TV Flash
All episodes Season 48 S48E10 2015-11-29 60 min 1980s CBS

60 Minutes

The Last Prisoner | The Execution of Joseph Wood | Taking on the Eiger

TV Flash files “The Last Prisoner | The Execution of Joseph Wood | Taking on the Eiger” as hour 408 of 767 in the TV Flash guide — 60 Minutes (1968–present) on CBS, season 48, episode 10, aired 2015-11-29, 60 min.

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How this hour is filed

This leaf is S48E10: listed hour 408 of 767 in the 60 Minutes guide, hour 10 of 37 in season 48. It aired 2015-11-29 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Active Shooter | Common Enemy | The Future of Money” (S48E09). Next is “Confidential Informants | Bonobos | The Spy Among Us” (S48E11). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.

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Catalog log

Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.

The Last Prisoner- When Cuban authorities locked him up for helping its citizens get unrestricted Internet access, Alan Gross figured he would be out in a jiffy -- after all, he was working for the U.S. government. But after two weeks, he knew he was in trouble and wondered why the people at the U.S. Agency for International Development who had hired him hadn't come to his rescue. Gross was an electronics consultant hired by USAID to set up independent Internet connections in Cuba, an illegal activity because it bypassed censorship in the communist country. His efforts landed him in custody for five years until he was released last December on the same day the U.S. released three Cubans it held. Gross tells Scott Pelley about his ordeal and his activities that led up to his arrest in his first interview. The Execution of Joseph Wood- The execution of a man in Arizona with a new cocktail of drugs was supposed to take about 10 minutes. It took almost two hours, the longest execution in U.S. history. Taking on the Eiger - If a villain were about to kill James Bond at the top of a Swiss peak, 007 might make an incredible escape like this. And JT Holmes would be the stuntman to pull it off. The extreme sportsman has been waiting for years to try it. And when the weather was finally right, he flew, skied and then jumped off the Eiger's rock face, pulling a parachute to break his 100-mph free fall. 60 Minutes cameras were there to record the breathtaking event, tried by Holmes for the first time on the famous peak that's more than two miles high.

Viewer FAQ

Where does The Last Prisoner | The Execution of Joseph Wood | Taking on the Eiger sit in the 60 Minutes guide?

S48E10 is listed hour 408 of 767 — hour 10 of 37 in season 48, season 48 episode 10.

When did 60 Minutes S48E10 air?

The Last Prisoner | The Execution of Joseph Wood | Taking on the Eiger aired 2015-11-29 and is listed at 60 minutes.

Is 1980s 60 Minutes different from today's?

The grammar is the same: multi-segment hour, stopwatch motif, investigations plus profiles. In the 1980s it frequently outrated sitcoms — proof news could dominate prime time.

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Filed by Vivian Cross · The Carpet Report · Show package

The template of TV newsmagazine power — for the craft of the package and the history of broadcast investigation. Hewitt's stopwatch, Wallace's ambush, Safer and Bradley and Rooney's endnotes: Sunday night investigative theater that outrated sitcoms. Appointment news before the infinite scroll. Tick, tick, tick.

Tick, tick, tick — not a theme song, a weapon. CBS's 60 Minutes, Don Hewitt's stopwatch since 1968, was an 1980s Nielsen bully that outrated sitcoms on Sunday night: investigative pieces, profiles, commentator segments, correspondent star power. Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Harry Reasoner, Ed Bradley, Diane Sawyer, Andy Rooney's endnotes. **Ambush interviews and gotcha lore made Wallace a fearsome brand.** The museum guard wants the package as civic virtue. The flash is the ambush. Appointment news before the…

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