#60 minutes andy rooney dies tv#
He went on TV for the first time, reading the essay on PBS and winning a Writers Guild of America award for it. Rooney left CBS in 1970 when it refused to air his angry essay about the Vietnam War. For many years, “60 Minutes” improbably was the most popular program on television and a dose of Rooney was what people came to expect for a knowing smile on the night before they had to go back to work. ” Rooney never started any of his essays that way. He became such a part of the culture that comic Joe Piscopo satirized Rooney’s squeaky voice with the refrain, “Did you ever. Nobody knows that I’m a writer and producer. “But nobody knows I can do it or ever did it. Given a challenge to write on any topic, he wrote “An Essay on Doors” in 1964, and continued with contemplations on bridges, chairs and women. He wrote for CBS’ Garry Moore during the early 1960s before settling into a partnership with Harry Reasoner at CBS News. Godfrey hired him and by 1953, when he moved to TV, Rooney was his only writer. Rooney was a freelance writer in 1949 when he encountered CBS radio star Arthur Godfrey in an elevator and - with the bluntness millions of people learned about later - told him his show could use better writing. His last wish from fans: If you see him in a restaurant, just let him eat his dinner. True to his occasional crotchety nature, though, he complained about being famous or bothered by fans. He said he probably hadn’t said anything on “60 Minutes” that most of his viewers didn’t already know or hadn’t thought.
“60 Minutes” will end its broadcast Sunday with a tribute to Rooney by veteran correspondent Morley Safer.įor his final essay, Rooney said that he’d live a life luckier than most. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms. Jeff Fager, CBS News chairman and “60 Minutes” executive producer, said “it’s hard to imagine not having Andy around. “Words cannot adequately express Andy’s contribution to the world of journalism and the impact he made - as a colleague and a friend - upon everybody at CBS,” said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. He told viewers that Calvin Coolidge’s 1925 swearing-in was the first to be broadcast on radio, adding, “That may have been the most interesting thing Coolidge ever did.” In early 2009, as he was about to turn 90, Rooney looked ahead to President Barack Obama’s upcoming inauguration with a look at past inaugurations. “We’ll pick a week next year and we’ll all agree not to go anywhere for seven days.” “Let’s make a statement to the airlines just to get their attention,” he said. More than three decades later, he was railing about how unpleasant air travel had become. In fact, he said, the Fourth of July is “one of the safest weekends of the year to be going someplace.” He complained about people who keep track of how many people die in car accidents on holiday weekends. Looking for something new to punctuate its weekly broadcast, “60 Minutes” aired its first Rooney commentary on July 2, 1978. “And they say, `Hey, yeah!’ And they like that.”
As Rooney told viewers on that last appearance, he had led a lucky life.“I obviously have a knack for getting on paper what a lot of people have thought and didn’t realize they thought,” Rooney once said. "I'm a writer - who reads what he's written."Įver the grouch, he asked viewers to leave him alone in retirement. I don't think of myself as a television personality," he said.
"When I went on television, it was as a writer. In early October, the real Rooney offered his valedictory essay: "Where's the long curly cord? Maybe it comes in a separate package - maybe 40 years ago - when I was 75." "You're probably wondering the same thing I am," he said, doing an impression of Rooney figuring out the iPhone. "He just reminds me of what a great country we live in where a person can watch somebody slowly go insane on television," comedian Frank Caliendo said during a standup routine on his TBS show. But even his less controversial remarks inspired material for countless comedians. Image: Bebeto Matthews/APĪt times, he offended viewers, and he was briefly suspended for remarks about gays and blacks. 27, 2011, that commentator Andy Rooney would be making his last 60 Minutes appearance on the show's Oct.
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