iTunes Exclusive Episode Wont You Be My Neighbor

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Attempts exclusive.
This is number 3809ish, 388, it's 388, I think, yes, we're just going to roll with
it, 388, that's what we do.
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse Podcast, and can you say
podcast?
I knew that you could, but I'm not alone for this particular episode as I rarely am.
Back in the co-host chair is my co-host, and a man that always believes it's a beautiful
day to be a neighbor.
He is Chad, welcome sir.
Yeah, I had to swap out the old jacket for the cardigan as soon as I walked in, so I'm
all comfy cozy.
In the middle of June?
Well, you know, it worked for somebody, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
I think he had better air conditioning than we do, because I am.
Next to him is the official fact checker of this show, and a man who owns a trolley.
It may be a matchbox trolley, but it's still a trolley.
You may know him as fondongo, but his mom and name him Don Ford, I'm going to call him
Don Ford.
Welcome, sir.
I saw the trolley, or one of them.
I know you did.
It's Pittsburgh, the airport.
That's right, because they have a little thing for going to talk to them, that's how
they go.
It's in Terminal C.
Well, let's get into it.
Whatever we do, one of these things, it is to review something, and this is no different.
It's time for us to talk about one of the most anticipated documentaries of the year.
It's time to talk Morgan Neville's Won't You Be My Neighbor.
Forgot to solve it?
Yes, sir.
Well, first off, we saw this at the diff.
You and I did.
Yeah, but we got the invite also from Julian, our great-prince at SiFox, ZeeMini, ZeeMini,
We love our vendors so much, because they give us the opportunity to see films in advance
so we can talk to you guys about them, and you can make the best possible decisions for
your entertainment dollars.
You may have figured it out by now, but this is a documentary about the great Fred Rodgers,
the man who is the namesake for Mr. Rodgers' neighborhood.
Again, this runs just normal hour 34, that's standard for your average documentary.
Let's just dive right in.
I love this movie so much.
Absolutely.
Like, oh, if you are between the ages of 8 and 80, you know who this man is, and if
you've ever owned a television, there is a greater than zero chance.
I would say on about a, I would say 89 to 90 percent chance, Fred Rodgers has impacted
your life in one way or another.
Growing up, we didn't have cable.
I didn't have cable until I was probably almost in middle school.
Because we weren't, I mean, rich kids had cable back in the day.
Well, now you took it's time to go out to the subs, too, so.
Not for us.
It was out there, but you had to be rich.
I mean, you were educated with an oil change now, but.
So you were stuck with the rabbit ears, the UHS dial and the VHF dial.
But one thing, it was always odd to me because there were always two channels that always
came in clear as a bell.
The Spanish channel and PBS, I don't know what they did differently than everybody else.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
No matter, I, and I thought maybe this was just strictly to me living in South Florida.
No, sir.
This is a universal truth.
The same thing for you.
PBS and the Spanish channel, like you could take out the antenna and give it to your
neighbor.
And those two channels always saving theirs about Montana, we're still trying to get TVs.
The point of express is just, yeah, like you put it, they can't put the TV boxes on
the horses.
Yeah, you put a paper clip on top of your TV, you get the Spanish channel, yeah, and
PBS.
Electricity up there, so I mean, but PBS for me as a kid, there was great stuff on
there.
Absolutely.
That's where I lived.
It had Sesame Street from when you were little and then you graduated to the, I'm not
there yet.
I'm not there yet.
It's singing to song.
I'm getting there.
Let me let me let me.
If that's what you call that, and then you graduated to the electric company and from
there, you graduated to three to one contact, which I never really gave it.
I love it.
I never really contacted.
And even, like, my mom even had me watching things like Nova, oh, yeah, you know, things
I, my mom actually had a subscriptions in Nova magazine, and so we would read those.
No, it's too complicated for me.
But it was always like no matter how old I got, there was always something there.
But Mr. Roger's neighborhood was always a constant.
Like you never felt embarrassed to say you watched Mr. Roger's neighborhood.
