A new biography on the life of Fred Rogers, titled “The Good Neighbor,” depicts the children’s television host being just as earnest and heartfelt as his on-air persona would have you believe. Within the new biography are details of a moment when Rogers was invited to collaborate with greeting card company Hallmark on the Christmas decorations in their flagship Manhattan store.
The tree Rogers chose was a three- or four-foot-high Norfolk Island Pine. In lieu of twinkling ornaments and tinsel, he advocated for a simple plaque that read “I like you just the way you are.”
“I love that old queen,” Ryan Landry, playwright, lyricist, actor and founder of the Gold Dust Orphans theatrical company, said of the late Rogers on Boston Public Radio on Tuesday. He continued, saying affectionately that “I think he was just a kook, a total nut job.”
“Seriously. And [he] just did good. I look at him now and think that was a great moment in television.”
