I remember reading up on Pastore after hearing about the PBS funding case; to say he was a villain is such an evil thing, when you look at the man's career he was for the people and the children, an intimidating man who had a lot of good he wanted to do, and did. Glad he's getting his flowers in some way today
I think the role of villain was assigned because this video was rarely seen prior to the age of when it was reasonably possible to transmit video across the internet. This would be prior to youtube, and be around 2002, when Mr. Rogers was still alive. The three part video (three parts because sharing videos larger than 2MB was just difficult to do and required good connections) was usually shown without much context to the matter. It was just used to highlight how Rogers had a hand in keeping PBS around. I agree with you that this video is important, because like in most areas across the 'net, context is lost when sensationalism sells (even when the sensationalism is an overall positive message). I only know about this specific history because of how I came across this myself in 2001 via file sharing services of public affairs archives, and how it was shared more broadly in egroups, Usenets, and discussion forums.
As a Canadian, I found the picture of Fred Rogers alongside Ernie Coombs (better known as Mr. Dressup) really bringing me back to my childhood. Mr. Dressup and Mr. Rogers were my two favourites as a kid, and I only recently realized that they had worked together in Toronto.
"How Emotional Intelligence Landed Mr Rogers $20 Million" is the most depressing and dishonest way you could twist this story, the guy was fighting for TV funding not personal profit... God I hate LinkedIn
@@laurendoe168 Knowing LinkedIn, I am 100% certain it is intended to come off that way. The only people that use that site are wall street line goes up guys and self-proclaimed tech entrepreneurs
Honestly I tend to turn off completely when I hear the phrase "emotional intelligence". It's not entirely without merit as an idea, but by and large the way it's used tends to be either awful and masturbatory or so generally that it's meaningless.
I was a student at Carnegie Mellon (and you are correct, it's not just Pittsburghers but Andrew Carnegie himself who pronounced it "Car-NEG-ee") and I had the privilege of meeting Fred Rogers while taping a TV play I wrote at WQED. I can confirm what many people have said about him-there was a glow. Any emotional guardrails you had up would vanish instantly. I believe part of his secret is that he spoke to the child inside the adult and the adult inside the child. It doesn't surprise me at all that he had the good sense to appeal to Senator Pastore's own sense of right and wrong-Rogers was a canny and fiercely determined person when it came to the welfare of children-but I also don't think it was a cakewalk. Pastore is clearly giving Rogers a hard time at the beginning of the hearing, which was basically his brand: he was infamous for incinerating television executives, and my understanding is that he didn't really know much about Fred Rogers when he sat down at the table. He was geared up for a fight, and quickly abandoned his line of attack once he saw that Rogers was on his side. So you're right-it wasn't a conversion story, but it also wasn't theatre. And I do believe Rogers charmed him. There are so many stories of him dissolving people's emotional barriers. Including mine.
I'm a student in Pittsburgh currently and was so glad Phil made a point to pronounce it right haha. Also, although he's not around anymore, Mr. Rogers definitely left a really deep legacy behind. When his name is brought up around here there's a subtle layer of pride just at the fact that THIS was where such a beautiful thing was born.
Pastore saying that public television was the most dynamic and impressive invention of the century gave me goosebumps. Adults that care so much about this public good, that is mainly consumed by children- now that's really special.
"Except the real story is totally different, and I think it is better." This is what makes your channel just.. Honestly my favorite 'recent' addition to my 'must watch' list of YT creatrors.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or something like that. Fred Rogers is a good person to be compared to, and Phil Edwards has a similar genuine sincerity. I don't think wearing a sweater is a problem here!
I did NOT know the connection to the CBC and (re)starting out in Canada. That's Mr Dressup (Earnie Coombs) at 7:55, and as a Canadian kid in the '80s I always recognized the similarities between the two, but thought Mr Dressup was just a Canadian knock-off of Mr Rogers. Both of these men are absolute treasures!!!
The Mr. Dressup documentary on Amazon prime is really good. it talks about how Ernie Coombs worked behind the scenes on Misterogers then when Fred Rogers moved back to the US, Coombs was able to develop his own show for CBC.
Something to note here, is that this all happened _before_ Sesame Street. And Sesame Street had a lot of the same funders as Mister Rogers did. But it took Sesame Street a long time for it to be finely tuned. They really wanted Jim Henson, but Jim wanted nothing to do a children's program. Despite him working with puppets. Jim hadn't gotten into robotics yet.
The combination of growing up in the '90s without cable TV and also being the nerdy type meant I was a PBS kid through and through. Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Arthur, Kratt's Creatures, Bill Nye, Wishbone, and of course Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood were all on regular rotation. I know I have Mr. Rogers and now, also Senator Pastore to thank for that in large part. Great work as always.
