TV Talk: Son of Mr. McFeely follows in his ‘speedy delivery’ footsteps on ‘Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood’

A second-generation Newell will make a “Speedy Delivery” on PBS’s “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” the animated spin-off of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Alex Newell, the 39-year-old son of Pittsburgh actor David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and continues to make occasional public appearances as the character, makes a brief cameo in the filmed-in-Pittsburgh, live-action interstitial between two animated “DTN” stories at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday on WQED-TV.

Alex Newell has been a postal carrier for about five years and made his “Speedy Delivery” debut at the Pittsburgh unveiling of the Mister Rogers postage stamp in 2018. Alex studied sports management in college, worked for John Elway’s Colorado Crush arena football team, studied acting and appeared in some independent films. After moving back to Pittsburgh following a stint in Los Angeles, Newell sought out a new line of work.

“I’m diabetic and was looking for jobs that have good health insurance and benefits, and I wanted to be outdoors, didn’t want to work inside and do the indoor cubicle thing,” Alex said. “I was thinking, it will be kind of funny if I got the (USPS) job, and then I ended up getting it. It’s pretty ironic.”

David Newell recalled when he first learned of his son’s new occupation.

“He took a civil service test that encompasses all government jobs, and then he said, ‘I’m gonna be working for the post office,” David recalled Tuesday while taking a break from responding to the fan mail he still receives. “I said, ‘Are you going to be a mailman?’ He said yes and I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”

Newell lives in Springdale but he works out of the East Liberty post office and his route includes Squirrel Hill, the neighborhood that was once home to Fred Rogers and his family. (Newell said he doesn’t deliver regularly to either of the Rogers’ former Squirrel Hill homes but he has delivered to the one on Beechwood Boulevard when filling in or working overtime.)

David said he mailed a package to former “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” co-star Mary Rawson, who played Cousin Mary Owl in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, and Alex ended up delivering it to her.

“He seems to love it, making those deliveries,” David said. “I can be a pretend mailman but I could never be a real one. I wouldn’t like the in and out and up the steps, down the steps, but I think I would like the interaction with people. In a way he’s interacting with people and doing the same thing I do when I meet kids and families at these different events.”

The short story in the interstitial follows a girl named Eve as she sends a care package to her friend, Liz. (For a Mister Rogers Easter egg, take note of Liz’s house number on the package: 143, representing the number of letters in each word of the phrase “I love you,” a Fred Rogers favorite.)

“DTN” supervising producer Chris Loggins said when planning the care package segment, producers reached out to Alex Newell knowing he was a postal carrier.

“He was such a good sport throughout the whole process,” Loggins said.

For filming, Newell traded in his USPS hat for a Speedy Delivery ball cap, once sold at ShopSteelCity.com but no longer available.

Filmed in 2019 pre-covid, Alex said he didn’t consult David on playing the part, which Alex notes is slightly different from Alex’s day job: “He always said he’s not a mailman, he’s a deliveryman. It’s a little different, but pretty close.

“I figured I could pull it off with a signature ‘speedy delivery’ look and finger point and the hat,” Alex said.

Comparing his day job to his father’s legendary TV role, Alex finds some comparisons.

“They want you to work fast, and that goes with his character,” Alex said. “They want you to be speedy. I’m trying to run around pretty fast and, yeah, this is what my dad acts like as McFeely.”

Both father and son recalled morning drives to school when Alex was a child where Alex would read lines from scenes to be filmed that day with his father, helping David rehearse.

“I would go watch them filming,” Alex also recalled.

David says there might even be another Newell who’s interested in following in those quick-moving, speedy delivery footsteps. Alex’s son, Ashton, is only a year-and-a-half but David calls him a “DTN” viewer-in-training.

“I was over there for dinner on Sunday and Ashton seemed like he’s gonna be a deliveryman, too,” David said. “He picks up his favorite toy and brings it to you first thing when you come into the house. Maybe we’re grooming another deliveryman.”

“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” turns 10 in 2022 and will celebrate next fall with the launch of the show’s sixth season featuring episodes devoted to open mindedness, standing up for what’s right and self-regulation.

FRP’s ‘Alma’s Way’

Coming this fall, PBS premieres the latest animated show from Fred Rogers Productions, “Alma’s Way,” debuting Oct. 4.

Created by former “Sesame Street” actor-writer Sonia Manzano and inspired by her own childhood, “Alma’s Way” tells the story of a confident 6-year-old Puerto Rican girl growing up in the Bronx. Each story encourages children to pause, listen and process before making a difficult decision.

Manzano said because “Alma’s Way” is done in animation, the process is longer.

“But I learned from ‘Sesame Street’ that humor takes you a long way and that sincerity takes you a long way. Kids really want to live in the real world,” she said Wednesday during PBS’s portion of the Television Critics Association virtual summer 2021 press tour. “I have taken those concepts that I learned on ‘Sesame Street’ into this different production.”

‘Masterpiece’ updates

PBS’s early 2020 hit “All Creatures Great and Small” will return in early 2022 but some other “Masterpiece” shows have been delayed by the pandemic.

In addition to “Grantchester” moving from summer to fall — a new season premieres Oct. 3 — “Endeavour” and “Van Der Valk” won’t be back until 2022.

As for the resurrected “Sanditon,” “Masterpiece” executive producer Susanne Simpson said production on season two began three weeks ago, and it’s expected to air in late 2022.

“I can’t give you an exact date yet; that will probably come out sometime in October, so we’ll let you know then,” Simpson said.

Veteran “Masterpiece” sponsor, Viking Cruises, renewed its financial support of the venerable PBS drama series through 2023.

Ken Burns’ ‘Muhammad Ali’

The latest documentary series from Ken Burns (“The Civil War”), the eight-and-a-half-hour “Muhammad Ali” (8 p.m. Sept. 19-22, WQED-TV) chronicles the life and career of the boxer formerly known as Cassius Clay. But it arrives with some punches thrown after 140 documentary filmmakers sent PBS a letter in March calling out the service for a lack of diversity in its filmmaking ranks and an over-reliance on Burns.

In a TCA press conference Wednesday, Burns defended his ubiquity on PBS.

“I get substantially less from PBS as a percentage of my budget than other filmmakers. And I go out to private individuals and foundations, corporations, and I have encouraged them all to help invest in diverse filmmaking and the filmmakers of tomorrow,” Burns said. “I am in the business of history, and that includes everyone. I have throughout my professional life tried to tell the story of this country in an inclusive way, and that means talking about race and trying to tell stories from multiple perspectives.”

Burns said 40% of the core crew on “Ali” are people of color and 53% are women and that 25 years ago when he began working on the 2001 documentary “Jazz,” the numbers were essentially the same on that project.

“We, of course, encourage others to tell their own stories, and we celebrate that,” Burns said. “But I do not accept that only people of a particular background can tell certain stories about our past, particularly in the United States of America.”

Channel surfing

There’s another anchor shakeup coming to “CBS This Morning” as Anthony Mason exits as a co-anchor and recent fill-in Nate Burleson takes his place. … WQED’s “The Great Ride,” which premiered in March 2018 profiling the Great Allegheny Passage biking destination, gets a follow-up with 12 three-minute online episodes premiering Thursdays beginning Aug. 19 and continuing through Nov. 4 at wqed.org/ride. They’ll be compiled into a one-hour documentary airing on WQED-TV in spring 2022. … When WPXI-TV launches its 4 p.m. newscast on Sept. 13, anchored by Susan Koeppen, reporter Liz Kilmer will be the broadcast’s breaking news desk anchor.