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…so this is some real pedantic shit I’m about to do here, and I apologize in advance, but that’s the wrong picture. François Clemmons was on the show between 1968 and 1993. The original episode where they share a pool aired in 1969, and both men were much younger. The picture above is from Clemmons final appearance on the show in 1993, titled “Love,” where they again share a foot pool. I know this because my toddler has become Mr. Rogers obsessed and I’ve seen the 1993 episode 3 dozen times in the last month.
Also, is this a meme?
Fair point, but that’s a question for the mods. If you want some obscure Mr. Rogers facts though, or theories on the Daniel Tiger timeline, I’m your guy.
I’d love some obscure facts about Mr. Rogers.
I grew up with him.
Mr. Rogers really wanted to encourage children’s imaginations, but he didn’t want them to confuse fantasy and reality. That’s why there’s such a strong delineation between his house and the Neighborhood of Make Believe. He also did more than one, “behind the scenes,” episode to show the neighborhood wasn’t real, and even mentioned on occasion that his, “house,” was just his, “television house,” where he would visit with the viewer, not his real house where he lived (which explains why he leaves at the end of every episode). When Big Bird was set to do a crossover episode, Rogers initially wanted the puppeteer to remove the costume and show children how it worked. The puppeteer didn’t want to destroy Big Bird for children, so they compromised by only having Big Bird visit the Neighborhood of Make Believe. However, there are two regular characters (Handyman Negri and Mr. McFeely) who appear in both the Neighborhood of Make Believe and the Mr Rogers house, which potentially blurs the line between real and make believe.
Isn’t it amazing that ‘not lying to children’ somehow seems kinda radical?
True, but to be fair, if I’d been watching Mr. Rogers as a kid and Big Bird showed up, ripped his own head off, and revealed a middle-aged man hiding inside, I probably would have been traumatized.
True, but Mr. Rogers would probably know how to do it properly so that you’d be at ease.
We need a motherfucking army of Mr Rogers and we need to airdrop them into every neighborhood in America.
In case they meet resistance, I strongly feel they should also have lightsabers.
I fucking hate you. Take your upvote.
*Me, a connoisseur of pedantry*: “Aww yes, that’s the good stuff”
The image misses part of the story. He was a character on the show, officer Clemmons, and wasn’t just on this episode. And what’s more, he was gay and Fred Rogers knew and accepted him for it at a time that that was uncommon. This image makes it seem like a single random act of impersonal kindness but it was much more than that.
Lovely interview with (Officer) Francois Clemmons. Clemmons grew up during civil rights unrest and was firehosed and beaten by cops and did not want to play one on TV. I don’t know if making kids less scared of cops was a good thing or not, but I know Mr. Rogers’ heart was in the right place.
The song at the end is the one Clemmons sang while they were hanging out in the pool the second time they did this scene 20 years after the first one: “There are many ways to say I love you.” In this one Mr. Rogers dried Officer Clemmons’ feet as they were getting out of the pool.
There’s a rapper named prof that did a pretty spot on Mr Roger’s imitation in one of his videos. They included a different take on this scene, but I had no idea that they were referencing an actual Mr Roger’s video with that part until just now.
Classic Mr. Rogers story that when you dig deeper, it’s even more wholesome than initially presented.
Also better that he just played a cop, instead of actually being one
It was 3
3 appearances?
You said it was more than a single act of kindness.
My joke is that it’s 3 acts of kindness, accepting him as a black, gay and a cop.
Your reminder that Fox News hated Mister Rogers and everything he believed.
That’s when you know you’re winning.
No need, he only played a cop on the show, his real occupation was singer, actor & lecturer.
And he was a gay guy that Mr. Rogers shamed into staying closeted.
Context for those wondering.
