I just watched a terrific PBS documentary about David Newell.

Never heard of him, you say? Guess again.

I have expressed my respect for the late Fred Rogers both here and in the pages of the T-G. Well, David Newell played Mr. McFeely, the “Speedy Delivery” man who was a fixture on the program and who, since Rogers’ death, has become the primary goodwill ambassador and public spokesman for the program. Newell makes public appearances to meet and greet the children who still watch Mister Rogers and their nostalgic parents.

It would be easy to be a little cynical about David Newell. I think of the farce “Galaxy Quest” and its satire of cast members from a “Star Trek”-like TV show, hopelessly typecast and stuck in a sort of living hell of re-enacting their past glories at conventions and personal appearances. But Newell, who seems to have had a seamless personal and professional relationship to Rogers, doesn’t see himself that way. He sees himself as the representative of an important legacy — a television program that told and continues to tell millions of young people they are special at an age when that’s a message they vitally need to hear.

I thought it was interesting that some of the people in the documentary talked about what a good listener Newell is and how he seems genuinely interested in the person to whom he happens to be talking, even if that’s at the tail end of a long day of personal appearances. That’s a quality I also heard ascribed to Fred Rogers, more than once.

The current head of WQED, the Pittsburgh public TV station which was Rogers’ home base, refers to Newell as “a living artifact,” and his laughter at his own clever phrase is annoyingly condescending. But I think there is something noble and admirable in Newell’s continued devotion to the ideals and the influence of his former boss.

To quote a song from Stephen Colbert’s recent Christmas special, there are much worse things to believe in.