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FOR A JOB THIS,
ARE ALMOST
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ARE AREAS OR DEMOCRATIC LEANING
AREAS. SO WHAT
WE SAW IN NEW JERSEY PERFECT EXAMPLE.
THESE ARE
ALSO PLACES WHERE
THE SPECIFIC
PEOPLE
IN MIND HE
WANTED TO SEE
OBVIOUSLY WE SAW THAT WITH JIM
VIRGINIA, ANOTHER U.S. ATTORNEY
WHO THERE ARE QUESTIONS ABOUT
WHETHER SHE IS
ABLE TO JOB
AND THIS
SIMILARLY --
ACTUALLY, NEW YORK WITH LETITIA
LET''S LOOK AHEAD TO
TOMORROW, BECAUSE VOTERS IN ONE TENNESSEE CONGRESSIONAL
DISTRICT TO
HEAD TO THE POLLS
THE
AMY, THIS IS A
DISTRICT WON
SOLIDLY JUST
BUT A
RECENT EMERSON SHOWS A REPUBLICAN
E IN THE RACE AHEAD BY TWO
POINTS. HERE?
AMY: THIS SHOULD NOT BE CLOSE AT
ALL, YOU ARE RIGHT.
TO ME,
IT''S A
CONTINUATION OF A AVE
SEEN THROUGHOUT
R WHICH IS,
UMP WON
US
ELECTION ARE NOW COMING IN
A LITTLE
BIT LESS OVERWHELMING FOR
ICAN CANDIDATE. IT TELLS US THAT THE
PRESIDENT''S PROVAL
RATING, WHILE IT
IS A
BIG PROBLEM FOR IN DISTRICTS THAT
HE A SMALL
MARGIN, IS ALSO PROBLEM IN DISTRICTS
BY LARGER MARGINS.
WE STILL RATE THIS AS
A SEAT
D HOLD ONTO,
BUT THE FACT REPUBLICANS
TO SPEND MONEY HERE
HAVING TO PUT EFFORT INTO THIS
SHOULD BE
A WARNING SIGN REPUBLICAN, EVEN IN A
RICT THAT TRUMP CARRIED
BY A ALTHY MARGIN IN THE LAST
TION. IT IS IS ALSO NOTABLE THAT THE
ADS
RUNNING IN THIS NAL
DISTRICT RUN BY REPUBLICANS --
AGAIN, THEY
S LIKE, HEY,
DON''T YOU WANT THIS
OME AND PUT DONALD ''S AGENDA
THROUGH? DON''T YOU
LOVE DONALD TRUMP? THEY DON''T REALLY MENTION DONALD
AMNA:
PIC K UP ON
THAT, SPEAKING
RTS. SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON WAS THERE
TODAY.WE HAVE
SEEN KAMALA HARRIS THERE CENTLY AS WELL.
UMP POSTED ONLINE
RACE, SAYING
DON''T OR GRANTED.
HE IS
REMOTELY TAKING PART IN A LE-RALLY.
WHAT DOES
THIS TELL YOU ABOUT
ARE LOOKING AT
DON''T TAKE THIS RACE FOR GRANTED IS PRESIDENT TRUMP
''S
DETERMINED, AFTER THE ELECTIONS
IN VIRGINIA AND NEW JERSEY, IF I
BALLOT, T SHOW UP.
SO THIS IS HIM PROJECTING
. THE REMARKABLE THING IS IN HIS
FIRST TERM,
HE WAS DOING TRAVEL
IMMEDIATELY
ELECTION DAY ALL THROUGH
EAR. HE
WAS CAMPAIGNING IN SPECIAL ELECTIONS,
HE WAS ON
THE ROAD. HE
HAS NOT
BEEN DOING DOMESTIC L TRAVEL.
HE HAS NOT
BEEN OUT
THERE HE
IS NOT
L CAPITAL
FOR CANDIDATES
IN THESE AND OTHER
AND
YOU SAW THAT WITH VIRGINIA
NEW JERSEY. HE DID NOT
TRAVEL THERE.
IT IS NOT
EVEN FAR
TO GO TO
D HE
IS NOT TRAVELING FOR THIS RACE EITHER.
FAIR TO SAY
THIS AS A MIDTERMS?
IT IS A BELLWETHER IN
THE S ARE
FIGHT TO DEFEND SEATS THIS, THAT SETS UP
FOR A
CTION. AND WE SHALL SEE.
AMY WALTER AND TAMARA KEITH,
H. ♪
GEOFF: TOMORROW, THE U.S.
G A GNANCY
O
RNEY NG
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SARAH: AT THE CENTER OF THE
TION FIGHT TODAY, MISSOURI
'S.
ST
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M SARAH
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MNA: AND WE''LL BE BACK SHORTLY,
HEAR
IT''S A CHANCE TO OFFER
ON
Hi, I'm
David Hoffert, avolunteer
here at PBSWisconsin here
with you to kick off PBS
Wisconsin's December membership
drive. You
are probably aware that
2025 has been a challenging
year for public media . Withthe elimination
of federal funding.
You're alsoprobably aware that
Wisconsin invented public
broadcasting over 100
yearsago. Services like
PBSWisconsin have been
aroundbefore there was federalfunding.
While there was federal funding and will
ntinue even into this
newera of public
broadcasting.But what I want to talk
toyou about tonight is theidea of
a pair ofcommitments . Here's ourcommitment to
you. We aregoing to continue to
bringyou the quality programingyou
have come to rely on,no
matter what the financial landscape is
, andwe're going to do that in
partnership with you. When you make a commitment
to usto be part of the
financingfor public media, give
us acall right now.
1-800-236-3636. >> Hi,
I'm Regina Belotti,a volunteer
here at PBSWisconsin.
And when you make your gift now
, you arehelping to
help keep the coverage that you
lovegoing in the year to come.
So when you become a memberat
$10 a month , we willgift
you with this fantastic PBS Wisconsin
er hat. So it's
thatPBS blue that we
all knowand love , especiallyperfect for
a cozy evening like tonight where
it'svery snowy outside. At $12a
month, we will gift youwith a
book with writings about the US
Constitution, different ways it's
interpreted, which at thispoint in
time is such an important thing to have
. At $15 a month,
we'll gift youwith a PBS Wisconsin
Insulated mug, and at $20 a
month will gift you withthe hat
, the Constitutionbook , and the mug
. So giveus a call at (800)2
363636. >> Hi,
I'm MichaelBridgeman. I'm a volunteerhere
as well. I'm pleasedto
be with you this eveningand
to say thank you to allof you
who watch and support
PBS Wisconsin. ButI
especially want to draw your attention to
ourSustainers Sustainers are
people who make a monthlycommitment to
PBS Wisconsin, with a
regular donationgiven every
month fromtheir checking
account ortheir charge card. Whatever.You
set up the method youprefer, and
it's one way of
making sure that there'ssome stability
andcontinuity to funding not
only on your side as
interms of your own finances,
but also on the side ofpublic television
. Andstability and continuityare
really important ideas
in these uncertain timesfor public
broadcasting, but
it's something you cando. I'm
a sustainer because it makes my
life simpler, quite frankly, and
I get tochoose how much to give
. Ican choose to raise it,lower it
, stop it if I wantto, I won't
, but you canbecome a sustaining memberas
well. You can do that bycalling the number on you
rscreen . You could alsoincrease
your amount by calling
(800) 236-3636. >> You
know, there's a verylong list of
programs onPBS Wisconsin that
that represent
the value that this service provides to
you. But certainly PBSNewsHour
is on that listbecause it
is a source of
trusted, independent
journalism. Right? It is
going to tell you the truth,whether it's
the truth thatyou want to hear or
not.And I say something likethis
e very time I'm on
herewith you for PBS NewsHour.But
it doesn't. It feel more and more true
everysingle time. Now we have AIthat is so seductively
easy to ask questions of
, andyet you realize that it'sbasically
telling you whatyou want to hear.
We needservices like PBS NewsHour
that
that give us that broader
perspective, enableus to have conversations
with people who feeldifferently than we
dobased on facts. That's
whatyou are supporting when you
call 1-800-236-3636.
>> And you know the quality
of PBS Wisconsin support is built on
members like you and gifts that
you makeevery day . So when you
become a member at $10 a
month, we will give youthis
fantastic winter hat.
It's that great PBS blue,
the little puff on top.
Andremember that that giftmakes
such an impact in thecoverage that we're
able tocontinue to provide.
At $12a month , we will gift
youwith the US Constitutionbook and
writings of it.It's a leather
bound,beautiful book , somethingthat will
allow you as youconverse
with others, toreally engage in
those materials. At
$15 a month, we will gift you
with alittle ray of sunshine with
this yellow insulated PBSWisconsin
mug. And at $20 a
month, you will receive thehat,
the Constitution book,and that
insulated PBSWisconsin mug
. So now is the time. If you're
not amember, do it today at
(800) 236-3636. >> And when
you are amember of
PBS Wisconsin atany of our
suggested levels, that comes with
certainbenefits. Of course , thekey benefit is
the greatprograms that we bring
toyou day after day, weekafter week
, year after year.But there are additionalbenefits
as well, includingPBS Wisconsin
, which is a very useful guide
to theschedule each month on
PBSWisconsin, as well as
What's New, some behind
thescenes things as well. It's
a very useful and interesting
publication. Imake sure I look at it
every month before the month starts,
so that I'mready for the month ahead
.Another real benefit is
PBSPassport. That's an online
service that you would haveaccess
to that has allkinds of
programs, some ofwhich you're familiar with
from PBS Wisconsin , some ofwhich
you may not be . Theseare programs
from countriesall around the world. And
it's an interesting and fascinating place for
additional viewing of quality television
programs.You can do
the Passport. You'll get airways
when youcall us at
(800) 236-3636. >> So we've
been talkingabout the value that
PBSNewsHour provides in termsof being based
in fact. Sohere's a fact for you
.There are tens of thousandsof Wisconsin
families that support PBS Wisconsin
. Wisconsin. Now a
question.Are you one of them?
Thisis a critical moment. Youknow the
stakes. And we're asking you to join
thiscommunity in making thiskind
of programing possible.It
all starts with you . Itstarts with
each of us. The number to call
is 1-800-236-3636. You
canalso go online to
pbswisconsin.org. Pleasemake a pledge
of supportright now .
AMNA:
IN THIS SEASON OF
WE
OUD
HE
GH
MERS
RE THAN
TING
F
ERSHIP,
Y
IT IS
LINEAGE. MY GRANDMOTHERS WERE
STRONG. THEY FOLLOWED
PLOWS. MY
GRANDMOTHERS ARE SOLD AS MORIES.
SMELLING OF
SOAP AND ONIONS AND CLAY,
WITH VEINS ROLLING
ANDS. THEY
HAVE MANY CLEAN WORDS TO Y.
MY GRANDMOTHERS WERE STRONG.
WHY AM I NOT AS THEY?
Y GRANDMOTHERS WERE
BOTH FROM
MEXICO AND MIGRATED HERE TO
AMERICA AND
THEY ARE VERY MUCH
. MY
FATHER AND BROTHER BOTH WORK IN
THE AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY IN
SALINAS VALLEY. IT
IS SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS THE SALAD BOWL OF THE WORLD.
WE ARE A
SMALL COMMUNITY TOWN
SURROUNDED BY FIELDS. WE ARE ALSO
SPLIT BY
THE FREEWAY
ARE ALSO CALLED
TOP. ENTERING MY FRESHMAN YEAR
I AG
BIOLOGY IS THAT
OF REGULAR BIOLOGY BECAUSE I WAS
UCED TO THE FFA
PROGRAM, AMERICA.
ONCE FOOD REACHES
THE TABLE IT
THROUGH SO MANY
PROCESSES IN ORDER FOR
YOU TO BE
T. THERE
ARE SO MANY
DIFFERENT JOBS ULTURE INDUSTRY YOU
T NECESSARILY THINK ABOUT. THERE IS PLANT
SCIENCE, ANIMAL SCIENCE, THE DAIRY FARMERS.
I RAISED
LIVESTOCK AND CURRENTLY
ING A MARKET GOAT CALLED
HE IS SUCH A SILLY LITTLE
GOAT. WE HAVE
A FARM AT
OUR SCHOOL SO AND I
FEED HIM IN THE
MORNING AND IN THE AFTERNOONS
PROBABLY AFTER I FEED HIM AGAIN.
BEING AN AGGIE IS DEFINITELY
WERING. AGRICULTURE IS SO DIVERSE.
IT IS
DEFINITELY A BATTLE THAT FACE TO EDUCATE
PEOPLE THAT
TRY IS NOT FIELD.
MY NAME IS ANIXIA DAVILA
AND THIS IS
MY BRIEF BUT
SPECTACULAR TING AGGIES.
GEOFF: SHE IS DELIGHTFUL.
YOU CAN WATCH MORE BRIEF BUT
PBS.ORG/NEWSHOUR/BRIEF.
NNETT.
EWS
ART
D
J.
UND.
WORK NE IS TRYING TO CONNECT ON
PERSONAL LEVEL.
ER.
ANGE HOW
TO
C
ST
ING
T
TED
OF
LE
PBS
U.
[CAPTIONING PERFORMED BY THE NATIONAL CAPTIONING INSTITUTE,
WHICH IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ITSCAPTION CONTENT AND ACCURACY.]
>> YOU''RE WATCHING PBS.
Explore new worlds and new idea
s
through programs like this.
Made available for everyone
through contributions to your PBS s
tation
from viewers like you.
Thank you
(gentle instrumental music)
♪ It's a beautiful day in thi
s neighborhood ♪
♪ A beautiful day for a neighb
or ♪
♪ Would you be mine ♪
♪ Could you be mine ♪
♪ It's a neighborly day in this
beauty wood ♪
♪ A neighborly day for a beau
ty ♪
♪ Would you be mine ♪
♪ Could you be mine ♪
♪ I have always wanted to hav
e a neighbor ♪
♪ Just like you. ♪
♪ I've always wanted to live in a
neighborhood ♪
♪ With you ♪
♪ So let's make the most of this
beautiful day ♪
♪ Since we're together we mig
ht as well say ♪
♪ Would you be mine ♪
♪ Could you be mine ♪
♪ Won't you be my neighbor ♪
♪ Won't you please ♪
♪ Please won't you be my neighb
or ♪
(upbeat instrumental music)
KEATON: Hi, I'm Michael Keaton.
When I started out in show busi
ness
one of my first jobs was workin
g at WQED,
the public television station
in Pittsburgh,
often on the set of Mister Roge
rs' Neighborhood.
Who can forget Fred coming throug
h the front door,
putting on a cardigan sweater,
feeding the fish,
or showing films on Picture-Pic
ture.
Sometimes I was the young kid
who flipped the switch
to start the little red trolley th
at took you in
and out of the Neighborhood of
Make Believe.
That's where you saw a colorful
world filled with puppets,
Daniel Striped Tiger, King Frid
ay, Henrietta Pussycat,
X The Owl, and so many others.
