CBS Cronkite Close-Morning-Rather Opens

Some potpourri from CBS, a Cronkite close from 1978, the CBS Morning Open from the early 80s when they put the Sunday Morning look on weekdays, and some opens from 1982 with Rather and Schieffer.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• CBS
• Cronkite
• Morning
• Rather
• Open

[fossefan]

That Morning opening is incredibly classy!

[AllRequired]

That screen reads Wednesday October 14, which I think would put the year at 1981.

[gymnastix]

@pilotpoodle I thought Harry Kramer did the voice-over in the Walter Cronkite years? Or was Kramer after Bob Hite, possibly?

[gymnastix]

@DerrickLee2006 I thought Harry Kramer did the voice-over in the Walter Cronkite years? Kramer was also the original v.o. for the CBS/Procter & Gamble afternoon drama "The Edge Of Night."

[don417]

you missed the cronkite part, dummy

[pilotpoodle]

The best narrating voice was the first one: Bob Hite, Sr., one of the original "Tiffany Network" voices.

[dinfg6]

0:48 How long was Dianne Sawyer was at CBS before she moved to ABC in 1989?

[0814ma]

In his book, Prime Times, Bad Times (1988), former CBS News president Ed Joyce discusses the genesis of the "cold" open - a simple title graphic and the accompanying narration ("Good evening. This is the CBS Evening News. Dan Rather reporting.") that replaced the ones shown in the last part of this clip.

(The new opening debuted in early 1982.)

According to Joyce, Lou Dorfsman (CBS's legendary art director) suggested the "cold" open, after the men had brainstormed a variety of approaches.

[0814ma]

Great clip. Thanks for posting.

My best guess is that the Schieffer broadcast aired on Saturday, October 24, 1981 - the lead story that day was that an FBI spokesman had announced that the Weather Underground (note the "Radical Underground" graphic) was part of a network of domestic terrorist organizations.

The Rather opening may have aired on Thursday the 22nd or Friday the 23rd - on both those days, the Evening News led with stories on the economy.

[bmasters1981]

@FutureNewsAnchor Aha! Now I know. Thanks for the response!

[FutureNewsAnchor]

Charles Kuralt was not the original host of CBS News "Morning". Bob Schieffer hosted "Morning" when it first came on, but it didn't feel the same as "Sunday Morning" did, so Kuralt was brought in to bring the show closer to "home", so to speak.

[FutureNewsAnchor]

@bmasters1981 The reason why they don't do that is because the main titles would look severely outdated. Additionally, those main titles were animated and processed on film which is likely now destroyed.