My personal favorite piece of the story: Junod describes meeting Mr. Rogers in person for the first time, THE FIRST TIME I CALLED MISTER ROGERS on the telephone, I woke him up from his nap. Except for people who are on the new-age end of it. ", "Did your special friend have a name, Tom? TJ: I dont think he watched a lot of TV, but I think he was also against quick cuts. "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is more or less the story of how an Esquire article comes into being. Mister Rogers still has a ways to go.". ESQ: Now its landed at a point where I pray for my family, pray for anyone who needs it. I just try to ask for some sort of affirmation, you know? Architects are people who create big things from the little designs they draw on pieces of paper. And my essay from 1998 is the intro for that. You would think it would be easy by now, being Mister Rogers; you would think that one morning he would wake up and think, Okay, all I have to do is be nice for my allotted half hour today, and then I'll just take the rest of the day off.But no, Mister Rogers is a stubborn man, and so on the day I ask about the color of his sky, he has already gotten up at five-thirty, already prayed for those who have asked for his prayers, already read, already written, already swum, already weighed himself, already sent out cards for the birthdays he never forgets, already called any number of people who depend on him for comfort, already cried when he read the letter of a mother whose child was buried with a picture of Mister Rogers in his casket, already played for twenty minutes with an autistic boy who has come, with his father, all the way from Boise, Idaho, to meet him. Yes, sure, he was taping, and right there, in Penn Station in New York City, were rings of other children wiggling in wait for him, but right now his patient gray eyes were fixed on the little boy with the big sword, and so he stayed there, on one knee, until the little boy's eyes finally focused on Mister Rogers, and he said, "It's not a sword; it's a death ray." I grew up Roman Catholic. Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers, the minister who became a children's TV host then beacon of hope for a struggling society, and also the person who saves Lloyd. That temptation is really large because its so easy. Can I take your picture, Tom? he asked. That's what Mister Rogers said, that's what he wrote down, once upon a time, for the doctors. She spent much of her time tending to the sick and the dying. 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He had already won his third Daytime Emmy, and now he went onstage to accept Emmy's Lifetime Achievement Award, and there, in front of all the soap-opera stars and talk-show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, "All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. "I imagine they're blue.". Greek philosophy called for esquire magazine article about mr rogers? And yet, here I am. He wears an undershirt, of course, but no mattersoon that's gone, too, as is the belt, as are the beige trousers, until his undershorts stand as the last impediment to his nakedness. I just wanted to let him know that he was strong on the inside, too. "Oh, Mister Rogers, you're the father I never had." One hundred and forty-three. ESQ: One thing I was really interested in how in the The Atlantic piece, you spell out masculinity as defined by your father. TJ: You can get into all sorts of weird head-trips about prayer and its purpose. He prayed for Old Rabbit's safe return, and when, hours later, his mother and father came home with the filthy, precious strip of rabbity roadkill, he learned not only that prayers are sometimes answered but also the kind of severe effort they entail, the kind of endless frantic summoning. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is based on the real-life story of journalist Tom Junod and an article he wrote for Esquire magazine profiling Fred Rogers. Then, with his hand still over hers and his eyes looking straight into hers, he said, "Deb, do you know what a great prayer you are? Junod's on-screen identity, Lloyd Vogel, is also a major player in connecting the audience to Mister Rogers and the film. ", The walls of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are light blue and fleeced with clouds. Did you have a special friend like that, Tom? TJ: I mean, I never . Or do you take elements of what you see of the best men in your life, and try and put it together into one person? I am ashamed to say it, but I was too cool at the time for Mr. Rogers. Today marks the 10th anniversary of his death. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (opens Nov. 22) tells the story of one writer's experience profiling Fred Rogers, otherwise known as Mister Rogers, the host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.While the film does look at the burgeoning friendship between Rogers (Tom Hanks) and writer Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), it focuses primarily on Vogel's personal life and how much it has been . And then he was on the move again, happily, quickly, for he would not leave until he showed me all the places of all those who'd loved him into being. "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is loosely based on the 1998 Esquire profile of the beloved TV host. Would you do something for me?" esquire article. Once upon a time, Mister Rogers went to New York City and got caught in the rain. Tom Hanks-starring Mister Rogers movie 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' is loosely based off of the 'Esquire' profile Tom Junod, known as Lloyd Vogel in the film, wrote about Fred Rogers, and . It's interesting because the journalist, named Lloyd Vogel in the movie, is introduced as a harsh cynic who's notorious for shredding the character of the people he writes about. Matthew Rhys' character, the cynical Lloyd Vogel, is only loosely inspired by real-life journalist Tom Junod, hence the name change. