Old Friends ... New Friends

Old Friends ... New Friends is an American television documentary series created and hosted by Fred Rogers during his hiatus from producing Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Produced by Family Communications, Inc., it originally aired on PBS from April 15, 1978 to September 25, 1980.

An episode begins with Rogers walking into the WQED-TV production studio, greeting staff members, and then walking onto a living room set, where the main content of the episode begins. He would give introductory remarks, then the episode would segue to on-location interviews with the episode's guests conducted by Rogers. The interviews often take place at the guests' home or hometown. The episode would end with a transition to Rogers giving concluding remarks. This format varies in some episodes. Some feature Rogers giving a monologue about his own life. Some episodes focuses on subject matters and guests suggested by Rogers' viewers. The series also features items sent by Rogers' viewers, which include letters, family photos, and patches of fabric from their favorite old clothing.

Rogers said he created the series to address his observation that older generations were becoming increasingly isolated from younger generations. He said the series addresses the problem by having "each episode [being] based on the central philosophical assumption that older people are an integral and formative part of all our lives, an essential part of the human family." He said the series emphasizes the fact that "each one of us makes a difference in this world.", which he said was also emphasized in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He said the series addresses the problem by also focusing on a variety of guests: those who are young, old, unknown, or famous, and making viewers "understand enduring relationships and interactions between people of all generations."

Reception of the series was largely negative. Critics identified many problems, which includes Rogers' inability to let go of his childlike persona from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the series' failing to give viewers a comprehensive understanding of complex relationships between its guests, the series' lack of focus on dramatic moments, and Rogers' inability to coax his guests into revealing their feelings. A former colleague of Rogers said that Rogers was not as intimately connected with the series and experienced with running it as he was with Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Some critics said the series has some exceptionally compelling episodes, which includes Rogers' ability to make one of his guests, Lee Strasberg, reveal his personal feelings, and the series' dramatic portrayal of William Wasson and two of his adopted orphans, which was described as having "an incredible sensitivity for the feelings of others."

In 1968, television producer Fred Rogers created and hosted a half-hour educational children's television series called Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which used the concepts of early child development and emphasized young children's social and emotional needs. In 1975, after 455 color episodes (earlier ones were in black and white), Rogers stopped producing new episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Basil Cox, then manager of Family Communications, Inc., the company that produced the program, said the choice was made completely by Rogers and surprised his colleagues. Rogers chose to allow the Neighborhood's 455 color episodes to air as reruns rather than producing new episodes, stating that he felt that he had covered the salient points in child development and that the program's regularly changing audience made further production unnecessary and a waste of funding.

During his hiatus from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers continued to work on other television programs, including Old Friends ... New Friends, a documentary series, I Am, I Can, I Will, a program for children with disabilities, and Let's Talk About ..., a series that covers stressful moments in family life, such as reassuring children going into the hospital. Rogers said they all centered around his primary concern for the family: "There are so many forces in society that split the family ... The family is essential to the growth of human beings and television can be an integrative force in the family rather than a divisive one."

By 1979, the second and last season of Old Friends ... New Friends with 13 episodes began production. That same year, the production of a new season of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, consisting of 15 episodes lasting three weeks, started.

By 1977, three episodes of the first season were filmed and were to be shown to sponsorship candidates that summer. The Richard King Mellon Foundation gave $250,000 for the first three episodes and agreed to provide a total funding of $1 million under what Rogers called "a kind of matching grant", with the remaining required funding having to be received from other donors. The foundation donated an additional $250,000 to fund the remaining four episodes of the first season. The foundation later granted the $1 million total. The show was also funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. According to Maxwell King, a biographer of Rogers, the funding was insecure. This, along with low ratings, made the series' production unsustainable.

The format varies. The series includes "on-location documentary sequences, dramatized episodes and personal experiences submitted by members of the audience". Rogers asked viewers to send letters, "photographs of favorite people or places", patches of "fabric from a favorite old coat or blanket", old clothing, needlework, homemade objects, and poetry, which would become part of the set. The items were not returned to the senders. After the first three episodes were aired, Rogers said he would focus on subject matters and guests suggested by his viewers.

An episode starts with Rogers walking into the WQED-TV production studio. He greets various staff members by name and goes on a living room set, where he introduces the episode's guest(s).

