The TV Zone

I do love blogs that spark debate (don’t you?) and one that's likely to do exactly that was posted yesterday on the web's best site for all things TV-related, Tvtattle.com. It was by the Wall Street Journal's Jeff Zaslow (in his "Moving On" column) who credited a university prof for blaming Fred Rogers as an instigator of the culture of narcissism. You know this culture - as exemplified by kids who carp about bad grades because Fred told them they were so "special" for so many years. The way this prof sees it is that FR told kids they were special, and that as a result, they figured everything they did was "special" too, and that they should have higher grades than the prof gave them. FR, in other words, made them feel TOO good about themselves.

The cad.

What's wrong with the argument? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. But before we pile on Fred – gone a few years now - maybe a little context would help to put this in perspective.

Why did Fred, an ordained minister, get into TV in the first place (he started in the early '50s, as a page at NBC, I believe, then later moved on to Canadian TV)? Because - in his indelible phrase - he "hated it so." Kids' TV by the mid-‘50s was as tsunami of commercialism, where the hosts were pitchmen and even the puppets were, too. Disneyfication was born as well, when ABC pumped millions into Disneyland so Walt could get the park off the ground, and - incidentally - a show to help sell it ("The Mickey Mouse Club"). Almost everything on kids' TV was geared to selling them something (from sugared cereals, first invented in the early ‘50s to take advantage of the new captive audience, to beanie caps) and all Fred said was – ENOUGH! Great Society-type reforms also begat "Sesame Street," which has the same sort of ethos as "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," but in some respects Fred Rogers - even more than Big Bird – was the reigning symbol of the anti-kids'-TV movement.

Why his catch phrase about them being so "special?" Because by the late '60s, divorce had surged, Vietnam had torn the country apart, "latchkey" became a key phrase, and - then - by the '70s and '80s, "self-actualization" had take full hold among many adults, and how, pray tell, could you "self-actualize" if kids where hanging onto you? Kids were thrown in front of the set - a deranged creepy commercialized place which still (nonetheless) had a few really good shows ("The Electric Company") and some really bizarre ones (anything by the Kroffts) and mostly flat-out violent/silly ones.

All poor dear Fred was effectively saying was this: Even though your parents are ignoring you, and the images you see on the TV could turn even a "normal" person into either a zombie or a maniac after prolonged exposure, "you are still special."

"I love you."

That was it. If that made these kids demand higher grades fifteen years later (even when they don’t necessarily deserve them) then perhaps that's the price to pay.

We still love you, Fred. And that big yellow thing, too.