You were just like, I mean, you wore it like a badge, yeah, I watched it today, and nobody
gave you any groups.
Like, that's a kid show.
No, because there were such universal themes in it.
And seeing this documentary really brought home for me.
Some of the things that looking back, I was like, wow, he was really fearless.
He was fearless, but he didn't approach certain subjects in a way that was in your face.
No, he was very subtle about it.
And this is done shown through archive footage, of course, because he's no longer with us.
Interviews with amazing archival footage at that.
Interviews with his wife and his sons and other people that were around him, including
the guy that is the curator of his museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as Don said.
Got to go to that place, man.
I, you know, I talked, I saw somebody recently that was there at Instagram, and I can't
remember who it was, but it's just, it's the house that he lived in is now a museum.
Yeah, he's rocking like an enamel pin of the trolley on his sweater.
And it tells his story, even though it's kind of told in stages, there's still a linear
to it.
So it's like, okay, for you to understand this, this is what you need to understand about
who he was.
He was set to go to seminary, and was like, no, I want to do this TV thing.
This looks kind of cool.
I mean, to the point where he literally is the reason that PBS didn't die on the vine,
and they go into that in this.
One of the things that I found most fascinating, and they addressed this in the trailer, so
this really isn't a spoiler.
But you see it, a scene in the trailer where the kitty, because he did all the puppets,
all the voices of the puppets.
He did everything.
I didn't know that.
That's one thing I did.
And he says the words, what does assassination mean?
That, that episode aired the day after Bobby Kennedy was shot.
And then cut to the guy that secured the museum, and he goes, and just to put that in
perspective, that was our first week on the air.
Like, they tackled the Vietnam War and Bobby Kennedy's assassination, like, you know,
just within days of each other, it's here.
And when you watch it, even as an adult, and you're like, wow, like, he approaches it
in a way that doesn't pander to his audience, but doesn't try to overshoot them either,
which I thought was really looking back now, and you're like, whoa, that's what he was
doing.
Exactly.
That's why I've got such incredible, always have had such incredible respect for that man.
And then he still went back to the seminary and became a minister, which then enhanced
what he was doing on air.
The way that the way that children's television worked in our generation growing up as children
in its infancy, and in our infancy, being talked to like you were a human being, being
talked to with dignity, that they didn't talk down to kids, that didn't treat them like
little idiots, looking at you, teletubbies, but they talked to them just like you would
have a conversation with your average person.
And rather than dumbing your own conversation down, he always elevated them to his level
of conversation, hence making them better people, better communicators, and that's what
his goal was, just to open up this line of communication between adult and children
just to know that they are respected.
It's amazing to me what that guy did.
It's absolutely stunning to me.
And this, it's honest, I ran the entire emotional gambit in an hour and 35 minutes.
There were moments, and Donald was actually sitting right in front of me when we saw it
at the Dallas International Film Festival.
There were moments where I was laughing out loud.
There were moments where I was just in silent, just stunned.
There were moments where I was, there was tears forming in my eyes, and I get a little choked
up just thinking about some of this stuff from this, as it pertained to my childhood.
This, there's only really to me one word that you can use to describe this film overall,
and it's respectful.
Don, you're off quite over there.
One thing, a fact check, the museum is not actually at his house.
Oh, is it not?
No, no.
Okay, I thought it was.
There's a Fred Rogers Center where they have all the exhibits and stuff like that.
Oh, okay.
But I want to say that.
I thought his house was, was part of something like it was, they'd make it and they made
it a landmark.
They made it a landmark.
Yeah, I think his wife, his wife is still living there.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Here's the thing to the empire, and I kind of put this in my written review at www.cubaspodcast.com.
That's our website.
Me with the history with the Burg is no secret.
I was waiting for this angle.
And where I got my first tattoo in Bridgeville is about a mile away from where his studio
was.
Oh, wow.
He says that in his review.
And about two, three miles from my dad's old house is where Mr. Rogers lived.
Oh, my God.
So I drove him by his house where he lived.
And here's the thing about Mr. Rogers.