Each episode has a runtime of about 30 minutes.

Rogers made friends with many people with different interests during his then 24 year career of producing children's television programs. Among them include Hoagy B. Carmichael (son of Hoagy Carmichael), Robert Frost, his barber Nick Failla, William Sloane Coffin, and filmmaker Betsy Nadas. Rogers said that being able to learn about their lives changed his own life. This inspired him to create an adult television program where he can portray their lives. By the time the production of Old Friends ... New Friends started, they became "old friends." During early production, the series was tentatively titled "Old Friends". Later in the production, Rogers met "new friends" who he also wanted viewers to learn from. This collection of "old friends" and "new friends" that were part of his program inspired Rogers to name the series as "Old Friends ... New Friends".

Rogers said that Old Friends ... New Friends was created to address the increasing isolation and division between younger and older generations, from his belief that the generations "have much to give each other", and that differences in age should not separate people. Clark Santee, who worked for Family Communications, Inc. during production of Old Friends ... New Friends agreed, stating that the young and elderly often face similar problems, including needing "reassurance that they have purpose".

Rogers states that in order to mend the age gap between the older and younger generations, "each episode will be based on the central philosophical assumption that older people are an integral and formative part of all our lives, an essential part of the human family." Rogers said Old Friends ... New Friends highlights the fact that "each one of us makes a difference in this world. That's the theme running through the whole series. But I think it runs through the Neighborhood series, too." He further explains: "Old Friends ... New Friends is a kind of television venture for me. And yet, the whole idea behind it is as old as Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I believe that each person makes a difference in this world. And I also believe that television can be made personal enough so that people can be helped to believe that they do make a difference."

The series focuses on the life experiences of guests, both famous and unknown, to show viewers what people can learn from others. Rogers said "It will not be all famous persons ... What I'd like to show is the value of experience ..." The program highlights the influence that one person has on another, their family, or a community, and how each benefits from that influence. Rogers said "In Old Friends ... New Friends, we are going to present people who know who they are and can communicate their self-worth and their activities and accomplishments to others. Perhaps the most important matter in any person's life—at any age—is having a satisfying relationship with caring and trusted friends ... What I want to achieve is to enlarge our viewers' circle of friends by helping them to understand enduring relationships and interactions between people of all generations. The generations, young and old, have so much to give each other, to learn from each other." The guests' private philosophies and relationships are shown to guide viewers in their own life.

Rogers' concern for the elderly was fueled by his primary interest in the family. Rogers states "There are so many forces in society that split the family ... The family is essential to the growth of human beings and television can be an integrative force in the family rather than a divisive one." Rogers said the series was also inspired by letters he received from elderly viewers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, who explained that the show helped strengthen their relationships with their grandchildren. The program was also inspired by Rogers' concern that there was a lack of television programs for the elderly. Santee said "Fred began thinking about what direction he wanted to go [after Mister Rogers' Neighborhood] ... and he has been concerned about the lack of programming for the elderly." The show was also inspired by the friends that Rogers made during his career in producing children's programming. He was able to learn from his friends, who had a variety of interests. He said "So I often wished for a kind of television program in which I could offer adults the kind of friends who have come to mean so much to me." Those friends became guests of the series, which include Hoagy Carmichael's son Hoagy B. Carmichael, Robert Frost's barber Nick Failla, William Sloane Coffin, and Betsy Nadas.

The show is mainly targeted towards the elderly. Rogers explains: "With the Neighborhood, we hoped that the older children and parents would look over the small children's shoulders to watch the show ... Now [Old Friends ... New Friends] is geared for older people, and we hope the parents and young children will watch over the grandparents' shoulders." Rogers said "It's what I like to call an intergenerational program ... I would hope grandparents could watch it with their grandchildren." Despite the program's emphasis on older people, Rogers states that it is intended for people of all ages: "When I began it, some said 'Oh, you're doing a show for old people,' I said, 'Not at all. This is for all ages.' That's why in the first show we begin with a father [Hoagy Carmichael] and son [Hoagy B.], and what it means to grow up as the son of a famous father."

King said that Rogers' dedication to the viewer was intrinsically pastoral. Rogers shared the hope with a friend in a 1978 letter that church groups would watch Old Friends ... New Friends and have discussions based on the program.