I feel the same about our CBC and localy we havel NTV. I remember we had 2 tv hannels for most if my childhood. Both of those channels were available for free with a set of wire rabbit ears...
You're right that this story is better. In a time where real narratives are found to be less wholesome than the publicly known version of the story, learning that the real story involved not only one but two great people trying to do good for childrens television is ust absolutely wonderful.
Phil is a masterclass in how to teach understanding. I thought I understood the entire time, while now I need to go question what purpose even means. Louved this story Phil! Signed- Canadian
Thank you so much for this video! That was great. I always had a notion that there was more to what was being told when Rogers testified than what was being portrayed. Gore Vidal once said, when speaking of FDR whom he knew through his father and step-grandfather, "politicians lie like birds sing", so the idea that Pastore was going to be swept up at a Senate hearing was a bit incongruous from the outset, but I didn't care enough to look behind the curtain and read about Pastore because TV is now becoming antiquated and we're too far away from 1969 for it to feel like something to invest a lot of energy into. However, I'm glad you did. Thank you.
Nixon is the real villian here. Nixon was a crook (despite him claiming he wasn't one), and an overall awful person. How he was popular enough to be elected president is beyond me.
my research led me to not be certain nixon was too antagonistic (at this time) - i suppose there are a couple ways of looking at it - he was increasing the budget, but nowhere near what pbs wanted. that said, he was anti ford foundation and later on quite anti PBS
It seems like Nixon will always be a bit of an enigma. Arguably the most infamous president in history, but not at all consistently evil, and responsible for a lot of good, and moderating some more extreme voices. Off topic, but it would be really interesting to see where we would be in our relations with China if not for him.
He was pretty popular up until watergate, and that is what he is remembered for today. I'm assuming you were not alive yet for his presidency, neither was I, but he was a pretty popular president, and a pretty decent one at that. Certainly not the shiniest US head of state, but his administration created the EPA, the endangered species and clean air acts, and strictly enforced desegregation in southern school, to name a few examples. He did try to end the war in vietnam, but after a few failed treaties with the vietnamese, kissinger got to him.
Indeed! I grew up watching Mr. Dress up! I never really took to Mr Roger's Neighborhood...but I think that's just my preference growing up, and nothing to do with the quality of the show.
Every time I revisited that viral video of Mr. Roger's hearing with Senator Pastore, I never saw the lawmaker as a villain. I am not a stranger to disliking Congress, it's a common feeling among my generation, to be apathetic about the lawmakers of this country. However, it is his job to be cynical, to look at things as objectively as possible. Everyone can make emotional pleas about their bill or project, and it's a Senator's job to wade through it all and make sense of it. I saw a no-nonsense Senator speak to a no-nonsense public educator, and ensured the foundation of PBS and for children's education for decades to come. What villain gives the hero a fair chance? What villain lets the hero convince him, unironically? What villain comes around to the hero's point of view after only a few minutes? That is not a villain, that is an ally who has to play his cards carefully to win the day. Thank you for your insight into this subject, and shedding more light onto the truth of the situation as it happened in it's own time.
I love all the newfound praise for Mr Rogers going around for the last few years. What a sadly missed bygone era! My parents bought me a little Timex wristwatch for Christmas when I was 7, my mother calling it my "Daniel Tiger Timex" because she remembered him being my favorite character and loving his little puppet wristwatch 😂 Still my prized possession to this day! I've had that silly thing more than 40 years now and it still makes me happy every time I pull it out of the drawer to wear for a couple weeks at a time
Holy crap, your avatar is smacking me over the head with memories that by all accounts were all but forgotten. It's incredibly faint, but I definitely remember seeing those stickers growing up. For some reason I distinctly remember one being on our phone, which I'm not sure what the point was. Maybe don't lick it? Probably a good call (heh).
I am a bit surprised that so many people miss the obvious clues of the original clip and mistook it. Admittedly, it was part of the charade intended. But in a way it is a good indicator how easily people can fall for something like that.
I remember watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and I specifically remember my favorite part of the show was the part in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
thank you so much for telling this story! im about to graduate w/ my masters in public affairs and part of the reason why i concentrated my policy interests on education/public schools is because of the positive impact mr rogers left on me. keep doing what you do!
Phils' videos are easily one of the best produced and well narrated stories. His demeanor and voice is almost Fred Rogers like. You are definitely one of the top journalists on UA-cam Johnny Harris and Cleo. Keep up the great work Phil.
Phil, You really hit it out of the park with this one-bravo! 👏 Right now, this is my favorite video of yours. I really like how you show how much context matters. I went to the US Congress website to read Pastore’s biography and I was not surprised to learn he was an assistant attorney general twice. Like a defense attorney, Pastore was clearly disarming Public Television’s critics.
