"Mister Rogers' Neighborhood won four Emmy awards, and Rogers received one for
lifetime achievement.
During the 1997 Daytime Emmys, the Lifetime Achievement
Award was presented to Rogers .
The following is an excerpt from Esquire's coverage of the gala, written by Tom
Junod:
Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the award — and there,
in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of
all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small
bow and said into the microphone, 'All of us have special ones who have
loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think
of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of
silence.'
And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked
at his watch, and said, 'I'll watch the time.' There was, at first, a
small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people
realized that he wasn't kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient
eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do
what he asked. And so they did. One second, two seconds, three seconds — and
now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the
tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal
chandelier. And Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said softly 'May God be with you,' to all his vanquished children." -Wikipedia
