In fiction , a character or personage , is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel , play , radio or television series , music , film , or video game ). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction of a "fictional" versus "real" character may be made. Derived from the Ancient Greek word χαρακτήρ , the English word dates from the Restoration , although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones by Henry Fielding in 1749. From this, the sense of "a part played by an actor " developed. (Before this development, the term dramatis personae , naturalized in English from Latin and meaning "masks of the drama", encapsulated the notion of characters from the literal aspect of masks .) Character, particularly when enacted by an actor in the theater or cinema, involves "the illusion of being a human person". In literature, characters guide readers through their stories, helping them to understand plots and ponder themes. Since the end of the 18th century, the phrase " in character " has been used to describe an effective impersonation by an actor. Since the 19th century, the art of creating characters, as practiced by actors or writers , has been called characterization .
95-441: Alejandro " Alex " Sosa is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1983 American crime film Scarface and the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours . He is an international Bolivian drug lord and the chief supplier of cocaine for his business partner Tony Montana . Sosa is portrayed by Paul Shenar in the film and voiced by Robert Davi in the 2006 video game, and speaks with an American accent. He
190-526: A "wacko", on occasion led to complaints from viewers. In 1990, Rooney was suspended without pay for three months by then-CBS News President David Burke, because of the negative publicity around his saying that "too much alcohol , too much food, drugs, homosexual unions, cigarettes [are] all known to lead to premature death." He wrote an explanatory letter to a gay organization after being ordered not to do so. After four weeks without Rooney, 60 Minutes lost 20% of its audience. CBS management concluded that it
285-459: A bomb in the journalist's car. However, the journalist is unexpectedly accompanied by his wife and children, causing Montana to call off the hit. Shadow refuses and intends to detonate the bomb, causing Montana to shoot The Shadow in the head. Later, when Montana reaches his home, Sosa calls him angrily and inquires about the incident. Montana offends him and in retaliation, the infuriated Sosa sends his assassins to Montana's home to finish him. Despite
380-454: A character requires an analysis of its relations with all of the other characters in the work. The individual status of a character is defined through the network of oppositions (proairetic, pragmatic , linguistic , proxemic ) that it forms with the other characters. The relation between characters and the action of the story shifts historically, often miming shifts in society and its ideas about human individuality, self-determination , and
475-438: A character using the basic character archetypes which are common to many cultural traditions: the father figure , mother figure, hero , and so on. Some writers make use of archetypes as presented by Carl Jung as the basis for character traits. Generally, when an archetype from some system (such as Jung's) is used, elements of the story also follow the system's expectations in terms of storyline . An author can also create
570-591: A corrupt police detective after Lopez confesses to hiring the hitmen to kill Tony. Tony becomes a drug lord in Miami and for a while, enjoys a period of mutual business prosperity with Sosa. When Tony Montana is arrested for tax evasion, Sosa offers to use his government contacts to keep Montana from going to prison. In exchange, Montana is to assassinate a journalist who is threatening to expose Sosa's illicit activities. Montana agrees and heads to New York City with Sosa's henchman Alberto "The Shadow", planning to detonate
665-479: A dialogue between Montana and Sosa where Sosa calls the former a "fucking little monkey". Rapper Chief Keef popularly goes by the nickname "Sosa" and he named his fifth child "Sno" meaning "The White Sosa". Montana's killing, ordered by Sosa, has been listed by Complex as the 1st one in its "Top 50 Movie Assassinations" list. The character Colonel Sanders in the South Park episode " Medicinal Fried Chicken "
760-460: A distinction between the individuals represented in tragedy and in comedy arose: tragedy, along with epic poetry , is "a representation of serious people" (1449b9—10), while comedy is "a representation of people who are rather inferior" (1449a32—33). In the Tractatus coislinianus (which may or may not be by Aristotle), Ancient Greek comedy is defined as involving three types of characters:
855-531: A drug deal with Sosa who asks them to guarantee the buying of a certain amount of cocaine every month. After some issues, Montana promises Sosa to talk with Lopez about sharing the risk. When Sosa is informed that Suarez was previously a police informant, Suarez is beaten by Sosa's henchmen and then hanged to death from a helicopter, which Tony witnesses. Sosa gives immediate respect to Tony due to his honesty and straightforward demeanour, even agreeing that Omar fooling Lopez "could happen to anyone". When Lopez hears of
