Back in May, 1969, the Public Broadcasting Service was facing serious cuts in its budget. Executives from the organization went to Capitol Hill to plead their case in front of a subcommittee of the Senate’s Committee on Commerce. The chairman of the committee, John Pastore, was a self-described “tough guy” and not known for being a spender. PBS needed $20 million at the time to keep functioning – an amount equal to about $140 million in today’s dollars. With their backs to the wall, the corporation’s executives called upon their very best salesman to save the day. That person was none other than Fred Rogers.
Who doesn’t know Fred Rogers? Well, at the time, quite a few people didn’t. For one, Pastore had never heard of him or his show (“Are you the narrator?” he asked. “How long is it?”). Although the 41-year-old Rogers had been on the air in a few local markets for the almost 15 years he had only begun specializing with children during the past six. Rogers had yet to gain the national prominence that would one day establish him as arguably one of the nation’s greatest communicators to children. His Mister Rogers Neighborhood show on PBS would eventually run for decades, and Rogers would ultimately win countless awards and change the lives of millions of young children to this very day.
But first, Fred Rogers needed to make a sale. He needed to convince a Senate committee to give his company $140 million. He did. In a testimony that came…
