Name: Mr. Rogers Says Kids Watch Too Much TV | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-02-24T13:45:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Mr. Rogers Says Kids Watch Too Much TV | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-24. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Mr. Rogers Says Kids Watch Too Much TV | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-24. Transcript available.

My first guest on the show today is the host of the popular children's show, Mr.
Rogers' Neighborhood.
Please welcome him to our neighborhood, Mr. Fred Rogers.
Nice of you to be here. I appreciate your time.
Thank you, David.
Your show has been on the air, as you just mentioned to me, 15 years on PBS.
Yes.
And it's different from what we think of a children's show now.
Why do you try and make it that way, or who's right here?
I don't know about being right or wrong.
All I know is that the only thing I can do is to give myself.
And I feel the most important thing is just, well, you do it.
I mean, you give David Letterman to the people who are watching you.
And, well, they feel your honesty.
And I think that that's what the children feel about me.
It's something, the first time I saw the show, several years ago,
it was so different.
It was Sesame Street, of course.
It was just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
And yours was very calm, intelligent.
And my sister, who at that time had children who watched the show,
said that the kids would sit there and nod and talk back to you on the screen.
They talk back to me on the screen now, but it's a whole different discussion.
What about other kind of children's shows, like Saturday morning cartoons and
so forth?
Is that good for kids, do you think?
I think that children probably watch a lot of television that isn't good for
them.
I think that they watch too much television.
But when there aren't alternatives, it's very hard to have the set turned off.
I've got some puppets.
Maybe you'd like to ask some of them some questions.
These are all from the neighborhood of make-believe, and for some reason they
were just knocking on my shoulder to come out.
Oh, does he know how to greet me?
Well, I think so, King Friday.
My name is King Friday the 13th, Mr. Letterman.
You ask about television, I give the best of it.
Can I, excuse me, come in.
Can I go ahead and ask him something?
Um, nice to have you on the show, King.
Oh, this is a show?
Yeah, this is a TV, I'm talking to him now, a TV show like what you do there in
the land of make-believe.
Yes, it's the neighborhood of make-believe, and I'm King Friday the 13th.
As a matter of fact, I could sing for you.
Well, sure, that would be...
Do you know that little ditty, propelling your craft down the stream?
Do you know that one?
Perhaps your friends out there know what?
Propelling the craft down the stream?
Well, some people say, row, row, row your boat.
I know that.
You know that?
Yeah, but, yeah, I do know that.
But I know, I know bigger words to that.
Perhaps you'd like to hear it.
I'd love it, I'd love to hear it.
Propel, propel, propel your craft gently down liquid solution.
Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, existence is but an
illusion.
Why did you ask me to come here?
Yeah, thank you very much.
Very, yeah.
King Friday the 13th.
It is.
I really wanted children to think of the king instead of the superstitious
Friday the 13th.
And so we made a character.
We have a black pussycat called Henrietta Pussycat.
And we have a very tame tiger, Daniel Striped Tiger, who is very shy.
And when children see his shyness, it often helps them when they're shy.
Do you think children, by nature, tend to be shy or tend to be outspoken?
It depends how they've been treated or how they've grown up in their own
families.
But, uh, Daniel, being very, very shy himself, the children will come and
sometimes he'll say that he has a new stripe.
And could, uh, could the children scratch his stripe?
Would you mind if I...
He's a very, very handsome tiger.
Very nice.
Well, the problem is that when you meet new people, it's sometimes scary.
Did you ever feel that way?
Yes, I do.
I, I...
I mean, occasionally I do.
I feel a little, uh, yeah, perplexed.
Well, I just wondered if I was one of those people who wouldn't be seen on your
program.
No, we're happy to have, uh, you and your friend, uh, Fred, on the show.
Well, I guess I'm here because Fred, Mr. Rogers, he has played miniature golf.
Well, that's very nice, very nice.
I do want to ask you one thing.
You mentioned that children probably watch too much television.
Do children enjoy watching television or is it just that it's easier than doing
something else?
I think we need to ask them.
And I, I think that it has to do with, with each one personally.
Uh, there are some children who can get themselves far enough away from the
fantasy not to be frightened by it.
But there are a lot of very frightening things on television.
Like what would, what would frighten a child?
Well, uh, something in which, uh, an animal is taken away and hurt because they
identify sin with animals.
Do, do you know of any studies done that would, um, kids who watch a lot of TV,
what their life turns out to be as opposed to kids who watch little TV?
Is it what I'm getting? Passive activity versus activity.
Well, I just sense myself from my own sons and other children that I know that
it's a lot more helpful if they can make up their own play.
And that's why through the neighborhood, we encourage children to make up their
own play.
So that the important time is after the television's turned off.
That's when the program has real importance.
How well did it prepare them to play?
How well did it help them to feel good enough about who they are, that they can
take the materials of the world and make something of them?
And that's why we sing a song like, It's You I Like, because I want children to
know that there are those who feel good about them just the way they are.
John Costas, our musical director, and he's with us today.
You want to hear It's You I Like?
It's you I like.
It's not the things you wear.
It's not the way you do your hair.
But it's you I like.
The way you are right now, the way down deep inside you, the way you are right
now, the way down deep inside you, not the things that hide you, not your toys
or your microphone.
They're just beside you.
But it's you I like.
Every part of you.
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings, whether old or new.
I hope that you'll remember, even when you're feeling blue, that it's you I
like, it's you yourself, it's you, it's you I like.
No matter what time of the day, you're on television.
Very nice, very nice.
It's a pleasure to have you here, Mr. Rodgers, ladies and gentlemen.
We'll be right back after you take a look at it.