The first national program in
1968 featured a small cast,
simple sets, and live music,
and over the years, nothing real
ly changed,
especially Fred Rogers.
ROGERS: Hi, neighbor.
We could make believe that Tony
Bennett comes
to Lady Elaine's Museum-Go-Round
television studio.
Let's make believe about that now
, alright?
(gentle instrumental music)
♪ It's you I like ♪
ELAINE: Uh huh.
♪ It's not the things you wear ♪
♪ It's not the way you do you
r hair ♪
♪ But it's you I like ♪
♪ The way you are right now ♪
♪ The way down deep inside you ♪
♪ Not the things that hide you ♪
LITHGOW: I remember seeing Tony
Bennett on Fred Rogers
when my first son was about th
ree years old.
♪ But it's you ♪
LITHGOW: Growing up, maturing
is all a process
of overcoming insecurity,
and that's the essence of that so
ng.
He's helping kids like themsel
ves
by singing, "It's you I like."
♪ Now I hope that you'll remem
ber ♪
♪ Even when you're feeling bl
ue ♪
♪ That it's you I like ♪
♪ It's you yourself ♪
♪ It's you ♪
♪ That's right ♪
♪ It's you I like ♪
(laughing)
LADY ELAINE: Oh, Tony Bennett, To
ny Bennett right here with us.
LITHGOW: Fred Rogers did so much
with music
in a very gentle way on his show,
introducing kids for the first
time.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: I'd like to show you some
thing.
It's some trumpet music that Wyn
ton Marsalis played
one day when he was practicing.
So what do you say?
Let's just go to Negri's music sh
op right now.
(upbeat instrumental music)
GOLDBERG: To some people, Mist
er Rogers seemed
like television's biggest nerd.
I mean, the sweater, and those te
nnis shoes,
but to me he was one of the co
olest men on the planet.
Mister Rogers welcomed so many
musical guests
to the neighborhood,
and one of my favorite memories
is when Mister Rogers met Wynt
on Marsalis.
Wynton was only in his twenties a
nd so amazing,
and it reminds me that Mister Ro
gers was one hip cat.
ROGERS: I'd like you to know my t
elevision neighbor,
Wynton Marsalis.
MARSALIS: How you doing?
ROGERS: When did you start to p
lay?
When you were a little boy?
MARSALIS: I got my first trumpet
when I was six years old.
ROGERS: Six.
(upbeat instrumental music)
I know there are a lot of child
ren
who might want to learn the tr
umpet.
MARSALIS: You have to have str
ong lungs.
(laughing)
I guess five or six is a good a
ge to start.
It's just a matter of practici
ng every day.
ROGERS: Every day?
MARSALIS: Every day.
NEGRI: Wynton Marsalis was just
amazing.
He kicked it off,
and we all started playing some
blues.
About four choruses in,
I could see the smile on his f
ace.
He said, "Okay, I'm in the righ
t place here," you know?
APATOW: The Wynton Marsalis pie
ce was
an amazing moment in TV history,
but for me it meant a lot becaus
e my grandfather
was this guy named Bobby Shad who p
roduced jazz.
I didn't really know what jazz w
as.
I didn't understand the differen
t types of music,
so one of the few ways I could
begin to understand
how cool my grandfather was
was how much Mister Rogers lov
ed jazz.
(mumbling and clapping)
ROGERS: Oh, what a treat.
That's a real way to talk with
each other, isn't it?
NEGRI: Sure is.
ROGERS: And play.
NEGRI: I've heard so many peopl
e tell me,
"I was real little when that kin
d of got me,
"that introduced me to jazz,
"and it became my favorite kind
of music."
SPALDING: Fred Rogers assumed th
e responsibility to be a model
and to be a mentor for all of u
s young kids.
RAWSTHORNE: Oh, hello, Fred. RO
GERS: Hey, Bob, how are you?
RAWSTHORNE: Fine.
ROGERS: Just brought my piano with
me.
RAWSTHORNE: I notice that. Hi,
Joe.
NEGRI: His own piano.
RAWSTHORNE: He brought his own
piano.
NEGRI: I was telling him about so
me of your instruments
that look like toys, but they're no
t really toys.
RAWSTHORNE: Yes, here's a train
whistle.
This is a big train.
(train whistling)
(laughing)
This is a siren whistle here.
(siren whistling)
SILVERMAN: You could see how ki
ds would love this.
It's a weird instrument, and it
's--
ROGERS: What about this one?
RAWSTHORNE: Well, that's another wh
istle.
That's a songbird whistle.
SILVERMAN: Oh, I love this.
This is the one where if you bl
ow really, really hard,
it makes the--
RAWSTHORNE: A little bit harder, th
at's it, good.
(laughing)
(songbird whistling)
SILVERMAN: Look at the joy on his
face.
ROGERS: Oh, I like that.
NEGRI: Right, you sound just lik
e a bird.
(laughing)
(lively instrumental music)
SILVERMAN: He doesn't care how
it looks,
and that's why he always looks
awesome
'cause he's willing to be vuln
erable.
He's willing to be open and lea
rn stuff.
It was inspiring.
(laughing)
SPALDING: It matters to have gro
wnups say
that it's okay to do all these
things,
even to play the piano like a man
iac.
(laughing)
ROGERS: Some people play an instr
ument,
and other people don't.
It's so important to find out
what we feel good about doing,
and then practice that.
(gentle instrumental music)
KEATON: Music was one of Mister Rog
ers' doorways
into children's lives.
He had a degree in Music Compos
ition.
He wrote richly complex music an
d lyrics,
and he brought wonderful guests t
o his neighborhood
who would sometimes change a yo
ung person's life forever.
(gentle instrumental music)
SPALDING: I must've started watc
hing Mister Rogers
when I was four or five.
I explicitly remember the epi
sode
where Yo-Yo Ma performed one
of the Bach Cello Suites.
That is why I started playing mu
sic.
I remember being completely hyp
notized
by the sound of the instrument
and running before the episode
was over
and asking my mom if I could pl
ay that.
(gentle instrumental music)
MA: I first met Mister Rogers o
n television
because my son, who was like pr
obably two at that time,
really, really liked the show,
and so we would watch it toget
her.
Mister Rogers was like a tele
vision parent to him,
and Nicholas was always fascina
ted,
so it was a bonding moment in
the family
to watch Mister Rogers' Neighbor
hood.
ROGERS: Oh, thank you for that.
MA: Oh, look who's here.
Nicholas.
WOMAN: Thank you.
MA: Mister Rogers?
ROGERS: Hi, Nicholas.
NICHOLAS: Hi.
NICHOLAS: Very rarely does one
get to meet one's heroes,
but the opportunity to be in a
room with two heroes,
with my father and with Fred, wa
s enormously special.
ROGERS: Would you and your dad pl
ay something together for me?
NICHOLAS: Yup.
ROGERS: What?
NICHOLAS: The Skaters' Waltz.
ROGERS: Oh, okay.
I'll just sit right here and watc
h both of you.
MA: Okay, Nicholas, now I haven'
t done this
on the cello before so you jus
t give me--
NICHOLAS: One, two, go.
MA: Okay.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: (clapping) Very, very nic
e.
NICHOLAS: I think those are th
e only two times
I've ever performed with my fath
er.
Once when I was 6, once when I
was 16,
and both on Mister Rogers.
I think only Mister Rogers
could have convinced me to do that
. (laughing)
(gentle instrumental music)
You Are My Friend, You Are Specia
l,
I think it was my favorite song
as a kid.
I think going to visit him when
I was a child
was a very special memory,
and so in a way this was our wa
y of also saying thank you.
♪ There's only one in this won
derful world ♪
♪ You are special ♪
ROGERS: One of the greatest th
ings is to be able
to play together and to grow to
gether,
all through life,
families, friends, all of us.
(gentle instrumental music)
KEATON: Mister Rogers created
a unique way
to take his young neighbors ou
t of the studio
and into the world.
He called it Picture-Picture.
Fred would pretend to put the f
ilm in,
and often I was the guy behind t
here to catch it.
A visit to a famous artist or
a musician
often came with subtle messages,
like the time Fred made sure hi
s viewers
saw world famous the violinist It
zhak Perlman
walking with his crutches.
ROGERS: I'd like you to know my t
elevision neighbor.
PERLMAN: Hi, there.
ROGERS: Mr. Itzhak Perlman.
PERLMAN: Being in the room with F
red Rogers was fun
because I knew him, you know?
I mean, when you watch somebody
on television all the time,
you know them.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: Sure.
"Hello, Mr. Perlman, how are yo
u?"
And I said, oh my god,
Mister Rogers is really Mister Rog
ers.
He doesn't change.
ROGERS: You can do it.
Mr. Perlman uses crutches to wa
lk,
so of course he has very stron
g arms,
and he uses those arms to play
his violin in wonderful ways.
Sometimes do you ever use it
to express your feelings?
PERLMAN: Well, of course.
I mean, whenever you play somet
hing,
you always express what you feel a
bout the music
and the violin.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: Beautiful.
PERLMAN: Or maybe you could pl
ay something
that makes you a little happier
or bouncier like--
(upbeat instrumental music)
ROGERS: It's as if it's dancing
PERLMAN: That's right.
That's right.
He knew exactly how to make a
connection
and to simplify things.
He was always true to who he w
as talking to.
ROGERS: Now you've always used
these crutches to walk,
have you?
PERLMAN: Yes, yes, no,
actually, I used them since I
was four years old.
Before I was four I could walk w
ithout them,
and then I had polio,
and that was a little bit after
four,
four and three months,
and which meant that both my leg
s became weakened
and they need help,
so I wear braces on my legs,
and then I use crutches.
(upbeat instrumental music)
I always say to people that the i
mportant thing
is to separate one's abilities fr
om one's disabilities.
That's very important.
(clapping)
ROGERS: Think how pleased Paga
nini would be
to know that you were playing
that after all these years.
PERLMAN: I would hope so.
If people get used to seeing so
mebody
who is not particularly the same
way as they are,
either constricted to a wheelch
air
or walking with crutches,
if they get used to it,
then it becomes nothing.
(gentle instrumental music)
ERLANGER: Mister Rogers?
ROGERS: Hey, Jeff, I'm glad to se
e you.
ERLANGER: Hi.
ROGERS: Thank you very much for
coming by.
This is my friend Jeff Erlanger.
He's one of my neighbors here,
and I asked him if he would co
me by today
because I wanted you to meet him,
and I wanted you to see his electr
ic wheelchair.
(gentle instrumental music)
Can you tell my friends what it
is
that made you need this wheelch
air?
ERLANGER: Sure.
Well, when I was about seven mo
nths old,
I had a tumor,
and that broke the nerves to tell
my hands
and legs what to do.
ROGERS: I see.
ERLANGER: It just shows you ha
ve a lot of things
happening to you when you're h
andicapped,
most of the time,
and sometimes it happens when you
're not handicapped.
ROGERS: Of course, but you're a
ble to talk
about those things so well,
and help other people
who might have the same kinds o
f things.
APATOW: I'm sure as a little ki
d I watched that
and became aware of another pe
rson's human struggle,
and it hopefully made me want t
o reach out to people
and think, oh, I should talk to t
hem.
They're no different.
What I took from it was the look
on Mister Roger's face of pure
love,
not just for him, but for ev
erybody.
It was the bar of how I would li
ke to behave.
NICHOLAS: It's tough to make br
avery both ordinary
and special at the same time,
and I think that's what Fred did
for Jeff.
KEATON: Giving Jeff that opportun
ity to talk openly
and honestly about his disabili
ties
on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
is one
of the memorable moments of chi
ldren's television.
Fred called it his most treasur
ed moment.
ROGERS: Do you know that song
that I sometimes sing
called It's You I Like?
ERLANGER: Uh huh.
ROGERS: I'd like to sing that t
o you and with you.
ERLANGER: Okay, sure.
♪ It's you I like ♪
♪ It's not the things you wear ♪
♪ It's not the way you do you
r hair ♪
♪ But it's you I like ♪
♪ The way you are right now ♪
♪ The way down deep inside you ♪
♪ Not the things that hide you ♪
♪ Not your fancy chair ♪
♪ That's 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 bl
ue ♪
♪ That it's you I like ♪
♪ It's you yourself ♪
♪ It's you ♪
♪ It's you I like ♪
And it is you I like, Jeff.
ERLANGER: Thanks.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: It's really great to have
a friend like that.
Hi,
I'm David
Hoffert, a% volunteer
here at PBS% Wisconsin
. I grew
up
andI can almost guarantee yousomeone in your
life did aswell . And that's why
we'rehere, taking a brief breakfrom
this incredibly moving program to ask
you to makea pledge of financial
support to allow PBSWisconsin to
continue bringing programs
like Mister Rogers, which
arestill on the air more than
20 years after he passedaway. But
on on weekendsand many other educational
programs as well to
children across Wisconsin,the
numbers are on your screen.
1-800-236-3636 and you know a
very appropriatepoint to to break in here
.Right after we saw MisterRogers
singing a song with Jeff Erlanger,
who was from Madison, Wisconsin.
Andwhat an interestingconnection
that is. And ,and what a,
what an impact that relationship has had
on the Wisconsin community
over the years as well.
It's all about communityand the
way public media works. That community
includes you. When you call
1-800-236-3636. >> Hi.
I'm Regina Belotti,a
volunteer with PBSWisconsin,
and it's sowonderful to be with youhere this evening
. You know, families across the
country have been tuning
in since 1968 to Mister
Rogers. And his
lessons continue to resonate with people
eventoday. So
if you aren't asustainer,
I hope you'll become one tonight so
wecan continue to bring thesehigh quality
programs toevery household acrossWisconsin.
When you becomea sustainer at $10
a month, we'll gift you with
thefour disc DVD set,
TheKindness Collection withMister
Rogers, whichfeatures 30 incredible
episodes that you canrevisit with
a child inyour life.
At $15 a month.We
have a fantastic bookthis beautiful
day with 365
reflections, with
insightsfrom Mister Rogers,
andalso a fantastic sweater
changing mug. And then at
$20 a month, you'll getthat four
DVD set the book,
the mug, and the DVD of the
show that we are watchingnow. So give
us a call at
(800) 236-3636. >> Fred
Rogers introduced a whole lot of
ideas andconcepts that had not
beenseen in on television for
the most part, andcertainly not in
children'stelevision. And he did itfor
a remarkable 33 years,
and he never lost his touch.He was
a unique person, aunique personality, and
aunique presence on public
broadcasting for more thanthree decades
. Herepresents the kind of
wonderful stuff that youcan
still find on PBSWisconsin in many
differentways, and it's a goodreason
to remember when you make your call of
supportto PBS Wisconsin and
becomea financial supporter of
the kinds of programs likethis
and the programs wecontinue to
do and will continue to do
in thefuture , you can help
support all of that withyour pledge
of support andyour financial contributionto
PBS Wisconsin at
(800) 236-3636. >> It's kind
of amazing tothink about how
talentedFred Rogers was, right?
