Remembering Andy Rooney | 60 Minutes Archive

As we begin our 44th season of 60 Minutes, we want to take more than a few minutes to bid the fondest of farewells to one of our most familiar, dare we say, most beloved faces, Andy Rooney. This will be Andy's last regular appearance on this broadcast. There have been many kermagins on television over its long history, but none has been so long serving in that role as Mr. Rooney, the grandpa Moses of broadcasting. At age 92, perhaps Grandpa Methusela would be more fitting. We sat down with Andy recently to chat about, well, Andy, when you first started the Rooney piece on 60 Minutes, what was the immediate response? >> Well, how you going to hate Andy Rooney on television? I mean, I I don't recall having much negative comment from anybody. >> Did you have any idea though that you would become uh iconic on this broadcast?

>> Well, I hope you're right. I don't know whether whether you're right or not, but I like hearing you say it. >> I don't know anything offhand that mystifies Americans more than the cotton they put in pill bottles. Why do they do it? For over 30 years, Andy Rooney has held court, dispensing his wit and wisdom from his desk turned pulpit, soapbox, or whatever you want to call it. >> I make my living having opinions. All I'm saying is >> as America's favorite grouchin chief, he was the voice. >> Will you please tell me why the >> the loud whiny voice speaking on behalf of citizens fed up with nearly everything. That's what's wrong with what's going on in Washington. >> And a watchdog. >> Look at these boxes of stuff. >> Our junkyard poodle protecting consumers. >> Check the size of those things. They not only puff the wheat, they puff the blueberries. I think of it as work. I love to come in and sit down at my typewriter.

>> You think of it as work. People watching this say, "You call that work?" [laughter] >> I know that is true. But I do think of it. It is work. As for topics, well, he had an extra grind about nearly everything. The more insignificant, the better. >> You have one of these? >> From the junk on his desk, >> got a lot of paper weights, >> to the junk in his car. >> Here's a pair of dark glasses with one side of the earpiece missing >> for Andy having the demeanor of an unmade bed. >> This is what I look like in real life. You surprised? >> And the persona of a sirly keragin was no act. >> There's no doubt about it. Dogs are nicer than people. >> People say, "Is Rooney really like that?" You know, [laughter] the character they see on the screen, "Is Rudy really like that?" I say, "He's exactly like that." For example, well, I've been out with you just walking in the street and people come up asking for an autograph. >> Oh, what kind of an >> You get very prickly with >> Oh, what kind of an idiot wants my name on a piece of paper?

>> The question of what kind of idiot? I've heard you say to people, "Look, I get paid to write >> [laughter] >> You've admit it. >> I suppose you're right, but I still do it and I have no intention of stopping. I just don't sign autographs. >> Andy was born in 1919 just as the First World War ended. He grew up in Albany, New York during the depression, but the Roies never had to stand in a bread line. >> What was your childhood like? What was it like up there? >> Well, it was good. My father traveled, so he was away a lot. And I had a good mother. She took care of us. >> And you weren't a poor family at all. >> No. No. My father made I think he made $18,000 a year. And that was a lot of money. And my mother spent it. She she he gave it all to her. I guess when I was about 15, I went to a very good school, one of the best schools in the country, the Old Academy. I was not a good student, but uh they were good teachers. He was good enough to get into Colgate University until World War II comes along.

>> I gather you were a reluctant warrior. >> I was a reluctant warrior. I did not believe in the war. I thought it was wrong to go into any war and uh I got to the war and saw the Germans and I changed my mind. I decided we were right going into World War II. >> You lost a lot of friends, correct? >> Oh, I did. the last three or four close friends from the Albany Academy. There were about 22 in my class and I think four of them were killed. >> You weren't in combat, although I'm sure you saw some. >> I worked for the Army newspaper and I could go as far up as I dared and I dared go pretty far up. It was It was dangerous. >> The weird thing about covering a war is it's dangerous and it's brutal and it's awful and it's great fun. as well. >> It is. I mean, it's incredible to say. I had a great time in World War II and I was at the battlefront. >> And you made some lifelong friends in >> Oh, I made some lifelong friends. Yeah.

>> Kronhite. >> Walder Konite. I can't believe I got to know Walder. He was one of my best friends. I mean, he was until the day he died. He was a a great friend. After the war, Andy tried his hand at comedy, writing for the popular radio turned television personality Arthur Godfrey. Godfrey presented himself as the nation's kindly uncle but >> he was not a great guy to work for because he was uh he was nasty sometimes, but uh this was 1949, 50,51. I was making something like $500 a week. I mean a fortune. >> But you were writing for somebody else to read. >> Yes. But that didn't bother me then as it would now. I can't imagine writing for anybody else now. But uh I was perfectly happy. And when he used something of mine on the air, I liked it. >> From working for a fake good guy, he went to work for a real one.