Mr. Rogers stated that he had no problem with Clemmons being gay, but said he had to keep this secret for the sake of his show. It’s shitty and it doesn’t give context on exactly why Mr. Rogers told him this (except for the show being his dream that he didn’t want to jeopardize), but I think it was possibly related to the social climate of things at the time. The gay community was facing persecution also, so I think this was Mr. Rogers trying to weather a storm so that his show could persist and continue to help people. My theory is that he probably had bigoted folks in upper management that thought bringing a black and gay man onto the show was a bridge too far for them, and Mr. Rogers didn’t want to see his dream disappear.
In the end, it probably saved both of their careers, but it’s really terrible. It was also during times when folks stayed closeted in order to not lose everything they’ve built career and reputation-wise.
Wikipedia:
Remember that even into the 90’s Jerry Fallwell was having a meltdown because he thought the purple teletubby was gay. That Lance Bass or George Micheal or Ricky Martin didn’t feel safe coming out.
The way it comes across is at first some religious but good natured homophobia, but later an acknowledgement that you simply could not have an American children’s show at any point in the 60’s - 90’s with an openly gay man.
At some point, someone has to be the first person to come out or it never happens. The Stonewall Riots were a turning point in large part because they illustrated how The Closet could easily become a coffin LGBTQ folks were buried in, if they weren’t recognized as deserving the same civil rights as their straight peers.
Fred Rogers put the fate of the show and the careers involved ahead of the need for publicly accessible gay people. He wasn’t alone and the risks of coming out sooner were all real. But the consequence of a collective closeting of the community was the delaying of the fight for their civil rights for decades. It could further be argued that this mass closeting contributed to the deliberate foot-dragging by state and federal officials in addressing the AIDS epidemic.
I don’t know anyone over 40 who can’t name a family member or a friend who wasn’t lost to this horrifying disease. Huge swaths of the LGBTQ community were functionally exterminated by a national health system that undermined efforts to diagnose, treat, and develop cures for the disease. What ultimately outed so many gay men across the Americas and Europe was their obituary.
I love that Rogers supported Clemmons and truly had no issue with his sexual orientation. Rogers could’ve simply said to not be openly gay on his show, but he went as far as advising him for the long haul. If you read this as a single headline, it’s way too easy to misconstrue as homophobia, but the reality was that Rogers had a deep understanding of society and how to traverse it to survive and have a career in such socially chaotic times.
Precisely the opposite take to mine. He was gay and accepted by Fred Rogers when that was rare. And Fred later expressed remorse at telling him it would be best not to come out. The word “shamed” in your comment is not remotely fair either
Fair. Shamed probably is the wrong word and I shouldn’t purport to know about what actually went down aside from a possibly misremembered documentary I watched once.
Yeah. It was something that deserves some critique, but I think ultimately at that point in history, sadly, Rogers was right. It wouldn’t have gone well, in the shortterm at least
Yeah, you gotta remember it’s 60 years later and we’re only just starting to see LGBTQ+ representation in kids media, and even now it comes with significant pushback.
Yeah. Only looking back from today can it stand any criticism at all. But that’s easy for us to do now
My dad was alive at the time and rolled with the freak crowd (LGBT, hippies, what would one day be called punks, etc )when he heard about that story he immediately said it made sense because “there were all lot of people who already wanted to string him up for his skin color, let alone being gay” with this really serious look on his face
He grew up in California, too, so yeah
God that shit is dire. It was literally the best of two options and it was still bad. Coming out would have pit both of them in danger and got the show canceled. Fuck the 60s.
Was this the 60s?
In any case, the cultural revolution that gave us many modern tolerances and freedoms started then. Currently the conservatives are pushing back hard against most of that. The culture wars today are a backlash against the spirit of the sixties.
Much respect for introspection 👍
Almost exactly 56 years ago when Senators were cutting PBS budgets because they don’t understand the importance of childhood education and mental health
Oh trust me, they do understand the importance of education. That’s why they cut funding.
How can children get a well-rounded education without walls of ads?
“Two dudes chilling in a hot tub, two feet apart cause they’re not racist.”
Would have been nice if one of them didn’t have to be a cop.
Do you want them to cuddle?