Obviously, he was the hostof that
s how. He was also
the producer of that show,the writer
. He was the voice of most of
thosepuppets. I mean,
everyaspect of that show was
,was this was this man'svision.
But the mostimportant
thing that Fred Rogers gave
to society wasa
program that was aboutchildren,
not from the
perspective of adults , nothow
adults see children ,how
children feel
children. And that
is so unique .That's that's what
that'swhat makes it somethingthat
was only ever going tobe on
PBS. And so when youcall
, you are supportingthat
kind of idea.
That isthat is only possible when
it is funded by
you. Giveus a call
1-800-236-3636. >> And you
know those lessons that Mister
Rogersbrought into households and
talked with kids at their
level? Those lessons just
continue to
resonate withkids even
today. So you canhelp his
legacy continue when you make
a gift now. So when you
become asustainer at $10 a
month,again, we'll send you that
Fantastic Kindness DVD set.
Withthat, all those
lessonsthat he talks about,
whether it comes winningand losing
and how tohandle that, or how
toexpress yourself with music.
There's so many wonderfulthings and
little tidbitsthat you can share with
thechild in your life,especially here during the
holidays. So
at that $15 amonth level
, we'll send you this fantastic book,
thisbeautiful day with dailywisdom
from Mister Rogers ,as well
as that sweater color changing
mug. Andthen at $20 a month
, we'llsend you the DVD set, the
book, the mug , and again,
the episode that you'rewatching here tonight
. Sogive us a call at
(800) 236-3636. >> Regina
mentioned severalof the benefits that
youget with your membership in
PBS Wisconsin. Another oneis
PBS Passport. If youjoin at
any of these levels ,you will have
access tostreaming programs on PBSPassport.
And it's full ofall kinds of
wonderfulstuff. There are programsyou
may be familiar with .For example,
Miss Scarlett is one of the
offerings on PBS Passport, and
maybeyou've seen it . Maybe you'dlike to
see it again. Or maybe you missed an
episode.It's there on PBS Passport,but there's
a lot of things that haven't made it
to theair and aren't likely tomake
it to the air . So alot of
programs fromcountries around the worldand so
on. It's really a wonderful mix of
additional content, additional
television viewing, all ofwhich
is excellent that youcan
access with PBSPassport.
And you can do that when you call
and showyour support at thesesuggested levels
at (800)2
363636. >> What really
stands outto me watching the
clips inthis show tonight is, ishow
unique of a programMister
Rogers Neighborhoodwas . I? I have
a son who as of yesterday is
eight yearsold. Happy birthday Buddy
.Although I hope you're inbed by now
. And he has recently discovered
that onour smart TV, there
areapps other than PBS kids
.Specifically, he hasstarted watching
reruns ofPower Rangers, which I
willadmit has a bit of
nostalgia for me. But but u
know, I'm so I'mwatching these episodes
with him, and I comparethat to what
I'm seeingtonight. And and Mister
Rogers is unlike any
otherchildren's programing interms of
the educationalcontent , the emotional
content, the moral
content. Right. And that
is made possible by
support fromour
community. Power Rangers had commercial
sponsorships. Fred
Rogersdidn't. Fred Rogers wasresponding
to the needs ofhis
community in a veryparticular way
, and you canbe part
of that when you call
1-800-236-3636. >> And, you
know, I, like David, have two
little boysat home who love watching
PBS Wisconsin. And I hadthat
same thought as I wassitting watching
thisepisode of what
wonderfulmessages Mister Rogers hadto share
and how to tackledifficult
conversations. So if this is
something thatyou relate to, I
hopeyou'll consider giving us acall
and becoming a sustainer tonight at
the$10 a month level,
we'llsend you that four DVD
set,that Kindness Collection,where
Mister Rogers tackles all sorts of
important topics.
And then at the $15a
month level, you will get
those 365
reflections withMister Rogers , as well as
that sweater color changing
mug, one that requiresgreat care
. So make surethat you don't put it
inthe dishwasher. And then at$20
a month, we'll send youthat
four DVD set, the book,the
mug, and tonight's episode that you're
enjoying with us now . Sogive us
a call (800) 236-3636 or
pbswisconsin.org. >> All right.
We're goingto go back to the program
now and show you more ofMister Rogers
. Let me just end briefly on a
sober note.You are probably aware that
federal funding for publicmedia was
eliminated thisyear, and that is a wholenew challenge
for PBSWisconsin that we
arerising to the occasion with your help. But
if there'sone thing that Fred Rogerstaught
us, it was that astrong community
can do anything. So
this is thetime for us to come
together and make sure thatPBS Wisconsin
stays strongand call that number
1-800-236-3636. strumental music)
ROGERS: Hi, Trolley.
Trolley, we're going to have some
make believe.
This is what makes the trolley go
fast and slowly,
and this turns it on and off like
that, yeah.
Neighborhood of Make Believe, T
rolley.
(gentle instrumental music)
There's Trolley, yes, Trolley.
KEATON: The trolley going into t
he tunnel
signaled the beginning of the mak
e believe part
of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
It was a fairly low tech place,
very do it yourself,
a place that encouraged children t
o imagine and pretend.
WOMAN: Just look very carefully,
your majesty,
and you will see a different ki
nd of entertainment.
KING PUPPET: Oh, how interest
ing.
(upbeat instrumental music)
(yelling)
NICHOLAS: The Land of Make Beli
eve, I always thought,
was just highlight.
It was enchanting.
It was just fun.
(yelling)
KEATON: That was the fabulous
Flying Zookeeni Brothers,
featuring the two women known as
Peaches and Cream.
I had a ball doing it.
Everyone in that group worked f
or either Fred
or for the PBS station.
(yelling)
The thing people don't know
about Fred I think sometimes
is what a great sense of humor
he had.
He loved the Flying Zookeeni B
rothers.
(yelling)
(clapping)
(upbeat instrumental music)
You never really knew what migh
t happen in Make Believe.
It was a place of celebration an
d wonder,
but Fred Rogers used it to explo
re life's issues.
TIGER: Oh, hi, Handyman Negri.
Thank you for helping me with
my--
NEGRI: Every one of those pupp
ets
had a distinct personality.
TIGER: Is it hard for you to ask
someone to help you?
NEGRI: I think it's hard for
everybody sometimes.
Daniel Tiger, he was like one o
f the children.
He was the sweetheart of the n
eighborhood.
♪ I think it's very, very, ve
ry hard to wait ♪
♪ Especially ♪
NEGRI: There was X, who was cu
te and funny
and a good sense of humor.
ABERLINE: What's up?
X: I'm up, up in my tree. (lau
ghing)
ABERLINE: Oh, X, you silly owl.
X: Yeah.
PUSSYCAT: Meow, meow feel like
celebrating.
NEGRI: The pussycat who was kind
of scared and frightened,
and, you know, you always had
to calm her down.
PUSSYCAT: Meow would want me anyw
ay?
NEGRI: Who would want you?
Why, everybody wants you, Henriet
ta.
(upbeat instrumental music)
And there was Lady Elaine who
was a little bit tough,
arrogant, and she knew it all.
ELAINE: Hi, sweets, this is your
charming hostess,
Lady Elaine Fairchild bringing yo
u the best of MGR-TV.
(gentle instrumental music)
NEGRI: It was a make believe la
nd with all those puppets.
King Friday was,
King was the ruler.
ROGERS: Many of the characters
in the Neighborhood of Make Belie
ve are puppets
that I make talk.
How do you do, ladies and gentlem
en?
How do you do?
APATOW: As a kid, there weren't
many places
where somebody who walked to t
he other side of the set
and said, "Oh, by the way, I made
this puppet show.
"I'm the voice of the king."
I think that was important as a
kid to know,
"Oh, you can make things.
"You could even make this show."
ROGERS: You can make up your own
stories
for your own Neighborhood of M
ake Believe.
I imagine you have lots of good
ideas.
(gentle instrumental music)
(bell chiming)
(train whistle blowing)
KEATON: Another groundbreaking
children's television program
was Sesame Street,
and Fred invited Caroll Spinney,
the man inside Big Bird, to visit
the Neighborhood.
♪ It's a beautiful day in you
r neighborhood ♪
NEGRI: Here he comes.
BIG BIRD: Oh, here I am.
NEGRI: Hello, Big Bird.
BIG BIRD: Hi, there.
NEGRI: Welcome, Big Bird.
BIG BIRD: Oh, hello, Mr. Handyman N
egri.
KEATON: Fred always wanted his
viewers
to know how things worked,
but when the script called for
Spinney
to remove the costume,
Big Bird had to say no to his
friend, Mister Rogers.
SPINNEY: I said, "Gee, I'm sorry
Fred.
"I cannot take off this bird su
it,
"particularly on television."
Jim Henson never wanted to let the
children know
that it's not a real bird.
Mister Rogers said, "Well, alrig
ht,
"then I can't have you in my li
ttle house.
"Instead you'll have to be just
in make believe land."
X: We welcome you on this fine
day
and hope that you will stay an
d stay
because we call you the big bi
rd.
We hope that you have also heard
that you are really popular and
nice and kind and all that.
SPINNEY: Mister Rogers and Big
Bird had a lot in common.
They're both rather sweet and
nice
'cause you can be sweet and nice a
nd real too.
He was definitely one of a kind.
He never talked down to the child
ren.
KEATON: Some of the things that e
ntertain children
can also frighten them,
so he always tried to pull bac
k the curtain
to reveal the truth,
like how Margaret Hamilton
became the Wicked Witch of the
West.
ROGERS: It was hard work probab
ly making that movie.
HAMILTON: Yes, it was.
It was lots of hard work.
My hands were all green.
ROGERS: Because that was makeup
, wasn't it?
HAMILTON: Yes, that was just all
makeup,
on the face, too, you see.
I'll get you, my pretty,
and your little dog too. (laughi
ng)
Sometimes, Mister Rogers,
I'm a little unhappy because
lots
of children are quite scared,
but when you realize it's just
pretend,
and that everybody can do it.
You can do it,
and little boys, as you say, do
it.
Little girls do it.
X: What will we say?
♪ Witches aren't real ♪
♪ Even if they seem to be ♪
HAMILTON: That's my skirt. (lau
ghing)
♪ Witches aren't real ♪
ROGERS: It's helping me just to se
e you get into these things.
PUSSYCAT: Meow, meow.
♪ Witches aren't real ♪
HAMILTON: Oh, there's the cape.
DIDONATO: Oh, she transforms al
ready, see, oh, wow.
(gasping)
♪ For you and me ♪
WOMAN: Not for Henrietta.
(laughing)
ROGERS: Oh, that would be fun t
o be able
to talk like (laughing), like t
hat.
DIDONATO: When I first see her,
oh, she looks like a grandmothe
r.
She looks so nice.
The second she puts on the sk
irt,
I go back to my childhood, and
I'm scared again,
and then she does the laugh.
(laughing)
And to hear her say,
"It's just pretend,"
that's very powerful,
and that gives permission then t
o say, it's okay,
but let me try that.
What would it be like if I tried?
And your little dog, too.
♪ You and me ♪
♪ Witches aren't real ♪
WOMAN: They aren't real.
NEGRI: They really aren't.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: When you see witches on
television,
they're always pretend.
When you're growing up,
it's an important thing to be
able to tell the difference
between what's pretend and what's
real.
SILVERMAN: And you know what I
love about him?
He never lied to kids.
He leaned right into it,
and he always told us the truth.
ROGERS: Come on over with me, o
kay,
and we'll see a film about when
you were born.
KEATON: Life can get serious,
even when you're under five,
and Fred Rogers knew it helped to
talk about it.
He called it "Important Talk,"
and right here on public telev
ision,
he was willing to talk with ch
ildren
about such things as death, div
orce, and birth.
ROGERS: Such a fine boy, yes.
Let's just look over Picture-Pict
ure.
(gentle instrumental music)
Now this is Jimmy's mother.
You see the mother has a specia
l opening
where her kittens will come out.
SILVERMAN: It's so great for ki
ds to see this.
Oh wow.
ROGERS: Here's one being born now
.
He looks wet, doesn't he?
But after his mother licks him,
he'll get all dry and fluffy,
and as soon as he's able,
the kitten will look for one of
his mother's nipples
and be able to drink her milk,
and there's the newborn kitten,
little Jimmy.
My grandfather let me watch his
cat give birth
to her kittens.
I was thinking about my grandfa
ther
when I made up that song about
wondering,
you know, the one called
Did You Know That It's Alright
to Wonder.
SILVERMAN: I'm gonna cry.
♪ Did you know? ♪
♪ Did you know that it's alrig
ht to wonder? ♪
♪ Did you know that it's alrig
ht to wonder? ♪
♪ There are all kinds of wonde
rful things. ♪
♪ Did you know? ♪
♪ Did you know that it's alrig
ht to marvel? ♪
♪ There are all kinds of marve
lous things. ♪
♪ You can ask a lot of questions
. ♪
♪ About the world and your pla
ce in it. ♪
KRATT: He's even, I think,
speaking to adults there.
Your kids, kids are gonna wond
er about this stuff.
♪ Sky's the limit ♪
♪ Did you know? ♪
His view was that anything that c
an be talked about
is manageable, right,
and he's trying to make the bi
rth of a kitten mentionable.
♪ Marvelously wonderful things ♪
(gentle instrumental music)
SIVLERMAN: The first thing I reme
mber
learning from Mister Rogers
is if I can only be brave enou
gh to talk about it,
then it's gonna be okay.
ROGERS: When I was very young,
I had a dog that I loved very m
uch.
Her name was Mitzi,
and she got to be old,
and she died,
and when she died, I cried.
♪ Sometimes people get sad ♪
♪ And they really do feel bad ♪
♪ But the very same people who
are sad sometimes ♪
LITHGOW: That's just beautiful.
♪ Are the very same people who
are glad sometimes ♪
LITHGOW: He just says, "Don't fe
el bad when you have to cry."
♪ It's the same, isn't it, for
me ♪
♪ Isn't it the same for you ♪
LITHGOW: You can't really sa
y just how much
that helps a child,
whether they actually use that
as a tool,
but at least he's putting it o
ut there.
(jarring instrumental music)
ROGERS: Are there things that mak
e you angry?
Do you have ways of showing yo
u're angry,
ways that don't hurt you or any
body else?
♪ What do you do with the mad th
at you feel ♪
♪ When you feel so mad you co
uld bite ♪
♪ When the whole wide world se
ems oh so wrong ♪
♪ And nothing you do seems ve
ry right ♪
KEATON: Mister Rogers often talk
ed about how you can express
and deal with emotions in heal
thy ways through music.
That's why he had musicians in
the studio every day,
led by the great jazz pianist
Johnny Costa,
underscoring what was going on.
Most of Fred's songs were about
feelings,
and they came from the heart
and the mind of a musical mast
er.
LITHGOW: They're very gentle s
ongs,
but they're delightful songs.
Watching them, I imagine myself a
little child,
subject to temper tantrums, as
all little children are.
♪ It's great to be able to sto
p ♪
♪ When you've planned a thing
that's wrong ♪
♪ And be able to do something el
se instead ♪
♪ And think this song ♪
LITHGOW: And he sings them fre
quently.
