Andy Rooney at 91

Andy Rooney is profiled in today's USA Today, on his 91st birthday. There doesn't seem to be any retirement in sight for the nonagenarian. "I can't stop writing," he says. "I like to sit at the typewriter."

The Archive of American Television interviewed Andy Rooney in 1999. When asked how he'd like to be remebered he says: "I’d like to be remembered as a good writer, [but] I won’t be, I’ll be remembered as Andy Rooney, the guy who does those little things at the end of 60 Minutes."



Rooney talks about 60 Minutes and the rest of his long and distinguished career, that began as a print correspondent during World War II in his four-hour Archive of American Television interview.

Interview description:
Andy Rooney spoke about his 50-year career as a writer and producer for television. Rooney detailed his roots as a journalist writing for The Stars and Stripes during World War II. He talked about his entrance into radio and television as a staff writer for Arthur Godfrey and later on television’s The Morning Show with Will Rogers, Jr. and The Seven Lively Arts. He described his shift to the non-fiction form working on such CBS series as The Twentieth Century and Calendar. It was on the later series that Rooney first worked with newsman Harry Reasoner. He spoke in detail about the many CBS documentary specials the two collaborated on (Rooney as writer, Reasoner as narrator) including: An Essay on Doors (1964), A Bird’s Eye View of America (1964), and The Strange Case of the English Language (1968). Rooney talked about several other documentaries in which he contributed as a producer, writer, or a combination of the two including: Sinatra (1965, re-shown on CBS in 1998) and Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed (1968, Emmy winner). He talked about his long association with 60 Minutes, which began in 1968 when he wrote and appeared in (in silhouette) the recurring segment “Digressions,” a tongue-in-check 30-second “debate” on current events. He talked about his temporary break with CBS when the network refused to air an anti-Vietnam War piece An Essay on War, and the subsequent airing of it on PBS’s The Great American Dream Machine. Rooney described several documentaries he made for ABC and CBS in the 1970s including: A Small Town in Iowa, Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington, and Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner. Rooney spoke of his work writing and appearing in “A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney,” the literate and often cantankerous essays on everyday life that appear as an end-of-the program tag to 60 Minutes, a spot he has occupied since 1978. The interview was conducted by Don Carleton on June 22, 1999.

40 Years Times "60 Minutes"

The stopwatch still ticks for 60 Minutes, which first aired forty years ago today.

The newsmagazine has not only been a critical success, but also a popular one. According to The Complete Directory to Primetime Network and Cable TV Shows by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, 60 Minutes was the #1 rated show for the 1979-80 season as well as 1982-83 season, and a three-year run between 1991-1994 (besting Home Improvement, Roseanne, and Seinfeld in this period).

Created by legendary producer Don Hewitt, the original correspondents were Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner. Focusing on the show's "magazine" format, Variety opined on the show's premiere that "it should easily build a larger following than either Look or Life across the nation."

Many highlights from the series entire run (including the opening of the first show) are available for viewing on the CBS News website: 60 Minutes— 40 Years At the Top (1968-2008).

Also among the program's notable contributors who have been interviewed by the Archive of American Television through the years, include: Wade Bingham, Ed Bradley, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, and Joseph Wershba.