“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” June 29, 2018, theater. Fred Rogers and his neighborhood are the subject of this loving study of Mr. Rogers. I am probably the only person in America who never watched his show as an adult with a child. The closest I came was Eddy Murphy’s brilliant ghetto satire of the show. Our daughter did not really like TV very much, and was much more a Barney/Arthur kid, so for me this was a fascinating exploration of a cultural icon. A Presbyterian minister whose chosen ministry medium was TV, Rogers was devoted to connecting with children where they were. He acknowledged them as complex beings in need of a safe space where they could be themselves and not be talked down to. He listened and spoke with them, not just to or at them. He was the former rich fat kid who was bullied as a child. He tackled issues of race, assassination, fear, war, bullying, disability and much more. He was appalled at the violence that suffused almost all of children’s programming. He was a man limited by his time and background as his refusal to support a gay cast member coming out showed, while at the same time being very clear of his love for this man who, in turn, declares that “Fred was the father I never had.” A life-long Republican (only said once but it burned my ears), he warned against American and personal isolationism from day 1 with his presentation of King Friday XIII and his wall to exclude undesirables that was featured and mocked when the show started in 1968. His son has every reason to feel it was hard to be the child of the second coming of Jesus, but the world is undoubtedly a better place for Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood coming into homes across the land. Even those of us from loving homes might do with a bit more of the feeling that we are fine and loved as we are.