Kids need to hear songs over and
over again.
♪ Know that there's something de
ep inside ♪
♪ That helps us become what we c
an ♪
♪ For a girl can be someday a
woman ♪
♪ And a boy can be someday a man
♪
And that's important.
You know it's important, don't
you?
NICHOLAS: Mister Rogers was on
at that time of day
where families could come togeth
er and did come together.
My mother always said that he wou
ld bring up issues
that I had been thinking of
and not shared with my parents
and that in watching it toget
her,
we would talk about those.
ROGERS: I know a little girl and
a little boy
whose mother and father got a d
ivorce,
and those children cried and cr
ied.
Do you know why?
Well, one reason was that they
thought
it was all their fault,
(gentle instrumental music)
but of course it wasn't their f
ault.
LITHGOW: It's simply addressing
the things
that kids do think about.
TROW: And it didn't hurt at all.
(howling)
ABERLIN: What didn't hurt?
TROW: Getting adopted.
ABERLIN: Oh, no, getting adopted
doesn't hurt.
It's just another way people ha
ve of saying I love you.
LITHGOW: And just let them know
there's somebody
who acknowledges that.
It's really magic,
and I can't think of any example
of any other children's entertai
ner that does that.
It's so far beyond just enterta
inment.
(gentle instrumental music)
(door knocking)
ROGERS: Oh, there's somebody at
the door. Somebody we love,
Mr. McFeely, come in, Mr. McFe
ely.
NEWELL: Speedy delivery, speedy del
ivery.
ROGERS: I don't think I--
KEATON: Mister Rogers had one
neighbor who visited more
than anyone else, Mr. McFeely, a
hard working,
often out of breath postal del
ivery man,
who brought the films that intro
duced children
to many things around the world.
♪ If there's anything you want ♪
♪ If there's anything you need ♪
♪ McFeely's delivery brings it
to you here with speed ♪
♪ Yes, our speedy ♪
NEWELL: I played Mr. McFeely,
the speedy delivery man,
for 50 years.
Fred knew I couldn't sing, (laugh
ing)
but a lot of people don't real
ize the
sense of humor he had.
We had a great time doing thos
e scenes.
♪ A speedy delivery to you ♪
Speedy delivery, there you go.
ROGERS: Thank you, Mr. McFeely.
NEWELL: The films that I brought,
I was, as Mr. McFeely,
supposedly out in the neighbor
hood
watching all the factory proces
ses.
ROGERS: We'll look at it on Pictu
re-Picture.
How people make peanut butter.
How spoons are made.
Bagels.
NEWELL: That's right.
ROGERS: Guitars.
Bicycle helmets.
NEWELL: Alrighty.
He said, "Let's tell children
"they aren't magically made by
themselves.
"Those machines don't think up
how to make them.
"It takes a person to make anyt
hing."
ROGERS: Here we watch it.
(gentle instrumental music)
APATOW: As a tiny kid, you don't
know how anything is made,
so if you're four
and Mister Rogers goes to the c
rayon factory,
that's the first time you've e
ver realized that,
"Oh, people make this."
There's a machine involved.
There's a man or a woman workin
g on it.
ROGERS: Did you ever play with do
lls
when you were a little girl, Hel
en?
WOMAN: I did.
ROGERS: Did you?
DIDONATO: When a child sees how an
instrument is made,
it's golden.
KRATT: There was a trumpet one.
Yes, the radio flyer one,
there was everything.
KEATON: Many of these small,
family owned factories are gone,
but they're saved forever in Mi
ster Rogers' Neighborhood.
KRATT: My father had a harmonic
a factory.
Mr. McFeely came in person,
and my dad helped show how harmon
icas are made.
♪ There are all kinds of wonderf
ul ♪
♪ All kinds of marvelous ♪
♪ Marvelously wonderful things ♪
ROGERS: Thanks very much.
MAN: Okay, bye, Fred.
ROGERS: See you soon, goodbye.
You find the best things to show
us, Mr. McFeely.
NEWELL: Well, I love my speedy
delivery business.
(gentle instrumental music)
KEATON: Out of 900 episodes, Mi
ster Rogers' visit
to Koko the Gorilla was one of h
is favorites.
Koko had learned sign language
from a dedicated animal psycholo
gist, Penny Patterson.
ROGERS: Where's Mister Rogers?
Peekaboo.
PATTERSON: There.
ROGERS: Where am I?
Peekaboo.
PATTERSON: Can you do the peek
aboo?
ROGERS: Where's Koko?
PATTERSON: Where's Koko?
JOANNE: Koko was so fascinatin
g to me.
PATTERSON: Where is she?
ROGERS: Peekaboo.
PATTERSON: Oh, there.
JOANNE: She really wanted to s
it on his lap,
but she understood that she was t
oo heavy.
Her trainer told her that
she should sit down by him,
so she did.
She was interested in mostly i
n comparing them.
It just amazed me that he was
able to keep his cool.
I didn't go, but Fred told me
about it,
and I wish I had been.
PATTERSON: "Love you," she said.
"Love you, visit, love."
Well, that was very nice.
ROGERS: Thank you, Koko.
(gentle instrumental music)
That's Koko's way of saying, "L
ove you."
She really has feelings for people
and things.
I remember near the end of our
visit,
we just sat and looked at each o
ther.
Hi,
I'm
David Hoffert, a
PBS Wisconsin. Here tonight celebrating
with you the impact
and the legacy of
Fred Rogers, a teacher,
an advocate, an author,
a television icon, and
most importantly, a friend
and a
friend that came to
millions of children across the country
. Thousands, maybe even millions
of children in Wisconsin,including
me, for decades,
and only on
PBS only because of the
support of viewers like
you. And we want to kick
up that celebration a notch during
this break. Oh, hold on one
second, because we're going to do
a challenge break.
Yes. Caught it .
Now, a challenge break meansthat
when you call one 800 236,
this is really awkward . Nowonly having one
shoe on. When you call that number on
your screen, any donation you make
will be doubled by friends
of public media during
this break. So give us a call
. We're going for 30 calls during this
break. 1-800-236-3636.
>> And you know, if
you grew up with Mister Rogers
like I did ,it's hard not
to get a little bit emotional when you
see all of these
examples of compassionand warmth
. They just reallyresonate
. And you can helpcontinue to
bring these to children
for generations tocome.
So at the $10 a
month level will gift you
with that for DVD
set, with the KindnessCollection.
And there's been a little bit of excitement
in in here tonight because we
have tried out the mug
that you get at the $15
a month level , andhe does
indeed change color.
So his jacket is
blue when it's cold and
it turns yellow, you
can see as it g
ets warmed up .So again,
not dishwasher safe.Take good care
. But that is what you we will thank
you with at the $15 a
month level. And then at the
$20 a month level ,you will get
that four DVD set,the
book, the mug and the DVD
of tonight's program. So
if you haven't called us yet tonight,
please give us a call at
(800) 236-3636. >> And
remember, this is achallenge break,
which means the value of your contribution
to PBS Wisconsin is doubled
thanks to a challenge fund thatwe
have set up with existingmembers of
PBS Wisconsin. We'vehad
four calls on our way to 30calls
. I'm sure we can make it,and
we'll make it. When youcall the number
that's on your screen and show your support
for PBS Wisconsin , you know,
Fred Rogers is an icon of
of public television. And he
influenced a whole lot ofpeople
for the better in the 33
years that his program was on
the air. And you
can influence people for the better in
your own way, too, by supporting
public television, because
it's the kind of
organization and system, and the programs
we have help us understand eachother
locally and around the
world. So if that's the kind
of thing you like on TV, then
you should call support it at
(800) 236-3636. >> So we
are up to five
calls going for 30. I'm very happy
to hear that we're starting offhot,
because that means that you care about the
legacy of Fred Rogers on PBS
. And I can certainly understand why
. You know, now that I'm a parent
, you know, obviously, I,
I valued Mister Rogers as a
child, but but I also now appreciate
how much he did to to teach
adults how to talk to children
. You know, there are some there
are some scary things in theworld. There
are some, some, some bad things that happen
that can be hard even foradults to
comprehend. Even Fred Rogers struggled, you know
, he died in 2003. And I
remember reading in those last couple ofyears
about how much he struggled with
understanding the September 11th terroristattacks
, but he left us with so
much wisdom that that is
applicable to this day . Forexample,
he said, look for thehelpers and you
know what we're doing in the studio right
now. We are listening for thehelpers because
we can hear those phones ring. And that
means that you care . Have gotsix calls
. We need 24 more .Give us a
call 1-800-236-3636. >> That
line. Look for the helpers. I know
I think aboutit
all the time when I'mtalking to my
little boys. And what a way.
It just helps carry his legacy on.
And we've talked so much about that this
evening. And our thank you gifts tonight
really allow you to embodythose
messages and thoseimportant
topics that Fred Rogers shared
and carry them into the next
generations. So when you make a gift
at $10 a month, we'll send
you that kindness collection, that fourDVD
set that covers
all kinds of important topics
winning and losing, ups and downs
of friendship, different
arts with music and Qur'an
making, all kinds of great things
. Alongwith that,
at the $15 a monthlevel,
you'll get the sweatercolor changing
mug as well asthe book
, and I wanted to shareone of
the daily reflections ,which is,
I think the most important part about
communicating is the listeningwe
do beforehand, when we
can truly respect what someone
brings to what we're offering
, it makes the communication all
the more meaningful . So
give us a call and then don't forget
at that $20 a month level,
you'll get that four DVD set,
the book, the mug, and the DVD
of tonight's program. Give us a
call 802 363636.
>> As a viewer of publictelevision
, you are undoubtedly aware that federal
funding forpublic media
no longer exists.It's been
taken away, andstations and
organizations areresponding in
different ways. It's a challenging time for
public television and publicradio as
well. But you know,the
extent of the impact on PBS
Wisconsin is going to depend
on a number of things, but mostimportantly
, it's going to depend on you as a
member. Members have always been
the largest support
for financialsupport
for PBS Wisconsin, andthat
will continue to be the
case. In fact , it's likely to
become even more important thatindividuals
, families, and
organizations support PBSWisconsin
directly. And this isone of
those opportunities when you can do so
by calling one of the volunteers who's in
the studio tonight who really wouldlike
to talk to you . We've hadseven
calls on our goal way toa goal
of 30 calls during thisbreak. So please
call now. (800) 236-3636.
>> Now there's a really
important nuance to whatMichael just told
you. It is true that members make up
the largest share of funding for
PBS Wisconsin, but it's not one
big donation. It's individual
small donations spread
across tens of thousands
of people in the state of
Wisconsin and beyond the borders, for
that matter, that make that possible.
And and that really is thecommunity
idea that Fred Rogers
was all about.
It doesn't matter if you can
give $100 a month. That's wonderful,
and I hope you will. If you
can afford to give $5 a month
, that is equally wonderful,
and I hope that you will.
And when you do it during this break
, that money will be doubled. Sowhat
I'm going to say to you is,won't
you please, please won'tyou please
, please, won't youhave your
money doubled when you call
1800 363 636. Didn't
work very well, did it?
>> Are PBS Wisconsin
really was wonderful? PBS
Wisconsin reallyrelies
on viewers like you , sowe
can continue to come intoyour living
room and sing you beautiful songs like this
. And Mister Rogers,
these topics are so important and
his legacy continues. And so
when you make a gift at $10
a month, we willgift you
with that four DVD set.That
kindness collection now
is a great time of year. You can
gift it to a friend or familymember
at $15 a month.
We'll send you this beautiful dayagain
. Makes a beautiful gift.These reflections
I've beenreading and
flipping through here. There's just some
really wonderful messages to share
. And at $20 a month, we'll send
you the DVD set , the book,
the mug, and the DVD of
tonight's program. So if you are a
fan of Mister Rogers, I hope you'llgive
us a call at
(800) 236-3636. >> And one
of the real benefitsof becoming
a supporter, amember of
PBS Wisconsin is receiving airwaves
every month throughout the year,
throughout the term of your membership,however
long that may be , it'sa very
useful guide. Fundamentally, it's a schedule
of the programs, which givesyou an
advance look at what'scoming to
the air every,
every month. And that's true of
all three broadcast channels.
But it also gives you some behindthe
scenes information, highlights what's
new, some of the projects and
programs that are coming your way. So
this particular issue is about the
new documentary, Bucky . Andthere's a
little Q&A with somebody who
was Bucky forthree years
recently. And that's just another little
added benefit, a touch,
a little something
extra when youcall
and show your support of
PBS Wisconsin Airwaves magazine,
a real benefit and a real
reason to call (800) 236-3636.
>> You know , there was a
time not so long ago
that that comedians had fun making
fun of Mister Rogers with, well
, the sweater and the colorful
sneakers and just the the
slowness of his
presentation style. You know, I think theywere
making fun of the factthat he kind
of was out of stepfrom a from
a fast moving world .But but gosh, don't
we look back on that now and say
, I think Mister Rogers was the onewho
was right about that ? Howhow many of
us are desperately looking for ways in our
day just to take a moment to
slow down, and all we had to do wasgo
back and watch the wisdom ofFred Rogers
to understand
what matters in life
slowing down, but also family
and children and values.
It was there infront of us
all along, and it was there in front
of us on PBS .And so we are
asking you tonight to make
programs like that continue to
be possible,whether it's
the children's programing or the adultprograming
that you appreciate. On PBS Wisconsin
, we're up to 13 calls.
Make make yours the next one.
1-800-236-3636. >> And
really, it's been so
wonderful being able to sharethis
evening and paying tribute to the legacy
of Fred Rogers.And you
can continue to keepthat legacy
going and buildyour own community
, share theseresources
and these wonderful stories with your
own family and children.
And did you knowthere
were nearly 900 episodesof
Mister Rogers? So when
you give at that $10 a
month level, we'll send you
that four disc DVD set,
The Kindness Collection, again,
sharing all those wonderful, importantmessages
that Mister Rogers hasto share with
us. At $15 amonth, you
will get that fantastic sweater
color changing mug, which might go
home with me this evening,
and a book with these wonderfulreflections. Again
, they make such a wonderful gift.
There's something different every daythat we can
all think about. For $20 a month
, we'll send you that DVD set, the
mug, the book ,and the
DVD of tonight'sprogram.
So visit us online atPBS
Wisconsin. Org or give us acall
at (800) 236-3636.
>> PBS Wisconsin
has been serving Wisconsin for
more than 70 years. And
interestingly, Mister Rogers Neighborhood
was on for 33 years, almost half
of that time, which was aremarkable
run. And o
ver those seven years, we've changed.We've
grown, we've shifted ,we've we've become
something, I think, even richer
and better than we have been in
the past. We are part of the
fabric of what makes Wisconsin. And
that's largely because of theprograms
we do about Wisconsin ,whether they're
the regular programs like Wisconsin
Foodie and Here and Now, or
the special programs that we do,
like Wisconsin Scenic Treasures
or the Bucky program
that's coming up, or the Valve
Phillips program, whatever .There's a lot
of information
programs about Wisconsin. Youcan feel
proud to be from Wisconsin when you
watch and you are a supporter of
PBS Wisconsin, you can do
that now by calling
(800) 236-3636. Thank you very much
.
