Andy Rooney
"The most felicitous non-fiction writer in television" is how Time magazine once described Andy Rooney, the CBS News correspondent, writer and producer, who has won the Writers Guild Award for Best Script of the Year six times, more than any other writer in the history of the medium.
Rooney wrote the first of what has become his specialty, the television essay – a personal format illuminating subjects most people take for granted – with "An Essay on Doors" in 1964.
His weekly report, "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney," became a regular feature on "60 Minutes" in September 1978. He won Emmy Awards in 1979, 1981 and 1982. In addition to his contributions to "60 Minutes," Rooney wrote, produced and narrated a series of broadcasts on various aspects of America and American life, including "Andy Rooney Takes Off," "Mr. Rooney Goes to Work," "Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner," and "Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington," for which he won a Peabody award. He also participated in CBS News' extensive coverage of the 50th anniversary of D-Day by reporting on D-Day veterans en route to France aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, for CBS News' "Sunday Morning."
Between 1962 and 1968, Rooney collaborated with 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) and "An Essay on War" (1971), which won Rooney his third Writers Guild Award. In 1968, he wrote two CBS News specials in the series "Of Black America." His script for "Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed" won him his first Emmy Award.
He wrote for "The Garry Moore Show" on the CBS Radio Network (1959-65) and was a writer for Arthur Godfrey (1949-55). He also wrote for such CBS News Public Affairs broadcasts as "The Twentieth Century," "News of America," "Adventure," "Calendar" and "The Morning Show."
Rooney is the author of many books, including: The Story of the Stars and Stripes and Sweet and Sour. The Story of the Stars and Stripes, which he wrote after three years as a correspondent for the legendary paper during World War II, was purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He worked as a writer at MGM on that and other projects.
In addition to his work as a CBS News correspondent, Rooney writes a weekly column for Tribune Media Services, which appears in 200 newspapers across the nation. He has also contributed articles to Esquire, Life, Look, Reader's Digest, Harper's, Playboy, Saturday Review and other magazines.
Andy Rooney Samples
The Best of Andy Rooney: Squeeze, twist and pull just doesn't work
The tops of jars and bottles are too hard to take off. Something as simple as the twist-off cap on a bottle of soda is often impossible to remove with your bare hands.
The Best of Andy Rooney: A perfect 10 is the number of our dreams
The best colleges are faced with a dilemma every year: They need a lot of freshmen to pay for their buildings and teachers, but they have to keep the place hard to get into if they want good students.
The Best of Andy Rooney: Too much bigness is no small matter
We may have gone far enough with bigger. I don't mean to start a religious argument, but it wouldn't do the world any harm at all if we called a halt to the expansion of everything.
The Best of Andy Rooney: Everything is coming up 'awesome'
There's so much competition for our attention that everyone is using up all our good superlatives to get it. I say "using up" because there's just so often you can use a superlative before it loses its comparative effectiveness.
The Best of Andy Rooney: Parking spaces are another endangered species
A lot of people who know how to drive don't seem to know how to park. There are drivers who can put a 19-foot car in a 20-foot space on the first try.
The Best of Andy Rooney: 50 stories you'll be reading this coming year
There's a theory in the news business that there are only so many stories. 1. Holiday travel, crowded airport, road traffic. 2. Stores are doing better/worse than usual at Christmas with sales up/down.
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