My only criticism is that you didn't adjust for inflation. $20 million doesnt sound a lot for a industrial grant. But it converts to about $170 million today. I just wished you had added that in, just to really illustrate just how large of a subsidy they were getting.
I watched, every episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood as a kid. Those were the days. Good days. Later generations, missed out on not watching and learning from his show.
Mr. Fred Rogers really loves his craft, until the last days of his life. He touched a couple of generations of kids and now we relive his legacies. His calm and soft spoken demeanor was admirable.
Thanks for this video. As An Australian whose children's tv was always pretty decently addressed it's hard to imagine other places having to fight for the right to have good children's television programming on the air. Mind you ours originally started as copies of some UK tv shows- hilariously we are now the only country that still produces Playschool (there used to be 3 and ours have been going for over 50 years and still going strong) and something at least 4 generations of Aussies have seen and grown up along side of. So thank you for this.😊
This has been my favorite piece of work you’ve shown us here on this channel. Brilliantly whimsical, wonderfully informative and superbly edited. Thank you so much Phil!
Thanks for a great video that thinking adults can find uplifting. In an environment where it seems popular culture wants everyone to remain children (and apparently so many do), it's refreshing to see and hear a presentation that presents a story targeting adult sensibilities. richard --
Thanks for the Upload! I'm a child and youth support worker and I often turn to Mr. Rogers for inspiration. It might be an episode of his show, a documentary, a youtube video, TV interview, biopic, it doesn't really matter. I just need to spend some time with his energy.
The part that always sticks out to me is when Fred says “I'm very much concerned, as I know you are, about what's being delivered to our children in this country” now that line makes so much more sense.
Love Fred Rogers, loved the Doc, and loved this video. Has anyone ever told you that you give off a little Mr. Rogers calmness? (Esp when compaired to so many other UA-cam creators) And interesting branding choices with this video. Nice. Also, I usually zip past big chunks of sponsorship inclusions (sorry, too much content, and not enough hours in the day... I also watch all UA-cam videos, except Phil DeFranco, at 1.25 or 1.5) but this CoPilot integration felt pretty logical & genuine. Will actually click the link and try to figure out if I should cancel my PlanetFitness... no promises tho Phil.
Anytime I get more info about Fred Rodgers I just feel so much emotion. He already made such an impression on me as a child, but all the backstory gives me so much faith in humanity.
I was born about 15 minutes away from where Mr. Rogers was. He has always been a local legend. I grew up watching his show. The things he taught managed to stick in my tiny brain in the early 2000s when everything was fighting for my attention at once. Mr. Rogers is one of the few men in history who lived up to every good thing said about him. Someone who wasn’t nasty or abusive behind the scenes. Because of him, many people my age and older learned how to be functional humans, especially so in a post 9/11 America where hate is rampant. I feel for the younger half of generation Z, and the generations to come after that they do not have a figure like Rogers to look up to.
If someone has ever actually watched a congressional hearing, they should be familiar with this format. There will be committee members who are on your side and use their questions to make your testimony as impactful as possible (usually - perhaps unfortunately - this is along partisan lines today).
Fantastic episode once again.. perhaps another episode on why the US is the only country in the world that spells neighbourhood, colour, flavour, etc without the 'u'.. Love your work!
I was wondering about this exact thing literally last week. I love Mr. Rogers, but I thought that Senate hearing didn't sound the way that it is commonly portrayed. But of course I was too lazy to actually look into it. Thanks for the great video as always, Phil.
If you ever wanted a companion piece to this video: you might find the Canada and PBS connections interesting. For example, I grew up with PBS because WQLN (Erie, PA) was the station near me (London, Ontario). Because of these coverages, PBS relied heavily from donations from Canadian viewership. WQLN was such a rotatable example that they've acknowledged the Canadian connection by referring their station "Eric-London." I haven't been able to have the channel on but when I do my searching for the channel, they still do segments about London Ontario.
PBS is still doing great content as well. Otherwords on UA-cam is fantastic, along with various shows about mythology and history! It's always been the mission!
Nice job. I grew up in Providence and Sen Pastore was a true hero. He was largely responsible for the structure around not just public TV but whole host of communications laws that promoted public decency. It’s too bad he’s not around now to tame social media.
I watched recordings of that famous hearing, and I couldn't see why the senator had a reputation for being such a hard ass, because Mr. Rogers entire testimony seemed pretty cordial and brief
I had actually never heard this story told in such a way that Pastore was a bad guy won over by Mr. Rogers’ wonderfulness- I’d only ever heard roughly the story elaborated in this video. Interesting!