NICKY: I would like to play a Mi
nuet Three by Bach.
ROGERS: Okay, we want to hear
it.
NEGRI: We sure do.
(gentle instrumental music)
KEATON: Mister Rogers felt it was
important
to introduce children
who had a particular talent,
to inspire his young viewers to
work hard
at something they liked to do.
ROGERS: What do you think about
children
who might be listening to you
and have that idea, "Maybe I cou
ld do that?"
NICKY: Well, I guess they would
be very proud of themselves.
I guess that would be their very
best choice,
and they would have fun playing.
DIDONATO: Mister Rogers, he's no
t even looking at the fingers.
He's just looking at his face.
He's reading what's going on ins
ide Nick's head,
doesn't look at the keyboard o
ne time.
I love that because he's focused
so completely
on the experience for Nick, no
t the outcome,
not the notes, not the right ha
nd or the left hand,
or the memorization.
It's the experience that that chi
ld is having
and that music provides.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: Here you are a violinist
and a teenager
HAHN: Oh, yeah.
ROGERS: Bless your heart.
You started to play, though,
when you were a very little gi
rl.
HAHN: Actually, the first thing th
at I learned was how to bow.
ROGERS: How to bow?
HAHN: Yeah, when you go out on
the stage
when people are clapping,
and you walk out on stage,
(clapping)
and then you bow to the audience
like this.
(clapping)
SPALDING: What a beautiful pict
ure to show young people.
ROGERS: Thank you for that.
SPALDING: That was an affirmat
ion that
little girls can grow up
and be musicians, instrumental
ists.
(gentle instrumental music)
When I saw that, it just drove ho
me even deeper
the gratitude that I have for
that show, you know,
showing what's possible.
♪ We love you ♪
♪ Yes, we do ♪
♪ We love you ♪
KEATON: Mister Rogers liked to
show his television neighbors
the wonders of a world full of pe
ople
who do interesting things.
Everywhere he went, he was like a
curious child
who loved to learn new things,
and as this visit with the Empi
re Brass Quintet shows,
he could teach and learn at the s
ame time.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: This first one is calle
d a tuba.
(gentle instrumental music)
This one is a french horn.
(gentle instrumental music)
This one is a trumpet,
(gentle instrumental music)
and this one is a slide trombo
ne,
and these people are some men
that I know who really have fun
with their music.
Now you're gonna see all five of
the quintet playing.
MAN: Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.
ROGERS: Oh, good.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Wish I knew how to do that.
MAN: Well, how would you like to
try to do it?
ROGERS: I'd be glad to try.
MAN: Well, come on, sure.
Sit in the tuba chair, alright,
but in order to get sound, you
blow through buzzing lips.
(blowing)
ROGERS: Oh, it makes your lips
tickle.
(laughing)
SPALDING: That willingness to sho
w himself
trying something like blowing t
he tuba
and not succeeding right away
and being totally okay with it,
it's so alright.
It's so alright that it deserves
to be on television.
(upbeat instrumental music)
ROGERS: Oh, that's wonderful.
MAN: Thank you.
KEATON: You can't learn without ma
king mistakes,
and Fred wasn't afraid to show
that mistakes
are part of learning,
like when folk singer Ella Jen
kins tried
to teach one of her playground
rhymes.
She made it look too easy.
♪ Head and shoulders, baby, one,
two, three ♪
♪ Head and shoulders, baby, one,
two, three ♪
♪ Head and shoulders ♪
♪ Head and shoulders, baby, one,
two, three ♪
Knees and ankles.
♪ Knees and ankles, baby, one, t
wo, three ♪
♪ Knees and ankles, baby, one, t
wo, three ♪
♪ Knees and ankles ♪
♪ Knees and ankles, baby, one, t
wo, three ♪
Ankles and toes.
♪ Ankles and toes, baby ♪
KEATON: Now, if that happened on
a movie set,
you might hear the director say,
"Let's try that again, take tw
o,"
but Fred, knowing it was importan
t to show children
that some things are hard to le
arn, said,
"No, let's leave that in."
♪ Baby, one, two, three ♪
♪ Ankles and toes ♪
♪ Ankles and toes, baby, one, t
wo, three ♪
JENKINS: And the way we used to e
nd it was like this.
♪ That's all, baby, one, two,
three ♪
♪ That's all, baby, one, two,
three ♪
♪ That's all ♪
♪ That's all, baby, one, two,
three ♪
♪ That's all ♪
ROGERS: Head and shoulders, baby
, one, two.
This one down here was real h
ard.
Knees and ankles, baby, one, t
wo.
I like to learn things, don't
you?
And there's so much in this world
we can learn,
no matter how young or how old
we are.
(upbeat instrumental music)
KEATON: The great Tony Bennett wasn
't only a legendary singer.
He was also a painter,
and he showed off his skills
as an artist in Lady Elaine's t
elevision studio.
He serenaded her with a song tha
t Mister Rogers wrote
to help children know that it'
s natural
that we sometimes want to do s
omething
and sometimes we don't.
♪ Sometimes I don't feel like c
ombing my hair ♪
(gentle instrumental music)
♪ I don't feel like washing my
face ♪
♪ Sometimes, sometimes I don'
t feel like saying okay ♪
♪ But sometimes isn't always ♪
ELAINE: That's the truth.
♪ Sometimes ♪
ELAINE: You like to draw, do y
ou?
BENNETT: Oh, I love it, yes.
ELAINE: I've heard you many ti
mes in concert and all,
and you surely sing well.
BENNETT: You have beautiful, b
lue eyes.
ELAINE: What is that you're drawi
ng?
BENNETT: Oh, I'm drawing you.
Didn't you know that?
ELAINE: It'll be a Tony Bennett
original
of Lady Elaine Fairchild.
♪ But sometimes isn't always ♪
♪ Sometimes ♪
KEATON: Tony Bennett was the perfec
t straight man
to the over the top flirting of
Lady Elaine.
BENNETT: I love the way you're dan
cing.
ELAINE: Oh, thanks.
♪ I don't feel like getting ♪
KEATON: But what I really like
about the scene
is to think that under that desk,
crouched down into a small litt
le cubby,
it was Fred Rogers who voiced t
he puppet.
ELAINE: Hello, friends, my name
's Lady Elaine Fairchild.
KEATON: And did those fabulous
dance moves.
♪ It isn't always ♪
♪ Sometimes ♪
KEATON: Fred had a real playful
side
that all of us on the crew did
our best to encourage.
♪ But sometimes, wait a minute, is
n't always ♪
♪ Isn't always ♪
BENNETT: One more time.
♪ Isn't always ♪
♪ Always ♪
ELAINE: Oh, Tony Bennett.
BENNETT: Very nice.
ELAINE: Tony Bennett right here w
ith us at MGR-TV.
He likes us so well,
he's singing 100 of his favori
te tunes.
(laughing)
ROGERS: Oh, there's Officer Cl
emmons.
Hi, Officer Clemmons, come in.
CLEMMONS: Hello, Mister Rogers,
how are you?
ROGERS: Fine, why don't you sit
down?
GOLDBERG: You probably don't th
ink of Fred Rogers
as a Civil Rights Activist,
but he was one in a major but
subtle way.
He heard Francois Clemmons sin
g at a church
in Pittsburgh and in 1968 aske
d him
to play a policeman on Mister R
ogers' Neighborhood.
Clemmons told him, "I grew up
in the ghetto,
"and I don't have a positive op
inion of police officers,"
but Mister Rogers saw it as an
opportunity
to teach an important lesson of e
quality and respect.
One of the most unforgettable mo
ments
in the neighborhood was the day
Mister Rogers asked Officer Clem
mons to cool his tired feet
in a wading pool in the front yard
of his house.
CLEMMONS: That feels great.
ROGERS: Here.
GOLDBERG: They soaked their fe
et together,
and Mister Rogers helped dry the po
liceman's feet
when he was finished.
ROGERS: Can I help you here?
CLEMMONS: Thank you.
GOLDBERG: The meaning was unmi
stakable.
CLEMMONS: Alrighty.
(gentle instrumental music)
KEATON: Francois played Officer C
lemmons
for over 25 years,
one of the first African Americ
ans
to have a recurring role on a
children's television series.
♪ You are my friend ♪
KEATON: Francois was also a tr
ained classical singer,
and Mister Rogers often asked
him
to share his wonderful tenor vo
ice
with his television neighbors.
CLEMMONS: Singing is one of my
ways of saying, I love you.
ROGERS: Oh, I know that.
Do you have time to give a song
to my friend and me?
CLEMMONS: I sure do.
♪ There are many ways to say I
love you ♪
♪ You'll find many ways to
understand what love is ♪
♪ Many ways ♪
♪ Many ways to say I love you ♪
ROGERS: I was thinking last ti
me we were together
that every person in the whole worl
d is different
from everybody else,
and yet we can still love each ot
her
because the most important thin
gs about us
are inside of us,
so even if we look different
and sound different
and smell different on the outsi
de,
we're all human beings and have o
ur human thoughts
and feelings inside.
♪ I looked over Jordan, Lord,
and what did I see ♪
♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪
♪ Oh, a band of angels were c
oming after me ♪
♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪
ROGERS: Remember, it's what's in
side of us that matters most?
Well, it's what's inside of him
that helps him sing his songs so
wonderfully.
♪ A band of angels were comin
g after me ♪
♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪
♪ Oh, swing low, sweet chariot ♪
♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪
♪ Oh, swing low, sweet chariot ♪
♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪
ROGERS: Oh, I love your singing.
(gentle instrumental music)
MA: You know, Fred is still wi
th us.
He's with us on film.
He's with us in our memories.
ROGERS: You know, things like
friendship and love
don't cost any money at all,
and they're very, very importa
nt.
MA: I'm just so deeply grateful t
hat he has been
in our lives and continues to b
e in our lives.
KEATON: Fortunately Mister Roge
rs' Neighborhood continues
on many public television stat
ions and their websites,
and, happily,
the legacy of Mister Rogers' pi
oneering programs
live on in Daniel Tiger's Neig
hborhood.
♪ It's a beautiful day in the
neighborhood ♪
♪ A beautiful day for ♪
KEATON: Where a new generation o
f kids
can learn key social skills fo
r school and for life.
JOANNE: Daniel Tiger's Neighborho
od follows right on
with Fred's Neighborhood of Make Be
lieve,
and who Daniel was.
♪ It's such a good feeling ♪
♪ To play with family and fri
ends ♪
♪ It's such a happy feeling ♪
JOANNE: It's fun for children,
good for children.
It pleases me so much to know
what a success it's having.
TIGER: Because it's you I like.
(gentle instrumental music)
ROGERS: You always make each da
y a special day for me,
and you know how?
By just your being you.
There's only one person in th
is whole world like you,
and people can like you exactly
as you are.
I'll be back next time, bye.
LITHGOW: You see what I mean?
He looks right at you.
DIDONATO: The beauty of what he
did so well,
I feel like he's talking directly
to me.
SPINNEY: My daughter, my oldest d
aughter, said,
"That's Mister Rogers.
"I love him.
"He's my best friend."
SPALDING: In his eyes and in h
is voice
and in the pace I feel that ge
nuine love
that this man had and shared w
ith the world.
APATOW: It makes you feel good
that there's a sweet guy,
and he puts on his sweater,
and he tells you how to be a go
od person.
Those were just pure pleasure
moments as a little kid.
SILVERMAN: Mister Rogers,
and some of my best therapists
, you know,
really shaped who I am as a pe
rson,
and Mister Rogers continues to m
ake me want
to be the best person I can be.
KEATON: Mister Rogers' Neighbor
hood
inspired all of us to be better,
better parents, better children,
better people.
We all gained self-confidence an
d self-esteem
just by watching him.
He made us believe that each of us
is special,
and so is everyone else,
so thank you, Mister Rogers,
for every beautiful day in the n
eighborhood.
ROGERS: This is a song that I li
ke to sing to people
that I really care for.
Maybe you know it.
♪ It's you I like ♪
♪ It's not the things you wear ♪
♪ It's not the way you do you
r hair ♪
♪ But it's you I like ♪
♪ The way you are right now ♪
♪ The way down deep inside you ♪
♪ Not the things that hide you ♪
♪ Not your toys ♪
♪ 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 bl
ue ♪
♪ That it's you I like ♪
♪ It's you yourself ♪
♪ It's you ♪
♪ It's you I like ♪
You yourself, just the way you ar
e.
What
an incredibly
moving% documentary.
Thank you for
. Hi. I'm David Hoffert, a
volunteerhere at PBS Wisconsin, andI
want to debrief with youa little bit
about aboutwhat we just saw.
And askyou to
support public television,
PBS Wisconsin in
in continuing to bringyou
programs like this. You
know, think back for a . Or if you weren't
alive yet, think about fora moment
. When the Mister Rogers program started
was 1968. Think about
theenvironment of that time
war, political
assassinations, general
societal upheaval, you know
,parallel in a lot of waysto
the times we're living through right now.
And andwhat a time to be a
child.What a what a what a scary
time to be a child. Andthen you
had Fred Rogers providing that
calm, that that presence,
thatstability, that
comfort.What an important gift
that was and continues
to be tothis day. And you
can keepthat alive with a gift of
your own by calling
1-800-236-3636. >> And
Mister Rogers did
bring that calm and comfortinto
living rooms acrossthe country
for decades, and still
continues to do so. And you
can help us continue to bring
programslike this into
homes allacross Wisconsin. So
whenyou make a gift and you
become a sustainer at $10
amonth, we'll gift you thatkindness
collection, that four DVD set
that talks about all of
thoseimportant lessons and allthe
things that we cancarry into
generations tocome . At
$15 a month, wewill
send you thiswonderful Daily
Reflectionsbook with some really
greatinsights from Fred
Rogersalong with this great mug
.It's so fun and special
,and anytime you have it athand
, not only are y
oureminded of his wisdom,
butalso it might bring a smileto
your face. And then at$20
a month, we'll gift youthat DVD set
, the book, that sweet mug
, and the DVD of tonight's program
so youcan always visit us
onlineat pbswisconsin.org, orgive
us a call at
(800) 236-3636. >> Fred
Rogers helped children understand
that difficult
things. He often understand difficult things
by talking about them
andtreating them like people.
And, you know , it'sinteresting when
Reginatalks about this
beautifulday, that book, and youflip
through it, you realize you really
wasn'tjust talking to children.He was talking
to people ofany age. He's got a
lot ofreally wonderful things andideas that
he shared in a very direct
way. And that's really was the magic
, Ithink, of Fred Rogers and
the program he did for all
those many years. One way support the
program isby becoming a member of
PBSWisconsin, and
one way ofbecoming a member isbecoming
a sustainingmember. That means that
yougive a monthly
contribution.You decide how much youwant to
give per month, howyou want it
to be deliveredto the station through your
checking account or charge card, whatever, and how
long you want it to go on.You
control you're in the driver's seat when you
become a sustaining member ,but it's really
a wonderfuloption not only for
me, I'ma sustaining member
becauseit's kind of an automaticpilot.
