Hamilton Herald Masthead

Editorial


Front Page - Friday, October 7, 2011

View from the Cheap Seats


Good bye Andy



I record “60 Minutes” every week. I rarely watch it, but it is recorded every week. I record it and then, at some point, review it for topics of interest or just erase when I need room to record something else. Up until this week, my favorite part was the final word by Andy Rooney. Sunday night was Andy Rooney’s last night on the show.

At 92, after 30 years on the air, he is leaving the show. I actually watched this week’s show live in order to catch the last appearance of Rooney, and in particular, because I figured they would give background on Andy and how he came to be on the show. What I learned is that he went to a good prep school, attended college, fought in World War II, became a writer for a couple of popular television shows, and eventually ended up on “60 Minutes.” The segment on Andy really didn’t tell me much more about his past.

What did take me back was how young he looked in the 1980s when he first started to appear on the show. I do not remember him being that young. I felt a little sad after his final segment. Then, it got me to thinking, why am I sad? Truth is, I probably only watched one segment a month, if that often. Maybe, what saddened me was ticking stop watch in the background as the show ended. That ticking in some ways represents my life passing by, second by second.

As it is with all things, the passing of time will eventually lead to the ending of my life and the publication of this column. That is not to say the column goes as long as I do, just that it certainly doesn’t go any longer. On the other hand, the part of Andy Rooney’s career that he is most remembered for started when he was 20 years older than I am today. We never know where our lives are going to take us. There is nothing about his career of being a writer that would have predicted (to me, at least) that he would land the gig on “60 Minutes” and become a household name.

In his final words, he made it clear he considered himself a writer and not a television personality. I am not sure that my oldest son, William, even knows who Andy Rooney is or whether he has ever seen and/or paid attention to “60 Minutes.” As a person getting older, my initial reaction is that he has missed out. On the other hand, he could probably go to the Internet, if he were so inclined, search out the topics that he found interesting and watch them commercial free.

On the other hand, he would likely respond to old Andy Rooney diatribes in the same way he did when I made him watch “Leave it to Beaver.” In summary, he complained the entire time and did not think the Eddie Haskell character was funny at all. I liked Andy’s part of the show. In many ways, I try to emulate what he did in this column. He pointed out issues that rubbed him the wrong way or posed questions to the audience to get them to think. While he was clear that he considered what he did work, he also made it clear that he loved what he did. Finding work you love to do is the best way to make money. Loving the work usually makes you better at it.

I will miss Andy on Sunday nights. I don’t think I am alone. They will find someone to fill his place, but it will be hard to replace him. That should be clear to everyone, even to us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!