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. he asked Bill Isler, president of Family Communications, the company that produces Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Did you have a special friend like that, Tom?, Did your special friend have a name, Tom?, Yes, Mister Rogers. And so, once upon a time, Fred Rogers took off his jacket and put on a sweater his mother had made him, a cardigan with a zipper. Once upon a time, you see, I lost something, and prayed to get it back, but when I lost it the second time, I didn't, and now this was it, the missing word, the unuttered promise, the prayer I'd been waiting to say a very long time. She was very pretty. It's this faithfulness to the essence of Junod's story that makes A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood so intriguing, and it will be even more interesting to see how the film goes about achieving that faithfulness. Rogers as a peasant to explaining the world to remove son. He didn't have an umbrella, and he couldn't find a taxi, either, so he ducked with a friend into the subway and got on one of the trains. Based on the 1998 Esquire article, "Can You SayHero?" by award-winning journalist Tom Junod, the movie illustrates how, during the process of interviewing Mr. Rogers for a "puff piece," the writer (re-named in the movie as Lloyd Vogel, and played by Matthew Rhys) undergoes a personal transformation. He has spent thirty-one years imagining and reimagining those wallsthe walls that have both penned him in and set him free. Once upon a time, a long time ago, a man took off his jacket and put on a sweater. It was so old, in fact, that it was really an unstuffed animal; so old that even back then, with the little boy's brain still nice and fresh, he had no memory of it as "Young Rabbit," or even "Rabbit"; so old that Old Rabbit was barely a rabbit at all but rather a greasy hunk of skin without eyes and ears, with a single red stitch where its tongue used to be. TJ: Well, I think its always changed, just like yours that way. Here's what readers learned about Mister Rogers when the piece debuted. . He finds me, because that's what Mister Rogers doeshe looks, and then he finds. She worked very hard at writing the chapter, until one day she showed what she had written to Mister Rogers, who read it and crossed it all out and wrote a sentence addressed directly to the doctors who would be reading it: "You were a child once, too.". Cerebral palsy is something that happens to the brain. The film's protagonist is journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a cynic who is assigned by his editors at Esquire to write a profile on Rogers. Appearance, presentation, looks. If this brutal, extended winter has you feeling down and cranky I suggest you give it a read. Except that Mister Rogers wasn't going anywhere. Let's change it to 'bring the dog home.'" And then my editor, Denise Wills said, Could you try to think of an answer to that question? And I thought about it, then I had to read the story again for the audiobook of this collection of Freds writings and sayings. He writes all his own scripts, but on this day, when he receives a visit from Mrs. McFeely and a springer spaniel, she says that she has to bring the dog "back to his owner," and Mister Rogers makes a face. He allowed me to choose between two visions of manhood, a choice I suspect Ill have to continue making for the rest of my life, which is why Im writing my book and which is why I asked the producers of the movie to change the names.". I mean, to be honest with you, Ive been going and going in front of a crowd [suddenly, a lightbulb in Junods eyeview explodes in flames] Woah! And a lot of times conversations go to places that I dont expect them to go. It had more to do with his relationship to his own father, which was a focal point for the film. She was 92. In your eyes, whats the reason for the lack of action? He clearly wanted me to pray. "I'm done. In 1998, Rogers strikes a friendship with Lloyd Vogel, a self-absorbed, embittered journalist who is assigned to interview him for the magazine Esquire. Advertisement His editor at Esquire asked him to profile Fred Rogers, the beloved television personality and Presbyterian minister. Koko watches Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and when Mister Rogers, in his sweater and sneakers, entered the place where she lives, Koko immediately folded him in her long, black arms, as though he were a child, and then "She took my shoes off, Tom," Mister Rogers said. ", Then he turns back to the little girl. He was sitting on a couch, under a framed rendering of the Greek word for grace and a biblical phrase written in Hebrew that means "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." His name was Fred Rogers. Maybe it was something he needed to hear. He is not speaking of the little girl. The doors were open, unlocked, because the house was undergoing a renovation of some kind, but the owners were away, and Mister Rogers's boyhood home was empty of everyone but workmen. When tasked with profiling the well-acclaimed Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks), Vogel is unwilling to do so as it is a change from his typical exposs. Id like to take your picture. The place was drab and dim, with the smell of stalled air and a stain of daguerreotype sunlight on its closed, slatted blinds, and Mister Rogers looked so at home in its gloomy familiarity that I thought he was going to fall back asleep when suddenly the phone rang, startling him. Mister Rogers recorded 20 episodes of a show aimed at adults titled "Old Friends . "It's not a performance. The first time I met Mister Rogers, he told me a story of how deeply his simple gestures had been felt, and received. . But at the same time, we dont know what to do with the lessons that Mister Rogers gave us. Oh, honey, Mommy knew you could do it.And so now, encouraged, Mommy said, "Do you want to give Mister Rogers a hug, honey?" 2:27. You were a child once, too. Over the course of two hours, we see Fred Rogers movingly model a type of humanity for Vogel, who seems mired in anger, disconnected from his own feelings. I mean, Fred wasnt just a reformer when it comes in terms of message. Tom Junod's "Can You Say . Heaven is the place where good people go when they die, but this man, Fred Rogers, didn't want to go to heaven; he wanted to live in heaven, here, now, in this world, and so one day, when he was talking about all the people he had loved in this life, he looked at me and said, "The connections we make in the course of a lifemaybe that's what heaven is, Tom. I said, 'Do you know that you're strong on the inside, too?' Fred" But Mister Rogers was out of the car, with his camera in his hand and his legs moving so fast that the material of his gray suit pants furled and unfurled around both of his skinny legs, like flags exploding in a breeze. David Murdock is an English instructor at Gadsden State Community College. He is losing to it, to our twenty-four-hour-a-day pie fight, to the dizzying cut and the disorienting edit, to the message of fragmentation, to the flicker and pulse and shudder and strobe, to the constant, hivey drone of the electrocultureand yet still he fights, deathly afraid that the medium he chose is consuming the very things he tried to protect: childhood and silence. A woman was with him, sitting in a big chair. Here are 20 of my favorites. Then he looked at me and smiled. I sat in an old armchair and looked around. 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