I'm aware of it , butI don't have
to worry aboutit . And remember, have I
done this? It's done. It'sgood
. And it's a great thing to do.
What you cando now by calling
(800) 236-3636. >> So I
mentioned thatthere were some parallelsbetween
the days we're living through now
and thedays when Fred Rogers
started his program. Thereis also one
reallyimportant difference. Fred
Rogers was one of thepeople who went
to Congressand made the case for
public funding for public
media. And of course, asyou
know, as of this year,we no
longer have thatfunding. But th e mission
has not changed and thevalue
proposition has not changed. It
just means that we need even
more support from viewers like
you who,who , who receive
that value, who know what
this is about to call
in and make surethat that mission
can continue fully going
intothe future . Give us a
call 1-800-236-3636.
>> Viewers like you are the
heart of PBS Wisconsin and
what allow us to continueto
bring such wonderfulprograms into your living
room every day? And I'm notsure
if you know this , butas we enter
this season ofgiving and gratitude, you
have the ability to gift a
PBS membership to a l
ovedone. Or you could
potentially gift one ofthese
thank you gifts as well. So if
you're not a sustainer or if you'd
liketo gift a membership, youcan do
so. Starting at that$10 a
month level will gift you the Kindness Collection
,a wonderful four
disc DVD series
that covers allkinds of
different topics, like winning and losing
andHow to be a good friend
.And the $15
a month level will gift
you thiswonderful book of
365. Reflections is
again, justkind of
going through hereand learning all sorts of
new things. You can get the
color changing mug, which Ithink makes a perfect gift.
And then at that
$20 amonth level , you will gift
you the four disc DVD set,
the book, the mug, and the
DVD of tonight's program.
So visit us at
pbswisconsin.org or give us a call at
(800) 236-3636. >> The
last Mister Rogers
Neighborhood program aired in 2001.
But the legacy that
Mister Rogers Fred Rogers created
continues tobe felt in the
quality programs in some,
if youwill. I won't call themspinoffs
, but subsequentprograms that have carried
his legacy on into moderntimes
and legacies are
important, and you may befamiliar
with the conceptof legacy giving or
estateplanning. And PBS Wisconsin
has people who be more than
happy to talk to you aboutwhat the
options are. It'sone way you may not
be ableto give a great gift right
now, but perhaps in thefuture you can and you
caninclude PBS Wisconsin
inyour estate plan. And
it'sa wonderful thing to do.I've
done it. I'm a memberof the Heritage
Societybecause I want to
be surethat my impact is
stillfelt when I'm no longer
here. You can do that, oryou
can call and become amember right this
moment.Or both. You can do it
allby calling (800) 236-3636.
>> I mentioned in a
previous break that thatgifts of
any size are welcome and necessary
,right? If you can afford to
give $5 a month , that'sthat's great.
You mighteven say it's your
gift. Ilike just the way
it is.You see what I did
there?Okay, but but I also wantto
take a moment toacknowledge those who
whodo give more , who are able
to give more. And we havesome
, some designations for them, the leadership
circleand the director circle,folks
who can give $100 amonth or
or $250 a month
,and that's important too,right?
What makes PBSWisconsin
work is that
everyone, no matter whattheir means
, are contributing what they
canand saying this matters
tome. And
literally votingwith their dollars
becausebecause what's happeninghere is
important. And and yes, Fred Rogers
is is no longer making new episodes
, but so many
children's programs, so many
adultprograms, even even Daniel
Tiger's Neighborhood, lly
a spin off of Mister Rogers,
is coming to and supporting children
tothis day. So please give us
a call right now .
1-800-236-3636. >> Mister
Rogers Neighborhood was one of
thefirst programs to air
nationwide on publictelevision,
then called Net,or National
EducationalTelevision, which Idistinctly
remember fromwhen I was growing up as
achild. I was a little oldfor
Fred Rogers. By the time he came to
net backthen , but I do
have vague recollections of his
program. I was in highschool at the time. The
important thing is that public television has
been around for a very
long time. It's always depended
onmultiple sources o
f support,but most
critically on the support of individuals
, families, people just
likeyou, people like me who
support the station PBSWisconsin
financially by becoming a
member of PBSWisconsin.
You can do that tonight. You can do
it bygoing online. You can
do itby calling during the show
.If you're so moved to do
so,move to do that. Or you
cancall right now . If you call,the
number is always the same
(800) 236-3636.[MUSIC] ch a good feeling ♪
♪ To know you're alive ♪
♪ It's such a happy feeling ♪
♪ You're growing inside ♪
♪ And when you wake up ready t
o say ♪
♪ I think I'll make a snappy n
ew day ♪
♪ Snap ♪
♪ It's such a good feeling ♪
♪ A very good feeling ♪
♪ The feeling you know that I
'll be back ♪
♪ When the day is new ♪
♪ And I'll have more ideas for y
ou ♪
♪ And you'll have things ♪
♪ you'll want to talk about ♪
♪ I will too ♪
You always make it a
special time for me
by just your being yourself.
I like you just the way you are.
I'll be back next week, bye.
(gentle instrumental music)
Explore new worlds and new idea
s
through programs like this.
Made available for everyone
through contributions to your PBS s
tation
from viewers like you.
Thank you
Be more) ♪
VO: You're watching PBS.
) ♪
NARRATOR: 250 years ago, a new
nation was born.
This fall, Ken Burns tells th
e story
of the American Revolution.
BURNS: We want to convey what it
was like
to experience the birth of o
ur country.
NARRATOR: Now get an exclusive i
nside look
at what it takes to bring histor
y to life.
Don't miss "The American Revolu
tion: An Inside Look."
Coming up next on PBS.
Corporate funding for the prod
uction of
"The American Revolution" was
provided by Bank of America,
with funding from The Better
Angels Society and its members.
And by the following...
By members of The Better Ang
els Society,
The Corporation for Public B
roadcasting,
and by Viewers Like You.
Thank you.
VO: We are in the very midst
of a revolution,
a most complete, unexpected,
and remarkable
of any in the history of nat
ions.
Objects of the most stupendo
us magnitude
and measures in which the li
ves and liberties
of millions yet unborn are in
timately interested,
are now before us.
John Adams.
We were locking our film on the
Vietnam War,
and just as we had decided to
do that,
as we were locking the film on
the Second World War,
I just had this thought:
The next war we had to do was
the American Revolution.
As horrible as wars are, they
tell us hugely important things
about who we are and the period
that we're in.
You began to realize that the
whole question
of this American project, whic
h has been my project,
is born in the Revolution, an
d to ask questions
of the Revolution seemed absolu
tely imperative.
RICK ATKINSON: War never follow
s the script
that you have written for it
when you set out to make war.
The British objective is fir
st and foremost
to suppress the rebellion.
It's to teach the rascals a less
on.
It's to force them to acknowl
edge
the primacy of Parliament and
the authority of the King.
And so now the decision has been
made that we will use force.
And there's a presumption that
it won't take much...
but it's going to go on for
8 years.
Blood, treasure,
catastrophe, really, for the
British Empire.
The Revolution is obviously in
some ways
the central, most important
war in our history.
All wars leave us with myths.
What did Patrick Henry actual
ly say?
What was Paul Revere's midnig
ht ride actually about?
What happened in the Boston Te
a Party?
Did Washington cross the Dela
ware
in the daytime or the nightti
me?
Who made the first flag?
When did the war start and when
did the war end?
It's been an extraordinary jou
rney to
try and tell the story about
our founding,
about our origin story.
JANE KAMENSKY: I think to bel
ieve in America,
rooted in the American Revolut
ion,
is to believe in possibility.
That, to me, is the extraord
inary thing
about the Patriot side of the
fight.
I think everybody on every sid
e,
including people who were denied
even the ownership of themsel
ves,
had the sense of possibility
worth fighting for.
When we think about war in o
ur lifetime,
it tends to be away from the
United States.
A lot of people, a lot of Ameri
cans
have lived through war, but
it's not
in our backyard, typically.
This war was.
What we have to first unders
tand
is that it's a civil war.
Maybe a quarter of all the civi
lians
in the colonies are loyalists
and remain loyal to the Crow
n and the laws,
and they don't want to upset t
he apple cart.
And so this is a bloody, bloody c
ivil war.
ALAN TAYLOR: The loyalists are
essentially the conservatives.
They're the people who believe
in law and order.
They don't like mobs.
They don't like committees tell
ing them what to do.
They don't see King George th
e Third as a tyrant.
VO: We are preparing for war.
To fight with whom?
Not with France and Spain,
whom we have been used to think
our natural enemies.
But with Great Britain, our
parent country.
My heart recoils at the thought
.
Andrew Eliot.
♪
SCHMIDT: The American Revoluti
on is our story.
It's everyone's story. It's w
here the country began,
and so much of who we are toda
y
came from the story of the Amer
ican Revolution.
The revolutionary generation th
ought about us,
the unborn millions.
They talked about posterity.
In 1777, John Adams wrote to h
is wife Abigail and said,
"Posterity, you will never kno
w what
it cost the present generation
to preserve your freedom."
And I think this is our oppo
rtunity to let
our present generation know w
hat they did,
what they went through, and
how much it matters
to us today that they did.
BOTSTEIN: This is a young war.
George Washington is in his fo
rties.
Thomas Jefferson is in his thir
ties.
People fighting the war are 14
to 50.
It is a young country and a yo
ung war.
They were rebellious, feisty,
youthful patriots
trying to figure it out.
The people we all have heard of
in grade school, middle school
,
high school, maybe studied in
college.
And all the people we haven't
heard about
whose histories haven't been
told.
War exposes the best and the
worst in all of us.
It inspires and repels us.
War is, unfortunately,
the history of the human expe
rience.
BURNS: It turns out that this
film is arriving just before
the 250th anniversary of the
signing
of the Declaration of Indepe
ndence.
And so we're very happy to hav
e our film come out
in advance of that, to help le
ad what we hope
is a much more dynamic conver
sation,
one that is not sort of suffus
ed with nostalgia,
but something that has a litt
le bit more complexity.
I think everyone will find so
mething to identify with,
because the story is our story
,
and it is not just one set of
us.
It's all of us.
And that's the story that we st
ruggled
for a long time to try to tell
.
WILLIAM HOGELAND: Once it's a sh
ooting war,
as with Lexington and Concord, i
t's a war.
There's no doubt about that.
But independence was not in any
way
officially on the table as a g
oal
of the Americans at that point
.
The idea of independence was stil
l controversial.
The official position was th
at the fight
was essentially for redress,
for "Let's get back to the way
things used to be,
back when things were good, wh
en you left us alone."
Making a film about the Amer
ican Revolution
poses instantaneously some pr
etty obvious challenges.
First of all, there are no p
hotographs or newsreels,
and so it forces us to recal
ibrate,
in every sense of the word,
how we're going to use imagery
to tell a very, very complex
story.
So live cinematography becomes
hugely important,
as it always has been for us.
But in this case, our traditiona
l aversion
to re-enactments, we actually
had to lean into.
Some of my favorite footage
in the film
are the very high-up drone shots
where you're seeing the re-ena
ctors and it's incredible.
You just, you could be a bird i
n the sky
looking at what's happening.
We haven't worked a lot with r
e-enactors,
and these re-enactors were a
n extraordinary
part of our process.
BURNS: We have worked with do
zens and dozens of groups
all up and down the East Coast
.
BOTSTEIN: We spent a lot of
time with them,
before we had cameras on, to l
earn from them.
And they are fastidious in ho
w they study, where they go,
how they move, what they're r
eading.
They get really into it.
BURNS: We film them very imp
ressionistically.
It gives us an ability to see
the war
but not see their faces
and be disturbed by a kind of
modern context.
The re-enactors give that kin
d of intimacy.
BOTSTEIN: We would find ways
to film the big reenactments
that they do every year or
two,
and then work with small groups
of them to try to demonstrate
what it was like for a soldier
in his group of 5 guys
in the middle of a blizzard
going up a mountain.
And we did that.
And Megan Ruffe, our extraordin
ary Producer,
just toughed it out with Bud
dy Squires,
and I think it's some of the most
unusual
live cinematography that we've
ever filmed.
There is a kind of mystery an
d a poetry
to the reenactments that helps
tell the story,
and helps fill in for the ab
sence of photographs.
You begin to have a visceral
sense of what happened
when you see people, just feet
going through mud, or snow,
or hands trying to warm them
selves by the fire,
or gripping a musket.
They help you realize what it'
s actually like.
ATKINSON: A shot rings out.
No one knows where the shot c
ame from.
MAN: Fire!
ATKINSON: That leads to prom
iscuous shooting...
mostly by the British.
It's not a battle. It's not a
skirmish.
It's a massacre.
We shot all over the East Coast
and beyond.
Colonial Williamsburg, Saratoga
National Battlefield, Yorktown.
These places are preserved to
look as much as
they could like they did then.
The film is a celebration of
the vast,
beautiful landscape of North A
merica.
We were able, over the course
of 6 or 7 years,
to film in every part of the 13
colonies
in almost every season.
Imagining fighting a war at the
hottest, most awful,
humid months in the South
to the coldest, most horrific
freezing temperatures in the
north.
That all happened.
One of the great improbable for
ces
in this film is weather.
I walk where I live in New Ha
mpshire, out every day,
and I suddenly realize where I
was walking was little changed
from the 18th-century world
that this is taking place.
And so I would start taking m
ovies.
There's snowstorms that I filme
d in,
and it's that wonderful text
ural quality in the film.
NATHANIEL PHILBRICK: America
is this huge continent.
There's tornadoes, there's hu
rricanes,
there's winter storms.
Turns of weather that we know
are coming for weeks on end
hit the people of the 18th cen
tury
completely by surprise.
♪
They're not just fighting each
other.
In a profound way, they are fig
hting
the American climate and geog
raphy and topography.
This is a difficult place to con
duct a war.
One of the great archives of th
e time
that are accurate archives of t
he time are the maps.
The French made maps, the Br
its made maps,
the Germans made maps, we mad
e maps.
We are using more maps in thi
s film
than in all the other films
combined.
When we think about what ani
mates a story
that we want to tell, maps t
ake on huge significance.
We have CGI 3-dimensional ma
ps.
We've taken these beautiful
works of art, archival maps,
to show intimacies in the mids
t of these grand schemes.
It's been exhilarating. Chal
lenging but exhilarating.
And I think that one of the
constants for me
throughout the process was
mastering the complexity of the
story.
NARRATOR: The American Plan
called for two small, noisy,
diversionary feints to draw de
fenders
away from the attack's real t
argets.
Meanwhile, Arnold and his men
would circle around
Quebéc City from the north,
while General Montgomery would
approach from the south.
Together, they would storm th
e citadel's steep walls.
