TV Flash
All episodes Season 49 S49E34 2017-05-14 60 min 1980s CBS

60 Minutes

James Comey | The Bin Laden Documents | Curiosity

TV Flash files “James Comey | The Bin Laden Documents | Curiosity” as hour 469 of 767 in the TV Flash guide — 60 Minutes (1968–present) on CBS, season 49, episode 34, aired 2017-05-14, 60 min.

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How this hour is filed

This leaf is S49E34: listed hour 469 of 767 in the 60 Minutes guide, hour 34 of 37 in season 49. It aired 2017-05-14 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Theo and Joe | Deported | The Nuremberg Prosecutor” (S49E33). Next is “Sanctuary | Cook County Jail | Enemy of the State” (S49E35). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.

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Catalog log

Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.

James Comey - In 2014, then-FBI director James Comey spoke to Scott Pelley about his job and the political independence it required in order to effectively uphold the rule of law. The Bin Laden Documents - Bin Laden documents reveal a loving, vengeful son who might take his father's role atop an al Qaeda that's stronger than ever, says ex-FBI agent. Personal letters seized in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden reveal the al Qaeda leader's son to be a young man who adores his father and wants to carry on his murderous ideology. That son today is poised to lead a stronger, larger al Qaeda and is bent on avenging his dad's death, says an ex-FBI agent familiar with those documents. Holly Williams interviews Ali Soufan, the former FBI agent who was the bureau's lead investigator of al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks. Soufan describes a letter from the son, Hamza, that was collected in the raid and now declassified. "He tells him that…he remembers 'every look…every smile you gave me, every word you told me.'" Hamza would be about 28 now and wrote the letter when he was 22 and had not seen his father in several years. Hamza also wrote this: "I consider myself to be forged in steel. The path of jihad for the sake of God is what we live." Curiosity - Rover "Curiosity" explores whether life could have begun on Mars. Is Earth the only planet in our solar system that has life on it? Scientists can't say for sure, but it's possible life could have flourished on Mars based on data gleaned by the Mars rover "Curiosity." Bill Whitaker reports on the sights and data beamed back more than 30-million miles from Mars by Curiosity, information that's telling scientists a lot about the Red Planet and Earth. Whitaker visits the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to bring viewers on a trip to Mars. JPL monitors show incredible images from its surface, such as a sunset and Martian terrain. But information from Curiosity's internal lab offers evidence of essential organic chemicals, leading JPL's Chief Engineer Rob Manning to consider an even wilder trip. "Could have been that Mars was habitable before Earth was and life got its foothold on Mars and took its journey to Earth and we're all Martians." Manning explains. "When a meteor comes along and hits Mars, a rock from Mars can be lifted up, travel in circles around the sun until someday it will bump into Earth," he tells Whitaker. "We've found Mars rock…we've found them all over the Earth." Manning says Earth rocks have traveled to Mars in the same way and that it's possible life could have survived the journey.

Viewer FAQ

Where does James Comey | The Bin Laden Documents | Curiosity sit in the 60 Minutes guide?

S49E34 is listed hour 469 of 767 — hour 34 of 37 in season 49, season 49 episode 34.

When did 60 Minutes S49E34 air?

James Comey | The Bin Laden Documents | Curiosity aired 2017-05-14 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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