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CNN Live At Daybreak

Television Pioneer Passes On

Aired December 06, 2002 - 05:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A pioneer in programming and technology, 71-year-old Roone Arledge died Thursday of cancer.
As CNN's Aaron Brown reports, Arledge changed the way we watch TV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready for some football?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Over the years, if you watched a football game on Monday night, a newscast every evening, the majesty of the Olympic Games or a thoughtful late night news broadcast, you may not have been aware of it, but Roone Arledge was there for every frame. He created ABC's Wide World of Sports in 1961, became the president of ABC Sports seven years later and directed both news and sports coverage of the awful and memorable 1972 Olympic games in Munich splintered by the terrorist attack against the Israeli athletes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready for some football?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Roone Arledge changed the way Americans watch TV. He was credited with bringing to television things viewers now take for granted -- slow motion replays, hand held cameras, freeze frames of the action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what Roone wrote in 1960. "Heretofore, television has done a remarkable job of bringing the game to the viewer. Now, we are going to take the viewer to the game."

BROWN: But technology and story telling were just part of the genius. Roone had an eye for the right talent and the right job. Ted Koppel was hardly your expected anchor, but Roone got it. David Brinkley, discarded by NBC, was hired by Roone to remake Sunday morning talk. And, of course, there was Howard Cossell, the juice that made "Monday Night Football" different, the man America loved to hate.

HOWARD COSSELL: Roone and I, as I have made plain through the years, had many differences. But in fairness to that man, I would not have survived and prospered without him.

BROWN: When Roone Arledge was named to lead ABC News, he took with him the same star system he had pioneered in sports. When he threatened to hire away Dan Rather from CBS News, Arledge, in effect, guaranteed Rather's succession to Walter Cronkite.

Arledge tried many things at ABC News, a triple anchor of Peter Jennings, Frank Reynolds and Max Robinson. That was a first. And under his guidance a late night news broadcast devoted to chronicling the hostage drama in Iran in 1979 became "Nightline."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "NIGHTLINE")

ANNOUNCER: This is ABC News Nightline. Reporting from Washington, Ted Koppel.

TED KOPPEL, HOST, "NIGHTLINE": Good evening. This is a new broadcast in the sense that it is permanent and will continue after the Iran crisis is over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Still, of course, on the air today.

He also brought news to prime time TV. "20/20" began under his watch. And although that very first edition was something terrible in truth, the broadcast became an institution with Hugh Downs and, of course, Barbara Walters.

BARBARA WALTERS, ABC CORRESPONDENT: You think about news in our time, then it's just synonymous with Roone Arledge.

BROWN: Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Of course, he's also responsible for bringing Diane Sawyer into the national spotlight and also, as you saw, Barbara Walters.

Roone Arledge dead at 71.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 6, 2002 - 05:25   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A pioneer in programming and technology, 71-year-old Roone Arledge died Thursday of cancer.
As CNN's Aaron Brown reports, Arledge changed the way we watch TV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready for some football?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Over the years, if you watched a football game on Monday night, a newscast every evening, the majesty of the Olympic Games or a thoughtful late night news broadcast, you may not have been aware of it, but Roone Arledge was there for every frame. He created ABC's Wide World of Sports in 1961, became the president of ABC Sports seven years later and directed both news and sports coverage of the awful and memorable 1972 Olympic games in Munich splintered by the terrorist attack against the Israeli athletes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready for some football?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Roone Arledge changed the way Americans watch TV. He was credited with bringing to television things viewers now take for granted -- slow motion replays, hand held cameras, freeze frames of the action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what Roone wrote in 1960. "Heretofore, television has done a remarkable job of bringing the game to the viewer. Now, we are going to take the viewer to the game."

BROWN: But technology and story telling were just part of the genius. Roone had an eye for the right talent and the right job. Ted Koppel was hardly your expected anchor, but Roone got it. David Brinkley, discarded by NBC, was hired by Roone to remake Sunday morning talk. And, of course, there was Howard Cossell, the juice that made "Monday Night Football" different, the man America loved to hate.

HOWARD COSSELL: Roone and I, as I have made plain through the years, had many differences. But in fairness to that man, I would not have survived and prospered without him.

BROWN: When Roone Arledge was named to lead ABC News, he took with him the same star system he had pioneered in sports. When he threatened to hire away Dan Rather from CBS News, Arledge, in effect, guaranteed Rather's succession to Walter Cronkite.

Arledge tried many things at ABC News, a triple anchor of Peter Jennings, Frank Reynolds and Max Robinson. That was a first. And under his guidance a late night news broadcast devoted to chronicling the hostage drama in Iran in 1979 became "Nightline."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "NIGHTLINE")

ANNOUNCER: This is ABC News Nightline. Reporting from Washington, Ted Koppel.

TED KOPPEL, HOST, "NIGHTLINE": Good evening. This is a new broadcast in the sense that it is permanent and will continue after the Iran crisis is over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Still, of course, on the air today.

He also brought news to prime time TV. "20/20" began under his watch. And although that very first edition was something terrible in truth, the broadcast became an institution with Hugh Downs and, of course, Barbara Walters.

BARBARA WALTERS, ABC CORRESPONDENT: You think about news in our time, then it's just synonymous with Roone Arledge.

BROWN: Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Of course, he's also responsible for bringing Diane Sawyer into the national spotlight and also, as you saw, Barbara Walters.

Roone Arledge dead at 71.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com