Fifteen Years Of Macneil/Lehrer

Mark Shields and David Gergen host this tribute to Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer, the co-anchors of PBS's The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. What began as a half-hour program bearing only MacNeil's name in 1975 evolved over the next decade into an hour-long nightly news program which not only broke the existing molds for television journalism, but also spurred the commercial networks to eventually adopt the 60-minute approach. Clips from the past 15 years of the show are interspersed with commentary about the gradual evolution of the news hour and glowing praise from colleagues. In the final section of the program MacNeil and Lehrer are interviewed about their relationship, their experiences in television journalism, and their thoughts for the future. Although it might seem unlikely that a Texan and a Canadian would become bosom buddies, that is precisely what happened with MacNeil and Lehrer. In fact their relationship is so tight-knit beyond the TV studio, that each has provisions in his will to look after the other's children. The only criticism we have is that the second half of the program is much better than the first. The first half offers too many clips--the type of bits and bytes approach that MacNeil and Lehrer are ironically famous for avoiding, in favor of probing, exhaustive journalism on single subjects. This quibble aside, Fifteen Years of MacNeil/Lehrer is highly recommended. (See FRONTLINE: TO THE BRINK OF WAR for availability.)