Use of Multiple Talents, Attention to Detail Key

Publication: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Author: Bill Steigerwald
Date: February 28, 2003

USE OF MULTIPLE TALENTS, ATTENTION TO DETAIL KEY
By Bill Steigerwald
TRIBUNE REVIEW

In 1993, when Fred Rogers was 64 and already had a sweater hanging in the Smithsonian, he took to the road to celebrate his 25-year run as the icon-in-residence of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Leaving the quiet slow-lane life he and wife Joanne were living in Pittsburgh, Rogers embarked on a high-profile cross-country media tour that included stops at the Disney Channel and “Arsenio!,” a late-night show he’d never seen before.

Back home, Rogers entertained a parade of journalists from around the world that trekked to WQED’s studios to interview him in his tiny, cluttered office. He’d greet each writer and make each one feel just as special as the last, answering their questions slowly and carefully, and usually asking as many questions as they did.

Rogers told the writers he didn’t hate the television medium, but he was critical of it, and he wished its famous hypnotic powers could be sued in better, less-crude ways. He not only said he had never watched a second of MTV, he admitted he watched virtually no television at all – not even the good stuff on PBS.

-- Read this complete article at triblive.com