Name: Fred Rogers on Letterman, February 17, 1982
Uploaded: 2015-10-14T17:38:33.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Fred Rogers on Letterman, February 17, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-10-14. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Fred Rogers on Letterman, February 17, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-10-14. Transcript available.

Thank you very much. For close to 20 years, millions of television viewers have
been visiting Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.
His calm, cool, and flappable demeanor is now legendary. Take a look at this
piece of videotape.
See that?
Looks a little like a teepee, doesn't it? Of course, a teepee is a real home
for some people.
Yeah.
See how this works.
Pulling that right there.
Helps to have two people to put these out.
Oh, my.
Make sure I have one more.
Please welcome Fred Rogers.
That's for you.
Thank you. This is for me?
Yeah.
It's very nice of you. This is a Mr. Rogers' t-shirt.
There's the trolley.
Very nice.
Thank you.
Here's a sweater and here's some shoes.
Oh, okay.
Did you bring some for everyone?
Yes.
Now, that sort of thing, I was surprised to see that that ever happens.
Much of that go on behind the scenes on your show?
Goof-ups?
Sometimes things don't go right in the neighborhood.
But I did get that thing up.
Uh-huh. Oh, good. Good.
You can see that some day.
But often things, or not often, but occasionally things get a little goofy.
Yes.
In that next program that they're going to show on that blooper business, there's
a chimpanzee that gets out of hand.
You have provided hours and hours of entertainment and education for young
people.
What was your own childhood like, your early years like?
I was an only child until my sister came when I was 11 years old.
And I had to make up a lot of my own play, my own friends.
And so I would dip into my bag of puppets and make them talk.
Uh-huh.
Or King Friday the 13th, you know, speaks like this.
And Lady Elaine Fairchild would be glad to be here.
Did, uh, did this bother Mom and Dad?
I mean, I mean, you know.
That I would speak to myself?
Yeah, that you were sitting in the room maybe talking to yourself.
Uh-huh.
Happily, it didn't.
What is, uh, uh, then you got into television early, didn't you?
After, uh...
Thirty years ago, I came right here.
Uh-huh.
To NBC and was a floor manager right in these studios.
I remember the Horn and Hardark children's hour in this studio.
It was terrible.
People would bring their little children and make them perform.
Do you remember?
No, I don't remember that.
Was it a network show or a local show?
It was local.
And they would just bring kids in and let them, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Any other shows that you worked on that, uh...
Well, the Hit Parade up in 8H and the NBC Opera Theater.
My degree was in music.
You know, I write all the music for the program.
Incidentally, Paul, we don't have enough time for that song.
That's what they told me.
I told you not enough time for the song?
Mm-hmm.
Okay, well, maybe you can, Paul, and get together after the show.
Sure.
I mean, if you rehearsed it, no sense in wasting the song.
Now, it's interesting.
I believe you pointed out the irony of the fact that in this building now,
where you started out your broadcasting career,
there is now a show that occasionally has a performer
doing an impression or an imitation of you.
That's right.
I just met him a little bit ago.
Do you think we could see that?
Well, certainly.
Eddie Murphy?
Mm-hmm.
There's Mr. Rogers.
That's Mr. Rogers there in the, you know.
On the left.
On the left, yeah.
Now, how do you react to that?
We talked to Andy Rooney about someone doing an impression of him,
and he didn't seem too keen on it.
Well, some of them aren't very funny,
but I think that a lot of them are done
with real kindness in their hearts.
Mm-hmm.
Do you think that?
Do you think that's true?
There is one person on radio that really bothers me, though.
I've heard it.
It's somewhere in the Mid-South,
and he tells children in my voice
to do such things as get their mother's hairspray
and their father's cigarette lighter
and put them together.
And he thinks that he's talking to adults,
but he's really talking with children,
and I think that could cause a lot of fires.
Yeah, that would...
Well...
That's right.
You know, it's good.
You're exactly right.
It would blow up.
Yeah, it would burn and be highly volatile.
You have...
I'm sorry you're out here so late.
I would like to ask you to come back,
and you have a show coming up on PBS.
Just briefly, if you want to mention
the nature of the program.
The Week on Discipline.
Uh-huh.
And it's...
There's a parent special on discipline,
and the whole week of children's programs,
the first week of March on discipline.
You know, discipline is caring,
just like love is caring,
and they're both as important as the other.
Well, I want to thank you for being here,
and I hope you'll come back in the rest of your time.
Fred Rogers.
Mr. Rogers, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
We'll be right back.