Andy Rooney Leaves '60 Minutes' After 43 Years

As conduits of modern American culture, few mediums are as effective and ubiquitous as the good old television set. Even in the digital age in which we are currently immersed, how many of us don't still find ourselves sliding off the front of our recliners as we suck in hour after hour of TV goodness, at least occasionally? We all have those programs with which we punctuate our weekly schedules, and, for many Americans, the dread of a Monday-morning return to work or school, during the entirety of our lives, has been foreshadowed by the ticking time bomb of the "60 Minutes" stopwatch. And the last voice of reason that we hear before we tumble off into fitful sleep, rife with angst over the coming week, has always been Andy Rooney. Now, after 43 years on CBS's landmark news series, and 33 years of killing off our weekends, Rooney is leaving us in the lurch after his final segment on October 2.

Rooney initially signed on with CBS way back in 1949 as a writer, giving him a type of tenure with one television network that is, if not unique, then certainly endangered and maybe extinct by Sunday night. Although not well-known by most, Rooney was also there for the very beginning of "60 Minutes" in 1968, when he was mostly relegated to production duties, with just a few silhouetted on-screen appearances. In 1978, though, Rooney mounted his soap box and has stayed there ever since, telling us how wrong we are about everything from holiday traffic safety to pop icons to daylight savings time. Amazingly, he has often managed to persuade us to his point of view, though most of us would be loathe to admit that the grumpy old guy down the street with the wild white eyebrows is right, about anything.

In a world that has become increasingly enveloped by a veil of political correctness, Rooney is a bastion of frankness that many Americans probably admire on some level, even if we don't agree with his opinions. There is a vicarious thrill to watching someone passionately speak his mind, week after week, and consequences be damned. And it is somewhat amazing to realize that Rooney has been ranting this way for decades, and the consequences haven't really been that bad, after all. Could we learn a lesson about the value of straight talk from him?

Now, even as we're awash in a sea of email, text messages and gadgetry, Rooney prepares to shudder our lens into his world for the last time, and television may lose just a little more of its grip on our lives. Gone will be one of our anchor points that ties us to past generations and gives us a brief, but regular, chance to step back and really think about what is happening around us. Without Andy Rooney, the dread of Sunday night will be joined by a sense of loss at the absence of a trusted voice.