New York, NY….Andy Rooney has passed away at 92 just shortly after ending his regular appearances on 60 minutes a few weeks ago. From Wikipedia…”Rooney joined CBS in 1949, as a writer for Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts,[5] when Godfrey was at his peak on CBS radio and TV. It opened the show up to a variety of viewers. The program was a hit, reaching number one in 1952, during Rooney’s tenure with the program. It was the beginning of a close life-long friendship between Rooney and Godfrey. He wrote for Godfrey’s daytime radio and TV show Arthur Godfrey Time. He later moved on to The Garry Moore Show,[7] which became a hit program. During the same period, he wrote for CBS News public affairs programs such as The Twentieth Century.

According to CBS News’s biography of him, “Rooney wrote his first television essay, a longer-length precursor of the type he does on 60 Minutes, in 1964, ‘An Essay on Doors.'[8] From 1962 to 1968, he collaborated with another close friend, the late CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner — Rooney writing and producing, Reasoner narrating — on such notable CBS News specials as ‘An Essay on Bridges’ (1965),[8] ‘An Essay on Hotels’ (1966),[8] ‘An Essay on Women’ (1967),[8] and ‘The Strange Case of the English Language’ (1968).[8] ‘An Essay on War’ (1971) won Rooney his third Writers Guild Award.[8] In 1968, he wrote two CBS News specials in the series ‘Of Black America’,[8] and his script for ‘Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed’ won him his first Emmy.” [9] Rooney also wrote the script for the 1975 documentary FDR: The Man Who Changed America.

In the 1970s, Rooney wrote and appeared in several prime-time specials for CBS, including In Praise of New York City (1974),[7] the Peabody Award-winning Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington (1975),[7] Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner (1978),[7] and Mr. Rooney Goes to Work (1977).[7] Transcripts of these specials, as well as of some of the earlier collaborations with Reasoner, are contained in the book A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney. Another special, Andy Rooney Takes Off, followed in 1984.
[edit] A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney

Rooney’s “end-of-show” segment on 60 Minutes, “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” (originally “Three Minutes or So With Andy Rooney”[5]), began in 1978 as a summer replacement for the debate segment “Point/Counterpoint”[5] featuring Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick. The segment proved popular enough with viewers that beginning in the fall of 1978, it was seen in alternate weeks with the debate segment. At the end of the 1978-79 season, “Point/Counterpoint” was dropped altogether.[5]

In the segment, Rooney typically offered satire on a trivial everyday issue, such as the cost of groceries, annoying relatives, or faulty Christmas presents. Rooney’s appearances on “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” often included whimsical lists (e.g., types of milk,[10] bottled water brands,[11] car brands,[12] sports mascots,[13] etc.). In later years, his segments became more political as well. Despite being best known for his television presence on 60 Minutes, Rooney always considered himself a writer who incidentally appeared on television behind his famous walnut table, which he made himself.”>

RIP Andy