Bonus video! When Mr. Rogers went to court to save the VCR
Hello there!
For this week's bonus video, we're plucking Fred Rogers out of his neighborhood and sending him to Washington to scold a senator about giving PBS more money. But wait, there's more! Years later, Fred returns -- this time, to court, where he testifies in favor of our very good friend, the Video Cassette Recorder, boldly defying Mickey Mouse and the Universal monsters.
And just in case you'd like to do some extra reading, here's the Supreme Court transcript on the Mr. Rogers/VCR case: https://www.supremecourt.gov/pdfs/transcripts/1982/81-1687_01-18-1983.pdf
And here's the SCOTUS ruling: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep464/usrep464417/usrep464417.pdf
Bonus video! How Mr. Rogers helped legalize the VCR (YouTube)
Comments (6)
Whatever exists will be at the National Archives in Riverside or San Bruno. However, if it's anything like the 7th circuit, the index that tells you what boxes you need from national archives is in is going to be in a literal card catalog at either the original district court or the court of appeals.
Whew. The more time I spend in archives, the more I realize how under-resourced they are for making their holdings easier to find. I don't think people realize just how superhuman librarians and archivists have to be in order to do their jobs!
Imagine watxhing Fred scold tp. Fred is to people as is the MCU Captain America.
Not many people know that Fred Rogers got his T.V. start in my hometown of Toronto, Canada. Shortly after finishing his seminary degree, he did some graduate work in Child Development and then was hired by the Canadian Broadcast Company (which is basically our version of PBS). It was in Toronto where Fred was on camera for the first time, on a self-titled 15 minute CBC children's program, that ran from 1963-1967. Everything that he would take to his Mr Roger's Neighborhood show, first got its start here. To his great credit, he also launched the career of another transplanted American, Ernie Coombs, who would later start his own Canadian Children's program "Mr Dressup", after Fred returned to Pittsburgh. Mr Dessup is absolutely iconic here, every bit as indelible to 70s, 80s and 90s Canadian kids as Mr. Rogers is to American ones, and it still runs in syndication to this day. If anyone want to learn more about Fred, I would suggest checking out the 2018 documentary "Won't you be my neighbor", and if you want to know about Ernie, check out the 2023 doc "Mr Dressup: the Magic of Make Believe". They are both fascinating docs about two men who devoted their lives to teaching whole generations of children about respect, kindness and dignity. What a legacy they've both left behind....
Ooh thank you for that recommendation, I haven't seen either doc yet!
Fred Rogers wasn't a perfect man, but I think he might be the closest anyone has gotten.