BURNS: We want to convey,
in the most direct and honest
way,
what it was like to experience
the birth of our country
in violence, not just all thos
e great inspiring ideas.
♪
VO: I did not solicit this c
ommand,
but accepted it after much e
ntreaty.
As soon as the public gets di
ssatisfied with my service,
I shall quit the helm with a
s much satisfaction,
and retire to a private station
with as much content
as ever the weariest pilgrim
felt upon his safe arrival in t
he Holy Land.
George Washington.
♪
I'm interested in the U.S.,
but I'm interested in us.
And too often I think our hist
ory books
have presented a kind of top-down
history.
Nothing wrong with it. The most
important person
in our story is, without a doub
t, George Washington,
and I will defend that to the
end.
We don't have a country with
out him.
But there are lots of people
who contribute to this;
bottom-up stories.
And if you're going to tell t
hat, you've got to be
faithful to the whole cast o
f characters.
SCHMIDT: I previously worked
on a film about
Benjamin Franklin, who was an
extraordinary individual,
but he is only one person.
And I'm very grateful to have
this opportunity
to work on a film about 3 mi
llion Americans.
And if there's 3 million peop
le,
there's a lot of stories that m
ost of us don't know yet.
I think we were all surprised
to find
how many people left behind
their memories.
BOTSTEIN: There are wonderful
young men who signed up
for the war when they were,
I would consider, boys,
14, 15 years old and served
valiantly and patriotically
through the whole conflict.
There are Native Americans wh
o made decisions
to side with the British
and those who decided to fight
with the Patriots.
And we tell both those stori
es.
DARREN BONAPARTE: For us, the
Mohawk people,
it was survival--period.
And you didn't know which side
was going to be the best choice.
We kind of gravitated mostly
to the British
because they had kind of won
our respect,
beating the French and pretty m
uch having our interests
when they dealt with the regu
lar colonists.
♪
VO: The disturbances in Ame
rica
give great trouble to all our
nations.
The Mohawks, our particular
nation, have on all occasions
shown their zeal and loyalty
to the Great King.
Thayendanegea.
BURNS: You get to know a Native
American warrior
named Joseph Brant, who's--has
his painting painted.
He's allied with the British;
he's trying to help them.
There are African-Americans
who are trying to make
a huge decision whether to go
with the British,
who are, in some cases, offe
ring them freedom
if they'll leave their rebel,
as the British called us, or P
atriot owners.
And so, you've got huge dynam
ics:
Do I go with the British, do I
fight for the Patriots?
VINCENT BROWN: We know that
about 15,000 Black people
actually joined the British,
or ran away
to the British lines,
versus about 5,000 ultimately
entering the Patriot cause.
And that's because for many
of those enslaved people,
the British represented free
dom.
The Patriots did not.
We've always been a country
with a wide variety of people,
a wide variety of cultures,
a wide variety of opinions.
We tell the story of Elizabeth
Freeman, an enslaved woman
who goes to court for her freedo
m in Massachusetts
and has an amazing story.
Judith Jackson, who was an ens
laved woman
who sided with the British an
d wanted to leave
and had to be separated from her
daughter at the end of the war.
And Phillis Wheatley, who wa
s the first published
African-American in the United
States,
who was a beautiful poet,
corresponded with George Washi
ngton himself,
and came here on a slave ship.
VO: I, young in life, by see
ming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fanc
y'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must
molest,
What sorrows labour in my pa
rent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul and by
no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his ba
be belov'd:
Such, such my case.
And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrann
ic sway?
Phillis Wheatley.
One of the characters whose
stories we follow is
Joseph Plumb Martin of Conne
cticut.
He was, I think, 15 when he sig
ned up in 1776,
and he served for the duration
of the war.
He was at Yorktown, he was a
t Germantown.
And in the 1830s, he wrote a
memoir of his experience.
VO: Our sergeant major inform
ed us that the regiment
was ordered to Long Island.
It gave me a rather disagree
able feeling,
as I was pretty well-assured I
should have to
sniff a little gunpowder.
The horrors of battle then pre
sented themselves
to my mind in all their hideou
sness.
I must come to it now, though
t I.
Joseph Plumb Martin.
He talks a little bit about
the Battle of Fort Mifflin.
He was bombarded for weeks,
along with his fellow
Connecticut soldiers, by the
British Navy.
He says, you've never heard
of this battle
because there wasn't a Washin
gton or a Wayne there.
But I was there.
VO: What could officers do w
ithout such men?
Nothing at all.
Great men get great praise.
Little men, nothing.
SCHMIDT: He really gives us
an opportunity to understand
what the average soldier went t
hrough.
When you can bring all of thos
e stories together
and all of those thoughts toget
her,
all those people's perspectiv
es together,
you just get a much better un
derstanding of, of the war.
The voices are so varied. They r
epresent all of us.
Rebecca Tanner, who is a Native
American woman,
loses 5 sons in the American
Revolution
fighting for the Patriot cause
.
VO: No suffering which Britain ca
n inflict
will reduce America to submi
ssion.
The thunder of their artillery
may lay waste the cities,
but the spirit of the people is
unconquerable.
Mercy Otis Warren.
We're really lucky that people
like Abigail Adams
and Mercy Otis Warren were wr
iting as much as they were
about what they experienced
and what they thought
during the war.
There are many women you ha
ven't heard of before.
Betsy Ambler, who was a 10-yea
r-old when the war began
in Yorktown, Virginia, and wr
ote beautiful musings
for her sister to understand
what their family had lived th
rough.
VO: The plan laid down for our
education
was entirely broken in upon
by the war.
Instead of morning lessons,
we were to knit stockings.
Instead of embroidering, to mak
e homespun garments.
And in place of the music of t
he harpsichord,
to listen to the loud, clanging
trumpet and never-ceasing drum.
For in every direction that
we traveled, and heaven knows
we left but little of Virgini
a unexplored,
we heard naught but the din
of war.
Our late peaceful country now
became a scene of terror
and confusion.
Betsy Ambler.
You allow a story to have many
different perspectives.
You have hundreds of voices of
people: civilians; loyalists;
Native Americans; Black, free an
d enslaved;
patriots; women; and then you u
nderstand
there is a much more complex
story.
18th-century war is not mecha
nized.
You either walk by foot
or a four-legged creature is t
aking you.
And men didn't go alone. They w
ent with their families.
So, behind the armies are thei
r wives, their children.
And the women, therefore, are su
pporting the troops
in a way that many of us are un
familiar with.
Women are always at the center
of a story of war.
VO: In the new code of laws,
I desire you would
remember the ladies and be mo
re generous and favorable
to them than your ancestors.
Do not put such unlimited power
into the hands of the husbands.
Remember, all men would be tyr
ants if they could.
BOTSTEIN: Women in war are
enormously brave,
enormously strong, enormously
important to the cause.
They made hundreds of shirts.
They publicized the actions
of their husbands.
They not only took care of ever
ybody, but they made
the revolution something people
wanted to be a part of,
and they participated in it in
many, many ways.
ANNETTE GORDON-REED: Crisis c
hanges people,
and it gave women different id
eas
about what they should be do
ing.
KATHLEEN DUVAL: Women were t
he main consumers
in colonial society, and they
were the ones
who made sure the boycotts w
orked.
Women stopped drinking tea.
Women started making their own
fabric.
Women started making toys for
their children.
And they didn't just stop buyi
ng British things
and start making their own thin
gs.
They publicized it.
TAYLOR: One of the key forms
of political theater
during the resistance movement
would be for a local minister
to invite the women of the co
mmunity to come down
to the church and to spend the
day spinning and weaving cloth.
And it would be a competition
to see which community
could produce the most homespun.
It would be published in the n
ewspaper.
And these women would be praised
as great American patriots
for having produced so much
homespun cloth.
BURNS: This is a story in which
women are a central part
of the resistance initially, an
d the revolution later.
SCHMIDT: We're going to be able
to hear a lot of their stories
because the war and the Revo
lution
impacted them personally and im
pacted millions of people
within the original 13 colon
ies and beyond.
It really was just a world-shat
tering event.
Hi, I'm
David
Hoffert, a
PBSWisconsin, interrupting this program very
brieflyto ask you to make
a pledgeof financial support to
PBSWisconsin to supportprograms
like this by calling
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we've seen this time and time again at
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So soit may it may surprise you
.It may not surprise you and
yet still surprise you whenI tell
you that it tookliterally ten
years to
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,you're only seeing clips ofit tonight
, but if you're amember
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Or you can also
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yed in living
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You can watch it all atonce
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Things like all the
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Do thatby calling
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know, there's several interviews out
at this point of K
enBurns and Sarah Botsteintalking
about the process of making this
documentary,and they often point out
how difficult it was to
doa documentary about theAmerican
Revolution forreasons that
we may notreally appreciate. Part of
it is that there's so much
national mythology tied up
in the story. We we allthink
we know about theAmerican Revolution
. Andhow do you how do
youchallenge some of thosepotential
misunderstandings in a way that
that thatpeople will appreciate?There's
also the fact thatthat there wasn't
photography back then, ? I mean, like
when Ithink of a Ken Burnsdocumentary
, I think ofthat kind of slow zoom
on aphotograph. Right. They
weren't able to do thathere. So
, I mean, there areso many
challenges uniqueto this story
that reallykind of had them push
, pushtheir own limits and theirown style
. But it was important. It was
importantto them to tell this
storyfor us to experience this
story. And they werewilling to do
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As we mentioned before,
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>> So I talked a bit
abouthow how hard it was
to tomake this documentary
andthe challenges theyencountered,
but it's also no coincidence that
theydid this project at thistime
. Right? This, thisthis
program premiered inthe lead
up to the 250thanniversary of the
signingof the Declaration ofIndependence
. That's that's not a
coincidence. There is
milestones like that makeus
wonder. They make usreconsider
, right? And someof us maybe
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, honest truth than
Ken Burns. And
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whenyou call 1-800-236-3636.
Now back to the program.
[Playing banjo]
♪
That's cool.
[Violins playing]
BOTSTEIN: One of the big elemen
ts in all of our films
is the music.
We set out to try and imag
ine
what was the sound of North Ame
rica.
So, there's obviously classical
and baroque influences.
There are folk and traditiona
l influences.
There are religious influenc
es.
There is the music that free an
d enslaved black people
were listening to.
There's the range of Native
American music and voices,
and how do we put that all tog
ether?
So, I grew up in Williamsbur
g, Virginia,
and I worked in Colonial Wil
liamsburg.
I'm really happy that I had
the opportunity to walk
and experience something that
came before that mattered.
I played the fife.
I walked in shoes with buckl
es.
I wore knee-length pants and st
ockings.
One song that you'll hear in
the film is a song called
"Over the Water to Charlie,"
which came right out of my fi
fes and drums sheet music.
We only have that song, I--I
realized later,
because one of the main char
acters in our film,
John Greenwood, had kept his sh
eet music from the war,
and it was transcribed from t
hat
by the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation.
And we got some of the profes
sional musicians
to re-record it for this film.
VO: I was so fond of hearing th
e fife and drum
played by the British, that s
omehow or another I got
an old split fife and fixed it
by puttying up the crack
to make it sound, and then le
arned to play several tunes.
I believe it was the sole cause
of all my travails
and disasters.
JOHNNY GANDELSMAN: I was thinki
ng maybe I--
I mean, we have the arrangement
from--from Mayna
for the quartet in--in F.
And I was thinking maybe if it
was you guys,
it might be nice in D? Man: Y
eah.
And like, how-- you know, what
kind of...
[Playing several notes]
[Snapping fingers and hummin
g]
We were extremely fortunate
to work with
a wonderful music producer,
Johnny Gandelsman,
who helped us corral and figure
out and curate
all the different musicians
and music that we recorded
for the series.
And then Rhiannon Giddens came
in and Yo-Yo Ma came in,
and a wonderful Tuscaroran wom
an,
Jennifer Kreisberg, came in.
Dave Cieri wrote some of the
most beautiful original music
for this series that he's ev
er done,
some of it really inspired by
Haydn, Handel, Bach,
and the classical harpsichord
music of the time
and some just the dissonant,
lonely, scary sounds of war.
And we made a soundtrack that
reflects the unique sounds
that were thriving in--in North
America in the 18th century.
BURNS: This is narration 6.094
take 1, when you're ready.
PETER COYOTE: When the time
came
to choose the first president
under the Constitution,
George Washington was the only
choice
and won the vote of every single
elector.
[Horse whinnies]
He was inaugurated in New York
City on April 30, 1789.
We have a cast of first-person
voices that bring to life
what the country sounded like
.
We read with Joe Keery, Josh H
utcherson,
Alden Ehrenreich...
Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Samuel
L. Jackson...
SAMUEL L. JACKSON: I need not
point out the absurdity
of your exertions for liberty
while you have slaves in you
r houses.
Sir Kenneth Branagh, Damian L
ewis, Paul Giamatti...
SCHMIDT: Morgan Freeman, Jon Pr
oudstar, Laura Linney.
To hear Maya Hawke read Bets
y Ambler's words
and to bring life to what we fo
und was incredibly gratifying.
BOTSTEIN: Thomas Paine is a grea
t voice throughout
the film, brilliantly read by
the unbelievably talented
Matthew Rhys.
Josh Brolin as George Washin
gton,
Jeff Daniels as Thomas Jeffers
on,
Liev Schreiber as Nathanael G
reene
has been one of the great pe
rformances
in any film I've worked on.
LIEV SCHREIBER: People comin
g from home
with all the tender feelings of
domestic life
are not sufficiently fortified
with natural courage
to stand the shocking scenes
of war.
BURNS: And what they do is the
y read off-camera these diaries,
these letters, these journals,
these military dispatches,
the newspaper reports, and al
l of a sudden you realize
they're real people,
they experience things the wa
y I do.
SCHMIDT: And we're just so lucky
that all these people
offered of themselves their ti
me and their experience,
their expertise, their skill
to tell our story, our history.
BOTSTEIN: They lent their craf
t. They got really into it.
They love bringing history to
life in this way,
and we're really lucky to have
worked with all of them.
[Gunfire]
ATKINSON: It's our creation my
th, our creation story.
It tells us who we are, wher
e we came from,
what our forbearers believed
and what they were willing to
die for.
That's the most profound quest
ion
any people can ask themselv
es.
[Shouting and gunfire]
BOTSTEIN: One of the best parts
of my job is to figure out
who the historians are who ha
ve spent their lives
studying this subject.
Who is a scholar of this peri
od in the war?
Who is a writer about this co
nflict, this battle?
[Gunfire]
We take that story of the Amer
ican Revolutionary War,
and we infuse it with interpret
ations
of those moments with leading
scholars on the subject.
We have about 2 dozen of the
m.
Many of them are on camera,
and they hold our feet to the fi
re the whole time.
They want to get it right, to
o.
FRIEDERIKE BAER: This inabil
ity to really figure out
who is the enemy here is a p
roblem.
They're marching through the co
untryside
and they don't know-- this f
arm--
is this farm--is this-- are
these loyalists?