How many of us wouldn't be nerds today if not for Mr. Rogers and PBS? So many of us grew up watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, which would be followed up by shows like Nova and David Attenborough. I grew up in rough neighborhoods and didn't have friends, except for Fred Rogers. And when he died, we all lost a dear friend. I doubt few of us had dry eyes when we heard he was gone. I love knowing how things work because of a video he showed of brass instruments being made. And when my best friend, coincidentally enough, is also a Mr. Rogers, asked why i loved machines so much, i said about that video. He's got the memory of a goldfish, but he lit up and exclaimed he remembered that.
7:53 - The CBC later had its own version of Mr. Rogers called “Mr. Dressup”, I had always assumed it was just a knockoff. But after watching this and looking it up, turns out that “Mr. Dressup” (Ernie Coombs) had actually been an understudy of Rogers when he was at the CBC.
Love your video. It's interesting that you mention that Fred should have been pushing on an open door with Pastore, since they both came from the same ideology regarding educational programming. Yet Pastore is quite hostile in the Senate hearing towards Fred at first. He's won round but you'd think he would have been open ears from the outset! I'm a school teacher from England that uses the senate hearing as a teaching tool for new teachers in how to manage hostile oppositional stances from parents and kids. It blew me away when I first saw it and I've studied it intently.
@Phil Edwards I attend the seminary where Mister Rogers went, and we really lean in on the formation of imaginative thought processes for people to do adaptive and innovative ministries, like he did with his television show.
Click my trainwell (formerly CoPilot) link go.trainwell.net/PhilEdwards-cp to get 14 days FREE with your own expert personal trainer!
how come this pinned comment came from 2 days ago? hmm.
@@mccampretlammergeier8289 you can pin comments in advance and who doesn't like a little magical time travel vibe
I remember reading up on Pastore after hearing about the PBS funding case; to say he was a villain is such an evil thing, when you look at the man's career he was for the people and the children, an intimidating man who had a lot of good he wanted to do, and did.
Glad he's getting his flowers in some way today
I think the role of villain was assigned because this video was rarely seen prior to the age of when it was reasonably possible to transmit video across the internet.
This would be prior to youtube, and be around 2002, when Mr. Rogers was still alive.
The three part video (three parts because sharing videos larger than 2MB was just difficult to do and required good connections) was usually shown without much context to the matter. It was just used to highlight how Rogers had a hand in keeping PBS around.
I agree with you that this video is important, because like in most areas across the 'net, context is lost when sensationalism sells (even when the sensationalism is an overall positive message).
I only know about this specific history because of how I came across this myself in 2001 via file sharing services of public affairs archives, and how it was shared more broadly in egroups, Usenets, and discussion forums.
Vilified by his enemies, who didnt like that he was in their way of making money.
As a Canadian, I really find that PBS puts on display the best of US, no sensationalism, no advertising and pandering, just quality television
advertising to children is one of the worst things that happened to US society.
@@snowballeffect7812 To the world, my friend. We in Germany suffer from the same things and our conservatives also defend this to the death with lies.
As a Canadian, I found the picture of Fred Rogers alongside Ernie Coombs (better known as Mr. Dressup) really bringing me back to my childhood. Mr. Dressup and Mr. Rogers were my two favourites as a kid, and I only recently realized that they had worked together in Toronto.
Unfortunately the PBS news hour exists and while no advertisement they still have sensationalism to drive up ratings to justify funding
Not really, its still leagues above most of the for profit networks@@TinLeadHammer
"How Emotional Intelligence Landed Mr Rogers $20 Million" is the most depressing and dishonest way you could twist this story, the guy was fighting for TV funding not personal profit...
God I hate LinkedIn
LinkedIn is all about manipulation and deceit in a endless goose chase of economic gain, so this doesn't surprise me.
I didn't get any indication at all that it was for personal profit.
@@laurendoe168 Knowing LinkedIn, I am 100% certain it is intended to come off that way. The only people that use that site are wall street line goes up guys and self-proclaimed tech entrepreneurs
We need to be real and admit that LinkedIn is the weirdest, most bizarre, and at least true to life social media platform going.
Honestly I tend to turn off completely when I hear the phrase "emotional intelligence". It's not entirely without merit as an idea, but by and large the way it's used tends to be either awful and masturbatory or so generally that it's meaningless.
I was a student at Carnegie Mellon (and you are correct, it's not just Pittsburghers but Andrew Carnegie himself who pronounced it "Car-NEG-ee") and I had the privilege of meeting Fred Rogers while taping a TV play I wrote at WQED. I can confirm what many people have said about him-there was a glow. Any emotional guardrails you had up would vanish instantly. I believe part of his secret is that he spoke to the child inside the adult and the adult inside the child. It doesn't surprise me at all that he had the good sense to appeal to Senator Pastore's own sense of right and wrong-Rogers was a canny and fiercely determined person when it came to the welfare of children-but I also don't think it was a cakewalk. Pastore is clearly giving Rogers a hard time at the beginning of the hearing, which was basically his brand: he was infamous for incinerating television executives, and my understanding is that he didn't really know much about Fred Rogers when he sat down at the table. He was geared up for a fight, and quickly abandoned his line of attack once he saw that Rogers was on his side. So you're right-it wasn't a conversion story, but it also wasn't theatre. And I do believe Rogers charmed him. There are so many stories of him dissolving people's emotional barriers. Including mine.