One of the, you can look at the famous people from Pittsburgh of Bradshaw to Warhol to
the list.
We'll go down and down.
But if there's ever like a top one or two, because this man has their respect beyond belief
is Mr. Rogers.
Yeah, I would.
Absolutely.
That would take me.
This guy literally, and it talks about the funding and trying to get the show going
through the PBS and stuff and going in front of Congress.
And you saw the side of Mr. Rogers saying, I don't take any, don't go too deep because
he won't be able to actually see it.
Yeah, it happens.
But it shows his side where he will stand up for stuff and he's always sweet on the
air.
But there's those times where he needs to have a backbone.
He'll have it when it was needed, but he, he made probably millions over the decades
in this thing.
Oh, no doubt.
His house is probably, would be a $200,000 house in Dallas.
If that.
He was very, very in a neighborhood.
That was his house.
He wouldn't even know.
It's like any other house in the neighborhood.
The guy had enough for comfortable living, but gave so much a way to charity.
And like I said, and just the way he talked to his audience and one of the things they
addressed is, you know, it was the late 60s at the height of the Civil War movement or
the Civil Rights Movement.
And then he addressed racism in a very, very amazing way.
It was so subtle.
But I went, wow, like, and again, it wasn't in a way that was like, he wasn't in anybody's
face.
He didn't get preachy.
It was a very simple situation where he just showed, hey, I can sit with somebody who's
different than me and nothing changes.
And that was one of the most poignant moments of this film for me, especially with the context
of the set of that moment.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I heard gasps all through the crowd of what that actually happened.
And then the bomb that he applies to that situation is nothing short of staggering to me.
And the brilliance of that moment for me was, if you didn't know, that was what he was
responding to.
It was just another moment in the show, but it just kind of went to have the detail behind
it.
You went, wow.
Are you talking to me?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Don't say nothing.
Yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And it wasn't like he did that with, like, he talked about, he addressed, addressing
the Vietnam War.
The way he addressed it on the show, he didn't have to say the name Vietnam at all.
He was teaching a simple lesson about differences with people and how it can be misinterpreted
and taken too far.
And it just, you're just like, wow, and as a kid watching, you're like, wow, what's
up with King Friday?
What got up his, what be called up his body?
You're like, oh, the beauty of this film.
And let me, I kind of got something in my mind on this.
Please do.
Please do.
Please do.
Is it shows a lot of stuff that you would never think of in why he did it and why he was
such a genius?
Like one was silence.
Mm-hmm.
Silence.
He was really thinking back, now he went to tell a tubbies and all that, they have to have
the music and all that.
Music and color and lights and all that, just silence and reasons why he did certain things
on the show.
And here's the thing that it shows a greater insight into him and to the cast and to the
show.
Reasons why stuff was done and you look back and you see those reasons and why stuff was
done.
You realize how much of a genius this man is?
Plus also how much he really cared because there was a point where he says, I can't do
any more, takes a break in those he has to come back.
The best example is after 9-11.
Oh God.
You know, he said, I have to get back.
Yeah.
I have to talk to these kids.
It wasn't because, oh, I want to make a few more bucks or whatever, because he is
he cared for every child.
And if there's one person, I wish I could ever meet my life would be him.
Absolutely.
If there's a top five, a person I could just say hello, shake your hand.
I would love to just sit in a room with him and just pick his brain for a couple of
hours and just like tell me about this and just let him talk because he was so, he was
so wise.
And you talked about that motion of that use of silence.
When you go back and you watch the shows, it's like he's giving you the chance.
You know, he'll never see you and he doesn't know who you are.
That camera, that view into your soul, he's giving you the chance to respond to what he's
saying.
And it's, it's so poignant and I love that you brought that up because you're exactly
right.
We live in such a big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big like your life is
a pinball machine.
And Ms. Rose, no, no, no.
Just take a minute and I want you to think about what we're talking about.
And brilliant with him, every child was special and there's a point where this film, we've
done what 300, this is 388 and how many movies have I seen with you hundreds at this point?