950-429: A fictional character using generic stock characters , which are generally flat. They tend to be used for supporting or minor characters. However, some authors have used stock characters as the starting point for building richly detailed characters, such as William Shakespeare 's use of the boastful soldier character as the basis for John Falstaff . Some authors create charactonyms for their characters. A charactonym
1045-544: A former Customs Service employee, had passed the memos on to 60 Minutes , and even provided a copy with an official stamp. Camacho was not consulted about the piece, and his career was devastated in the immediate term as his own department placed suspicion on him. In the end, it turned out that Horner had forged the documents as an act of revenge for his treatment within the Customs Service. Camacho sued CBS and settled for an undisclosed amount of money in damages. Hewitt
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#17327804896601140-1030: A late game in a given week (or for Western time zones even if a doubleheader airs). Since the 2023–2024 season, the show began to have occasional 90-minute episodes. 60 Minutes is also simulcast on several former CBS Radio flagship stations. WBBM in Chicago, KRLD in Dallas, WWJ in Detroit, KNX in Los Angeles, KYW in Philadelphia, KCBS in San Francisco (all owned by Audacy ) and WBZ in Boston (owned by iHeartMedia ). Anchorage-based station KFQD airs 60 Minutes as part of its affiliation with local CBS station KAUU . When it airs locally on their sister CBS Television Network affiliate, even in
1235-461: A live version of competing editorials. In 1979, Alexander asked Hewitt to raise the $ 350 a week pay; Hewitt declined, and the segment ended. Point/Counterpoint was lampooned by the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live , which featured Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd as TV news reporters. Their segment featured a debate in comically complete abandonment of rhetorical decorum, with Aykroyd announcing
1330-518: A particular class or group of people is known as a type. Types include both stock characters and those that are more fully individualized . The characters in Henrik Ibsen 's Hedda Gabler (1891) and August Strindberg 's Miss Julie (1888), for example, are representative of specific positions in the social relations of class and gender , such that the conflicts between the characters reveal ideological conflicts. The study of
1425-417: A rebroadcast of his final commentary segment. The opening sequence features a 60 Minutes "magazine cover" with the show's trademark, an Aristo stopwatch , intercut with preview clips of the episode's stories. The sequence ends with each of the correspondents and hosts introducing themselves. The last host who appears (currently Scott Pelley ) then says, "Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes ". When Rooney
1520-443: A rule, during that era, news programming during prime time lost money; networks mainly scheduled public affairs programs in prime time in order to bolster the prestige of their news departments, and thus boost ratings for the regular evening newscasts, which were seen by far more people than documentaries and the like. 60 Minutes struggled under that stigma during its first three years. Changes to 60 Minutes came fairly early in
1615-430: A sale of CBS to Westinghouse Electric Corporation , including the head of CBS lawyers and CBS News. Also, because of the interview, the son of CBS President Laurence Tisch (who also controlled Lorillard Tobacco ) was among the people from the big tobacco companies at risk of being caught having committed perjury. Due to Hewitt's hesitation, The Wall Street Journal instead broke Wigand's story. The 60 Minutes piece
1710-441: A set with a backdrop resembling pages from a magazine story on the same topic. The program undertakes its own investigations and follows up on investigations instigated by national newspapers and other sources. Unlike its competitor 20/20 , as well as traditional local and national news programs, the 60 Minutes journalists never share the screen with (or speak to) other 60 Minutes journalists on camera at any time. This creates
1805-422: A strong psychological sense of intimacy between the journalist and the television viewer. 60 Minutes blends the journalism of the seminal 1950s CBS series See It Now with Edward R. Murrow (for which Hewitt served as director in its first years) and the personality profiles of another Murrow program, Person to Person . In Hewitt's words, 60 Minutes blends "higher Murrow" and "lower Murrow". For most of
1900-801: A strong ratings hit and, eventually, a general cultural phenomenon. This was no less than a stunning reversal of the historically poor ratings performances of documentary programs on network television. By 1976, 60 Minutes became the top-rated program on Sunday nights in the US. By 1979, it had achieved the #1 spot among all television programs in the Nielsen ratings , unheard of before for a news broadcast in prime time. This success translated into great profits for CBS; advertising rates increased from $ 17,000 per 30-second spot in 1975 to $ 175,000 in 1982. The program sometimes does not start until after 7:00 p.m. Eastern, due largely to CBS Sports live sporting events. At
1995-699: A total of 138 Emmy Awards , a record for U.S. primetime programs. The program has won 20 Peabody Awards for segments including "All in the Family", an investigation into abuses by government and military contractors; "The CIA's Cocaine", which uncovered CIA involvement in drug smuggling, "Friendly Fire", a report on incidents of friendly fire in the Gulf War ; "The Duke Rape Case", an investigation into accusations of rape at an off campus lacrosse team party in 2006; and "The Killings in Haditha", an investigation into
