60 Minutes

"60 Minutes" is definitely the originator of all the great television news magazines. Every Sunday night for several years I have either watched the show or listened to it on the local CBS radio affiliate here in Los Angeles. To me "60 Minutes" works in two different ways. The first is as an investigative program that looks hard at very controversial issues that the public should be made aware of. The show also is great at doing wonderful celebrity profiles. It really allows the general public to look at the lives of various celebrities and show what they are like once the spotlight is off. Of course, the show has its detractors who say that it has become very self important, but this will always be to me one of the most influential shows in the history of television.

60 Minutes has some occasional moments of juice, but it lost its edge. 60 Minutes years ago was a lot more interesting, had harder-hitting stories, more "raw" interviews, capturing priceless moments on camera of innocence, guilt, glory, fame, whatever.

However, the show today is tired and boring. There is no gusto. Is it a coincidence that once Lowell Bergman left, the show started to suck? Anyone who saw The Insider knows the story here. 60 Minutes "sold its soul" in the 1990's due to the tobacco scandal. Stock-owning executives from 60 Minutes falsified dangers that 60 Minutes would be the target of billion-dollar lawsuits from tobacco companies that would fell CBS if they aired a controversial public news piece from a former tobacco executive.

A partial result of the fallout was that Lowell Bergman, the main producer of the 60 Minutes tobacco segment, left the show and now works for Frontline, a brilliant PBS documentary news show. Frontline is FAR more interesting and hard-hitting than 60 Minutes has been in years.

Back to 60 Minutes...they seems to "go easy" these days and have one easy to medium news story. They mix that with some other "profile" type story, and throw in a non-threatening interview with some easygoing person. Something a teenager with a camcorder could do (follow around some singer and throw in some good writing).

All very boring for the most part. Too easy, no more edge.

60 Minutes used to the finest show around. Frontline years ago supplanted it as the best investigative journalism show around.

I began watching 60 Minutes around 1979. I was in high school and I have never stopped. As someone mentioned before me, it is definitely formula, but the formula definitely works. 20/20 and the multitude of other news shows that have attempted to imitate it have never come close. Watch this show and you will definitely learn something!

With the explosion of news magazine shows on the prime-time airwaves, it is useful to remember the long-running program that producers are trying to emulate: 60 Minutes.

This show combines investigative journalism, celebrity profiles, and features about interesting organizations and events. When it's a serious subject, you feel like they have fairly and objectively reported the story. Even with lighter topics you get the impression 60 Minutes has captured the essence of the story.

Each segment is about 15 minutes long; we get three in every one-hour show. When the subject is something serious, the viewer has the option of following up in detail on other sources.

Sure, it's a formula, but the 60 Minutes people perfected the formula. No one else on commercial television does such good journalism.

Why has this show consistently placed near the top of the ratings for three decades? Because it's damn good. Why do people tune into 60 Minutes every week, despite the fact that during football season it is often delayed due to long-running games? Because they know that 60 Minutes will deliver.

Jack and Shana's debates in the 70s were a little much to take, and I can't stand Andy Rooney's musings, but the core of the show has remained solid.

This is the news show to which other news shows aspire, and none has ever even come close. This show has been on for 35 years because people trust it. They know that what they see and hear will be the unvarnished, unbiased truth; while a fatuous blowhard like Bill O'Reilly can call his show "The No-Spin Zone" when it is actually nothing BUT spin, viewers know that "60 Minutes" doesn't "spin" anything; it's not afraid to take on powerful people, institutions and corporations, and in fact has even raked its own network over the coals on more than one occasion. The show has a reputation for integrity that is unparalleled in the history of TV, and the fact that it has often elicited howls of protest from both the right and the left because of its coverage or investigations of issues or people "sacred" to those particular political philosophies is testimony to its effectiveness. This show is as good as it's possible to get.