How many times have you ever seen a tear in my eye?
I can't recall, sir.
And I, you know, I knew it was happening, but I still didn't see it because you were
sitting in front of me.
But and I'm glad you mentioned that because when we went and saw the Dowson Artificial
Film Festival, a friend of the show, whom we adore the Great James Fouls.
Absolutely.
He actually did the intro to the film where he came out and he was wearing his jacket and
he took off his jacket and put on a sweater and said it was such a beautiful moment.
He walked down the aisles and was giving tissues out about two thirds of the way through
the film right before you get to 9-11.
And he said it before.
We're coming to people lab and he's like, no, he's probably going to actually do that.
And because I saw the trailer and I was like, this movie is going to break me down.
Oh, yeah.
The trailer will knock you out if you have a chance and he dog on if he didn't.
And I took one tissue out of the bag and just handed it down the aisle and donned it the
same thing and you needed it because again, it is a rare human that would see this film
that wasn't affected by him.
The lobby stand up ad for this film is literally the living room.
And you can sit on the bench and take a picture like I could do it last night too.
I couldn't do it.
I just saw I took a picture of it, but I was like, I can't.
Yeah.
That's his spot.
Yeah.
And this film really shows how he tackled tough issues.
Absolutely.
Officer Clements.
It's all I'm going to say.
Yeah, that's what we were talking about earlier.
You know, and this, even some of the behind the scenes stuff of how he dealt with his people,
how he dealt with the crew and how he dealt with the cast as they were dealing because
you're talking 60s, 70s, 80s, the world was changing at a rate that's really we couldn't
keep up with.
Right.
You know, we as a collective unit were born really as the ball was really getting
rolled.
So by the time we were old enough to understand what was going on for lack of a better term,
it was all over about the crying.
But we could still understand what got us to that point.
And Mr. Rogers is a capsule of that time that even the lessons that he taught back then
are even I would almost say even more relevant today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
One thing about him in this film is it shows the development of those characters like King
Friday and all these different characters and why and how they went through this evolution
over the years.
And one thing about this, this film, what makes a film great to me is how you can get
happy, sad, crying, and mad.
And there are some steam scenes in there because this pulls up.
This ain't no happy go likely, Mr. Rogers, it covers, it covers everything.
Yeah, but this is not one of those happy go lucky.
He's the greatest thing in a sense size cheese even though he is, but how he, it pulls
the punches where there's some stuff where how people ridicule him.
Right.
But it's not how he stands.
I think what you're trying to say is it's he's a happy go lucky guy, but it's some of
the reactions to him.
Oh, yeah.
Pulled snow.
Especially after the passing.
Absolutely.
That's one of those things that made me mad and that's a great thing about this film.
It's not just a happy go lucky.
This does every angle, it gave me every emotion when I saw after that funeral.
Oh, I was ready.
I know you are.
I know you are.
It's one of those is an honest look, both internally and externally at who he was.
And there is, I mean, this is, there's no flaw in this film in my opinion whatsoever.
Other than it's length.
And how?
Because I could have watched it.
There's people that complain about the millennials and everybody gets a participation
now and all that.
And then how there's places like Knox Fuz, I'm not going to say the channel, who complained
about him.
I got nothing.
I know what he's saying, but I got nothing.
But I think that there's just so much to this and you're going to get a narrative form
next year.
That's being that the hanks are involved in that I'm going to be I'm very much looking
forward to that.
Because it's based on a reporter from I think that I want to say the New York Times that
was very skeptical of is this guy the real deal and how Mr. Rogers was able to help
him understand.
Yes, this is really who I am and I'm very, very much looking forward to that film coming
next year.
So I've seen the man played, I've seen the man played Disney.
I mean, I just see how he pulls off Fred is it him or is it Colin because it keeps
going back and forth.
I keep hearing.
I hope it's him.
I'm going to look that up.
My thing is how long has he passed?
How long has it been?
He died no three.
So I'm seeing it being serious on this.
No, would he be eligible for st. hood?