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#17327804896602090-401: A unique style of reporter-centered investigation. In 2002, 60 Minutes was ranked number six on TV Guide ' s list of the " 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time ", and in 2013, it was ranked number 24 on the magazine's list of the "60 Best Series of All Time". In 2023, Variety ranked 60 Minutes as the twentieth-greatest TV show of all time. The New York Times has called it "one of
2185-411: Is Yours , the ending of the film treatment was altered to establish that Tony won the climactic battle against Sosa's men, escaping before the police showed up, although Sosa had succeeded in ending Tony's drug empire. Tony quits using cocaine and the game focuses on Tony's efforts to rebuild his old drug empire on the ashes of his old one and to exact revenge upon Sosa. Sosa is not seen (though his voice
2280-458: Is a "walk-on", a term used by Seymour Chatman for characters that are not fully delineated and individualized; rather they are part of the background or the setting of the narrative. Dynamic characters are those that change over the course of the story, while static characters remain the same throughout. An example of a popular dynamic character in literature is Ebenezer Scrooge , the protagonist of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. At
2375-598: Is a name that implies the psychological makeup of the person, makes an allegorical allusion, or makes reference to their appearance. For example, Shakespeare has an emotional young male character named Mercutio , John Steinbeck has a kind, sweet character named Candy in Of Mice and Men , and Mervyn Peake has a Machiavellian, manipulative, and murderous villain in Gormenghast named Steerpike . The charactonym can also indicate appearance. For example, François Rabelais gave
2470-810: Is based on the Bolivian drug lord Roberto Suárez Gómez . Alejandro Sosa is presented in the film as a Bolivian landowner, hailing from a rich family, educated in England and currently the business brain and drug overlord of an empire that stretches across the Andes region. He is immensely wealthy and has wide-reaching political and criminal connections, both in Latin America and in the United States . Frank Lopez ( Robert Loggia ) sends Tony Montana (Al Pacino) and Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) to make
2565-468: Is heard through much of the game) until the final mission where he held a meeting with Gaspar Gomez and George Sheffield regarding the fact that Tony has taken over all of Miami and is now after them. Montana confronts Sosa in his living room after killing Gomez and Sheffield, and wiping out Sosa's men in his mansion in Bolivia. Sosa tells Montana he warned him not to betray him, but Montana did, referring to
2660-503: Is not attested in OED until mC18: 'Whatever characters any... have for the jestsake personated... are now thrown off' (1749, Fielding, Tom Jones ). 60 Minutes 60 Minutes is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard , who distinguished it from other news programs by using
2755-496: Is possible, therefore, to have stories that do not contain "characters" in Aristotle's sense of the word, since character necessarily involves making the ethical dispositions of those performing the action clear. If, in speeches, the speaker "decides or avoids nothing at all", then those speeches "do not have character" (1450b9—11). Aristotle argues for the primacy of plot ( mythos ) over character ( ethos ). He writes: But
2850-416: Is similar to Sosa. In fact, the character is a direct parody of Sosa. Sanders would paraphrase Sosa to drive the parody home by saying, "Don't fuck me, Eric. Don't you ever try to fuck me." This is Sosa's famous catchphrase, with Tony's name being switched with Eric Cartman's name, Cartman being the "Tony Montana" analogue of the episode. Character (arts) A character who stands as a representative of
2945-508: Is the longest continuously running program of any genre scheduled during American network prime time. It has aired at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sundays since December 7, 1975 (although since 2012, it moves to 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Sundays if CBS has a late NFL game). Meet the Press debuted in 1947 in prime time, but it has been a daytime program since 1965. The Walt Disney anthology television series , which premiered in 1954, and
Alejandro Sosa - Misplaced Pages Continue
3040-470: The Hallmark Hall of Fame , which has aired since 1951, have aired longer than 60 Minutes , but none of them has aired in prime time continually. The show has been praised for landmark journalism and received many awards. However, it has also become embroiled in some controversy, including (in order of appearance): On November 23, 1986, 60 Minutes aired a segment greenlit by Hewitt, concerning
3135-410: The 60 Minutes piece aired, Erhard filed a lawsuit against CBS, claiming that the broadcast contained several "false, misleading and defamatory" statements about him. One month after filing the lawsuit, Erhard filed for dismissal. Erhard later told Larry King in an interview that he dropped the suit after receiving legal advice telling him that in order to win it, he had to prove not only that CBS knew
3230-497: The Audi 5000 automobile, a popular German luxury car. The story covered a supposed problem of "unintended acceleration" when the brake pedal was pushed, with emotional interviews with six people who sued Audi (unsuccessfully) after they crashed their cars, including one woman whose six-year-old son had been killed. In the 60 Minutes segment footage was shown of an Audi 5000 with the accelerator "moving down on its own", accelerating
