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Popular Culture Review
television, which means it has the flexibiUty and diversity of a magazine adapted
for broadcast journalism.” But Reasoner’s term signaled a change in style and
substance more than format. Producer Don Hewitt initially borrowed Robert Drew’s
gritty cinema verite approach developed in the Kennedy years. As Drew had filmed
Kennedy in his hotel room awaiting election returns in the 1960 Wisconsin primary,
Hewitt filmed candidates Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon in their hotel rooms
awaiting their nominations at the 1968 conventions.
The early installments also had several outright whimsical segments, including
satirical animations and a recurring segment called “Digressions,” which displayed
silhouettes of two figures trading mild insults. The premier shows the roots of the
point-counterpoint feature, which became a famihar lampoon on Saturday Night
Live, as well as today’s commentaries by Andy Rooney.
The original 60 Minutes was The New Yorker meets Life magazine for
television. The name “newsmagazine” stuck and has been apphed retroactively to
earlier news programs comprising segments of varying lengths, with an anchor or
anchors providing continuity. Except for 60 Minutes, which has settled into a steady
format of three reports and a commentary, many of the current magazines are more
creative, playful, interactive, and flexible in the style of the 60 Minutes original.
For many years it was common to think of documentaries and newsmagazines
as cousins, which made sense. One reason that Richard Salant of CBS News agreed
to broadcast 60 Minutes was that he needed a format that would fit between evening
news and documentary. The newsmagazine was intended to cover stories that
deserved more than a minute-thirty on nightly news but did not require the full
hour of a documentary treatment (Mascaro 1994).
NBC’s First Tuesday was revised in title and time period for several years.
The network tried other magazine programs in an effort to duphcate the longrunning success of its CBS competitor. All failed to mdXch 60 Minutes until Dateline,
which premiered in 1992, eventually struck a chord with viewers. Similarly, ABC’s
20/20 had to overcome early diff iculties before it settled into a comfortable spot in
prime time.
The rise of the newsmagazine occurred at the same time as a decline in the
number of documentaries, beginning in the late 1960s (Carroll). Consequently we
tend to see the magazine as the eventual replacement for documentaries. But as
described previously, newsmagazines and documentaries had always coexisted.
The two forms, though intertwined, should be viewed separately to understand the
current trend.
If there is a connection today, it is between the newsmagazine series and
entertainment programming. Unlike the documentaries, which were accepted as
loss leaders, today’s magazine shows are expected to reach an audience and bring
in ad revenue. The brand name news series are part and parcel of a network’s