For 40 years, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” has been a place to sing and pretend and make sense of things. The host, Fred Rogers, zips up his cardigan at the start of each episode and asks: “Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Generations of children said yes, spending unhurried afternoons with Mister Rogers, who died in 2003 but whose shows continue in reruns. He worked simply, using a set and props that can look out dated next to current children’s shows. And he spoke simply, looking straight into the camera and reminding his little viewers that he liked them just the way they were.

“In a way, you might have thought it was coming just to you,” said David Newell , the man who portrayed the speedy delivery man Mr. McFeely  in more than 500 episodes. “And it was.”

So it was sad news for those little-viewers-all-grown-up when the show was pulled from regular rotation at most public television stations at the beginning of September because of sagging ratings. (Blue Ridge PBS continues to run  “Mister Rogers” four times a week  and will do so for the foreseeable future, the station said.)

One unhappy father from South Carolina created a Web site, savemisterrogers.com, praising the “timeless, nurturing messages” that Mister Rogers delivered.

And although Mister Rogers is disappearing from TV screens, Newell is still making the rounds. The delivery man will appear, in blue cap and uniform, at the Salem Civic Center on Sunday afternoon for the Blue Ridge PBS KidsFest. He joins several other public television characters, including Elmo, Curious George and Clifford at the free community party.

In advance of his arrival, the 68-year-old Newell, who works in public relations for Rogers’ production company, Family Communications , took a phone call to talk about his friend, the McFeely name and the show’s popularity with an unexpected demographic.

Q: How would you describe the tone — magic might be a better word — of the neighborhood?

A: There’s a gentle tone to it, but underneath that gentleness there’s a very supportive tone, too.

[Fred Rogers] wanted to introduce children to the potpourri of the world.  There are so many things you can do. And here’s television, this vehicle that’s being used to sell corn flakes. He wanted to take it and use it in a very constructive, positive way to help families with young children.

The pace set the tone, too. Child development experts will tell you, it’s the pace of what you’re saying to a young child that’s important. Fred would ask a question not expecting an answer, a rhetorical question: “Do you like this boat?” He’d pause and wait.

Fred wanted to give them a chance to reflect on what was said. Don’t just keep rushing it one thing on top of another.

When you’re designing a television program for adults, you make it move. People want things to move and they don’t want to listen too much. Fred wanted to challenge the attention span of a young child.


Q: Do you see that in children’s shows now?

A: Not as much. The children’s shows on public television have become more animation and not as much live-action.

For an older child, “Arthur” is a good program. They take a topic and look into it.

“Sesame [Street]” does a good job. Over the years, they’ve slowed down and made their segments longer. They’re not as jump-cut as they used to be. I think their research showed that children learn when things are more linear.

For the most part, anything on public television for children is a good program.

“Blue’s Clues” had a tone of Fred. In fact, the creator of “Blue’s Clues” grew up with the program, with “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”


Q: How did Mr. McFeely get his name?

A: Fred wrote his own scripts, and in the scripts he always would thank people in some way.

And he thanked the Sears-Roebuck Foundation [who underwrote the program for more than 20 years] by calling the delivery man — whose name is now Mr. McFeely — Mr. McCurdy . Because that was the name of the president of the Sears-Roebuck Foundation.

On the day we started taping the first chunk of programs, the phone rang. They asked for Fred. We were in the studio already, and it was the president of Sears.

And he said: “We love the scripts, we’ve read everything over. I’ve just been thinking about it and don’t call the delivery man Mr. McCurdy. It just seems too self-serving.”

So Fred literally turned to me and said, “We start in 20 minutes. We’ve got to get you a name.” There was about a 10-second beat in between. He said, “I know. McCurdy. McFeely.”

Because that’s his middle name: Fred McFeely Rogers.

 
Q: I get the feeling that Mister Rogers was the same,  on air or off. Did you see Mr. McFeely as a role or as an extension of Mister Rogers, or was it your own personality?

A: You hit on a combination of everything.

It was an extension of my own personality. Fred, as I said, wrote the scripts and he would take elements of what he knew the cast members were like and work it in the script.

He knew I loved film and theater, and that’s in fact how some of those “How People Make Things” began. He would come over to Mr. McFeely’s house and I would show him on my projector a film or maybe my trip to something.

And I speak quickly. I remember when he interviewed me, he said, “You speak very fast and that’s what Mr. McFeely should be like. He should be always in a hurry.” And it gave Fred a reason to encourage children to slow down.

He’d say, “Mr. McFeely, you’ve got to take your time. Come in and sit down for a while. Do some sitting-still exercises.” He would use it as a teaching vehicle.

There’s a musical term, “contrapuntal ,” where a fast piece of music goes up against a slow piece of music. I liken that to Fred and McFeely. Fred was always in control and McFeely was always frantic.


Q: Do former viewers react strongly to meeting Mr. McFeely?

A: Oh, they do, they do.

It’s not just me, but I’m part of something they grew up with.

Last weekend at an event, there was a woman who said, “I’m tearing up. This has meant so much to me, this program.” And meeting McFeely was her childhood being relived. 

Ironically, it’s a positive thing that they get excited and tear up. It meant she had a great childhood if she can get misty-eyed at meeting Mr. McFeely. And it happens over and over.

Everywhere there’s a high Hispanic population — New York City, L.A., Albuquerque, Dallas — invariably we get someone who says, “the program taught me how to speak English.”

[Mister Rogers] speaks slow, clear and precise English. And he looks right at the camera.