It’s the 50th anniversary of ‘Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ a children’s program on PBS which ran from 1968 to 2001 and can still be viewed today on PBS and Amazon Prime.

Children sharing this masterpiece today will learn about kindness, doing what’s right, and making sense of the world around them. Fred Rogers accomplished all of this through puppetry, make believe, one-on-one talking and ending his show every time with the notion “I like you just the way you are” so all children could feel important and special.

After the recent SteelStacks screening of ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,’ the story and history of ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ David Newell, Speedy Delivery character ‘Mr. McFeeley’ in the program, spoke and then proceeded to the lobby to sign autographs for fans of all ages.

Next, Newell headed over to the PPL Public Media Center at PBS39 to have a Q&A session with PBS and ArtsQuest members. He spoke about the relationship of Fred Rogers and the children’s show and explained his part as a set person that led Rogers to ask him to take a role of Mr. McFeeley, and always using the term ‘speedy delivery’ to describe who was at the door. Rogers said he didn’t want Newell’s role to be a mailman, but a delivery person.

The phrase also served as a catch phrase for hello and goodbye between the two characters.