There's a real Tom Junod, 61, of Marietta, whose 1998 profile of Rogers became the basis for the Tom Hanks movie that had audiences weeping and cheering at a preview last week . I had never prayed like that before, ever. She goes a little knock-kneed, directs a thumb toward her mouth. He wrote, "I wrote Micah [Fitzerman-Blue] and Noah [Harpster] back, along with Peter Saraf, the producer at Big Beach, the company that had optioned my Esquire story, and asked them to change my name and the names of my family members. Instead, the plot focuses on the real-life friendship between Rogers and cynical journalist Tom Junod (renamed Lloyd Vogel in the movie and portrayed by Matthew Rhys). The character of the writer in the movie, Lloyd Vogel, is not amused. He was a kind man who made it a point to practice kindness to a vast audience, person by person. (2021, directed . And I called Joanne [Rogers] after that and said, What do you think about that? And she was like, You know, Fred would never represent that. That seems so obvious, but I think to a lot of people its not obvious because I think that the temptation of being able to think that yelling at somebody on the street, youre somehow striking a blow. Considering his popularity, those episodes cannot be that difficult to find. And its all in there. Junod is personally present . Bill had driven us there, and now, sitting behind the wheel of his red Grand Cherokee, he was full of remonstrance. And I dont know which take they use, but it was hard for Tom to do that. The revolution he starteda half hour a day, five days a weekit wasn't enough, it didn't spread, and so, forced to fight his battles alone, Mister Rogers is losing, as we all are losing. I dont know if Im ever going to be as good at the active devotion whereas Fred would like me or us to be. Fred never stopped looking at her or let go of her hand. This has happened so many times that Mister Rogers has come to see that number as a gift, as a destiny fulfilled, because, as he says, "the number 143 means 'I love you.'. It gradually dawns on Tom/Lloyd, that the Mr. Rogers in front of the camera is the . The shootings took place in West Paducah, Kentucky, and when Mister Rogers heard about them, he said, "Oh, wouldn't the world be a different place if he had said, 'I'm going to do something really little tomorrow,'" and he decided to dedicate a week of the Neighborhood to the theme "Little and Big." Today marks the 10th anniversary of his death. Mister Rogers spots him first, naturally, amidst the swarm of New Yorkers, about the five-hundredth happy coincidence in a life full of them. I closed the door and sat back down. Junod and Rogers exchanged dozens of emails that would . You were a child once, too. The boy had never spoken, until one day he said, "X the Owl," which is the name of one of Mister Rogers's puppets, and he had never looked his father in the eye until one day his father had said, "Let's go to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe," and now the boy is speaking and reading, and the father has come to thank Mister Rogers for saving his son's life.And by this time, well, it's nine-thirty in the morning, time for Mister Rogers to take off his jacket and his shoes and put on his sweater and his sneakers and start taping another visit to the Neighborhood. Rogers as a peasant to explaining the world to remove son. They just sang. As for Mister Rogers himselfwell, he doesn't look at the story in the same way that the boy did or that I did. Or maybe, if the truth be told, Mister Rogers went into battle against a little boy with a big sword, for Mister Rogers didn't like the big sword. I just try to ask for some sort of affirmation, you know? Theres a moment in .css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}Can You Say Hero?Tom Junods Esquire profile on Fred Rogers, one of the all-time great magazine storieswhen the writer is searching for the childrens TV icon at the stuffed, panic-attack-palace of Penn Station. And all the people who made this house special to me are not here, anyway. And it just goes on and on in much the same way from there. Fred was all person by person. In your eyes, whats the reason for the lack of action? And that always struck me as perverse. Because Mister Rogers is such a busy man, however, he could not write the chapter himself, and he asked a woman who worked for him to write it instead. And yet, here I am. ESQ: Have the past two months been fulfilling for you? TJ: Yeah, they have been. Matthew Rhys' character, the cynical Lloyd Vogel, is only loosely inspired by real-life journalist Tom Junod, hence the name change. The film is based on a true story, though Rhys plays fictional journalist Lloyd Vogel, who was created to help tell Rogers' story. Mister Rogers recorded 20 episodes of a show aimed at adults titled "Old Friends . But in answer to your question, I mean there are all sorts of ways to be helpful and be of service. Example: It is dangerous to play in the street. It's interesting because the