Fred Rogers Net Worth

Fred Rogers's Quotes

• I think people who produce and perform on programs for children should have as a prerequisite some sort of course to understand their audience. You wouldn't put a newsman on the air who didn't know how to pronounce Vietnam. But we give millions of dollars to these people who are producing cartoons and they have no earthly idea of what they're doing to a kid.
• I got into television because I hated it so. And I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen.
• We have to remember to whom the airwaves belong, and we must put as great an emphasis on the nurturing of the human personality as we can. I believe that those of us who are the producers and purveyors of television -- or video games or newspapers or any mass media -- I believe that we are the servants of this nation.
• You know you don't have to be an actor when you read a book to a child. All you need is to simply love what you're reading. Even just enjoying the pictures together is a great start. When you share a book with a child, you're saying to them that books are important. That's a gift that can nurture them all through their lives.
• Parents are like shuttles on a loom. They join the threads of the past with threads of the future and leave their own bright patterns as they go.

Interesting Facts about Fred Rogers

1. Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame (1999).
2. From its premiere on February 19, 1968, until its end on August 31, 2001, 895 episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968) were produced, all of which he wrote and executive produced.
3. Rogers was ordained as a Presbyterian minister (1963).
4. Received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as well as the TV Critics Association.
5. Received two George Foster Peabody Awards.
6. Rogers was appointed Chairman of the Forum on Mass Media and Child Development of the White House Conference on Youth (1968).
7. Had three grandsons, born 1988, 1993, and 2003.
8. Grand marshal, Tournament of Roses parade. [2003]
9. Attended and graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida (1951). Was a contemporary of actor Anthony Perkins.
10. He received his divinity degree from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (1962). The Presbyterian church ordained him and charged him with a special mission: in effect, to keep on doing what he was doing on television.
11. Books: Mister Rogers Talks with Parents, 1983; The New Baby (Mister Rogers' First Experiences Books), 1985; Making Friends (Mister Rogers' First Experiences Books), 1987; Mister Rogers: How Families Grow, 1988; You Are Special, 1994.
12. Records: Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 1967; Let's Be Together Today, 1968; Josephine, The Short-Necked Giraffe, 1963; You Are Special 1969; A Place of Our Own, 1970; Bedtime, 1992; Growing, 1992
13. Father of Jim Rogers and John Rogers.
14. Received the "Pennsylvania Founder's Award" for his "lifelong contribution to the Commonwealth in the spirit of Pennsylvania's founder, William Penn". [June 1999]
15. His wife Sara Joanne Byrd was his college sweetheart.
16. Named for his maternal grandfather, Frederick McFeeley. Years later, he named a character Mr. McFeely after his grandfather.
17. In 1985, Burger King used an actor impersonating Mister Rogers for a television commercial, calling the character Mister Rodney. Taking issue with the parody, Fred Rogers contacted the Senior Vice President of Burger King, Don Dempsey, who agreed to pull the advertisement. "To have someone who looks like me doing a commercial is very confusing for children," Fred Rogers said at the time. Mr. Dempsey pulled the commercial without question: "Mister Rogers is one guy you don't want to mess with, as beloved as he is." The $150,000 commercial aired only a few dozen times before being removed from the airwaves. It should also be noted that Rogers never did any commercial promotions of any kind.
18. Rogers' gentle manner was the butt of some comedian's jokes. Eddie Murphy parodied him on Saturday Night Live (1975) in the 1980s with his "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood", a routine Rogers found funny and affectionate. The fact that sketches were initially broadcast around midnight when Rogers' usual audience was in bed was likely another reason Rogers had no problem with the parody.
19. Was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a national music fraternity.
20. 305 of the 895 episodes of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" still air today as reruns.