Why Fred Rogers Took On His Only Acting Role Outside ‘Mr. Rogers’
What To Know
- Fred Rogers, best known as Mister Rogers, took his only acting role outside his iconic persona in a 1996 episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, playing Reverend Thomas.
- His appearance on set was met with excitement and admiration from the cast and crew, who found him to be as kind and genuine as his television character.
- Rogers’ role as Reverend Thomas reflected his real-life background as an ordained minister and provided a heartfelt message about the true meaning of community.
Fred Rogers logged hundreds of TV appearances in his persona as Mister Rogers — and not just on his long-running series Mister Rogers Neighborhood. But he only played another character on screen one time — and that rare acting role came 30 years ago, in an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
In the CBS drama’s fourth season episode “Deal with the Devil” — which aired on February 17, 1996 — Rogers played Reverend Thomas. The role was familiar territory for the children’s TV star, since he was an ordained Presbyterian minister in real life. And, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rogers made the decision to take up an acting role for a very simple reason: Dr. Quinn was one of his favorite TV shows.
Read on to find out more about what made Rogers take his only stab at acting beyond his Neighborhood.
Fred Rogers’ visit had the Dr. Quinn cast excited
Entertainment Tonight cameras were on the Dr. Quinn set at Paramount’s ranch in Agoura, California, to bear witness as Rogers arrived. Everyone seemed thrilled to have TV royalty in their ranks, and Rogers was generous with his time.
“He came to work today and has taken the time out to address everybody who works here, no matter what their position is, and he’s personally taking photographs of all the crew,” series lead Jane Seymour told ET. “And he’s just exactly like he is on his show.”
And it seems Rogers had some Dr. Quinn players starstruck. “I was a little nervous, actually,” said Joe Lando, the actor behind Byron Sully. “I’ve known him since I was about 4.”
Rogers was all smiles as he raved about his time on Dr. Quinn. “You don’t realize how many wonderful friends you have until you step out into the world beyond,” he told ET, beaming. “When I came here, I don’t know what I expected, but I’ve been received with a lot of hugs.”
His character’s arrival was also a source of excitement on the show
In the episode, Dr. Quinn finds Reverend Timothy Johnson (Geoffrey Lower) panicked about the arrival of Rev. Thomas, his seminary instructor. The town church is in poor shape, and Timothy is embarrassed about Rev. Thomas seeing it.
“He’s my mentor. He’s my shining example,” Timothy tells Dr. Quinn. “Every Sunday, we’d go out to his church. It was bright, white, and spotless, with this towering steeple. He had this bell — this polished, gleaming bell — that would ring out throughout the valley. And now he’s gonna come here and see this.”
Desperate, Timothy gets a loan from Hank Lawson (William Shockley), much to the dismay of his congregation. But Rev. Thomas arrives just in time to see the townspeople vow to support Timothy in repaying the loan — and to see one woman thinking him for giving faith to her dying father.
“I’m very proud of you, Timothy,” Rev. Thomas tells Timothy. “You’ve learned well. It’s not the building. It’s the people who are the church.”
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Rogers filmed the role on an emotional day in his private life
A touching anecdote about Rogers’ time on the Dr. Quinn set came from Deborah Acklin, a former president and CEO of WQED, which was the PBS member station that produced Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
When Acklin was working as a journalist in Pittsburgh’s KDKA newsroom, she went with a camera crew from the station to interview Rogers on the Dr. Quinn set. She had to wait all day to get a chance to interview Rogers, but their conversation was worth the wait.
“After we did the basics, then I said to him, ‘You’ve had a long time sitting around waiting for your scene today — you’ve had a lot of downtime.’ And he said, ‘Yes, yes, I have,’” she recalled in a WQED blog post. “And I said, ‘So what have you been thinking about? What’s on your mind today?’ And he looked at me. And he kind of put his head down… and looked at me again. And he started to cry. I was like, holy cow, Mister Rogers is crying. And so my photographer taps me on the shoulder like, ‘Do you want me to stop rolling?’”
But Acklin just gave Rogers time to express his emotions. “When he was done crying, then he said, ‘That’s a wonderful question, and I’m so glad you asked me,’” she recounted. “He said, ‘I’m thinking about my friend in [Latrobe, Pennsylvania] who I grew up with.’ And he said, ‘She’s dying today. And she’s been on my mind all day.’”
Rogers and Acklin spent time talking about friendship and emotions, and she revealed that Rogers later gave her high praise, telling Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood costar David Newell, “That might have been the best interview I’ve ever had.”