Fred Rogers and Francois Clemmons share a relaxing foot bath on the set of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Watching this movie is like freebasing sincerity — a scarce resource in our current entertainment hellscape.
What is most remarkable is Rogers’s grasp, even in the medium’s nascent years, of how television can shape young minds.
“Television,” young Rogers argued, “has the chance of building a real community out of an entire country.”.
As soothing as Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood could be, it never shied away from the realities of life and death.
Rogers, we’re told by the friends and family who’ve outlived him, really was “like that” in real life — slow, patient, kind.
The documentary is ultimately bittersweet, because it highlights just how alien Fred Rogers’s philosophy of television has become today. »