As someone who does voiceovers for a living, I love that you included that pronunciation ❤
I'm a student in Pittsburgh currently and was so glad Phil made a point to pronounce it right haha. Also, although he's not around anymore, Mr. Rogers definitely left a really deep legacy behind. When his name is brought up around here there's a subtle layer of pride just at the fact that THIS was where such a beautiful thing was born.
Pastore saying that public television was the most dynamic and impressive invention of the century gave me goosebumps.
Adults that care so much about this public good, that is mainly consumed by children- now that's really special.
"Except the real story is totally different, and I think it is better."
This is what makes your channel just.. Honestly my favorite 'recent' addition to my 'must watch' list of YT creatrors.
I was lucky enough to meet Fred Rogers at a grad school symposium on children's television. Just the nicest human I've ever met.
Phil Edwards has been cosplaying as Mister Rogers for a while now.
I legitimately have an office sweater and slippers, but I didn't want to sully the man by comparisan.
you know what… i see it now.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or something like that. Fred Rogers is a good person to be compared to, and Phil Edwards has a similar genuine sincerity. I don't think wearing a sweater is a problem here!
Nice Sully/ Tom Hanks/ A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood reference Phil.
Also, great job on this film.
I did NOT know the connection to the CBC and (re)starting out in Canada. That's Mr Dressup (Earnie Coombs) at 7:55, and as a Canadian kid in the '80s I always recognized the similarities between the two, but thought Mr Dressup was just a Canadian knock-off of Mr Rogers. Both of these men are absolute treasures!!!
The Mr. Dressup documentary on Amazon prime is really good. it talks about how Ernie Coombs worked behind the scenes on Misterogers then when Fred Rogers moved back to the US, Coombs was able to develop his own show for CBC.
Something to note here, is that this all happened _before_ Sesame Street. And Sesame Street had a lot of the same funders as Mister Rogers did. But it took Sesame Street a long time for it to be finely tuned. They really wanted Jim Henson, but Jim wanted nothing to do a children's program. Despite him working with puppets. Jim hadn't gotten into robotics yet.
Thanks for putting back the truth into this historical moment and giving John Pastore's legacy the praise it deserves
Thanks for this video as someone who is a self-taught scholar of public broadcasting (I made my college thesis on that subject)
How can you say you're self taught, if you went to college to learn it?
@@I_WANT_MY_SLAW He wrote his thesis on it. That means he did his own research.
You routinely reshape my understanding of episodes I thought I understood. And you do it without bopping me over the head.
I just finished the video and I'm here to remind you that it's okay for grown men to cry. Especially if it's because of Mr. Rogers.
These videos are some of the best on UA-cam. The way you tell these stories are so compelling and intimate. I’m excited for your next one, Phil!
The combination of growing up in the '90s without cable TV and also being the nerdy type meant I was a PBS kid through and through. Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Arthur, Kratt's Creatures, Bill Nye, Wishbone, and of course Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood were all on regular rotation. I know I have Mr. Rogers and now, also Senator Pastore to thank for that in large part. Great work as always.
I miss Fred Rogers. Thanks for sharing this story with us.
We should never forget how lucky we are to have the BBC here in the UK.
it was interesting to me that the US almost had a similar excise tax
Lol, BBC.
I feel the same about our CBC and localy we havel NTV. I remember we had 2 tv hannels for most if my childhood. Both of those channels were available for free with a set of wire rabbit ears...
You're right that this story is better. In a time where real narratives are found to be less wholesome than the publicly known version of the story, learning that the real story involved not only one but two great people trying to do good for childrens television is ust absolutely wonderful.
Phil is a masterclass in how to teach understanding. I thought I understood the entire time, while now I need to go question what purpose even means. Louved this story Phil! Signed- Canadian
Mr Rodgers was such an interesting guy. He truly spoke with kindness and wanted to see the best in people.
Thank you so much for this video! That was great. I always had a notion that there was more to what was being told when Rogers testified than what was being portrayed. Gore Vidal once said, when speaking of FDR whom he knew through his father and step-grandfather, "politicians lie like birds sing", so the idea that Pastore was going to be swept up at a Senate hearing was a bit incongruous from the outset, but I didn't care enough to look behind the curtain and read about Pastore because TV is now becoming antiquated and we're too far away from 1969 for it to feel like something to invest a lot of energy into. However, I'm glad you did. Thank you.
