pool, and invites his Black neighbor to join him...the subtle reference to Jesus washing the feet of his disciples had to be intentional.

 

Fred Rogers had a relative (a cousin?) named Elaine who is shown on camera during the film. She mentions that at one point in time, someone suggested she may have been the model for Lady Elaine. I looked at her and thought, ya think?

Lady Elaine Fairchild kind of reminds me of Phyllis Diller.

 

The only HD elements would be the modern interviews. It's not like the show itself was ever filmed in HD. BD would be a waste.

 

I know that AGAIN, I'm referring to Shout charging BD pricing for DVDs...

 

I'm not sure, but I think that the first Mr. Rogers shows were local to PA, as he filmed them at WQED, Pittsburgh. I lived in PA, so I got to watch them. More than anything else, Mr. Rogers was real. He didn't act, he didn't pretend, he didn't try to be anything he was not. And that was comforting to a little kid. I recorded the shows when they were on Hulu, I watch them for mellow relaxation.

 

I'm the last guy who'd have clue about HD Capabilities of a bluray, but I thought the doc looked great visually. Some of that vintage footage was stunning. I forget the location, but there was footage of Rogers on stage in front of kids, the film angle was that of a hand-held camera documentary. I believe it was shot behind the proper film cameras.

Also, I'd like to see the extended b&w interview footage, with Fred at the piano. He was in philosopher mode.

 

I just saw the film this afternoon. It was deeply moving to me. I don't have a long list of modern heroes, but he is surely one of the few that also had widespread attention and influence. What a contrast he is: beloved for his kindness, gentleness, genuine goodness, and communication of love, rather than the usual "coolness" and egotism. The scene where his wife describes how he wondered to her whether he was one of the sheep (rather than a goat) as pictured in Jesus' vision of the final judgement is very telling. I think real saints are like that: the left hand not allowing the right hand to know what it's doing. They do not engage in any kind of self-justification.

 

I bought them at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania museum in Pittsburgh, and at Idewild amusement park in Latrobe, Pa, where there was a Mister Rogers area. My models of the Neighborhood were a Christmas present back in the 70s.

 

I know these terms get used interchangeably these days, but of course the show was never actually, technically "filmed," except for maybe kinescopes. It would have been shot on video, which most likely means 2-inch Quad for the earlier years and maybe one-inch later on. There is no way to make that into HD. If it had been shot on film originally (and those original film elements could be used), then yes. But no.

 

It isn't about HD (which is a resolution standard and that is it), it about capturing the analog source in the best possible quality.

A DVD capturing the quality of broadcast tape is flat out laughable.

 

I just got done watching this movie. Very moving to say the least. Brought back many memories that I had forgotten.

I was wondering why the woman who played Lady Elaine Eberlin wasn't shown in a new interview?

 

Watching the film I figured Betty Aberlin must have died, since she doesn’t appear in interview footage, but in fact she is alive... the director said she wasn’t comfortable appearing on camera (she’s now 76 and presumably wasn’t keen to be seen alongside footage of herself as a young woman).

She does have a film credit as recently as 2011... in Kevin Smith’s Red State, of all things.

 

She’s in three other Kevin Smith movies, as well: Dogma, Jersey Girl, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

 

Childhood crush?

 

Probably. That, and a mutual respect. Ms. Aberlin even was a semi-regular poster on Kevin’s message boards in the late ’90s/early ’00s.

 

Anyone see the Google Doodle today? God it is the best thing I’ve seen in a while.

Even though I didn’t watch Mr Rogers as much as other shows when I was young, God I can’t help but miss him right now.

 

The absolute antithesis of ... some other folks in 2018.

 

Been thinking a lot about this movie the last couple of days. I'm so glad that Fred Rogers was the same of off camera as on camera. No dirt here. From all accounts a very good man.

 

Kinda makes me wanna open my window when the school bus comes around later and shout, “hey kids, get on my lawn!”

