20 Years Of 'Sunday Mornings'
On the occasion of Sunday Morning's 20th anniversary, Anchor Charles Osgood paints a broad stroke on the canvas of time: 1,040 Sundays, to be exact.
Looking back at these two decades of Sunday mornings, there are moments we cannot forget.
We've had time in our 20 years to speak of many things -- of music and art and books and sports -- and sometimes we didn't have to speak at all.
Choosing words and pictures in its own careful way, Sunday Morning has reported the major events of the past 20 years.
If we have sometimes felt discouraged with the ways of the world, most of the time we have been uplifted. Our 1,500 hours of television have been filled with people who have delighted, even inspired us, with their skill and with their art.
To our regular contributors: Billy Taylor, Eugenia Zukerman, John Leonard, Roger Welsch, Tim Sample, and Bill Geist, we wish many happy returns for all they have given us.
Happy birthday to all, and to all who have graced this broadcast for the past 20 years.
- Charles Osgood
As Gary Paul Gates recalls for CBS.com, CBS News Sunday Morning premiered on Jan. 28, 1979. The original executive producer, Robert "Shad" Northshield, created Sunday Morning as a television version of the special sections in Sunday newspapers. Charles Kuralt was asked to anchor the broadcast. He later said that when he tried to visualize the audience for that first show, he saw "college professors in tweed jackets, with patches on the elbows." As it turned out, the audience is a loyal and devoted one to this day.
On the show's 15th anniversary, Kuralt told the Times-Picayune: "I don't know of any place else that pays as much attention as we do to music and dance and painting and literature - some of the things that lift the spirits."
In honor of its upcoming 20th anniversary, Sunday Morning rebroadcast some of its most memorable reports from previous years, one per week leading to up to that day: January 24th, 1999.
The reports, called Sunday Morning Classics, represent the broadcast's strong focus on humankind's accomplishments, particularly in the fields of music, art, and the environment. Transcripts and clips from these classics are available here on CBS.com.
Some of the famous "sun" designs on the broadcast were sent in by viewers. CBS.com offers you the opportunity to view many of these suns.
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- Click on the sun to the left to see a variety of Sunay Morning sun designs, one at a time.
- Want to know the results of the "vote" on your favorite sun? It was the "ceramic" sun, sent in by Madeline D'Amato of Glen Cove, New York, which got most of the votes, followed by the "pretty" sun.
In addition, we give you a behind-the-scenes look at some of the people who stay behind the scenes - the people who produce, direct, and design Sunday Morning.
©1999 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed