On June 7, 1968, two days after an assassin’s bullet felled Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy, Fred Rogers, soft-spoken host of the children’s public television show “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” dedicates an episode to explaining the national tragedy to his young, largely pre-school audience. Kennedy’s shocking murder, at a California campaign event, came just two months after the killing of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a national trauma that prompted riots in more than 100 American cities.
With America’s political and social unrest intensifying—and media coverage high—Rogers worried about the impact on children, who see and hear much of what goes on, but are largely left out of “grown-up” conversations. An ordained minister with degrees in theology and child development, he worked throughout the night of June 6, writing a special episode to help address their questions and fears. The next day, the studio taped the 30-minute show to be played that evening for the benefit of parents.
In the episode, Rogers' voices the puppet Daniel Striped Tiger, who is speaking to Lady Aberlin about blowing up a balloon. During the conversation, Daniel asks Lady Aberlin, “What does assassination mean?”
Lady Aberlin responds, “Have you heard that word a lot today?”
Daniel responds, “Yes, and I didn’t know what it meant.”
“Well,” says Lady Aberlin, “It means somebody getting killed, in sort of a surprise way.”
Daniel responds, “That’s what happened, you know. That man killed the other man. Too many people are talking about it.”
The scene then changes to Mr. Rogers, who gently beseeches parents to protect their children.
“I plead for your protection and support of our young children. There is just so much that a very young child can take.”
When the episode aired, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” was just four months into what would become a decades-long tenure. In a Smithsonian magazine article, Rogers biographer Maxwell King reflected on what made the episode so unprecedented in the landscape of children’s television: “Rogers wasn’t just a soft-spoken newbie giving puppet shows for kids. He was a very serious thinker about the impact of media on children.”
The topic of what children saw on TV had been an on Rogers’ mind since he watched an episode of “The Three Stooges" in college, inspiring him to produce programming that didn’t showcase smashing pies in people’s faces.
Between February 1968 and August 2001, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” created and aired nearly 900 30-minute episodes and 17 different specials for young audiences.
Fred Rogers died in 2003 at the age of 74.