@RayS ... some folks I even thought I knew to be neighborly.

 

What a beautiful "Google" Doodle!

 

First rule of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood": DO talk about "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood".

vs.
(courtesy Urban Dictionary)

Snowflake: A term for someone that thinks they are unique and special, but really are not. It gained popularity after the movie "Fight Club" from the quote “You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else."

 

Mr. Rogers was an integral part of my youth each and every day. And while those days have passed, he left indelible memories that will last the remainder of my life.

The world was a much better place for having Fred M. Rogers in it, and I too miss him very much.

On some random sunny days, I will go to the North Shore and sit beside his statue and reminisce....

 

I grew up on Mr. Rogers and thought the doc was very good, albeit structured a bit oddly, which sometimes made it seem a bit padded. A lot of amazing footage. I wish they would have gone into a little more detail about how he got a TV show-they made it seem like he just walked into the station and they gave him one. I was also unclear about how he stopped production, then came back to do a week of special shows and apparently resumed full-on production of the show again. Maybe that's only stuff a guy who works in TV (like me) would care about! It was certainly very touching, and he was a unique performer and teacher. Loved that it showed he had a sense of humor about Eddie Murphy too!

 

Here's the history of the show's production from Wikipedia. I was curious as I watched the movie about how many episodes he was pumping out. The answer is complicated:

The first broadcast of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was on the National Educational Television network on February 19, 1968; the color NET logo appeared on a model building at the beginning and end of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from 1969 to 1970. When NET ceased operations, the series moved its successor network PBS, even though episodes as late as 1971 were still copyrighted by and produced for NET.

The series' first season (1968) consisted of 130 episodes, produced in black-and-white. For seasons 2–8 (1969–75), the show produced 65 new color episodes each year. By the end of season 8, this meant there was a library of 455 color episodes which could be repeated indefinitely. As a result of dwindling funds needed to produce the show, the decision was made to wrap-up production of the series, much to Rogers' chagrin. As a consequence, season 9 (1976) consisted of only five episodes. These five new episodes (which aired the final week of original episodes of the so-called "first series") featured Mister Rogers in his workshop, watching scenes of past episodes of his series, which he recorded on videocassettes and kept on the shelf in his workshop. On the Friday episode of that week (February 20, 1976), he reminded viewers that they, too, could watch many of those old episodes beginning the following week. Two primetime episodes were produced and aired as specials: a Christmas show in December 1977 and a "springtime"-themed show in June 1979.

In 1978, with more funding secured, production of the series resumed, with an eye towards "freshening up" the show by producing 15 new episodes per year. These "second series" episodes, which began airing in August 1979, would be mixed in with the already-airing cycle of repeats from the so-called "first series" (i.e., the color episodes of seasons 2–9, aired from 1969–76).

The series aired 15 new episodes annually between 1979 and 1993. As well, there were occasional "Mister Rogers Talks with Parents About..." specials, which featured panelists discussing ways in which parents could talk to their children about the issues discussed on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. These specials were usually aired on weekends, just prior to the airing of a new batch of Monday-to-Friday episodes.

Beginning in 1994, the production schedule was changed so that 10 new episodes a year were produced instead of 15. Shortly thereafter, as of August 11, 1995, the episodes from the "first series" (1968–76) were withdrawn from the repeat schedule, since there were over 200 "second series" episodes available for broadcast, and many of the first series episodes had become outdated. The show's final years varied the number of episodes produced per season: season 26 (1995–96) consisted of 20 episodes, season 27 (1997) produced 10 episodes, seasons 28 and 29 (1998–99) both contained 15 episodes, and season 30 (2000) reverted to 10 episodes. The final season, season 31 (2001), consisted of only 5 episodes, centering on the theme "Celebrate The Arts".

 

re: (Amazon has a DVD with the entire first week's worth of shows.)

Do you know of a link for previous DVD of of earlier episodes?