6 lesser-known stories about PA native Mister Rogers
It’s a beautiful day to learn more about everyone’s favorite neighbor (and Pennsylvania’s claim to fame). Here are six stories and facts about Mister Rogers.
You probably best know Fred McFeely Rogers simply as Mister Rogers, host of the Public Broadcasting Service’s long-running children’s show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Latrobe, Mister Rogers spent much of his life and career in Pittsburgh. It was at Pittsburgh’s WQED studios where Mister Rogers filmed and produced the famous show that aimed to help children learn, grow, and choose kindness.
Mister Rogers would begin each episode by coming through the door of the house, swapping his sport coat and dress shoes for a sweater and a pair of sneakers, and singing, “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood / A beautiful day for a neighbor / Would you be mine?”—an original composition.
We’ve put together a collection of stories and facts about Mister Rogers that you may not know. Here’s something that we know: all of them will make you love Mister Rogers even more.
1. Mister Rogers’ famous sweaters were originally hand-knitted by his mother.
You, of course, can recognize Mister Rogers by his suite of cardigans and sweaters, which he always wore on his show. But did you know that in the early days of the show, Mister Rogers’ mother, Nancy McFeely Rogers, handknit every single one of his sweaters? She knitted a sweater for each of her children, including Fred, every Christmas. Mrs. McFeely Rogers also made sweaters for United States soldiers during World War II when she worked as a volunteer nurse aide.
In 1968, during the first season of the TV show, Mister Rogers’ sweaters were buttoned. But beginning in the second season, he began to wear sweaters with zippers, which were easier and faster to work with while filming. After all, it was essential that Mister Rogers be able to easily zip his sweater up and down while singing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” to open the show.
Nancy McFeely Rogers died in 1981, and Mister Rogers eventually needed to acquire new sweaters.
2. After Mister Rogers’ mother died, the TV show production staff went on a quest to source the perfect replacement sweaters.
As the show continued through the 1980s, Mister Rogers needed new sweaters to replace the then-threadbare sweaters made by his mother, who died in 1981.
However, according to a Smithsonian Magazine article on the topic, it was difficult to find a sweater that matched all the requirements—comfortable, zippered, and colorful enough for television. Knitters from the Pittsburgh area tried to help, but their creations couldn’t replicate what made Nancy McFeely Rogers’ sweaters so perfect for the TV show.
Finally, the show’s art director saw a U.S. Postal Service worker in Pittsburgh wearing a sweater that seemed to fit the bill. She called around to postal worker supply companies until she found the sweater.
She ordered a bunch of them in crisp white so they could be dyed the perfect, bright Mister Rogers colors.
Interestingly, according to a colorful chart of Mister Rogers’ sweaters over the years, he wore cooler colors in the early seasons of his show (when he wore his mother’s sweaters) and then turned toward warmer colors, like his famous red, in later seasons.
In 1984, Mister Rogers personally donated his red cardigan, made by his mother, to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
3. In 1998, Mister Rogers met one of his biggest fans: Koko the Gorilla.
Koko was a famous gorilla known for her quick mind and communication skills. She used sign language to communicate with humans, had pet kittens, and was an artist.
Koko also loved watching “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
In 1998, Mister Rogers met Koko when she was featured in an episode of the show. Upon meeting Mister Rogers, Koko unzipped his sweater—and she also took off his shoes, just like he did at the beginning of every episode of his show.
4. Mister Rogers was an amateur photographer.
In Tom Junod’s famous 1998 Esquire profile of Mister Rogers—the development of which was put to screen in the 2019 Mister Rogers biopic—Rogers asks Junod if he can take his picture. “I’d like to take your picture,” Mister Rogers said. “I like to take pictures of all my new friends, so that I can show them to Joanne,” his wife.
Indeed, Mister Rogers was actually an amateur photographer. He created photo albums of his friends, family, coworkers, and even people who interviewed him for magazines.
Mister Rogers often carried a Kodak Retina IIIc camera, now a vintage classic.
5. Mister Rogers was once “pranked” on “Candid Camera.”
Spoiler: It didn’t really work. “Candid Camera” was a hidden camera show that placed people in frustrating or strange situations to film their reactions. In 1997, the “Candid Camera” team intercepted Rogers as he was checking into a hotel for a conference where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Television Critics Association. He was led to a hotel room that didn’t have a television (in 1997, that was a bigger deal than it would be today, since we have Wi-Fi now) and told by the “bellman” (actually the host of the “Candid Camera”) that there were no televisions available.
“I don’t use a television anyway,” Rogers said upon seeing there was no TV in the room. The “Candid Camera” host said that he had checked in many other people attending the Television Critics Association event who were upset about there not being a TV in the room. But not calm and understanding Mister Rogers. You can watch the clip on the Mister Rogers archive site.
6. Another famed Pittsburgh son, Michael Keaton, got his start on “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.”
One of Michael Keaton’s first jobs, before he moved to Los Angeles, was working at the WQED station in Pittsburgh during the early 1970s, when Keaton was in his 20s. And at WQED, Keaton worked on “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.”
As a member of the crew, Keaton did “everything” from serving as a floor manager, working on lighting, or just doing manual labor, as Keaton described in a March 2024 episode of the podcast “Q with Tom Power.” Keaton also briefly appeared on the show as a member of the “The Flying Zookeeni Brothers Daredevil Circus,” who perform for character King Friday’s birthday. The daredevil circus originally began as a joke among the crew.
Asked about working with Mister Rogers, Keaton said, “He was just a very nice man. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, thinking, ‘well this can’t be real’—turns out it is real.”
Keaton also said that Mister Rogers had a great sense of humor. The crew, Keaton said, was “way ahead of our time” with women, LGBTQ+ members, and lots of people with long hair and beards. “We were pretty wild,” he remembered, but Mister Rogers “just appreciated us all” and thought they were funny.
Mister Rogers, Keaton said, “was just the real deal.”