“60 Minutes” debuted on Sept. 24, 1968, making it the longest-running prime-time program. Excerpts from that broadcast:
Harry Reasoner: Good evening. This is “60 Minutes.” It’s a kind of a magazine for television, which means it has the flexibility and diversity of a magazine adapted to broadcast journalism. And our first cover story is about cops, by the top cop.
Mike Wallace: Chances are that you were watching television when they were balloting at the Republican convention. So was the man who won that nomination. And a “60 Minutes” cameraman was there, the only television cameraman in the room.
Reasoner: He was there also when the Democratic nominee watched his moment of glory, also exclusive.
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Wallace: In the regular section we call “Viewpoint” tonight three guest columnists from Europe give us an insight into how our election campaign looks from there. One of them says it’s always exciting and a little frightening when a new Emperor of the West is being chosen.
Reasoner: That cover story is about police and the people. Just phrasing it that way suggests the way some police think people feel about them, that they are somehow not people. The story is by Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark, as told to Mike Wallace.
Wallace: And finally in the book tonight, Harry Reasoner’s got something that defies easy classification. It’s a funny and fascinating film by Saul Bass called “Why Man Creates.” . . .
The program’s closing remarks:
Wallace: And there you have our first “60 Minutes” broadcast. Looking back, it had quite a range, as the problems and interests of our lives have quite a range. Our perception of reality roams, in a given day, from the light to the heavy, from warmth to menace, and if this broadcast does what we hope it will do, it will report reality.
Reasoner: The reality, as we have suggested, is various; the symphony of the real world is not a monotone. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to mix it up all in one broadcast, but it seems to us that the idea of a flexible attitude has its attractions. All art is the rearrangement of previous perceptions, and we don’t claim this is anything more than that, or even that journalism is an art, for that matter. But we do think this is sort of a new approach. . . .