He was a piscopalian not so I don't know how the Catholic Church works and I don't know
if that's a thing or not.
I look at a comments page and it's not showing anything.
Let me look at it.
I was kind of astounded a little bit that they didn't really talk about the current
iteration of the show and how it exists today.
What I think when he gone, Tom Hanks will be playing Fred Rogers, the film is called
You Are My Friend.
It is slated for October 18th of next year.
Of 19?
Yes.
Okay.
So that's a ways of looking to see because I thought Colin was involved as well but they're
not showing.
No, I just thought Colin was at least a producer.
No, but he's still showing like reruns on PBS and on, go ahead.
Well, it's taken on a new life through the eyes of, okay, Daniel Tiger.
Daniel Tiger apparently had a cub and we are now seeing the world of the world of
make believe through the eyes of Daniel Tiger Jr.
Oh, yeah.
Well, I thought they did mention that.
They talked about Daniel Tiger but they didn't talk about the current iteration of the
show.
I thought they did mention that.
No, that's what it's, that's how it exists now is Daniel Tiger Jr.
But anything else do you want to cover?
This gave me the whole game.
Yeah.
But then let's get to the final analysis.
The way we do the final analysis on this show, we're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs
down.
We're not going to give you letter grades numbers, beautiful days, anything like that.
We're going to ask up the two questions.
Question number one is, would we see the film, this film again?
If the answer's no, then we're done here.
If the answer's yes, then the follow up question is going to be, how far are we willing
to go see it?
From the best of the best of the worst of the best, here's the gambit.
Full price of the theater, down to a twilight showing, down to a matinee showing, down to early
morning on a weekend, down to second run at the dollar theater, down to actually leaving
the house to get it from red box, down to streaming on Netflix, down to cable chat.
Let's start with you.
Would you see, won't you be my neighbor again?
I think we all know the answer that we're all going to give here.
Absolutely.
How far are you willing to go?
It's worth every penny you spend.
So, whatever it takes to keep films like this coming out, I'd spend the max.
It's on the, you know, Alamo recommends list.
So, Don, would you see this again?
Yeah.
How far are you willing to go?
I know I have that bias in this one.
I don't care, but I have a new favorite film of the year right now, and I'm going to
make this promise right now.
This film will metal this year.
All right.
On the list.
Yeah.
This is full price coveted.
I'm making that promise right now.
This will metal.
It's about as close to perfect as it gets.
I will say, if you can see this in your town at a full price due, so I don't know that
everyone's going to have the chance to see this in a theater.
If it doesn't play somewhere near you, go ahead and just pre-order the blue right now.
I guarantee you, it will be worth every penny you pay.
And I rarely ever buy DVDs or blue race.
This one is for this one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can only hope that we will get one about Henson that's on the same line.
It's all the same director, blah, blah, blah, who did 20 feet from start of it.
And I've got that enough.
Oh.
Oh.
Just a whole section about, give me shelter.
Just mind blowing.
It is Morgan Neville and won't you be my neighbor.
This one, we really have to thank Jillie from Sly Fox.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And our friends in the Dallas International Film Festival for booking this.
So you and I can see it.
And then Chad got a chance to see it because of our friends at Sly Fox.
And whatever we, after we saw this.
So great.
Right if we saw this, what did he tell Chad?
Yeah.
No, you got to see this.
If they do a screen, you got to go.
And I did.
And you listener got to go too.
Yeah.
Because we got to go now.
Okay.
So we're going to do the plugs.
Besides, you can find our written reviews there.
It is www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
Find out everything you need to know there.
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Two ways of being pre-os at the end.
And first off, rest in peace, Mr. Rogers.
I always love you.
And you also email me at Don at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Email Don for information on how we can come
to a live show for you.
We love doing live remote shows
and hanging out with the Empire.
You can email me, questions, comments, concerns,
something to go pound sand.
I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.
I am Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com.
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we're morally obligated to say that.
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I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is closed.
I bet you could have gotten some really great interview
finish from Bernie Palmer,
because I guarantee you she watched it too.