Offspring: Heather Havrilesky

Why Did We Ever Leave the Neighborhood? The Disarming Love of Mister Rogers.

When i see a photo of Mister Rogers, I always feel like I’m looking into the eyes of an old friend. Why wouldn’t I? We spent countless hours together when I was very young. When he came in the door, singing about what a beautiful day it was and replacing his sport coat with a cardigan, my day suddenly felt more promising. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was a soothing oasis in the middle of my chaotic childhood.

And that was exactly the goal. The real Fred Rogers—an ordained Presbyterian minister and lifelong Republican with two kids of his own—saw children’s television as his ministry. He felt called to bring a message of kindness to children across the country, arriving in their living rooms at a moment—the end of the ’60s—when the world felt like it was falling apart. Rogers died in 2003, but for more than 30 years, he preached a kind of fundamental self-worth, a belief that every person deserved love. It was a message that, in later years, was so misunderstood that critics lambasted him for molding his audience into a bunch of self-important snowflakes. But now that the world feels like it’s falling apart all over again, a new documentary called Won’t You Be My Neighbor? offers a chance to reconsider Rogers’s mission and examine why his message is still so hard for adults to hear.