Eliot Daley - Show Writer of Mister Rogers Neighborhood

Welcome To The Neighborhood

 

Welcome To The Neighborhood: A Mister Rogers Tribute Podcast

I’m your host, Rick Lee James of RickLeeJames.com and I run the Mister Rogers Quotes Twitter account found @MisterRogersSay.

As we again walk into this podcast neighborhood, we want you to know that no matter where you are from, you are welcome here. I’m glad to be your neighbor. Every daughter, every son, every tribe, and every tongue, in the Spirit of Fred Rogers and the life of welcome that he lived, welcome to the neighborhood.

This week in the neighborhood, we’re having a visit with Eliot Daley.

About Our Guest (In His Own Words)

Eliot Daley

www.eliotdaley.com

My life’s work spans multiple causes and enterprises.  Early in my career I taught and counseled at both the high school and college levels, was a chaplain (Middlebury College) and a parish minister, while simultaneously studying the social impact of TV.  Realizing that children’s exposure to the world through TV (not a feature of my own upbringing in the 40s and 50s) would dramatically change their social and emotional and informational environments, I pursued all the available research on the subject and shared what I learned by producing workshops and writing articles on the subject for various national publications.  

As part of my ongoing research into children’s programs, I encountered the then-fledgling production of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” in 1969 and set up a meeting with Fred Rogers to learn more about it and to write an article about his program and work.  We spent a weekend together with our families and realized instantly that we were comrades-in-arms.  Shortly thereafter he asked me if I would consider joining him as his co-writer and executive head of the company, and I eagerly accepted his invitation.  

In the early years, I wrote 15-20 of the 65 programs we produced annually, but my management responsibilities for the ancillary non-broadcast products (books, records, educational materials) eventually displaced my time for writing scripts.  Production of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was recessed in the late 1970s after nearly 500 episodes, and I went on to undertake other pursuits.  But of course Fred and I remained intimate friends all the rest of our lives and conferred often about matters both the serious and silly.

Later, I founded or co-founded several consulting companies.  The first of these provided counsel to philanthropists, foundations and major corporations like AT&T to optimize their charitable contributions.  Another of my companies developed long-range strategy for health care organizations including Mayo Clinic and Johnson & Johnson.  Later, I was a leader in several medical technology companies, from which pursuits I retired to devote myself to full-time writing.

I maintain a blog (“The Daley Almanac”) and am the author of Father Feelings (William Morrow and Pocketbooks), Sick and Tired of Being Fat (HarperCollins and Hazelden), numerous articles and Op-Eds and letters to the Editor.  I have completed manuscripts for two more books, Taking Your Lumps (a lessons-learned-in-business memoir) and Formerly Called ‘Retirement’ (reflections on the psychological transition to a world beyond the realm of employment).  

I hold the A.B. and M.A. degrees in the social sciences and education, respectively, from California State University at Fresno and the Th.M. degree in theology from San Francisco Theological Seminary (Presbyterian).  I am married to the Rev. Patricia Daley, and we are the parents of three adult children engaged in non-profit pursuits to heal the breaches in creation.  In addition to spending time with my family and other friends, my personal delights include tennis, sailing, golf, travel, theater, music, books, auto racing, fireworks, worship, kite-flying, writing, singing, and daydreaming.

—Eliot Daley

 

Thank you for joining us here this week in the neighborhood.

Music featured on podcast Is Won’t You Be My Neighbor performed by Rick Lee James.

Special Thanks to my guest Eliot Daley

And The @MisterRogersSay Community on Twitter

I’m your host Rick Lee James. My web site is RickLeeJames.com, My other Podcast is Voices In My Head (The Rick Lee James Podcast), and I look forward being with you again next time.

Until Then: You make each day a special day. You know how, by just your being you. There's only one person in this whole world like you. And people can like you exactly as you are.