Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993 TAG: 9307250122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CELESTE KATZ STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I remember watching "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" nearly every day as a child, but maybe Mr. McFeely was just too speedy a deliveryman for me to catch onto his footwear. Still, thinking back, I just didn't remember him as bustling around in those clodhoppers.
But there he was at Tanglewood Mall by the grace of Blue Ridge Public Television, singing "The Wheels on the Bus," providing voices for the Daniel Tiger and King Friday puppets, and entertaining at least 100 small children and parents. And wearing black combat boots.
"They're more delivery boots, actually," he explained to me after the presentation, as he autographed pictures and posed for snapshots.
The 11-hole boots with the inside zippers made me a little uncomfortable, because I had met actor David Newell without his "Speedy Delivery" costume, and those boots were utterly out of step with his true character.
And somehow, I thought he'd be . . . older.
On the show, Mr. McFeely is an elderly character, with whitish-blond hair and moustache, granny specs perched on his nose, and little time to spare.
In real life, Newell has light brown hair, is clean-shaven, and is more inclined to wear button-down shirts and slacks than a bow tie and visor cap. He is far more soft-spoken and patient than the character he plays.
But, he says, "I think they've slowed Mr. McFeely down a little from the first days. If you watch the early shows, he was really hyper."
Newell has been with the show in various capacities since its first broadcast 25 years ago. He's been a properties manager, a producer, an actor, a public relations spokesman. He even met his wife "at the Neighborhood."
Newell described the mission of the program as one of interpretation, helping to address the concerns of preschool children and "to show them a potpourri of what's out there, a smorgasbord of life of sorts" through whimsical pretend and real-life footage of, for example, how crayons, light bulbs, and other everyday objects are made.
Mr. McFeely, whose name is Fred Rogers' middle name and is a tribute to the latter's grandfather, serves to represent both the "hurry-up" factor in children's life and also as an example of "an elderly person who's still productive," said Newell.
"McFeely shows that you can have a zest for life at any age," he said.
Newell said that while he sometimes appears as himself before civic groups and school committees such as parent-teacher associations, he usually doesn't identify himself as Mr. McFeely when he's out of costume unless children recognize him and ask.
"I've never appeared at a children's event without the costume," he said, adding that surprisingly enough, some young fans of the program recognize his voice as that of the Speedy Deliveryman.
I wouldn't have recognized Newell by voice alone. Even after talking with him out of costume for several hours, I still had trouble connecting the man drinking a Coke and talking about Eddie Murphy's Saturday Night Live parody of Fred Rogers (he called it "raunchy, but not in a mean way") with McFeely, the character who brings a little of the bustling business world to the world of make-believe.
Watching Newell on the stage at Tanglewood, helping children make a pretend birthday cake for castmember Purple Panda, I remembered what he'd said the day before about older people watching the show with nostalgia.
"I think it makes them remember the time they were secure, and safe. We've impacted several generations of people," he said.
The mall crowd attested to that fact. Several mothers and fathers said they'd either watched the show themselves or watched it along with their children.
"All my children watched it faithfully," said Eva Woods of Fincastle, whose oldest child is 40 and whose youngest, an adopted foster daughter, is 5. "She watches it two times a day," she said of little Linda.
My days of watching "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and waiting for Mr. McFeely to make his speedy deliveries are over, I suppose, until I have children of my own.
Now I relate more to the combat boots than to the puppets and songs. But the boots are very fashionable these days. It seems "Mister Rogers" is staying in step with the times.
by CNB