Engaging the Audiences

Fred Roger is quite an example for me as a creator, producer, head writer,

showrunner. He really taught the language of love through "Mister Rogers's Neighborhood" with a preschool television series, where he was the host, the musician, the puppeteer, and especially "himself". 

His ability to communicate with children and to help them understand and deal with difficult questions in of life was remarkable. He encouraged them to express their emotions in a healthy, constructive manner, often providing a simple answer to life's hardships. He wanted to help them to understand the important role they played in their communities and in their families. His message was: "I like you how you are." "You are not a mistake" "The essential is not visible to the eyes." He believed that kids needed to know that they are fully accepted, especially when they are growing up. He made sure that in his contents he would always be inclusive (with racial issues too). He was constantly communicating into their hearts dealing with different topics, with simplicity and tenderness. Each episode had a segment dedicated to the events in Neighborhood of Make-Believe, which distinguished between the realistic world of its fictional world and the imaginary.  

He would say"In the USA kids are appreciated for who they will be" not for who they are. This is so destructive.

Twelve years ago, like many others, I had a similar dream as Fred. I stepped out of my job as an art director to produce new content for the TV channels. My goal was to shape society with the values that my country was not considering anymore. I was so hungry to see a biblical worldview spread out in masses. Stupidity was shaping my culture and I had the conviction that creativity, fun, deep contents, wisdom could really make a better and healthier society.

The perfect animator to develop this project turned out to be my pastor. A great communicator, rooted in the biblical worldview, with the ability to communicate truth with a normal and not religious language. He had the same conviction I had. Our goal was to interact with the different social actors, being consequently Christian and at the same time contemporary. We were in agreement to have a critical look without prosecution. Choosing topics that would generate discussion and debate, around the clear objective of transmitting a value message...

The name of the programme turned out to be called  "Hazte Cargo". "Take Responsibility". We believe that we can´t pursue justice if we are not committed to take responsibilities and live the values that define us. We did more 300 programmes of all kind of interesting topics with important personalities. My role was the producer, make things happen. Even though we worked hard and put all our efforts to make a good TV Show, It took us many years to understand how actually TV works and finally able to reach out more successfully our target audiences (not Christians).

We had the wrong idea that to shape the society we had to show the facts: Secular World View v/s Biblical World View. That exposing the truth, was good enough. But It was only a good start. I didn't understand that "engaging" with the audiences doing an excellent show was the bridge to plant the seeds and in long-term influence society. The world is looking for close relationships, for being part of a community, for belonging. Nobody is interested in facts if there isn´t a strong relationship and commitment between the production and the audience. This is hard work. It means to invest in a whole life for a cause. Not a slice of our time like we did because of other big causes in the cake.

In conclusion, after 10 years of pursuing success, we got a little closer to our target audience, especially when we risked our reputation and did a Late Show. Economically, we did not find the people who had the vision and boldness to fully invest and support our project.  We reached our goals partially. The heart of the TV show, Bishop Alfred Cooper, that stands out for its extreme charisma, its sympathy and its intelligence, won a great credibility in our nation. He turned out to be a very important public person, inside and outside the Church. A true man of God. He is constantly invited to speak and to participate in big stuff related to transforming and bringing justice to our society.

Like Fred Rogers, that was focused to shape America expressing the values that the world isn't saying to children, Alfred is still focused to express successfully what the Church isnt´t saying to society. I would say that Fred and Alfred, while they were in TV, became promoters and supporters of the Christian values in the public media with demonstrations of unconditional love. This is so big!

I'm still looking forward to the investors that will risk their reputation to do a new season of wild and creative contents, to challenge the leaders of our Nation and each one of us that pursues a thoughtful and better society.

Truth & Transformation/ Documentary "Won´t you be my Neighbor?" Life of Fred Rogers