The series was created and hosted by Rogers. Family Communications, Inc. acted as the production company. Arthur Barron, Margy Whitmer, and Joe Cosentino worked as director-producers. Johnny Costa worked as a musical director.

Some segments were filmed in the WQED-TV studio. Many were filmed on location with 16 mm stock. Rogers said "I've never traveled so much in my life ... Yesterday I was in New York talking with Robert Frost's sister. Tomorrow, at her suggestion, I'm off to the poet's farm in Derry, N.H. ..." The program was filmed in various parts of the United States, including California, Iowa, New York, and New Hampshire, and Mexico.

The series originally aired from April 15, 1978 to September 25, 1980 on PBS. Reruns aired until 1981.

In May 1976, the pilot episode was filmed in the Pennsylvanian borough of Ligonier. Ligonier was chosen because it was near Pittsburgh, had a "charming atmosphere", and had "close cooperation with the residents and the [Ligonier Valley] Chamber of Commerce." Family Communications, Inc. worked with the Chamber of Commerce to schedule filming sites, which included select stores. Santee said the series was planned to be based in Ligonier. He explained: "We'd like to have a series based in a village. Ligonier provides us with a comfortable, familiar setting. It wouldn't be identified, but Ligonier is where most of it would be shot." The pilot portrayed Rogers as the resident of a home in Ligonier.

During the shooting of the pilot film, Rogers talked with children who gathered to watch the filming each day. Rogers paid a surprise visit at a local library to meet children.

The series was planned to be aired nationally in 1977 (a year earlier than its eventual premier date of 1978) had the pilot been successful. The episode was reviewed by the Andrus Geriantological Center in California. By the time the pilot was under the review, Rogers hoped that the series would start airing in early 1978, rather than 1977.

King said that Rogers was unable to escape his childlike persona that he established while developing Mister Rogers' Neighborhood to make Old Friends ... New Friends have a presentation that adapts to its adult audience. King uses an episode from the first season, "Memories", to demonstrate this problem. The episode begins with Rogers showing letters and pictures that were sent by his correspondents. He then shows a home movie from one of his viewers. He then shows his own family photos, transitioning from the memories of his viewers to those of his own childhood. He talks about his childhood and his grandfather Fred McFeely. He shows a photo of his grandfather's house and then a video of himself as an adult standing next to a demolished house. He explains that the house was demolished after the death of his grandfather, and only his memories are left. The episode shows Buttermilk Falls, which was next to his grandfather's house. He explained that he would frequently play outside with his grandfather. The episodes transitions to a "contrived reenactment" of a childhood moment when his mother and grandmother tried to stop him from climbing a stone wall. His grandfather intervenes and lets him climb. King said that the episode was too "awkward and self-conscious" for an adult audience. He noted that the pacing and simplistic presentation of the series did not work for adults. He said that the presentation of the series "falls somewhere between children's television and the sort of earnest programming that might appear in an educational film made for a high school audience." King commented that "[t]he gentle, almost childlike style of Mister Rogers may have been fine when Fred was producing television for young children, but it comes across as somewhat hokey, almost, for an adult audience." He explained that without the entertainment value of his music and puppets from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers was unable to take advantage of his strength in conversational television.

The series was unable to give viewers a complete understanding of complex relationships between guests. The first episode of the series, "Hoagy", exemplified this problem. In the episode, Rogers interviewed the famed singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael and his son Hoagy B, a world-class fishing-rod maker. The episode shows the son's difficulty with adjusting to his own life due to having a famous person as a parent. The program shows a constant underlying antagonism between the father and the son. Hoagy B. described the relationship: "My father's life is like a corridor with doors in it. You're behind one of them and the end of the corridor is his music. Every now and then he opens my door and does something with me. But you know the main event is at the end of the corridor. That's a truth that doesn't always feel good." Arthur Unger of The Christian Science Monitor noted that the episode was ultimately unsuccessful in giving viewers a full understanding of the relationship: "Perhaps it is demanding too much to hope that a half-hour show will delve deeply into complex human relationships—and come up with complete understanding. And, perhaps, in close relationships the love-hate syndrome is too intertwined to spread it all out on the table and clearly label each portion." Win Fanning of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said the episode "almost fully realized" its goal of exploring generation gaps, but "a bit more time would have been useful." John J. O'Connor of The New York Times said the episode "fell victim to awkward organization." Although the central idea of the episode was moving, he said "the treatment was curiously dispersed, leaving Mr. Rogers conclude on an inadequate note of understanding for all: 'It's not easy to be the son of a famous father. And it's not easy be the famous father either.'"

