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Was Fred Rogers a Navy SEAL? Plus What Else We Learned from New Mr. Rogers Documentary "His decision to level with kids in a very sensitive way was his greatest accomplishment," says

director Morgan Neville of Fred Rogers. "Spending time with him today is like revisiting a part of yourself."

By Kara Warner Kara Warner Kara Warner is a former staff writer at PEOPLE. She left PEOPLE in 2023.People Editorial GuidelinesPublished on June 9, 2018 10:00AM EDT Credit : Family

Communications Inc/Getty Long before the cacophony of today’s TV with its thousands of channels, squabbling housewives and violent games of thrones, an unlikely icon emerged with an

unpopular idea — quality educational programming for very young kids. With Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Fred McFeely Rogers left an indelible mark on millions with his quiet sincerity and

life lessons. The Pennsylvania-born Presbyterian minister “just wanted to make people feel good,” says his friend and the show’s floor manager Nick Tallo.

50 years after the show began and 15 years after Rogers’s death at 74, a new documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, explores the life and legacy of the man inside those iconic sweaters.

“His decision to level with kids in a very sensitive way was his greatest accomplishment,” says director Morgan Neville. “Spending time with him today is like revisiting a part of yourself.”

Here are five things we learned about TV’s king of kindness from Neville’s documentary.

He had a difficult childhood

Born in 1928 to parents James and Nancy, Rogers was shy and sickly as a boy—“I had every imaginable childhood disease, even scarlet fever,” he recalls in the film—and therefore spent much of

his time alone in his room crafting elaborate stories with puppets and writing music. After earning a divinity degree and a master’s degree in child development, Rogers worked for NBC in

New York City before developing his own show at Pittsburgh’s public-TV station WQED. “People thought about toddlers very differently 50 years ago,” says Neville. “He was so far ahead of the

curve.”