Are there--are there rebels in
there?
Are you gonna shoot at us out
of the window?
Which does happen.
[Gunfire] Who do you trust?
BOTSTEIN: We spend a lot of time
thinking about those people
and going to meet them and ge
t to know them.
And then we build a board of a
dvisors.
Some of them are on camera,
some of them are behind the
camera, some of them do both.
And they're with us all the way
from the first drafts
of the scripts 'til the locked
shows are fact-checked.
There's not a objective tr
uth,
but there's lots of differen
t ways to see this.
And so what you want to do is
employ as many different
scholars and writers who know
about things--
military folks,
people who understand the Nati
ve American dimension.
What you do is, you aggregate
a number of people,
not saying that one particular
philosophy of history is right
or one particular view of his
tory
is the only way to see it.
You allow a story to have many
different perspectives.
TAYLOR: Throughout, it's ver
y visceral,
and I think the quotes were a
ll great.
I liked seeing the Aiken epis
ode,
but I think you want to reconsi
der sticking it
between Fort Washington and
Fort Lee falling.
KAMENSKY: I think it'll go w
ell in episode 1.
It's a breadcrumb for what you
do here.
BURNS: And there is a good re
ason, therefore, to use it,
but I thought, Maya, that we go
t to it
a little bit too soon.
CHRISTOPHER BROWN: Part of wha
t happens in the years before
the American War is that libertie
s are kind of broken out
of a national context.
These are not English libert
ies.
These are transcendent liberti
es.
These are liberties that all in
dividuals have
by the nature of being human.
One of the reasons that I lo
ve making films
for Public Television is that
the films live on
in the classroom.
PBS reaches every classroom in t
he country,
and we're privileged to meet
a lot of those history
and social studies and Englis
h classrooms.
To see somebody light up with
the fact that history
gives you a kind of sense of yo
u've just taken
a very powerful vitamin,
and it gives you a perspective
on this moment.
Film is a powerful teaching t
ool,
and I think every school kid
in America,
every high school kid, every
college kid,
every person who watches the fi
lm
can hopefully find some thing
in this history
that relates to them.
I don't know a greater teache
r than history.
It tells you where we've been
in order to figure out
where you are in order to know w
here you're going.
BURNS: Well, we're pretty much b
ooked up to the end
of the decade.
We're working on a massive seri
es
called "Emancipation to Exodus"
about Reconstruction,
the period after the Civil Wa
r,
one of the most misunderstood
periods in American history.
How people were self-emancip
ating,
the Emancipation Proclamation,
what it did with the 13th and
14th and 15th Amendment,
and then what the country did
struggling in the years afte
rwards to try to make good
on the promises of the Civil War
and then the aftermath.
The Exodus is, of course, the be
ginning of
the Great Migration of Afric
an-Americans
out of the South to enjoy, as
Richard Wright said,
"the warmth of other suns."
I'm serving as an Executive Pr
oducer on a film
that Lynn Novick is producing
and directing and writing
called "Crime and Punishmen
t;"
the history from the pillo
ries
and the shackles of our colo
nial period
up to the present day.
I'm serving also as an Execut
ive Producer on a film
about Henry David Thoreau.
Yes, that's how you say it--
Thoreau (Ther-ow)--
and his wonderful, prescient
years before his time,
decades before his time, unders
tanding of nature
and climate change, even, and-
-and all sorts of things.
And then, you know, we're al
ready thinking
in our head about different pr
ojects.
Sarah Botstein and I are also
working on a film, and we've
been working on it for years
about
"LBJ & the Great Society."
BOTSTEIN: I'm very fortunate
to be working on a film
with Ken and Lynn and Geoff Ward
again about LBJ.
I think the farther we get fr
om his presidency,
the more interesting it is to s
tudy.
And there are extraordinary
tapes, not just of his voice,
which I think many audiences
are used to hearing,
but Ladybird kept an audio di
ary, so you'll hear them
in conversation in the film.
And we're really excited about th
at show.
We're now going back.
We're just about to start up
interviews on that,
now that we see the light at t
he end
of the Revolutionary tunnel.
It's a few things.
TAYLOR: So, what's gonna come o
ut of this revolution
is attempts to create an Ame
rican national identity.
And somebody like George Washingt
on becomes quite
eloquent in trying to persuade
people.
"You're not Carolinians, you're
not New Yorkers,
you're not New Englanders. we
're all Americans."
[Horse whinnies]
BURNS: I love my country.
My favorite holiday is the Fo
urth of July, by far.
And every Fourth of July at the
lake, I get up,
and after a big meal, I make
everyone listen
as I read the Declaration of Ind
ependence out loud.
And my 4 daughters have had
to suffer through this
years and years and years.
I've been doing this for 50 y
ears, making films
about American history.
And I had the supreme pleasure
in this film to do a scene
on the Declaration of Indepe
ndence as full and as
complete and as, I think, as tri
umphant and joyful
and complicated as you could
possibly ever imagine.
BOTSTEIN: The 2 or 3 things
that I was surprised to learn
were so central to the histor
y are, one,
how unlikely it was that we
were gonna win.
[Gunfire]
And I think Washington knew,
as a great leader,
that he wasn't gonna win big;
he just couldn't lose.
North America sat on the glob
al stage at this time.
It really was a global war.
The prize of North America was
an important piece of a global
chess board that everybody wa
s looking toward
as these empires were shrink
ing and growing.
And so, the American Revolution
is much more than
13 colonies throwing off the
Crown and trying to figure out
and establish what the United
States might be.
SCHMIDT: The more you learn ab
out the people
of the revolutionary generation,
the more you read about them,
the more you know what they did
and what they saw
and what they felt,
the more you realize they're
people just like us.
And I think that demystification
actually makes me
love them all the more.
These are people, and they went
through an extraordinary time,
and we are the product of that,
we are that legacy.
I'm glad that we're gonna give
people the opportunity
to know more about them.
BURNS: We've tried really hard
as we lock the film
to make sure in that, "speak now
or forever hold your peace,"
that this is the right length
of a shot, that this is
the right music for a shot,
that this is the right
movement of the arrow on the
map of the shot, that we were
able to gather all this mate
rial and put it in service
of a complex narrative that I
think will be riveting
to Americans who are curious
about that simple question.
My question: Who are we?
But in this case, where did we
come from?
What is our moment of origin?
That's the whole thing.
I don't think you'll come away
from these 6 parts and 12 hours
without a sense of your own ow
nership of this story.
STEPHEN CONWAY: The American
Revolution changed the world.
It's not just about the birth
of the United States.
It has ramifications across the
globe.
[Gunfire]
So, studying The American Revo
lution, understanding it,
and putting it in a global co
ntext, I think, is vitally
important for us to understand
why we are where we are now.
Hi,
I'm David
Hoffert, a% volunteer
here at PBS% Wisconsin
, and I hope you
enjoyed that. Look into KenBurns
American Revolutionas much as I did
. And ifyou did, I hope
that youwill call and make a
pledgeof financial support at
1-800-236-3636 to give you
a little extra incentive.This is
a challenge breakwhen you
call during thisbreak,
your money will be
doubled by generous
contributions of folks whowho
want to encourage new
folks to step forward andjoin them
in this community .That makes possible
programs like the Ken
Burnsdocumentary that we wereseeing clips
from tonight. This is a challenging
timefor public media . You areprobably
aware that federalfunding
for public media was removed
this year, but the mission goes
on, and PBS Wisconsin is not
goinganywhere. If anything, our
resolve is stronger and it
relies all the more
onsupport from viewers likeyou. So give
us a callright now. We're going for
15 calls during this challenge. Drive
1-800-236-3636. >> And it
is a challengebreak.
So 15 calls . You can
help us make PBS Wisconsin
strong. When you make your
gift, you are supportingprograms
like the American Revolution
and other fantastic
shows aboutWisconsin,
like Michael was saying earlier.
So considermaking a gift and becoming
a sustainer. Tonight at the$20
a month level , we willgift
you with the American
Revolution six DVD set,
orthe book that really
takesan intimate look at thehistory
of the American Revolution. It's
again taking that magnifying
glass and really going intothe
depths and learning more about the American
Revolution. Maybe there wassomething you saw
tonightand you thought , I reallywould
like to know more about that. This book
iswhat you need at the
$25 amonth level , will gift you
both the book and the DVDset.
And when you gift us$100 a
month, when you become a sustainer at
thatlevel, we will give you the
entire eight series DVD
set,which includes the American
Revolution, the Civil War,baseball, National
Parks,and country music.
So giveus a call at
(800) 236-3636. >> Whether
you're a longtime member
of PBSWisconsin or
this may bethe f
irst time you'll be joining us in support
, thisis a good time to do it
.We're here. We havevolunteers standing by to
waiting to take your call.So
it would be a wonderfultime to show
your supportfor PBS Wisconsin.
And oneof the best ways to do
thatis by becoming a sustainer.I'm
a sustaining member of
PBS Wisconsin. All it meansis
I've made a sustained
commitment to PBS Wisconsin by giving
monthly. Thatallows me
to budget mygiving to PBS Wisconsin
. Ido the same thing for some
other organizations, too ,so it benefits
me, but it also benefits
PBS Wisconsin. There's less paperwork
ed. The flow of funds
is more consistent , and ata
time like this, consistent money flow
is animportant thing for all
public media. So do thinkabout becoming a sustain
ingmember . If you are
alreadya sustainer, you can talkto
your operator about that .They can look up
how muchyou're giving and you canincrease
your gift. Eitherway , call
(800) 236-3636. >> You know
, PBS iscertainly not the only
channel on your dial whereyou'll see
a history documentary. It is the
onlyplace you'll see one quitelike
this. And I have Ihave a quote
here from KenBurns. None of this happensanywhere
else but PBS .Nobody else
is going to give us ten
years to build a history of
the revolution. No one.
The willingness to dive deep into this
, to beable to excavate stories.
Ilove that excavate storiesto
depend and rely onscholarship. And
it's it's that dedication
to quality and
accuracy that setsapart
PBS documentaries, but
also that is so
essential to us,
to thepublic discourse, to our understanding of the
worldand of each other. And you
only get that on PBSprecisely
because only
PBSis funded by viewers likeyou
. You are the
largestsource of funding for PBSWisconsin,
not one of you,all of
you collectively.And so
if you are not yetpart of that
group, or asMichael was just saying, if
you are but you but youfeel a
call to increaseyour support now during
achallenge break when yourmoney is doubled
, is thetime to do that. So give
usa call 1-800-236-3636.
>> And we're so grateful
for you spending yourevening with us
andenjoying this fantastic KenBurns
documentary. We areable to continue
to bringyou programs like thisbecause
of viewers like you,and
your support makes allthe difference
. So whetheryou're giving at that
$5 amonth level , or you'regiving it
the $100 a month level, every gift
makes animpact and allows us
tocontinue forward . So maybe
tonight is the night thatyou
decide you're going to become a sustainer.
Whenyou make a gift as a
$20 amonth sustainer , we'll sendyou
that six disc DVD set
of the American Revolution.
Or again, if that book
isreally what's striking you,we
can send you the bookinstead.
At the $25 a month
level, you will get both.So
you can take that deeperdive.
Some of the maps thatwere designed for
thisdocumentary are included inthat book
. So there's so many
intricacies and thingsfor you to check out
as youexplore that book. It alsomakes
a great gift. So ifthe person you're
sittingnext to wants to enjoy itas
well, you can scan thatQR code and
make your giftnow so you can reach
us at (800) 236-3636.
>> And if you
call andsupport PBS Wisconsin at
one of our suggested levels,one
of the additional benefits you'll receive is
"Airwaves" magazine. Itwill come
to you once a month through the length
ofyour membership, and it'sreally
a very useful guideto what's
on PBS Wisconsin. There's the fundamental
schedule information for
PBS Wisconsin, theWisconsin
Channel, andcreate all
three broadcast services that
PBS Wisconsin offers.
But there's also information about
specialprograms during the month
,some behind the scenes
information, and other newsabout what's
going on at PBS Wisconsin.
It's a nice benefit of your
support, so consider that, too,
whenyou call and pledge yoursupport
to PBS Wisconsin airwaves.
Good thing. Evenbetter,
the great shows that you enjoy
throughoutthe year here on PBSWisconsin
. And there's a whole environment
ofdocumentaries. I mean, Ken
Burns is certainly an ant
part of that. Hisdocumentaries are
legendary, if you
will, in public television and in
television in general. Butthere's plenty of
otherdocumentaries to nationaland
importantly, localdocumentary
programs thatwe do
here at PBS Wisconsin.
All worth your support. All worth
a call now to
(800) 236-3636. >> And
there's also moreKen
Burns documentaries. Regina was
telling youabout that , the $100 amonth
level, I think it waswhere you get
all the theexisting ones or a large
number of them . But, youknow
, you heard Ken Burnstalk about the
next fourprojects he's working on.
You know, a normal personwould say
, well, my nextone project, he had
four,right? At least what
crimeand punishment in America,
emancipation to Exodus,
Henry David Thoreau,
LBJand the Great Society. I
mean, this man doesn't rest,
which is good because thatit
broadens our horizonsthat much more. And
my askof you is that
you getinspired by
Ken Burns's work ethic and say
, youknow what ? I can be a
partof that. I can call andmake
a pledge right now ,get it doubled
at 1-800-236-3636.
>> Thanks so much to
everyone who has contributed this
evening.We're so grateful to haveyou
here with us. Remember ,this is still a
challengebreak and we have fivecalls right
now. So help us cross that finish line and
ntinue giving us a call.
Your support just makessuch an
impact. We'll go through those thank you
gifts just one more time.At $20
a month, we'll sendyou the American
Revolutionsix set DVD, or
we can sendyou that
fantastic book, The Intimate History
of theAmerican Revolution . At
$25a month, we will send
youboth that DVD set and thebook
, and at 100 dollars a
month, you will get theentire
Ken Burns DVD collection that
includesthe American Revolution,
Civil War, Vietnam,baseball,
and the Roosevelts. So
visit us atPBS Wisconsin
, or give us acall at
(800) 236-3636. >> The
outpouring of support for
public media has been a
bright spot inthese
otherwise verychallenging times with
theloss of federal funding,but
it's also an opportunity for you
as anindividual and for thecommunity
as a whole, toshow your
support for PBSWisconsin. If
you're not amember , you can become
amember very easily tonightby
calling one of ourvolunteers or
going online at
pbswisconsin.org. Ifyou're a
sustaining member, you can increase
the amountof your monthly support for
PBS Wisconsin. Do that with
a volunteer operator, oryou
can again, can do thatonline,
or you can thinkabout becoming
a leadershipdonor, whatever. Make
it an important commitment to
PBSWisconsin at (800) 236-3636.[MUSIC]
♪
NARRATOR: Corporate funding
for the production of
"The American Revolution" was
provided by Bank of America,
with funding from The Better
Angels Society and its members.
And by the following...
By members of The Better Ang
els Society,
The Corporation for Public B
roadcasting,
and by Viewers Like You.
Thank you.
) ♪