Fred Rogers on Letterman, February 17, 1982 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Applause]
2. 0:00thank you very much for close to 20
3. 0:02years millions of Television viewers
4. 0:04have been visiting Mr Rogers
5. 0:05neighborhood is calm cool and flappable
6. 0:08demeanor is now legendary take a look at
7. 0:10this piece of
8. 0:12videotape see
9. 0:17that looks a little like a Tepe doesn't
10. 0:20it of course a teepe is a real home for
11. 0:23some people yeah
12. 0:32[Music]
13. 0:40how
14. 0:49Works pulling that right there it is
15. 0:57[Laughter]
16. 1:02helps to have two people to put these
17. 1:06[Applause]
18. 1:20[Music]
19. 1:22up
20. 1:24oh let try it once more
21. 1:38please welcome Fred
22. 1:51[Music]
23. 1:53Rogers thanks for you thank you this is
24. 1:56for me it's very nice of you this is Mr
25. 1:58Rogers t-shirt there's the
26. 2:03trolley very
27. 2:06nice thank you here's a sweater and
28. 2:08here's some shoes okay did you bring
29. 2:11some for everyone yes uh now that sort
30. 2:14of thing I I was surprised to see that
31. 2:16you that ever happens much of that go on
32. 2:18behind the scenes on your show goof UPS
33. 2:21sometimes things don't go right in the
34. 2:23neighborhood
35. 2:24[Laughter]
36. 2:26[Applause]
37. 2:32but I did get that thing up uhhuh oh
38. 2:34good good um you can see that some uh
39. 2:38but often things or not often but
40. 2:40occasionally things get a little goofy
41. 2:42yeah yes in that next program that
42. 2:44they're going to show on that blue for
43. 2:46business uh there's a chimpanzee that
44. 2:49gets out of hand uhhuh yeah uh
45. 2:54what what was uh you have provided hours
46. 2:57and hours of entertainment and education
47. 2:59for for young people what was your own
48. 3:01uh childhood like your early years like
49. 3:04I I was an only child until my sister
50. 3:07came when I was 11 years old M and I had
51. 3:10to make up a lot of my own play my own
52. 3:13friends and so I would dip into my bag
53. 3:16of puppets and make them
54. 3:19talk uh King Friday the 13th you know
55. 3:22speaks like this and Lady Elaine
56. 3:25Fairchild would be glad to be here did
57. 3:28uh did this bother mom and dad I mean I
58. 3:33mean you know that I would speak to
59. 3:35myself yeah you were sitting in the room
60. 3:37maybe talking to yourself that uh
61. 3:39happily it
62. 3:42didn't what is uh uh then you got into
63. 3:45television early didn't you after uh 30
64. 3:48years ago I came right here mhm to NBC
65. 3:51and was a floor manager right in these
66. 3:53Studios I remember the horn and hard art
67. 3:56Children's Hour in this studio it was
68. 3:59was
69. 4:01terrible people would bring their little
70. 4:03children and make them perform do you
71. 4:06remember no I don't remember that was it
72. 4:08a network show or a local show it was
73. 4:10local and they would just bring kids in
74. 4:11and let them yeah mhm any other shows
75. 4:14that you worked on that uh well the Hit
76. 4:16Parade up in
77. 4:188h and the NBC offera theater my degree
78. 4:22was in music you know I write all the
79. 4:24music for the program incidentally Paul
80. 4:26we don't have enough time for that song
81. 4:29that's what they told me told you not
82. 4:31enough time for the song okay well maybe
83. 4:32you can PA and get together after the
84. 4:36show I mean if you rehearsed it no sense
85. 4:39in wasting the song um now it's
86. 4:42interesting I believe you pointed out
87. 4:43the irony of the fact that in this
88. 4:45building now where you started out your
89. 4:46broadcasting career there is now a show
90. 4:48that occasionally has a performer doing
91. 4:50an impression or an imitation of you
92. 4:52that's right I just met him a little bit
93. 4:55ago do you think we could see that well
94. 4:57certainly Eddie Murphy
95. 5:01[Applause]
96. 5:11mhm that's uh Mr Rogers there in the uh
97. 5:16yeah on the left on the left yeah uh now
98. 5:20how do you react to that uh we talked to
99. 5:22Andy Rooney about someone doing an
100. 5:23impression of him and he didn't seem too
101. 5:25keen on it well some of them aren't very
102. 5:28funny but I think that that uh that a
103. 5:30lot of them are done with uh with real
104. 5:35kindness in their
105. 5:37hearts do you think that do you think
106. 5:42that's there is one person on radio that
107. 5:46really bothers me though I I've heard
108. 5:49it's somewhere in the in the mid South
109. 5:52and he tells children in my
110. 5:55voice to do such things as get their
111. 5:59mother's hairspray and their father's
112. 6:02cigarette lighter and put them
113. 6:06together and he thinks that he's talking
114. 6:09to adults but he's really talking with
115. 6:12children and I I think that could cause
116. 6:15a lot of fires yeah that
117. 6:17would well that's right you know it's
118. 6:21you're exactly right it would blow up
119. 6:23yeah it would burn and be highly
120. 6:25volatile you you have uh um I'm sorry
121. 6:28you're out here so late I would like to
122. 6:29ask you to come back and you have a show
123. 6:31coming up on PBS just briefly if you
124. 6:32want to mention the nature of the the
125. 6:34week on discipline and it's there's a
126. 6:37parent special on discipline and the
127. 6:39whole week of children's programs the
128. 6:42first week of March on discipline you
129. 6:44know discipline is caring just like love
130. 6:47is caring and they're both as important
131. 6:51as the other well I want to thank you
132. 6:52for being here and I hope you come back
133. 6:54in Fred Rogers Mr Rogers Mr Rogers
134. 6:58Neighborhood