journalist, named Lloyd Vogel in the movie, is introduced as a harsh cynic who's notorious for shredding the character of the people he writes about. That was on fire, right? Boom! He was a music major at a small school in Florida and planning to go to seminary upon graduation. I told him I didn't mind, and when, five minutes later, I took the elevator to his floor, well, sure enough, there was Mister Rogers, silver-haired, standing in the golden door at the end of the hallway and wearing eyeglasses and suede moccasins with rawhide laces and a flimsy old blue-and-yellow bathrobe that revealed whatever part of his skinny white calves his dark-blue dress socks didn't hide. And then my editor, Denise Wills said, Could you try to think of an answer to that question? And I thought about it, then I had to read the story again for the audiobook of this collection of Freds writings and sayings. Enjoy a year of unlimited access to The Atlanticincluding every story on our site and app, subscriber newsletters, and more. Ive gone on the road through this story and Ive become a spokesman not just for the movie, but for Fred, and its one of the great surprises of my life. While the film does look at the burgeoning friendship between Rogers (Tom Hanks) and writer Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), it focuses primarily on Vogel's personal life and how much it has been impacted by this newfound friendship. He is not speaking of the little girl. If somebody had said five years ago, that I was going to be spending the months in October and November 2019 sort of speaking for Fred Rogersyeah, right. He was in college. ESQ: One thing I was really interested in how in the The Atlantic piece, you spell out masculinity as defined by your father. And I think that audience is sort of self-selecting and limited by definition, almost. Explaining why he wanted the changes, he wrote that it wasn't because he disliked it or disagreed with its premise. .css-gk9meg{display:block;font-family:Lausanne,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;padding-top:0.25rem;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-gk9meg:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.15;margin-bottom:0.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}Facts You Didn't Know About That '70s Show, The Cast of 'The Mandalorian' in Real Life, 'The Mandalorian' Season 3, Episode 1 Recap, 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 is About to Commence, The Underworld Crossover of the Century Is Coming. Now, what the fuck is grace?" TJ: I dont think he watched a lot of TV, but I think he was also against quick cuts. An ophthalmologist is a doctor who takes care of the eyes. One second, two seconds, three secondsand now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier, and Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said, "May God be with you" to all his vanquished children. And when I read that, I realized that what I was looking for was really unavoidable and obvious. Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers and Matthew Rhys as Lloyd Vogel in "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." (Courtesy Lacey Terrell/Sony Pictures) This article is more than 3 years old. A death ray! One hundred and forty-three. Second mook: "Huh. Theres fire up there guys! "Bunny Wunny," she says. ESQ: And the tent scene [where Mister Rogers struggles to put together a camping tent for a Mister Rogers' Neighborhood segment], was kind of. One hundred and forty-three. Yeah, Mister Rogers is more amazing than you ever knew. He notes, "I think that my character is not just me. TJ: I mean, I never . Of course, she knew who Mister Rogers was, because she had grown up with him, and she knew that he was good for her son, and so now, with her little boy zombie-eyed under his blond bangs, she apologized, saying to Mister Rogers that she knew he was in a rush and that she knew he was here in Penn Station taping his program and that her son usually wasn't like this, he was probably just tired. Tom Junod's "Can You Say . This was not a bad thing, however, because he was in New York, and in New York it's not an insult to be called Mister Fucking Anything. Lloyd has daddy issues, which Junod did not (at least not in the same way) something he outlines in a recent piece about Rogers for The Atlantic Monthly. Lloyd Vogel Is Based On A Real Journalist Who Praises The Mr. Rogers Biopic. He wanted to tell children that what starts out little can sometimes become big, and so that could devote themselves to little dreams without feeling bad about them. "Oh, Mister Rogers, you're the father I never had." That temptation is really large because its so easy. While Junod wrote that he learned the concepts of forgiveness and . In 1998, Junod wrote a piece profiling Rogers for Esquire , which . he asked. She spent much of her time tending to the sick and the dying. At first, I chalked this up to some Neighborhood of Make-Believe voodoo energy, but now I have a legit answer. What is grace? Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are.Ten seconds of silence." "Oh, heavens no, Tom! It has all 865 programs, in both color and black and white, and for two months this past spring, Joybubbles went to the library every day for ten hours and watched the Neighborhood's every episode, plus specialsor, since he is blind, listened to every episode, imagined every episode. TJ: I think you try to put it together in one person. "Thank you for calling, my dear," he said, in a voice whose . I didn't ask him for his prayers for him; I asked for me. "It's Joanne," he said. "Oh, that's a nice name," Mister Rogers says, and then goes to the Thirty-fourth Street escalator to climb it one last time for the cameras. He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I idolized him. A woman was with him, sitting in a big chair. The place was drab and dim, with the smell of stalled air and a stain of daguerreotype sunlight on its closed, slatted blinds, and Mister Rogers looked so at home in its gloomy familiarity that I thought he was going to fall back asleep when suddenly the phone rang, startling him. I grew up Roman Catholic. He rested his head on a small pillow and kept his eyes closed while he explained that he had bought the apartment thirty years before for $11,000 and kept it for whenever he came to New York on business for the Neighborhood. .css-gk9meg{display:block;font-family:Lausanne,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;padding-top:0.25rem;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-gk9meg:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.15;margin-bottom:0.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}Chris Pine Thinks 'Star Trek' is Cursed, The Hilarious Reason Why Chris Pine Cut His Hair, Chris Pine Tells All About Harry Styles SpitGate, Movie Sequels That Are Better Than the Original, 40 Photos That Prove Sly Stallone Was a Style Icon, 32 Photos of Michael B. Jordans Style Evolution. I'm glad I know that. There are many people who follow the legacy of kindness, but I dont know of anybody who follows his legacy of kindness in media. He is losing, of course. On December 1, 1997oh, heck, once upon a timea boy, no longer little, told his friends to watch out, that he was going to do something "really big" the next day at school, and the next day at school he took his gun and his ammo and his earplugs and shot eight classmates who had clustered for a prayer meeting. On this day, however, he is premature by a considerable extent, and so Margy, who has been with Mister Rogers since 1983because nobody who works for Mister Rogers ever leaves the Neighborhoodcomes running over, papers in hand, and says, "Not so fast there, buster. And it was just about then, when I was spilling the beans about my special friend, that Mister Rogers rose from his corner of the couch and stood suddenly in front of me with a small black camera in hand. "Thanks, my dear," he said to me, then turned back to Deb. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. He was thunderstruck. There was an energy to him, however, a fearlessness, an unashamed insistence on intimacy, and though I tried to ask him questions about himself, he always turned the questions back on me, and when I finally got him to talk about the puppets that were the comfort of his lonely boyhood, he looked at me, his gray-blue eyes at once mild and steady, and asked, What about you, Tom? T he movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is structured like an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It would take a couple Mister Rogers episodes and . The Esquire article which brings Lloyd Vogel and Fred Rogers together did actually happen; as did the writer's fruitful transformation off the page. When he reaches the street, he looks right at the lens, as he always does, and says, speaking of the Neighborhood, "Let's go back to my place," and then makes a right turn toward Seventh Avenue, except that this time he just keeps going, and suddenly Margy Whitmer is saying, "Where is Fred? There was an energy to him, however, a fearlessness, an unashamed insistence on intimacy, and though I tried to ask him questions about himself, he always turned the questions back on me, and when I finally got him to talk about the puppets that were the comfort of his lonely boyhood, he looked at me, his gray-blue eyes at once mild and steady, and asked, "What about you, Tom? Id like to take your picture. Junod has stated that his encounter with Rogers changed his perspective on life. Everything You Need To Know About 'Mean Girls: The Musical', Amanda Seyfried Has Made Her Pick For Sophies Biological Dad In 'Mamma Mia', Shakira & Karol G's "TQG" Music Video Uses A Classic '90s Movie To Make A Point, 'Art Attack' Neil Buchanan's Latest Gig Is A Far Cry From The CITV Show, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. Mr. Rogers was around when I was a child. What kind of prayer has only three words? And so we went to the graveyard. . He writes all