The series lacks a full understanding of the audience's interests. An episode from the second season, "Politics and the Family", shows an example of this problem. The episode starts with Senator John Heinz, his wife Teresa, and their son André discussing a recent accident in which André was hit in the head with a motor propeller and had a near-death experience. Teresa was direct and honest in the program. However, this powerful discussion gets prematurely cut off. The episode then shows Heinz campaigning. Heinz, in contrast to Teresa, was guarded. While Heinz was telling campaign supporters a story about his great-grandfather building churches, the episodes cuts to Teresa giving an honest description about political life: "Campaigning is a special kind of tension and pressure ... It's awful, in the sense of what it does to one's family life." The episode then prematurely moves back to John's guarded explanation about his political life. The episode then returns to the discussion about André's accident. At that point, the episode was almost finished. King noted that Rogers was unable to focus on the moments that viewers would find most interesting, such as André's near-death experience and Teresa's explanation about political life. King said "[Rogers] can't seem to focus in a way that delivers compelling documentary, conversational television for grown-ups. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is marvelously thoughtful and thematic, always responding in perfect harmony with the children it serves. But Old Friends ... New Friends is the opposite: It seems to have little awareness of what its adult audience may be interested in ..."

The program was mostly unsuccessful in tapping into the guests' feelings. Morgan Neville, director of Won't You Be My Neighbor?, a documentary film about Rogers, explained: "... children speak exactly what they think, and they will tell you what they're feeling and they'll ask the questions they really want to know, ... And as you grow up, you build defenses and you mask your intentions and you hide your emotions. And Fred seemed to not tolerate that. Fred just wanted to be as honest and direct as possible. And adults have a hard time dealing with somebody who is that direct and that honest and that openly emotional vulnerable in that way."

Elizabeth Seamans, a former colleague of Rogers, said that Rogers was not as strongly connected with Old Friends ... New Friends as he was with Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. She said "[Old Friends ... New Friends] didn't come from inside of Fred the way other stuff did, and I don't think it ever had a chance. I'm not sure Fred really knew why he was doing [it]. The way the subjects came up was kind of pell-mell. They didn't come out of his marrow the way Mister Rogers' Neighborhood did, over time." She said Rogers' weak connection to Old Friends ... New Friends may be attributed to the lack of experience and time he needed to develop the series: "I think it's too bad [it] didn't have time to evolve. Fred's children's show had a long gestation period, all through the 50s. Television today doesn't often give you that time or opportunity."

Despite the series' many shortcomings, it has some exceptionally compelling moments. King stated that Rogers' interview with Lee Strasberg is known as Rogers' best work in his four year career in producing adult television programs. Cox said "Lee Strasberg ... there's a guy who's you know, defended with five inches of bulletproof armor ... [Rogers] got through to him; and he got him to talk about things that were really personal. He had a—he had a gift, just an extraordinary gift, to get to people." O'Connor said the second episode of the first season, "Padre", was significantly better than its previous episode, "Hoagy". "Padre" focuses on Father William Wasson, a priest who emigrated to Mexico and later established an orphanage there. The episode focuses on two of its orphans: Antonio, a 12-year-old boy who recently arrived, and Filomen Torres, a 20-year-old man who lived in the orphanage since he was a child. O'Connor said the episode successfully portrayed the family and the two orphans' lives. He praised the film for "wast[ing] no time the obvious. It plunges into the middle of things." He said throughout the episode, "there is an incredible sensitivity for the feelings of others."

The series has two seasons and 20 episodes in total. The first season has seven episodes and the second one has 13.

• King, Maxwell (2018). The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers. Abrams Press. ISBN 978-1-68335-349-2.
• Family Communications Order Forms and Catalogs (PDF). Family Communications, Inc. 1983. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 23, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.

• Excerpt (archived) of episode 102 "Padre" on FredRogersCenter.org (video player requires Adobe Flash)
• Old Friends ... New Friends at IMDb