TVSquad

No, Morley Safer didn't go behind the scenes of the CBS soap with a hidden camera to find some scandal or catch someone doing something illegal, he talked to the cast and crew because the show is ending tomorrow after 57 years on the network.

There are interviews with the producers and writers of the show as well as a few cast members, along with scenes from the final episodes.

I don't usually write about the world of high fashion, but I was interested in the interview with Anna Wintour on 60 Minutes last night. For one, she's a mysterious women we only hear about from other people. Two, The Devil Wears Prada is on TV every single week and I have to watch it whenever it's on. The best part of this piece is the really funny, sarcastic digs that Morley Safer gets in about this fashion world.

(The video is after the jump because it's one of those videos that plays automatically.)

Odd headline over at the Asbury Park Press. It says ""60 Minutes Has No Plans To Replace Bradley," but then in the article there's a quote from the show's executive producer, Jeff Fager, where he says "It's a long-term project to find the next full-time person who can show the abilities that are expected of a 60 Minutes correspondent."

Sounds to me like they do have plans to replace Bradley, but not until next season.

But what's the big deal here? Did we really expect that 60 Minutes can just lose a top reporter and not replace him? And I hate the word "replace" anyway, like he just kept a spot warm and now they're throwing another person in there to take up the spot. Bradley himself won't (and can't) be replaced, he was unique. It's his duties that will be done by someone else.

[via TV Newser]

Katie Couric just broke into CBS programming with the shocking news that longtime 60 Minutes journalist Ed Bradley died this morning of leukemia. He was 65.

I use the word shocking because I don't think there was any public indication that Bradley was sick from leukemia.

At the time of his death, Bradley was still working on 60 Minutes, and stories that he was working on still remain to be aired at a later date. He had been with 60 Minutes for 26 years and won several awards, including an Emmy, a Polk, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and a duPont citation.

Bradley was married to artist Patricia Blanchet.

Possibly. Sources say that the veteran newsman isn't happy with the way CBS execs are handling his contract negotiations, and he has told people he's "on strike." Not literally on strike, just not happy with the way things are going. Then again, he told the New York Daily News that he's honoring his contract, there has been no work slowdown, and he even taped a new opening for an old piece (the show is in summer reruns right now).

My guess? There are contract negotiations going on, but I'm sure Bradley is working the same way he always has, and the press is just trying to find juicy stuff to tease with about a longtime TV personality (shocking the press would do that, I know). The NYDN even tries to get him to talk about his contract, and he says he doesn't discuss his contract with anyone. I think that's the right response to that question no matter what the situation. I really doubt Bradley is walking around the CBS offices with a donut, talking to people in their cubicles, not doing any work, going back to his office to pout and play solitaire on his computer until producers give him more money.

In-your-face television journalist Mike Wallace answers some tough questions on this Sunday's edition of 60 Minutes. The 88-year-old news veteran is retiring from the program and revealing a lot about his personal life, including the revelation that he attempted suicide 20 years ago. He had a roundtable discussion with fellow 60 Minutes jouralists Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Leslie Stahl and Morley Safer, who got his old friend to open up about his battle with depression. Wallace also says that, since his suicide attempt, his life has been better. It's not clear whether he admits how he tried to kill himself.

The retrospective, called I'm Mike Wallace, airs Sunday at 7 pm on CBS. It also includes clips of some of his most memorable interviews.

I've held, for some time, a big admiration for Stephen Colbert. Not the fake Stephen Colbert who channels Bill O'Reilly and others and mocks political on The Colbert Report, but Colbert the comedian who so inhabited his roles on shows like Exit 57, Strangers with Candy, and The Daily Show that it's impossible to see through the guise to the real Stephen Colbert. Of course, if anyone can try to coax Stephen out of his comedic shell it's 60 Minutes. If you didn't happen to catch his appearance on the show last Sunday, YouTube has the entire interview, split up into three parts. Based on interviews I've seen with him, Colbert is one of those creative people who wants merely to make people laugh without over-analyzing his methods for doing so. In this age when everyone wants to be visible in every possible way, I find that extremely refreshing. Nevertheless, Morley Safer's interview does reveal some interesting things you may or may not have known about the man.

Oh yeah, since this is YouTube and clips like this sometimes have a tendency to disappear, you can at least catch snippets of the interview here and here.