Hollywood is finally making a movie about one of America's greatest heroes.
"You were a child once, too."
Those words were spoken by one of the greatest advocates for children, education, spiritually, kindness, decency, caring, and puppetry ever... Fred Rodgers.
He spoke them in order to help Ophthalmologists learn how to avoid scaring their young patients who feared they may become blind (they were writing a book and sought out Mr. Rogers' advice).
He spoke them to help adults understand how important it is to treat children with kindness and respect.
He spoke them because they are true and every parent, teacher, aunt, uncle, priest, grandmother, and grandfather should remind themselves of that truth every day.
He spoke them because he was, is, and always will be a champion for children.
I am not being sarcastic or overly dramatic in my description of Mr. Rogers as an American hero. For so many people, he was much more than just some calming, odd, old guy on TV. He was a model of how adults should treat children... and each other. He was a surrogate parent for some children. He connected generations together. He taught people how to be "neighborly". He was a hero. If you don't believe me, you need to read this Esquire interview from November of 1998 titled "Can you say... Hero?". Although I can't possibly do the piece justice here, please take my word that Fred Rogers went out of his way to make children's lives better every day. Only a tiny portion of this was seen on TV.
Thanks to TriStar Pictures, we will all get to see this for ourselves. The studio has just announced that they will begin filming a movie closely based on Tom Junod experience of researching and writing that Esquire article nearly twenty years ago. Multiple Oscar Award winner Tom Hanks is slated to play the television icon.
Can you say "perfect casting"? I knew you could.
This is how TriStar described the movie, which will be titled You Are My Friend.
"In the heart-warming story, a cynical journalist begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write a profile piece on the beloved icon and finds his perspective on life transformed."
Junod was truly a lucky man.
I was incredibly happy when I read this announcement. Not only am I incredibly eager to see Mr. Rogers' story told on the big screen, it gives me an excuse to share one of the most valuable lessons I ever learned from Mr. Rogers.
As a history teacher, I have had to discuss some terrible events with my students including wars, Genocides and terrorism. Even though I have been teaching for many years and have a great deal of experience with young people, none of that prepared me for the first time I had to discuss a major tragedy with my own very young children.
It was December 12, 2012. Every television station was reporting about a tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In addition, every neighbor was talking about it. I could not shield my 5 year old daughter or 7 year old son from the tragedy. I had to help them process it so they could feel safe in their school. I needed to give them something positive to cling to. But I was at a loss. How could there be anything positive to focus on when such a horrible event had just occurred? Who could possibly know what to say?
Mr. Rogers
On that day, I remembered something I had read more than 11 years earlier. It was an excerpt from a newspaper column written by Fred Rogers. In 2001, I needed to read his words in order to help my students who were in the midst of experiencing the tragic events of 9/11.
Rogers wrote:
"I was spared from any great disasters when I was little, but there was plenty of news of them in newspapers and on the radio, and there were graphic images of them in newsreels.
For me, as for all children, the world could have come to seem a scary place to live. But I felt secure with my parents, and they let me know that we were safely together whenever I showed concern about accounts of alarming events in the world.
There was something else my mother did that I’ve always remembered: “Always look for the helpers,” she’d tell me. “There’s always someone who is trying to help.” I did, and I came to see that the world is full of doctors and nurses, police and firemen, volunteers, neighbors and friends who are ready to jump in to help when things go wrong."
And that is exactly what I told my children.
Did it make the tragedy disappear?
No.
Did it bring anyone back?
No.
Did it convince two children that there was still hope in this world?
Yes.
Thank you Mr. Rogers.
It's about time that everyone will get to see what a hero you were are.
Well done ..
It is nice that our children grow up to love what we see right
Thanks for sharing
I really agree with you, because every parent would want the best for her child
and thank you very much @hanshotfirst for posting a very useful information for me
Oh Mr. Rogers, one of my childhood heroes. I always looked forward to hearing his kind voice on the television. I am excited to know there will be a movie out soon about this great mans life! Thank you for sharing!
I agree with you, sir rogers is a fans of many people, I can not wait to watch it
There is exactly zero chance of this being done correctly. Mr. Rogers’s story is essentially a religious story and Hollywood has no idea how to pull off a religious movie. They’ll either gloss over his religion or pound it over our heads. My guess in this case is the former.