3325-473: The Watergate scandal ; at that time, few if any other major network news shows did in-depth investigative reporting to the degree carried out by 60 Minutes . Eventually, during the summers of 1973 through 1975, CBS did allow the program back onto the prime time schedule proper, on Fridays in 1973 and Sundays the two years thereafter, as a replacement for programs aired during the regular television season. It
3420-467: The buffoon ( bômolochus ), the ironist ( eirōn ), and the imposter or boaster ( alazṓn ). All three are central to Aristophanes ' Old Comedy . By the time the Roman comic playwright Plautus wrote his plays two centuries later, the use of characters to define dramatic genres was well established. His Amphitryon begins with a prologue in which Mercury claims that since
3515-412: The iTunes Store , starting with the broadcast on September 23, 2007. Video from 60 Minutes (including full episodes) is also made available for streaming several hours after the program's initial broadcast on CBSNews.com and Paramount+ . 60 Minutes normally has three long-form news stories without superimposed graphics. There is a commercial break between two stories. Each story is introduced from
3610-446: The social order . In fiction writing , authors create dynamic characters using various methods. Sometimes characters are conjured up from imagination; in other instances, they are created by amplifying the character trait of a real person into a new fictional creation. An author or creator basing a character on a real person can use a person they know, a historical figure, a current figure whom they have not met, or themselves, with
3705-571: The throttle wide open , the car would simply stall if the brakes were actually being used. The incident devastated Audi sales in the United States, which did not rebound for 15 years. The initial incidents which prompted the report were found by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Transport Canada to have been attributable to operator error, where car owners had depressed
3800-408: The 1970s, the program included Point/Counterpoint , in which a liberal and a conservative commentator debated an issue. This segment originally featured James J. Kilpatrick representing the conservative side and Nicholas von Hoffman for the liberal, with Shana Alexander taking over for von Hoffman after he departed in 1974. The segment was an innovation that caught the public imagination as
3895-819: The 1970–71 season alone, 60 Minutes reported on cluster bombs , the South Vietnamese Army , draft dodgers , Nigeria , the Middle East, and Northern Ireland . By 1971, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced the Prime Time Access Rule , which freed local network affiliates in the top 50 markets (in practice, the entire network) to take a half-hour of prime time from the networks on Mondays through Saturdays and one full hour on Sundays. Because nearly all affiliates found production costs for
Alejandro Sosa - Misplaced Pages Continue
3990-487: The 1976–77 season. The following season, it was the fourth-most-watched program, and by the 1979–80 season, it was the number one show. During the 21st century, it remained among the top 20 programs in the Nielsen ratings, and the highest-rated news magazine. On November 16, 2008, the edition featuring an interview with President-elect Barack Obama , earned a total viewership of 25.1 million viewers. On October 6, 2013,
4085-457: The 7:00 p.m. hour). On March 25, 2018, the edition featuring Stormy Daniels giving details on her alleged affair with President Donald Trump drew 22.1 million viewers, the most since the 2008 Obama interview. The broadcast was delayed due to the NCAA men's basketball regional final on CBS between Kansas and Duke going to overtime. As of June 26, 2017 , 60 Minutes had won
4180-508: The Central and Eastern time zones, the show is aired at the top of the hour at 7:00 p.m./6:00 p.m. Central (barring local sports play-by-play pre-emptions and breaking news coverage) no matter how long the show is delayed on CBS Television, resulting in radio listeners often hearing the show on those stations ahead of the television broadcast. An audio version of each broadcast without advertising began to be distributed via podcast and
4275-787: The FCC's intended goal of increased public affairs programming very high and the ratings (and by association, advertising revenues) low, making it mostly unprofitable, the FCC created an exception for network-authored news and public affairs shows. After a six-month hiatus in late 1971, CBS found a prime place for 60 Minutes in a portion of that displaced time, 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern (5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Central Time ) on Sundays in January 1972. This proved somewhat less than satisfactory, however, because in order to accommodate CBS telecasts of late afternoon National Football League (NFL) games, 60 Minutes went on hiatus during
4370-623: The accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal. CBS issued a partial retraction, without acknowledging the test results of involved government agencies. Years later, Dateline NBC , a rival to 60 Minutes , was found guilty of similar tactics regarding the fuel tank integrity of General Motors pickup trucks . A segment aired in December, 1980, concerning the alleged Jeep CJ-5 high rollover risk as demonstrated in Insurance Institute for Highway Safety testing. The demonstration
