Old-Fashioned, But Classic
There may be an infinite number of reasons why CBS News Sunday Morning is special. Jeff Greenfield, a Sunday Morning alumnus who was with the program at the beginning, gives his reason why it still stands out.
Whenever I meet creators of a classic piece of television, they almost always say the same thing: "It would never get on today."
Whether they're talking about Sid Caesar, "All in the Family," "M*A*S*H," "Nightline" or "Seinfeld," they mean the same thing. There's no way risk-averse medium would try programs that broke the rules.
I often think that way about "Sunday Morning." Would any network today spend time and money on an early Sunday morning timeslot; on a program that celebrated classical music, theatre, the arts; where stories ran 8 or 9 minutes; and where a barely soiled television virgin was told to cover television — limited only by the cautions: "No libel, no obscenity and remain fully clothed?"
Yes, television news existed in a very different universe. But before we assume that those changes have all been for the worse, consider what we did not have back then.
There were no "Nightline"; no "Jim Lehrer News Hour"; no CNN, MSNBC or Fox News; no C-SPAN; no Charlie Rose; no History Channel or Discovery Channel; and when you talked about Web TV, you were talking about Jack Webb.
The fact is, people looking for in-depth, serious, information and conversation, there's more of it today — a lot more — than there was 25 years ago. The problem is that's not all there is.
With the explosion of all news-all the time, purveyors have discovered that you can reach "critical mass." They try to get enough viewers to boost the ratings —- no matter how trivial the story is, even if there's nothing remotely new or significant to report. I don't know if they're going to start throwing mud pies at each other, but there's a lot of time to fill.
Well, OK, that's the cable and syndicated world, right? No. What the broadcast networks have discovered is that if they "enhance the news" —- use the same techniques Hollywood has used, they can make the news more like the stuff that's made up.
Techniques that were firing offenses back then — laying in music, dramatic recreations, dramatic lighting, rapid cuts to suggest energy — are now run of the mill. So are mobile anchors.
Once, they were anchored to their desks. They now stand, perch, and in some places, walk urgently from position to position. Can you imagine anyone on Sunday Morning walking and moving and twisting and turning -- all to communicate urgent, up-to-the-minute, my-God-this-is-important, I-can't-stand-it-energy!
And why? Because of the remote control that can now bring viewers not six or 10 channels, but hundreds -- at the flick of a thumb.
If you can find something new every single second, of course, the TV-boys are petrified you will. They have to bludgeon you to stay with hysterical promos. Imagine if Sunday Morning went that route.
Imagine hearing from anchor Charles Osgood: "Next, Sunday Morning peeks through those shocking Chagall windows they didn't want you to see. You won't believe what our hidden cameras found!"
Twenty-five years ago, Charles Kuralt began the first broadcast by proclaiming, "Here begins something new." Such a show offered today for the first time might be shunned as hopelessly old-fashioned. For which a few million viewers give silent thanks every week.
Jeff Greenfield is CNN's senior analyst and contributor to "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics." He also contributes regularly to other network programs, including "American Morning" and "NewsNight with Aaron Brown." Most recently, he was host of CNN's "Greenfield at Large," a multi-forum program dedicated to the most relevant issues of the day.
Originally aired Jan. 25, 2004