By the way, for the people saying Mr. Rogers was some sort of die-hard conservative. He wasn’t. He advocated for public funding of children’s television and he was a member of Sixth Presbyterian in Pittsburgh which was and is very explicit More Light congregation (More Light Presbyterians are the pro-homosexual marriage and ordination wing of the Presbyterian Church.) He was also a vegetarian because he didn’t want to hurt animals. This isn’t to say that he was some hyper-liberal hippy either. He espoused family values and traditional behaviour, but I think that his political leanings could best be described as ‘Be nice to everyone and everything all the time.’ Sometimes that made him a liberal and sometimes a conservative.
I don't know much about Rogers, but I guess my question is: how relevant was his religion to his activism, TV career, and all that? If his religion played little part in all that, it wouldn't need much screen time.
I share your cynicism, though. I don't expect Hollywood to do anything right, these days.
you may be right, but I'm going to give them a shot and hope for the best.
As far as the second part of your comment, "‘Be nice to everyone and everything all the time.’ Sometimes that made him a liberal and sometimes a conservative." And 100% of the time it made him awesome. I wish we could bring back common sense and common decency.
I hope they don't politicize it at all and just concentrate on him loving everyone. Since Tom Hanks is signed on, I think they are going to do the right thing. We realy need to drop the whole left and right thing and just listen to the immortal words of Bill S. Preston Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan, "Be excellent to each other, dudes."
Two of the greatest philosophers ever. Even more excellent than so-crates.
I suspect they'll not really focus on religion either way. Hollywood tends to dramatize conflicts, challenges, setbacks in these kinds of stories...human aspects, not really trying to send religious or moral messages.
I suspect the story will focus on the journalist -- how Mr. Rogers challenged the journalist's world view, how the journalist responded, and ultimately became a better, more hopeful person. I doubt it'll be a religious transformation because the Hollywood studios generally like to focus on universal, relatable themes like hope and kindness. Religions may offer hope and kindness, but there are no universal religions.
The lack of religious focus may disappoint you. Sorry. Maybe I'll be wrong!
I choose to hope. After all, everybody knew the fix was in, but "We came, we saw, he died" was NOT elected president. There are still pockets of goodness left, even in Hollywood (I hope).
I'm not sure I agree with your comment on More Light, either.
I remember him also being caught with cocaine. :) His show had an amazing impact on my childhood, much respect. :D
Reflecting on one of Fred Rogers' sayings, I learnt that when we share the problems of others, we cease to have problems of our own.
problem shared half problem solved. steemit is like a family kind of thing you know.
Mr Rodgers is such a good personality helping those kids. I read through and was surprised how selfless he was. He could have left them and escaped but he had to help them through. I have to say this is inspirational and the movie would be something i would look up to @hanshotfirst. It was worth my time.
Fred Rogers was a man of God, a man of principle and an example to live by, if everyone was half as nice as he was. we would have a great neighborhood. Kindness is a gift to be shared.
Agreed (and I'm not even very religious).
Sometimes I really wish more people had the innocence and the joyfulness that children have. Mr.Rogers was definitely a visionary. Thank you for sharing!
Mr. Rogers was a huge influence in my life. I find that his show mixed with quality parents was the reason I have any empathy at all. When I watch some of the shows that my younger cousins are exposed to...I just feel sad. Sure it could be nostalgia on my part, but I feel like children's television has moved away from quality and more about just being attention sustaining. Maybe Netflix can bring about the next generation's Mr. Rogers and bring hope to this world again.
Great point about Netflix. There is definitely a market for high quality and meaningful children's shows. Maybe the demand can be met there.
I don't know about that, Nickelodeon does a excellent job of educating kids. I directly attribute them to my oldest grandsons advance in reading skills before entering school and the rest of my grand kids most under five with number and letter recognition.
Children are the gems of the world ..
when honed properly it is more valuable when he grows up.
vice versa...
a kind and thoughtful person ...
Children really need all the love and care and mostly patience they need, Rogers really led in that path and am happy he is remembered and a movie is done of his fruitful life in helping children. Thanks for sharing