Saturday, December 14, 2024

Mister (Fred) Rogers Getting His Own Documentary Next Year from Oscar Winner Morgan Neville

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Creepy and yet beloved (by some) Fred Rogers is getting his own documentary. Morgan Neville, who won the Oscar for “20 Feet from Stardom,” has made “Would You Be My Neighbor?” Focus Features has just picked it up for a June 2018 release. I don’t know if they’ll show it in Cannes. It’s very, uh, American.

Mister Rogers is probably best known to a whole generation of “SNL” fans as an Eddie Murphy parody of a quasi-pedophile character called “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood.” But in fact he was a lovable, cardigan wearing children’s TV host who spoke softly and made parents relaxed enough to let kids watch him. I never understood it myself, but there you go.

Fred Rogers made a beautiful speech in 1997 at the Daytime Emmy Awards. Watch it here:

He was also a pioneer in public television long before “Sesame Street”:

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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