his own scripts, but on this day, when he receives a visit from Mrs. McFeely and a springer spaniel, she says that she has to bring the dog "back to his owner," and Mister Rogers makes a face. Three of the doors are opened to reveal the familiar faces of Lady Aberlin, King Friday, and Mr. McFeely.The fourth door is opened to reveal the face of Mr. Rogers' troubled new friend, Lloyd Vogel, who has a cut near his nose. What is grace? She was a minister at Fred Rogers's church. It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you.' The editor isn't looking for a cynical unpacking or a scathing expose, like Lloyd's used to writing; just 400 words that give a wee bit of insight to the man behind that (in Lloyd's words) "hokey kids' show." And so the change is made, and the taping resumes, and this is how it goes all day, a life unfolding within a clasp of unfathomable governance, and once, when I lose sight of him, I ask Margy Whitmer where he is, and she says, "Right over your shoulder, where he always is," and when I turn around, Mister Rogers is facing me, child-stealthy, with a small black camera in his hand, to take another picture for the album that he will give me when I take my leave of him. "Oh, I don't know, Fred," she said. Once upon a time, Mister Rogers went to New York City and got caught in the rain. Lloyd's father Jerry (Chris Cooper) abandoned him as a child and keeps trying to reconnect, by Lloyd rejects him. He didn't have an umbrella, and he couldn't find a taxi, either, so he ducked with a friend into the subway and got on one of the trains. "I'd like to take your picture. What's more, it's based on a true story, with a few of the names changed. The movie is based on a true story, and is about the unexpected friendship between Mr. Rogers and a journalist who was assigned to profile Mr. Rogers for an Esquire article. She was 92. He did the same thing the next day, and then the nextuntil he had done the same things, those things, 865 times, at the beginning of 865 television programs, over a span of thirty-one years. I just wanted to let him know that he was strong on the inside, too. Did you have any special friends growing up?, Maybe a puppet, or a special toy, or maybe just a stuffed animal you loved very much. ", He was barely more than a boy himself when he learned what he would be fighting for, and fighting against, for the rest of his life. "I imagine they're blue.". "Neighborhood" is based on, and serves as a fictionalized expansion upon, Tom Junod's 1998 profile of Rogers in Esquire; the article is online and worth the read. I sat in an old armchair and looked around. His editor at Esquire asked him to profile Fred Rogers, the beloved television personality and Presbyterian minister. ", "Maybe a puppet, or a special toy, or maybe just a stuffed animal you loved very much. Would you like to tell me about Old Rabbit, Tom?". He finds me, because that's what Mister Rogers doeshe looks, and then he finds. She was very pretty. He can be contacted at murdockcolumn@yahoo.com. Its name was Old Rabbit. Per his piece in The Atlantic, Junod asked the writers for some changes after reading an early draft of the script in April 2016. His name was Old Rabbit. He had always loved Mister Rogers, though, and now, even when he was fourteen years old, he watched the Neighborhood whenever it was on, and the boy's mother sometimes thought that Mister Rogers was keeping her son alive. TJ: I grew up Roman Catholic too. On this afternoon, the end of a hot, yellow day in New York City, he was very tired, and when I asked if I could go to his apartment and see him, he paused for a moment and said shyly, "Well, Tom, I'm in my bathrobe, if you don't mind." He was starting a television program, aimed at children, called Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The quintessence of the man was not his nationality but his faith. The film is adapted from a real life 1998 Esquire feature penned by Tom Junod, long one of the nation's premier magazine writers. Neighborhood," about the TV star Fred Rogers. The news was confirmed by Fred Rogers Productions . "he turned into Mister Fucking Rogers. he said. He wanted something from the boy, and Mister Rogers never leaves when he wants something from somebody. "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is more or less the story of how an Esquire article comes into being. It was not his fault. And so I wrote that. Fred turned it on, and as he says now, with plaintive distaste, "there were people throwing pies at one another." That light just burned out and there was I mean, that was on fire. It's Lloyd Vogel, a fictionalized character based on Atlanta writer Tom Junod. Will you pray for me?" Mr. Rogers explains that Lloyd has . The hard-hitting journalist reluctantly takes an assignment to write a profile story about the cherished TV icon for a special 1998 "Heroes" issue of Esquire . Junod's on-screen identity, Lloyd Vogel, is also a major player in connecting the audience to Mister Rogers and the film.