Nixon is the real villian here. Nixon was a crook (despite him claiming he wasn't one), and an overall awful person. How he was popular enough to be elected president is beyond me.
my research led me to not be certain nixon was too antagonistic (at this time) - i suppose there are a couple ways of looking at it - he was increasing the budget, but nowhere near what pbs wanted. that said, he was anti ford foundation and later on quite anti PBS
Our politicians today are every bit as corrupt as Nixon was. 😘
It seems like Nixon will always be a bit of an enigma. Arguably the most infamous president in history, but not at all consistently evil, and responsible for a lot of good, and moderating some more extreme voices.
Off topic, but it would be really interesting to see where we would be in our relations with China if not for him.
He was pretty popular up until watergate, and that is what he is remembered for today. I'm assuming you were not alive yet for his presidency, neither was I, but he was a pretty popular president, and a pretty decent one at that. Certainly not the shiniest US head of state, but his administration created the EPA, the endangered species and clean air acts, and strictly enforced desegregation in southern school, to name a few examples. He did try to end the war in vietnam, but after a few failed treaties with the vietnamese, kissinger got to him.
@@enemyspotted2467 I mean, Trump got elected, so I'm not that shocked.
What I love about Mr. Roger's Neighborhood is how it's so quaint, gentle, and sweet and how that still resonates in these contentious times.
Hands up, all you Canadians who got a thrill seeing Mr. Dressup in the photo at 7:53.
Indeed! I grew up watching Mr. Dress up! I never really took to Mr Roger's Neighborhood...but I think that's just my preference growing up, and nothing to do with the quality of the show.
Every time I revisited that viral video of Mr. Roger's hearing with Senator Pastore, I never saw the lawmaker as a villain.
I am not a stranger to disliking Congress, it's a common feeling among my generation, to be apathetic about the lawmakers of this country. However, it is his job to be cynical, to look at things as objectively as possible. Everyone can make emotional pleas about their bill or project, and it's a Senator's job to wade through it all and make sense of it. I saw a no-nonsense Senator speak to a no-nonsense public educator, and ensured the foundation of PBS and for children's education for decades to come. What villain gives the hero a fair chance? What villain lets the hero convince him, unironically? What villain comes around to the hero's point of view after only a few minutes? That is not a villain, that is an ally who has to play his cards carefully to win the day.
Thank you for your insight into this subject, and shedding more light onto the truth of the situation as it happened in it's own time.
I love all the newfound praise for Mr Rogers going around for the last few years. What a sadly missed bygone era! My parents bought me a little Timex wristwatch for Christmas when I was 7, my mother calling it my "Daniel Tiger Timex" because she remembered him being my favorite character and loving his little puppet wristwatch 😂 Still my prized possession to this day!
I've had that silly thing more than 40 years now and it still makes me happy every time I pull it out of the drawer to wear for a couple weeks at a time
Holy crap, your avatar is smacking me over the head with memories that by all accounts were all but forgotten. It's incredibly faint, but I definitely remember seeing those stickers growing up. For some reason I distinctly remember one being on our phone, which I'm not sure what the point was. Maybe don't lick it? Probably a good call (heh).
@@reNINTENDO the old Latchkey Kid "Mr Yuk means no!" poison control center campaign
I am a bit surprised that so many people miss the obvious clues of the original clip and mistook it. Admittedly, it was part of the charade intended. But in a way it is a good indicator how easily people can fall for something like that.
I remember watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and I specifically remember my favorite part of the show was the part in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
Thanks for setting the record straight ❤
Thank you to Josh from CoPilot for the video inspiration. And to Mr. Edward's Neighborhood for bringing it to life
thank you so much for telling this story! im about to graduate w/ my masters in public affairs and part of the reason why i concentrated my policy interests on education/public schools is because of the positive impact mr rogers left on me. keep doing what you do!
Phils' videos are easily one of the best produced and well narrated stories. His demeanor and voice is almost Fred Rogers like. You are definitely one of the top journalists on UA-cam Johnny Harris and Cleo.
Keep up the great work Phil.
Phil,
You really hit it out of the park with this one-bravo! 👏 Right now, this is my favorite video of yours. I really like how you show how much context matters. I went to the US Congress website to read Pastore’s biography and I was not surprised to learn he was an assistant attorney general twice. Like a defense attorney, Pastore was clearly disarming Public Television’s critics.
My only criticism is that you didn't adjust for inflation. $20 million doesnt sound a lot for a industrial grant. But it converts to about $170 million today. I just wished you had added that in, just to really illustrate just how large of a subsidy they were getting.
it was viewed as pretty rinky dink even at the time, relative to the federal budget
Love that picture of Mr. Rodgers and Mr. Dress Up (On the left in the Canadian show picture.)
