I moved to Pittsburgh for school, and became interested in the 'mythology' that had grown up around Fred Rogers. In particular, there's an anecdote that gets sh

I moved to Pittsburgh for school, and became interested in the 'mythology' that had grown up around Fred Rogers. In particular, there's an anecdote that gets shared around that his car once got stolen, but it ended up parked back in the spot a few days later with a note on the dash that said "If I'd known whose it was, I wouldn't have taken it!" As best I can tell, that one's just an urban legend. But what I discovered most surprisingly poring over the newspaper clippings and books is that almost everything else I'd heard isn't. Of every childhood hero I had, Fred Rogers is the only one who turned out to be exactly who that child thought he was. And more than that: his work was driven from both his education in theology as a Presbyterian minister and his tutelage under Dr. Margaret McFarland, child psychologist and associate professor at University of Pittsburgh. His show's content and structure was grounded in those philosophical and scientific foundations. My favorite anecdote I can source (http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/misc/mr_rodney/index.html http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/misc/mr_rodney/index.html): Burger King ran an ad campaign for a bit in '84 that featured a 'Mr Rodney' parody taking shots at McDonald's for inferior quality. Fred Rogers contacted Burger King's SVP, Don Dempsey, and simply asked the ad be pulled, because he was concerned it'd be confusing to children. BK yanked the ad. As news sources quoted Mr. Dempsey, "Mister Rogers is one guy you don't want to mess with."