TV Talk: David Newell, aka Mr. McFeely on ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ to receive Emmy honor

Pittsburgh actor David Newell, who for more than three decades played Speedy Deliveryman Mr. McFeely on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” will be inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Gold Circle at the second Children’s & Family Emmy Awards in Los Angeles Dec. 17.

The Gold Circle is reserved for inductees who “have performed distinguished service within the industry, setting standards for achievement, mentoring, leadership and professional accolades” for 50 years.

In addition, current Fred Rogers Productions chief creative officer Ellen Doherty will be inducted into the Silver Circle for 25 years of service in the industry.

Newell’s Mr. McFeely, named after Fred Rogers’ maternal grandfather, was a fixture on the “Neighborhood,” often interacting with Mister Rogers by delivering packages or video tapes for Picture Picture. Newell, who also worked as a publicist for “MRN,” continued to make appearances in costume as the character for years after production on the series ended in 2000 and he still appears as himself at pop culture fan conventions.

Newell said when FRP CEO Paul Siefken called with news of the award, Newell thought he was calling about McFeely’s costume being added to a display case at the Smithsonian.

“I thought he was kidding me at first,” Newell said. “If you stick around for over 50 years, you get an award or two and I have.”

A 2008 documentary, “Speedy Delivery,” chronicled Newell’s contributions to the “Neighborhood,” and he was featured in the 2018 documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Newell, along with Joanne Rogers and several former “MRN” employees, had cameos in the restaurant scene in the 2019 Tom Hanks film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

Following the 2021 death of Joanne Rogers, Newell became the foremost torchbearer of Fred Rogers’ legacy.

He routinely speaks to educators and community groups about Rogers’ work.

“My favorite aspect [of being on the show] and I think it was Fred’s too, is Fred didn’t like being a television star. That is not what he was aiming to do,” Newell said. “He was using television to help children and families. What made me happy about that is I was able in a small way to help with that, to be McFeely and he would use McFeely as a conduit for his message.”

Newell, 84, said he’s “chopping away” at writing his memoirs about his time working with Rogers.

“The feeling I want to be in the book is the feeling I have about working with him, how easy he was but also demanding. Not demanding in a negative way, but he wanted things to be just right for children and I appreciated his trust in me,” Newell said. “I want audiences to know that Fred had a strong background not only in child development but theology as well as music and he took all of those disciplines and used them in ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.’”

Newell recalled a time when they were filming a scene and the X the Owl puppet character was crying because he’d lost something. The human in the scene said, “Don’t cry.” Rogers wanted to do the scene again with the human actor offering a different response to X’s tears.

“Fred said, ‘Don’t say, “Don’t cry,” because that’s denying an emotion, and it’s perfectly natural to be sad when you’ve lost something,’” Newell recalled. “Fred was that careful. So then the actor said something like, ‘What can I do to help you, X?’ Fred was almost a perfectionist especially when it came to getting the right words in the right order for children to be comforting. I hope I can tell people that when you met Fred, you could see it wasn’t an act. It was for real. I hope I can convey to people the purity that he had. That is what I hope to be able to spread around as his legacy.”

Doherty joined FRP in 2016 and oversees current FRP series “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Odd Squad,” “Donkey Hodie” and “Alma’s Way.” She was nominated for an outstanding documentary/non-fiction special prime-time Emmy for PBS’s 2018 program “Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like.” Before her work at FRP, Doherty was executive producer on PBS Kids’ “Cyberchase.”

Additional Gold Circle honorees include “Saved by the Bell” executive producer Peter Engel and “Adventure Time” creator Fred Seibert.”

Additional Silver Circle honorees include Disney Branded Television executive Vicki Ariyasu, children’s media strategist David Kleeman, “Sesame Street” executive producer Carol Lynn-Parente, voice casting director Andrea Romano (“Batman Beyond”), “Animaniacs” creator Tim Ruegger and Apple TV+ head of children’s programming Tara Sorensen.

In addition, several Fred Rogers’ Productions shows received nominations in the Children’s & Family Emmy Awards, including for writing for a preschool animated program (“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood”), puppetry performance (Frankie Cordero and Haley Jenkins for “Donkey Hodie”), puppet design and styling (“Donkey Hodie”) and hairstyling and makeup (“Odd Squad”).

The Children’s & Family Emmy Awards will be live-streamed at 8 p.m. ET Dec. 17 at watch.theemmys.tv.

‘Honors’ back on CBS

Gloria Estefan will host “The 46th Annual Kennedy Center Honors,” saluting Billy Crystal, Renee Fleming, Barry Gibb, Queen Latifah and Dionne Warwick, airing at 9 p.m. Dec. 27.

Channel surfing

Disney+ will roll out nine new season two episodes of Marvel’s animated “What If…?” over nine consecutive days beginning Dec. 22. … Jimmy Kimmel will host the Oscars for the fourth time in 2024. … In celebration of his 98th birthday, CBS offers a new two-hour special, “Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic” (9-11 p.m. Dec. 21, KDKA-TV). … “Judy Justice,” the “Judge Judy” successor series that streams on Amazon Freevee, will enter syndication in Fall 2024. It will be interesting to see if any Pittsburgh stations pick up the series given that “Judge Judy” served as a strong lead-in to Channel 11 evening newscasts for many years. … Hulu will debut the 12th and final season of “Letterkenny” Dec. 26. … “9-1-1: Lone Star” won’t return to Fox with new episodes until Fall 2024.