I watched, every episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood as a kid. Those were the days. Good days. Later generations, missed out on not watching and learning from his show.
Thanks for telling the full, true story... People are so sure they understand the situation, myself included, before I watched this.
Thanks! Nice to see the spot with his Canadian counterpart Ernie Coombs (AKA Mr Dressup)
Mr. Fred Rogers really loves his craft, until the last days of his life.
He touched a couple of generations of kids and now we relive his legacies.
His calm and soft spoken demeanor was admirable.
A solid video from one of my favorite guys about my favorite guy.
10:34 YES! My dad was born in Carnegie (just outside Pittsburgh) and I was just back there this summer, can confirm the pronunciation lol.
Love that the viral Mr Rogers speech really featured two heroes
thank you so much for telling the real stories
Thanks for this video. As An Australian whose children's tv was always pretty decently addressed it's hard to imagine other places having to fight for the right to have good children's television programming on the air. Mind you ours originally started as copies of some UK tv shows- hilariously we are now the only country that still produces Playschool (there used to be 3 and ours have been going for over 50 years and still going strong) and something at least 4 generations of Aussies have seen and grown up along side of. So thank you for this.😊
This has been my favorite piece of work you’ve shown us here on this channel. Brilliantly whimsical, wonderfully informative and superbly edited. Thank you so much Phil!
ah thank you! i appreciate it!
This really puts a wonderful new light on that documentary. Bravo Phil
You are a wonderful person in the neighborhood for making this video. Thank you for brightening my day :)
Always love your deep dives into culture and historical moments!
Wow! Didn't realize Mr. Rogers worked in Canada at all, I was only aware of our dear Mr. Dressup! Awesome video Phil!
Thanks for a great video that thinking adults can find uplifting. In an environment where it seems popular culture wants everyone to remain children (and apparently so many do), it's refreshing to see and hear a presentation that presents a story targeting adult sensibilities.
richard
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Mr Dressup got his start on the children's corner too! Love the picture you showed of the two of them together in front of the trolley...
Thanks for the Upload!
I'm a child and youth support worker and I often turn to Mr. Rogers for inspiration.
It might be an episode of his show, a documentary, a youtube video, TV interview, biopic, it doesn't really matter. I just need to spend some time with his energy.
The part that always sticks out to me is when Fred says “I'm very much concerned, as I know you are, about what's being delivered to our children in this country” now that line makes so much more sense.
You really channeled your Fred Rogers in weaving and delivering this narrative. No sweater required. Well done.
Love Fred Rogers, loved the Doc, and loved this video. Has anyone ever told you that you give off a little Mr. Rogers calmness? (Esp when compaired to so many other UA-cam creators) And interesting branding choices with this video. Nice. Also, I usually zip past big chunks of sponsorship inclusions (sorry, too much content, and not enough hours in the day... I also watch all UA-cam videos, except Phil DeFranco, at 1.25 or 1.5) but this CoPilot integration felt pretty logical & genuine. Will actually click the link and try to figure out if I should cancel my PlanetFitness... no promises tho Phil.
Anytime I get more info about Fred Rodgers I just feel so much emotion. He already made such an impression on me as a child, but all the backstory gives me so much faith in humanity.
+1
Somehow the story got even more heartwarming
I was born about 15 minutes away from where Mr. Rogers was. He has always been a local legend. I grew up watching his show. The things he taught managed to stick in my tiny brain in the early 2000s when everything was fighting for my attention at once.
Mr. Rogers is one of the few men in history who lived up to every good thing said about him. Someone who wasn’t nasty or abusive behind the scenes.
Because of him, many people my age and older learned how to be functional humans, especially so in a post 9/11 America where hate is rampant. I feel for the younger half of generation Z, and the generations to come after that they do not have a figure like Rogers to look up to.
If someone has ever actually watched a congressional hearing, they should be familiar with this format. There will be committee members who are on your side and use their questions to make your testimony as impactful as possible (usually - perhaps unfortunately - this is along partisan lines today).
this is part of what's so bizarre to me about all the other coverage. literally no one considered the Senator's affiliation...
Another great video, Thank you!!! Need more videos, 😊
Fantastic episode once again.. perhaps another episode on why the US is the only country in the world that spells neighbourhood, colour, flavour, etc without the 'u'.. Love your work!
Thanks for another great video, Phil! As always wonderfully produced and scripted!
This is an excellent corrective. Great job Phil!
Thank you. 😊
I always watch every Mr Rogers video that comes up. There’s always something new and interesting to learn about him.
this is true! and you never get let down
Thanks for this story!
