In a panel discussion on TV newsmagazines a few weeks ago, 60 Minutes founder and executive producer Don Hewitt took a defiant stand--against them. Rather than filling a need for more news programming, he argued, these shows are created mainly to fill gaps in the network schedule. Said he: "Behind every newsmagazine"--with a couple of exceptions, notably one show with a ticking stopwatch--"there's a failed sitcom."
TV has a lot of failing sitcoms these days, and that's one reason Dateline NBC's Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips, now on five nights a week, seem to have become the official hosts of...
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