Mr. Rogers
Feb. 27th, 2003 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeI've been thinking a lot about Mr. Rogers today. I'm so sad he died. He could've lived a lot longer; he was only 74. What a needed voice in the hyperkinetic clamor of children's television; what a sweet, gentle, soothing person. He was like the embodiment of the book Goodnight Moon, just this nice, calm, reassuring presence. No wonder everyone loved him.
I watched this retrospective a few years back, maybe around the time he stopped producing new episodes, and they were showing how he'd addressed the MLK and RFK murders in '68 (which must have been right after he went into syndication). One of the puppets, maybe Daniel Striped Tiger, asked him timidly "What does...assassination mean?" And Mr. Rogers's face became very grave. God, I'm crying right now thinking about it--I can't even imagine being a child and knowing all this was happening around me, and watching that episode.
I remember watching him. I had some kind of toy--a puppet theater? a game?--that utilized the puppets, and I remember loving Daniel Striped Tiger. God, I just can't believe he's gone. Only 35 years--in fact, he went into syndication just before I was born, so his career has pretty much spanned my life. Why did he have to die?
I watched this retrospective a few years back, maybe around the time he stopped producing new episodes, and they were showing how he'd addressed the MLK and RFK murders in '68 (which must have been right after he went into syndication). One of the puppets, maybe Daniel Striped Tiger, asked him timidly "What does...assassination mean?" And Mr. Rogers's face became very grave. God, I'm crying right now thinking about it--I can't even imagine being a child and knowing all this was happening around me, and watching that episode.
I remember watching him. I had some kind of toy--a puppet theater? a game?--that utilized the puppets, and I remember loving Daniel Striped Tiger. God, I just can't believe he's gone. Only 35 years--in fact, he went into syndication just before I was born, so his career has pretty much spanned my life. Why did he have to die?