4465-531: The allegations were false but also that CBS acted with malice . After numerous independent journalists exposed untruths and factual inaccuracies in the story the segment was removed by CBS from its archives, with a disclaimer: "This segment has been deleted at the request of CBS News for legal or copyright reasons." In 1995, former Brown & Williamson Vice President for Research and Development Jeffrey Wigand provided information to 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman that B&W had systematically hidden
4560-495: The broadcast (which was delayed by 44 minutes that evening due to a Denver Broncos - Dallas Cowboys NFL game) drew 17.94 million viewers; retaining 63% of the 28.32 million viewers of its lead-in, and making it the most watched 60 Minutes broadcast since December 16, 2012. On December 1, 2013, the broadcast (delayed 50 minutes due to a Broncos- Kansas City Chiefs game) was watched by 18.09 million viewers, retaining 66% of its NFL lead-in (which earned 28.11 million viewers during
4655-424: The car. It later emerged that an expert witness employed by one of the plaintiffs modified the accelerator with a concealed device, causing the "unintended acceleration". Independent investigators concluded that this "unintended acceleration" was most likely due to driver error, where the driver let their foot slip off the brake and onto the accelerator. Tests by Audi and independent journalists showed that even with
4750-436: The casualties he inflicts, Montana is ultimately killed in the attack when Sosa's personal hitman "The Skull" sneaks up behind him, and shoots Montana in the back with a double-barrel shotgun , causing him to fall into the fountain with the symbolic "The World Is Yours" globe sign above it. This is notably similar to the final scene of the original Scarface film. In the 2006 action-adventure video game Scarface: The World
4845-453: The characters, but they include the characters for the sake of their actions" (1450a15-23). Aristotle suggests that works were distinguished in the first instance according to the nature of the person who created them: "the grander people represented fine actions, i.e. those of fine persons" by producing "hymns and praise-poems", while "ordinary people represented those of inferior ones" by "composing invectives" (1448b20—1449a5). On this basis,
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#17327804896604940-450: The city's drug trade, Sosa's assassination, and the destruction of Sosa's drug empire. The character of Alejandro Sosa was well received. Complex has ranked Sosa as 27th in its list of 50 best villains in movie history. Rapper Pitbull said in 2014 that "I wanted to be Sosa – educated, good-looking, a good dresser". The song " Criminology " by Wu-Tang Clan rapper Raekwon , from his debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... , begins with
5035-590: The conclusion of an NFL game, 60 Minutes will air in its entirety and delay all subsequent programs. However, in the Pacific time zone, 60 Minutes is always able to start at its scheduled time as live sports coverage ends earlier in the afternoon. The program's success has also led CBS Sports to schedule events (such as the final round of the Masters Tournament and the PGA Championship and
5130-478: The developments, he refuses to believe that Omar was a "stoolie" and even suspects that Tony has some ulterior motives. Lopez and Tony separate after the argument and the latter propose marriage to Lopez's girlfriend Elvira Hancock . When Lopez becomes aware of Tony's aspirations regarding Elvira, he sends two hitmen to have him killed. The plan backfires and Tony kills the two hitmen. Tony then goes to Lopez and has his right-hand man Manny kill Lopez and Tony then kills
5225-586: The earliest surviving work of dramatic theory , Poetics ( c. 335 BCE ), the Classical Greek philosopher Aristotle states that character ( ethos ) is one of six qualitative parts of Athenian tragedy and one of the three objects that it represents (1450a12). He understands character not to denote a fictional person, but the quality of the person acting in the story and reacting to its situations (1450a5). He defines character as "that which reveals decision , of whatever sort" (1450b8). It
5320-529: The fall from 1972 to 1975 (and the summer of 1972). This took place because football telecasts were protected contractually from interruptions in the wake of the infamous " Heidi Bowl " incident on NBC in November 1968. Despite the irregular scheduling, the program's hard-hitting reports attracted a steadily growing audience, particularly during the waning days of the Vietnam War and the gripping events of
5415-503: The game's conclusion. The show is hosted by correspondents who do not share screen time with each other. Full-time hosts include Lesley Stahl , Scott Pelley , and Bill Whitaker . Several spinoffs have been made, including international formats of the show. It is available on Paramount+ . The program employed a magazine format similar to that of the Canadian program W5 , which had premiered two years earlier. It pioneered many of
5510-549: The health risks of their cigarettes (see transcription ). Furthermore, it was alleged that B&W had introduced foreign agents (such as fiberglass and ammonia ) with the intent of enhancing the effect of nicotine . Bergman began to produce a piece based upon the information, but ran into opposition from Don Hewitt who, along with CBS lawyers, feared a billion dollar lawsuit from Brown and Williamson for tortious interference for encouraging Wigand to violate his non-disclosure agreement . A number of people at CBS would benefit from
