In 1981 This Week hit the airwaves as ABC’s answer to NBC’s Meet the Press and as successor to Issues and Answers. Its moderator was David Brinkley who left longtime employer NBC News because he was upset at being forced to anchor one of NBC’s many low rated news magazines. At ABC, Brinkley revitalized Sunday morning public affairs programming by adding a panel, the roundtable. It provided a unique look at the news of the week with informed debate. Furthermore, it made public affairs programming accessible to the average Joe by always doing a setup piece before the interview. Due to this and Brinkley’s talent, the program was very successful. Brinkley stepped down as moderator in 1996 but continued to provide regular commentary until 1997. He died in 2003.
Score Productions – This Week theme
(206 votes, average: 4.41 out of 5)
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My personal favorite of all the This Week themes (by the way, this arrangement was used from 1981 until sometime in late 1992). The 1993-2002 rearrangement is my second favorite. Wish you had more cuts from the ’81 Brinkley package.
Now the ABC News Directions theme you have in your archives, I think that was used in the last few months or so of Issues and Answers (This Week’s predecessor); I heard it somewhere via a web page full of audio files of vintage TV newscasts. I’m not sure if the page is still in operation.