Preview: 50 Years of 60 Minutes

America's number one news program celebrates its record 50th season in primetime with an hour-long commemorative broadcast Sunday, Dec. 3 at 7:00 p.m., ET/PT. "Fifty Years of 60 Minutes" relives the big moments, the famous people and the faraway places from five decades of America's favorite news magazine and features insights from Executive Producer Jeff Fager and the 60 Minutes correspondents.

Sen. John McCain's poignant reflection on his life as he struggles with a serious brain tumor comes from the program's 50th season. Others from the archive range from the guilt-ridden Kennedy Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, to Ed Bradley's interview of Mick Jagger to the famous Bill and Hillary Clinton post-Super Bowl appearance.

"Fifty Years of 60 Minutes" also looks at the famous and the powerful figures who made their marks on 60 Minutes and the world: the leaders, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bashar al-Assad, the Ayatollah Khomeini and the celebrities, such as Johnny Carson, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Gleason and Beyonce.

The hour takes viewers to some of the most intriguing places 60 Minutes ever journeyed to. The eyes of jaguars light up in nighttime images captured on a South American river trip; smoke spews from the exploding volcano in Iceland; the beauty of the North Pole is blindingly white against a blue sky; baby elephants warm to the touch of humans in the Kenyan orphanage where they must live.

Fager notes 60 Minutes has changed over 50 seasons, but remains true to the broadcast's roots. "I think we're more current now than we were in past years but the values and the standards that we live by are the same as they were the very first broadcast that went on the air in 1968."

"Fifty Years of 60 Minutes" was produced by David Browning with Producer-editor Warren Lustig, Associate Producer Michelle St John and Editor Peter Berman. Bill Owens is the executive editor of 60 Minutes.