In 1969, Fred Rogers addressed the Senate for a mere six minutes and ensured $20 million in funding for PBS. How’d he do it? With authenticity and emotional intelligence.
He is one of my heroes. My dad died when I was sixteen. It was so wonderful to sit with my much younger sister and brother and learn from Fred Rogers. He made a difficult situation so much better.
I LOOOVE this. Have to rewatch it every few months. You can see IN REAL TIME the kindness and good of Fred Roger’s melting the cynical hard-beaten exterior of someone else. It’s such a lovely, great, hopeful human moment. ❤️❤️❤️💯💯💯
Probably my favorite moment of Fred Rogers. That Senator was hellbent on not giving PBS its funding, but Fred Rogers through his humanity, charisma and selflessness showed that senator a better path. In the process Mr. Rogers made everyone one happy and at peace. What an incredible person he was.
I’ve heard that the Senator (an FDR vintage Democrat) wasn’t really the bad guy but may have been in a grumpy mood after sitting for a long day listening to multiple people read prepared statements pitching the case for public TV (which was a new thing in 1969). Nixon (not a Democrat - LOL) was suspicious (probably justifiably so) of the nascent network’s politics and wasn’t “on board” for their funding. Which is why Mr Rogers was reading the Senator and trying to decide if reading the statement he had in his hands would be a good idea or not. Decides the better of it, and monologue gives way to dialog, and the exchange is classic!
"Mr.Rogers Was So Handsome In His Younger Days,Beautiful Eyes,Smile,Voice,And Cute Ears!!!!! Even When He Got To Be In His Late 60s!!! But In 2003,He Didn't Look So Good.His Face Looked Pale,And Skinner,Which Was Because The Cancer.But He Voice Stayed Absolutely Beautiful!!!!