5605-422: The idea of the format was to make the hosts the reporters, to always feature stories that were of national importance but focused upon individuals involved with, or in conflict with, those issues, and to limit the reports' airtime to around 13 minutes. However, the initial season was troubled by lack of network confidence, as the program did not garner ratings much higher than that of other CBS News documentaries. As
5700-502: The incident occurred, it was found that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had attempted to roll the car 435 times, only having 8 rollovers. The show had also failed to mention/show that there were weights hanging on spots of the vehicle that had caused the vehicle to have a higher rollover risk. In February 1989, 60 Minutes aired a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council claiming that
5795-574: The incident with the journalist in the film. Sosa says that in their business, sometimes children have to be killed, particularly so "heroes don't go on 60 Minutes ", referring to the journalist who on national TV named him and many of his allies as reputed drug traffickers. Montana then executes Sosa by shooting him 30 times with an AK-47 (with an under-barrelled Remington 870 ), unloading the entire magazine, and leaving his bullet-riddled corpse slumped against his couch. Tony Montana heads back to Miami, Florida where he proceeds to celebrate his control of
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#17327804896605890-546: The issue. In 1997, 60 Minutes alleged that agents of the U.S. Customs Service ignored drug trafficking across the Mexico–United States border at San Diego . The only evidence was a memorandum apparently written by Rudy Camacho, who was the head of the San Diego branch office. Based on this memo, CBS alleged that Camacho had allowed trucks belonging to a particular firm to cross the border unimpeded. Mike Horner,
5985-511: The killing of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines. The show received an Investigative Reporter and Editor medal for their segment "The Osprey", documenting a Marine cover-up of deadly flaws in the V-22 Osprey aircraft. In 1983, a report by Morley Safer, "Lenell Geter's in Jail", helped exonerate a Texas man who was wrongly convicted and imprisoned for armed robbery. As of 2021 , 60 Minutes
6080-546: The latter being either an author-surrogate or an example of self-insertion . The use of a famous person easily identifiable with certain character traits as the base for a principal character is a feature of allegorical works, such as Animal Farm by George Orwell, which portrays Soviet revolutionaries as pigs. Other authors, especially for historical fiction , make use of real people and create fictional stories revolving around their lives, as with The Paris Wife which revolves around Ernest Hemingway . An author can create
6175-406: The longest-running prime time program currently in production, but also the television program (excluding daily programs such as evening newscasts or morning news-talk shows) broadcasting for the longest length of time at a single time period each week in US television history. This move, and the addition of then- White House correspondent Dan Rather to the reporting team, made the program into
6270-442: The most esteemed news magazines on American television". The program began in 1968 as a bi-weekly television show hosted by Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner . The two sat on opposite sides of the cream-colored set, though the set's color was later changed to black, the color still in use. The show used a large stopwatch during transition periods and highlighted its topics through chroma key —both techniques are still used. In 1972,
6365-656: The most important investigative journalism procedures and techniques, including re-editing interviews, hidden cameras, and " gotcha journalism " visits to the home or office of an investigative subject. Similar programs sprang up in Australia and Canada during the 1970s, as well as on local television news. Initially, 60 Minutes aired as a bi-weekly show hosted by Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner debuting on September 24, 1968, and alternating weeks with other CBS News productions on Tuesday evenings at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time . The first edition, described by Reasoner in
6460-406: The most important of these is the structure of the incidents. For (i) tragedy is a representation not of human beings but of action and life. Happiness and unhappiness lie in action, and the end [of life] is a sort of action, not a quality; people are of a certain sort according to their characters, but happy or the opposite according to their actions. So [the actors] do not act in order to represent
6555-642: The name Gargantua to a giant and the huge whale in Pinocchio (1940) is named Monstro . In his book Aspects of the Novel , E. M. Forster defined two basic types of characters, their qualities, functions, and importance for the development of the novel: flat characters and round characters. Flat characters are two-dimensional, in that they are relatively uncomplicated. By contrast, round characters are complex figures with many different characteristics, that undergo development, sometimes sufficiently to surprise
