Sixty Minutes Doesn’t Font

Are there any other news shows without fonts? At one time neither the president or pope was fonted, but even that rule’s no longer followed!

I’ve got Sixty Minutes on in another window on this computer. There’s something about that show you might know and maybe no one except someone in broadcasting would care to know.

Sixty Minutes does not font!

When someone is interviewed or a locale is shown there are no illustrative words cluttering the screen. I don’t think I miss them.

Are there any other news shows without fonts? At one time neither the president or pope was fonted, but even that rule’s no longer followed!

I’ve watched Sixty Minutes for a long time-back when they were on Thursdays and the open and close wraps were done live (same thing when they first moved to Sunday’s). They never fonted. Of course electronically produced fonts didn’t exist back then, but Sixty Minutes didn’t use ‘state-of-the-art’ camera cards either.

It was also one of the last shows to move from film to video. Film’s a better medium under some circumstances. Unfortunately, Sixty Minutes looked flat on film! The transition to video was for the better.

Stay classy Sxty Minutes. No fonts.

3 thoughts on “Sixty Minutes Doesn’t Font”

  1. I don’t think I ever noticed that before. I’ve done a fontless show before…but to be fair it’s because the keyer on the switcher blew out and we couldn’t insert them.

    “At one time neither the president or pope was fonted, but even that rule’s no longer followed!”

    Who doesn’t follow that?! We don’t font either of them. I actually tried to make the case not to font the VP also, but was struck down.

    -Adam

  2. Interesting observation, coming just after the passing of the irreplaceable Don Hewitt. Hewitt banned the use of people labels. Why? He wanted viewers to follow and focus on the story to know who the people were. (And he gave you the great closeups.)

    The stories were written better that way, too. Did you every listen to a 60 Minutes broadcast in the era when WCBS 880 would simulcast it on radio? You could follow the story almost as well as you could on TV- IMHO!!

  3. Actually, 60 minutes is still broadcast on radio here in Southern California on KNX.

    And yes, the stories are STILL just fine and understandable on radio. Don Hewitt was a great producer and set some really hard to reach standards for great stories and great writing. He will be missed.

    Personally, I can easily do without all the fonts and labels at the edges of the screen–they are usually more annoying and distracting than useful, IMHO..

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