Correspondent Harry Rezner here at CBS News. >> No thought has much meaning until it is written or spoken. I worked for Harry Rezner for eight or 10 years and wrote a lot of what he read. >> Tell me about that relationship, that partnership with Harry. >> We were very good friends. I liked Harry a lot and he obviously liked me. >> He was a pretty good writer himself. >> Oh, he was a great that was the darnest thing. I mean, he was a better writer than I was and yet he let me do it for him. >> Laziness, you think? >> Oh, he was lazy. Harry Rezner was a lazy person. No question about it. And it was lucky for me because it enabled me to do so much writing. >> But he was one of the most companionable men. >> Oh, he was a great great guy to be with. >> And he liked to put the he liked the the >> he drank a lot. Are you trying to say he drank a lot? >> Something like that. Yeah. [laughter] And 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt, desperate for some kind of postcript to his broadcast, decided to put Andy on the air, at least his shadow.

>> Being elected president of the United States is the highest honor in the world. >> Aren't you being chauvinistic? >> No, >> they were anonymous silhouettes. Andy was the guy on the right. >> A man who wants to be loved greatly greatly loves people or he wouldn't care what they thought of him. >> Thank you. Thank you. [laughter] >> It didn't last very long and was followed by a parade of contributors from Billy Graham to Art Buckwall >> and where there is smoke >> and then the longunning point counterpoint. First with Nicholas von Hoffman, then Shaina Alexander speaking for the left >> and Jack, your right to blow smoke ends where my nose begins. >> That's sound libertarian doctrine. and Jack Kilpatrick for the right. >> It worked up to a point. >> I can't agree. >> And then in 1978, >> we were curious about the car death figures and how they >> Andy emerged from the shadows to begin his long run as the last word on 60 Minutes.

>> Why is it we all look forward to the mail coming every day? Something's got to be done about phone books. You know something I don't like? Chocolate chip cookies. I sit down in my typewriter or I look at the newspaper and there is so much going on in the world. I mean, who couldn't write a column? I think to myself, it is just there's everything going on. And I I I would be embarrassed to say I couldn't write a column. Nothing seems funny this week. >> And it wasn't just door knobs and desk clutter. There were times when he spoke for the nation >> and liftoff. who shared our sense of helplessness when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. >> We can all be prouder to be human beings because that's what they were. They make up for a lot of liars, cheats, and terrorists among us. >> And in 1995, our anger over the Oklahoma City bombers.

>> I could kill the bastards. And in 2003, he said this about the war in Iraq. >> We didn't shock them, and we didn't aw them in Baghdad. The phrase makes us look like foolish braggards. The president ought to fire whoever wrote that for him. >> Do you ever get any flak for being too political? >> You think I'm too political sometimes? >> Yeah. Well, uh, I suppose I am sometimes. It's hard to conceal the fact that I am more of a Democrat than I am a Republican, but I'm absolutely open-minded about it, I think, and uh I would I would uh object to being called either. >> In 1990, though, he was pillaried for making some questionable observations about race and homosexuality, which led to a suspension from CBS. the controversy that you got involved in which led to a threemon suspension. You made some remarks that the homosexual community in this country took as offensive and you were you were pretty nasty about about their outrage.

>> Well, I suppose I was. If I was, I'm sorry. >> Do you look for trouble? >> No, I [clears throat] don't. I It comes naturally to [laughter] me. >> He's not exactly Mr. to congeniality even to his most ardent fans. >> You've gotten tons of mail over the >> I get a lot of mail. I get more mail than most people. >> Do you answer any of it? >> Not much. No. I mean, who would want to answer an idiot who has a bad sense to write me a letter? I mean, it's a certain kind of person who writes you and they're not my kind of people usually. >> Well, they are your kind of people. You have people who are >> I suppose but I I every once in a while I answer one but not very often. >> Most people who've kept most of their marbles tend to mellow with age. Not our Andy who at age 92 grows even grumpier. >> It's not much fun growing old, is it?

>> I hate it. I mean I'm going to die and uh it does that doesn't appeal to me at all. >> Do you think about death? >> I do. I do think about it quite a bit >> and I don't like it. [laughter] >> Let me show you. >> The only thing golden about the golden years may be memories and Andy has plenty of those. >> The interesting thing was I really liked all of them and that doesn't happen very often when you work with a group of people. Imagine being on 60 Minutes. It has just been such a show over the years. >> If you had your life to live over again, what would you do? Uh, if I had my life to live over again, I'd be on television. I'd get on 60 Minutes if I could, and I'd do a piece every week of my own. I'd write it and say it. And that's what I'd like to do best. And that's what I do.