6650-406: The narrative structure, unlike core characters, for which any significant conflict must be traced during a considerable time, which is often seen as an unjustified waste of resources. There may also be a continuing or recurring guest character. Sometimes a guest or minor character may gain unanticipated popularity and turn into a regular or main one; this is known as a breakout character . In
6745-469: The opening as a "kind of a magazine for television," featured the following segments: The first "magazine-cover" chroma key was a photo of two helmeted policemen (for the Clark interview segment). Wallace and Reasoner sat in chairs on opposite sides of the set, which had a cream-colored backdrop; the more famous black backdrop (which is still used as of 2020 ) did not appear until the following year. The logo
6840-459: The play contains kings and gods, it cannot be a comedy and must be a tragicomedy . [...] is first used in English to denote 'a personality in a novel or a play' in 1749 ( The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary , s.v.). Its use as 'the sum of the qualities which constitute an individual' is a mC17 development. The modern literary and theatrical sense of 'an individual created in a fictitious work'
6935-495: The program began airing from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern time , although this time was sometimes disrupted by broadcasting of NFL games on Sundays. Since then, the show has generally kept the Sunday evening format, although the start time has occasionally been shifted. The program generally starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. If sports programming is airing that afternoon, 60 Minutes starts at 7:30 p.m. Eastern or at
7030-555: The program's history. When Reasoner left CBS to co-anchor ABC 's evening newscast (he would return to CBS and 60 Minutes in 1978), Morley Safer joined the team in 1970, and he took over Reasoner's duties of reporting less aggressive stories. However, when Richard Nixon began targeting press access and reporting, even Safer, formerly the CBS News bureau chief in Saigon and London , began to do "hard" investigative reports, and during
7125-407: The quote slightly, suggesting that 60 Minutes and CBS had "betrayed the legacy of Edward R. Murrow". The incident was turned into a seven-times Oscar -nominated feature film entitled The Insider , directed by Michael Mann and starring Russell Crowe as Wigand, Al Pacino as Bergman, and Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace. Wallace denounced the portrayal of him as inaccurate to his stance on
7220-481: The reader. In psychological terms, round or complex characters may be considered to have five personality dimensions under the Big Five model of personality. The five factors are: Stock characters are usually one-dimensional and thin. Mary Sues are characters that usually appear in fan fiction which are virtually devoid of flaws, and are therefore considered flat characters. Another type of flat character
7315-526: The reality competition series American Idol , which had been the #1 show for eight consecutive seasons from the 2003–2004 television season up to the 2010–2011 season. 60 Minutes was a top ten show for 23 seasons in a row (1977–2000), an unsurpassed record, and has made the Top 20 for every season since the 1976–1977 season, except from 2005 to 2008. 60 Minutes first broke into the Nielsen Top 20 during
7410-421: The second game of a doubleheader start at 4:25 p.m., CBS changed the scheduled start time of 60 Minutes to 7:30 p.m. Eastern time (or game conclusion) for Eastern and Central Time Zone stations which are receiving a game in that window. The start time remains at 7:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific (or game conclusion if a late single game is airing in the eastern markets) on stations which are not broadcasting
7505-542: The second round and regional final games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament ) leading into 60 Minutes and the rest of the network's primetime lineup for the night (as CBS never airs any sports programming on Sundays in primetime except for the AFC Divisional Round, AFC Championship Game, or the Super Bowl ). Starting in the 2012–2013 season, in order to accommodate a new NFL scheduling policy that
7600-474: The segment was called Count/Pointercount. A similar concept was revived briefly in March 2003 featuring Bob Dole and Bill Clinton , former opponents in the 1996 presidential election . The pair agreed to do ten segments (titled Clinton/Dole and Dole/Clinton in alternating weeks), but these did not continue into the 2003–2004 fall season. Reports indicated that the segments were considered too gentlemanly, in
7695-400: The series' run. Recurring characters often play major roles in more than one episode, sometimes being the main focus. A guest or minor character is one who acts only in a few episodes or scenes. Unlike regular characters, the guest ones do not need to be carefully incorporated into the storyline with all its ramifications: they create a piece of drama and then disappear without consequences to
7790-429: The show had a partnership with Yahoo! for distribution of extra content. Commentators for 60 Minutes have included: Based on viewership ratings , 60 Minutes is the most successful program in U.S. television history since it was moved into its present timeslot in 1975. For five seasons it was the year's top program, a feat matched by the sitcoms All in the Family and The Cosby Show , and surpassed only by
7885-450: The start of the story, he is a bitter miser, but by the end of the tale, he transforms into a kindhearted, generous man. In television, a regular, main or ongoing character is a character who appears in all or a majority of episodes, or in a significant chain of episodes of the series. Regular characters may be both core and secondary ones. A recurring character or supporting character often and frequently appears from time to time during
