60 Minutes' short-lived spinoff "Up to the Minute"

 In the 1981-1982 season, CBS launched a daily spinoff of its smash hit newsmagazine 60 Minutes. It's difficult to get information about this short-lived program, but a promo recently appeared on YouTube:

According to the book Total Television, the series was a half-hour newsmagazine intended to get the network a piece of the territory that was traditionally the domain of its affiliates.  Many of those local stations were unwilling to clear the show in its 4:00 timeslot, though, and it only lasted 16 weeks. A different CBS News personality hosted the program each day.

The show is a footnote now, but it's an interesting failure and a little-known attempt by CBS to milk its franchise.  Later on, the network would have more success replicating the format in prime time.

I was able to find one complete episode on YT, this from October 1981. Note the local-news-style opening. It's a one-topic episode with Mike Wallace anchoring and leading a discussion after the taped piece. And doing commentary is not Andy Rooney, but Bob Keeshan in "civilian" form!

YouTube Spotlight: "60 Minutes" Point/Counterpoint

One of the clips in this week's 60 Minutes video playlist is an example of the segment that preceded Andy Rooney's commentaries on the show: "Point/Counterpoint."

When the newsmagazine debuted in 1968, it featured "Digressions,"  which showed a then-behind-the-camera Rooney and producer Palmer Williams ("Ipso and Facto") making wry exchanges about one of the topics on the episode. "Point/Counterpoint" replaced it in 1972 with debates between two Washington newspapermen: conservative James Kilpatrick and liberal Nicholas von Hoffman.  Later, Shana Alexander sparred with Kilpatrick, and the ensuing dynamic is the source of the Dan Akroyd/Jane Curtin segments on Saturday Night Live:

The Andy Rooney commentaries in essence replaced the segment, though there was apparently some overlap. Kilpatrick himself said that 60 Minutes jefe Don Hewitt axed the bit after Alexander asked for a pay raise.

The 60 Minutes video playlist is now live!

After listening to this week's podcast, get more 60 Minutes and CBS News--and more--by watching our video playlist for the episode.  Click below to see classic segments like Morley Safer and The Great One, Harry Reasoner on Casablanca, Dan Rather on Disco, and more! Also, you can see the full episode w/ads that we review on the pod! All this and promos, commercials, interviews, and of course Joe Piscopo!

And remember to visit our official YouTube channel anytime for past episodes of the podcast as well as video playlists for each one!

Show Notes: Episode 8-9: 60 Minutes

*60 Minutes premiered on CBS in 1968 and has aired ever since, mostly (and since 1975) in the Sunday at 7:00 P.M. timeslot.

*Time to play Still on or Not still on?

West 57th: Not still on!
Primetime Live: Not still on!
48 Hours: Still on!
Dateline: Still on!
60 Minutes Sports: Not still on!
60 Minutes II: Not still on (1999-2005)!
MTV 60 Minutes (AKA 5 Minutes): Never on!

*Wikipedia credits 1953's BBC series Panorama as the first TV newsmagazine.

*60 Minutes became a top 20 show in 1976, a top 10 show the next season, and a number one show in the 1979-1980 season. It was then a fixture in the top 10 well into the Nineties.

*Ed Bradley's passing inspired Washington D.C. newsman Jim Vance to get his own earring as a tribute.

*Lesley Stahl is the current dean of the show, still featured as a correspondent after joining the cast in 1991.

*The book we refer to on the pod is 60 Minutes: 25 Years of Television's Finest Hour by Frank Coffey. The book came out in 1993, when the show was still arguably at its peak.

*Harry Smith covered the anniversary of Woodstock for CBS in 2009, sharing this:

And Woodstock was "something else" for Smith, who recvalled it as a world removed from him at the time.
"In August the summer of '69, I had a brush cut, I was reporting for football practice at (college). It was a completely different world," he said, adding with a smile, "I caught up."

*The Morning Program with Rolland Smith, Mariette Hartley, Mark McEwan, and Bob Saget (!) premiered January 12, 1987, failed, and was quickly replaced (November) by CBS This Morning with Kathleen Sullivan and Harry Smith.

*This particular episode of 60 Minutes debuted March 13, 1983, at 7:00, followed by the comedy lineup of Archie Bunker's Place, Gloria, The Jeffersons, and Newhart. Trapper John, M.D. closed the night. During this 82-83 season, Alice was on Wednesdays (same night as Tucker's Witch!) but returned to Sunday in September.

ABC had Search (not our beloved one), Matt Houston, and The China Syndrome.  NBC's lineup was Voyagers, Chips, and the movie Nightkill.

*The spinoff for kids, 30 Minutes, aired 1978-1982 on Saturday afternoons.

*Two articles from The New York Times about the Thomas Reed case:
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/11/business/insider-case-faces-us-probe.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/17/business/jury-clears-reed-in-amax-case.html

*Want to learn more about Moundville, Alabama? Here you go.

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...