Usually when you think of Rogers in Canada, you might think Sportsnet. You should also think Fred Rogers.
The documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? from director Morgan Neville is giving us a chance to revisit the incredible story of a Presbyterian minister turned children's TV show host named Fred Rogers.
Canadians also watched Mister Rogers' Neighborhood via PBS. What they may not know and virtually all Americans don't know is that Fred Rogers first went on camera in Canada.
Rogers had worked as a puppeteer on the local children's show The Children's Corner at Pittsburgh public television station WQED. In 1961, Rogers went to work for the CBC to do a 15-minute TV show called Misterogers. Rogers worked with his friend Ernie Coombs on the show. Canadians know Coombs better as Mr. Dressup, perhaps the most famous Canadian children's show.
Misterogers lasted 337 episodes from 1961-1967. The show ran on CBC from 1961-1964. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was launched regionally in 1968.
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Junlei Li, co-director of the Fred Rogers Center (not to be confused with Rogers Centre), talked to Q recently about Fred Rogers' Canadian story. Li said Fred Rainsberry, Children's CBC executive producer, invited Rogers to Canada. Rainsberry encouraged Rogers to go on camera. While Rogers was shy and reluctant, he did go in front of the camera. Though Rogers had develop the puppets in Pittsburgh, the beginnings of the PBS classic were being developed in Canada.
Li noted that the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood character Paulifficate was a composite of Rainsberry's 3 children: Paul, Elizabeth (Iffy), and Kate.
A lot of what became Mister Rogers' Neighborhood started out with Fred Rogers in Canada on Misterogers. The film title could easily have been Won't You Be My Neighbour?
video credit: YouTube/Focus Features
photo credit: Misterogers/CBC
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