7980-424: The stopwatch itself changed from the diagonal position it had been oriented in for 31 years to an upright position. Videos and transcripts of 60 Minutes editions, as well as clips that were not included in the broadcast are available on the program's website. In September 2010, the program launched a website called "60 Minutes Overtime", in which stories broadcast on-air are discussed in further detail. Previously
8075-509: The style of the earlier Point/Counterpoint , and lacked the feistiness of Crossfire . From 1978 to 2011, the program usually ended with a (usually light-hearted and humorous) commentary by Andy Rooney expounding on topics of wildly varying import, ranging from international politics, to economics, and to personal philosophy on everyday life. One recurring topic was measuring the amount of coffee in coffee cans. Rooney's pieces, particularly one in which he referred to actor Mel Gibson as
8170-461: The tail-end of the closing credits, and each time it appears it displays (within reasonable accuracy) the elapsed time of the episode to that point. On October 29, 2006, the opening sequence changed from a black background, which had been used for over a decade, to white. Also, the gray background for the Aristo stopwatch in the "cover" changed to red, the color for the title text changed to white, and
8265-444: The topic, Curtin making an opening statement, then Aykroyd typically retorting with ad hominem attacks, such as "Jane, you ignorant slut" and Curtin responding "Dan, you pompous ass"; in the film Airplane! (1980), in which the faux Kilpatrick argues in favor of the plane crashing, stating "they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into"; and in an earlier sketch comedy film, The Kentucky Fried Movie , where
8360-520: The use of daminozide (Alar) on apples presented an unacceptably high health risk to consumers. Apple sales dropped and CBS was sued unsuccessfully by apple growers. Alar was subsequently banned for use on food crops in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On March 3, 1991, 60 Minutes broadcast " Werner Erhard ," which dealt with controversies involving Erhard's personal and business life. A year after
8455-469: Was a Jeep rolling over during an extreme turn at 20 mph, something that would not cause other cars to roll over. It was deemed by 60 Minutes reporters as the "most dangerous thing on four wheels". After the show aired, many people were concerned about the safety of the vehicle, and following sales plummeted. This tarnished the reputation of the Jeep CJ ; the model was discontinued in 1986. Years after
8550-416: Was a prominent fixture, the final line was "Those stories and Andy Rooney, tonight on 60 Minutes ". Before that, and whenever Rooney did not appear, the final line was "Those stories and more, tonight on 60 Minutes ". The stopwatch counts off each of the broadcast's 60 minutes, starting from zero at the beginning of each show. It is seen during the opening title sequence, before each commercial break, and at
8645-463: Was eventually aired with substantially altered content and minus some of the most damning evidence against B&W. The exposé of the incident was published in an article in Vanity Fair by Marie Brenner , entitled "The Man Who Knew Too Much". The New York Times wrote that "the traditions of Edward R. Murrow and "60 Minutes" itself were diluted in the process," though the newspaper revised
8740-543: Was in Helvetica type with the word "Minutes" spelled in all lower-case letters; the logo most associated with the show (rendered in Eurostile type with "Minutes" spelled in uppercase) did not appear until about 1974. Further, to extend the magazine motif, the producers added a "Vol. xx, No. xx" to the title display on the chroma key; modeled after the volume and issue number identifications featured in print magazines, this
8835-513: Was in their best interest to have Rooney return immediately. Rooney published several books documenting his contributions to the program, including Years Of Minutes and A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney . Rooney retired from 60 Minutes , delivering his final commentary on October 2, 2011; it was his 1,097th commentary over his 34-year career on the program. He died one month later on November 4, 2011. On November 13, 2011, 60 Minutes featured an hour-long tribute to Rooney and his career, and included
8930-641: Was only when the FCC returned an hour to the networks on Sundays (for news or family programming), which had been taken away from them four years earlier, in a 1975 amendment to the Access Rule, that CBS finally found a viable permanent timeslot for 60 Minutes . When the family-oriented drama Three for the Road ended after a 12-week run in the fall, the news magazine took its place at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time (6:00 p.m. Central) on December 7, 1975, and has been aired at that time since then, making it not only
9025-464: Was used until about 1971. The trademark stopwatch, however, did not appear on the inaugural broadcast; it would not debut until several episodes later. Alpo dog food was the sole sponsor of the first program. Don Hewitt, who had been a producer of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite , sought out Wallace as a stylistic contrast to Reasoner. According to one historian of the show,
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