"We're grown ups". HEY! Speak for yourself! Fantastic video like always Phil.
you make some of the best videos on youtube! thank you
Thanks very much for this. It's baffling to me that this wasn't the story that they went with.... It's so much more moving and interesting.
I was wondering about this exact thing literally last week. I love Mr. Rogers, but I thought that Senate hearing didn't sound the way that it is commonly portrayed. But of course I was too lazy to actually look into it. Thanks for the great video as always, Phil.
Loved this video
If you ever wanted a companion piece to this video: you might find the Canada and PBS connections interesting. For example, I grew up with PBS because WQLN (Erie, PA) was the station near me (London, Ontario). Because of these coverages, PBS relied heavily from donations from Canadian viewership. WQLN was such a rotatable example that they've acknowledged the Canadian connection by referring their station "Eric-London." I haven't been able to have the channel on but when I do my searching for the channel, they still do segments about London Ontario.
Dude! The lighting and framing on your couch shots - fantastic!
ah thank ya! warms my heart
As always great videos. Thanks for the effort and extra context.
Fantastic episode, best one yet!
Great video!
So great! ThankYou
PBS is still doing great content as well. Otherwords on UA-cam is fantastic, along with various shows about mythology and history! It's always been the mission!
Fred Rogers was an important part of the childhood education for so many people in the USA. I am glad that Sen. Pastore fought to get funding for PBS.
Nice job. I grew up in Providence and Sen Pastore was a true hero. He was largely responsible for the structure around not just public TV but whole host of communications laws that promoted public decency. It’s too bad he’s not around now to tame social media.
Yay, new episode!
Great story! A case were the truth is more interesting than fiction.
Memory unlocked: typing "neighbourhood" in an old word processor and the spellcheck not understanding the word or what to correct it to.
A beautiful story, and you’re correct it’s Carnegie (CarNayGhee)
Even Sears had their hands in Mister Rogersin the early years I didnt even know that. That's a trivia question that needs to be in a trivia night.
yeah sears kinda saved him! and before that hornes! he was a real department store hero
Love the Ernie Coombs cameo. Big ups to all my Canadian Me. Dressup heads
I watched recordings of that famous hearing, and I couldn't see why the senator had a reputation for being such a hard ass, because Mr. Rogers entire testimony seemed pretty cordial and brief
maybe if I wrote first… I’ll get the Bronze Trophy? 😂😂
📎 sorry not a lot of hardware left
I had actually never heard this story told in such a way that Pastore was a bad guy won over by Mr. Rogers’ wonderfulness- I’d only ever heard roughly the story elaborated in this video. Interesting!
How many of us wouldn't be nerds today if not for Mr. Rogers and PBS?
So many of us grew up watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, which would be followed up by shows like Nova and David Attenborough.
I grew up in rough neighborhoods and didn't have friends, except for Fred Rogers. And when he died, we all lost a dear friend. I doubt few of us had dry eyes when we heard he was gone.
I love knowing how things work because of a video he showed of brass instruments being made. And when my best friend, coincidentally enough, is also a Mr. Rogers, asked why i loved machines so much, i said about that video. He's got the memory of a goldfish, but he lit up and exclaimed he remembered that.
So it's not a case of good vs evil, but rather one of two good men coming together to push for what they believe in.
That guy standing beside Fred Rogers, is Ernie Coombs. He would become Canada's version of Mister Rogers, known as Mister Dressup.
Nice video. I wanna se the doc, but with this in mind.
7:53 - The CBC later had its own version of Mr. Rogers called “Mr. Dressup”, I had always assumed it was just a knockoff. But after watching this and looking it up, turns out that “Mr. Dressup” (Ernie Coombs) had actually been an understudy of Rogers when he was at the CBC.
Love your video. It's interesting that you mention that Fred should have been pushing on an open door with Pastore, since they both came from the same ideology regarding educational programming. Yet Pastore is quite hostile in the Senate hearing towards Fred at first. He's won round but you'd think he would have been open ears from the outset! I'm a school teacher from England that uses the senate hearing as a teaching tool for new teachers in how to manage hostile oppositional stances from parents and kids. It blew me away when I first saw it and I've studied it intently.
yeah pastore just is from new england!
@@PhilEdwardsInc Ha ha! Yeah sorry my country invaded your country and made all the names English place names but just added 'new' in front of them!
Amazing vid!
@Phil Edwards I attend the seminary where Mister Rogers went, and we really lean in on the formation of imaginative thought processes for people to do adaptive and innovative ministries, like he did with his television show.
thanks for mentioning!
Can confirm that “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” is an excellent film.
except the lying!
@@PhilEdwardsInc I saw it in 2018 when it first came out, but I'll have to re-watch it with fresh eyes after seeing your video!