It really hits different to know that this was only about 56 years ago. Societal change happens extremely slowly.
I know! I’m in my 40s and queer, I’m always stunned by how different young people’s attitudes are to lgbt now.
And we are unfortunately vulnerable to regression. It’s sad to think that if Mr Rogers was around today his show would probably be attached to an executive order to have his funding cut.
I don’t know if a similar show would be influential in today’s media market. Not just because it would be considered “woke” by half the population, but because the content would be like watching paint dry for a lot of kids.
I think a big part of learning empathy is wrapped up in learning how to be patient, and how to appreciate someone’s company enough to allot them your time and attention. I just don’t think people value patience very much anymore and wonder if our media reflects that or it’s vice versa.
it’s funny. anyone who actually watched Mr Rogers should know what I’m about to say.
he didn’t want everybody to be just like him. he wanted to inspire children to be better versions of themselves.
frankly, I’m not a nice person. never want to be, but I do try to be a good person.
I grew up on Mr. Rogers, Bob Ross, etc. They’re a big part of what shaped me and made me empathetic. I live a good life but the world around me (the US) is determined to make me bitter and angry, and it’s an everyday struggle to keep my mind above water.
I know if he were around today, he would still manage to always keep a cool head and a grounded spirit, despite knowing where this country is headed.
He would speak out against concentration camps and end up arrested himself.
He is much needed and missed right now.
Yeah, I’m an asshole, I know I’m an asshole, but I do try to not make it a problem for other people and I think watching his show as a kid definitely helped me to be better about that.
Same, I lost my shit with someone at the DMV because I needed one of those new ‘real’ IDs because I really needed to travel. But I lost my birth certificate in a fire and so i couldn’t even get that. I had to take time off work to try and get and they were pissed about that. So now I am going through this while being angry with myself and I took it out on someone who didn’t deserve it because I was a bitch who needed to be angry at someone else.
I hate myself so much.
don’t be too hard on yourself. the fact that you’re remorseful about it should be all the proof you need to show that you were just having a bad day(or couple months).
even Mr. Rogers had bad days. it’s about dealing with your feelings and owning them.
if you feel that bad you should send the person some chocolates or just straight up apologize for your behavior. who knows, maybe it’ll make their own horrible day alittle better.
We need 100,000 more Mr. Rogers in the world. 1,000,000 more.
And republicans have never forgiven him for this.
Some people just want to watch the world learn…
That segregation, was that in the entire USA? How was it introduced for the entire USA when the North fought for the freedom of the black population?
Don’t get it twisted. There were plenty of people who were against slavery but still deeply racist. There was a big movement among abolitionists to send all the black folks back to Africa. That’s how Liberia was founded.
Yep, a lot of folks were racist and just pro-union.
That’s was not a terrible idea for the time. It backfired horrendously and the n US ignored the hell out of it l. Honestly, it was pretty much the history of Isreal
I think it was a terrible idea because it was just more colonization. Just like Israel it’s not like Liberia was just empty. There were more than enough resources for integration, they were just unevenly distributed, history of capitalism blah blah.
They pretty much believed in fucking magic at the time. There was more evidence that the two races were incompatible then there was a lot of other stupid things believed back then. Plus if you are going to fuck someone over it might as well be someone not in your country then someone who is. I guess. Still not good though.
Because the leaders of the confederate were allowed to live
The idea of “equal but separate” that ran from post-US civil war up the US civil rights movement will tell you as to why.
So it is hot, Mr Rogers and neighboring cop are cooling their feet. Can someone tell me why Mr Rogers is still wearing a sweater? Is he taking the name literally?
Can someone tell me why Mr Rogers is still wearing a sweater?
Because he’s Mr. Rogers.
Because it was cold out, but they both had insanely bad cases of athletes foot.
ACAB
All Children Are Beautiful. - Mr Rogers, probably.
Is this AI? I don’t remember this scene looking anything like this. Also I believe it was an actor playing an officer, and Mr Roger was much younger.
No, they did it twice. This is from the later one:
