FORTY-EIGHT HOURS {48 HOURS}: JFK (TV)
Summary
One in this series of news documentary programs, hosted by Dan Rather, which focus on a specific topic for forty-eight hours. In this edition, Rather, along with correspondents Erin Moriarty, Phil Jones, and Richard Schlesinger, examines the lingering conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. This program includes interviews and comments by the following people, among others: Robert Tannenbaum, deputy counsel to House Select Committee on Assassinations; former Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade; authors Mark Lane and Michael Kurtz; Richard Helms, former director of covert operations for the CIA; and filmmaker Oliver Stone. Topics discussed include the following, among others: the fact that the only solid evidence of the fatal shot to Kennedy's head is Abraham Zapruder's home movie; the fact that the single bullet theory is still the basis of the lone gunman claim; the reasons for differing eyewitness accounts of where the sound of gunshots came from; medical examiners' comments about the movements of Kennedy's head following the fatal shot, as seen on the Zapruder film; the way autopsy reports were unorganized and parts of them were partially burned; the disappearance of pieces of Kennedy's brain tissue that were supposed to be used as evidence after the autopsy; the reason that Gov. John Connally of Texas, who was also shot in the car, is convinced that at least two bullets were fired at Kennedy; whether anyone would be capable of firing three shots in five seconds, at that distance, at a moving target, striking the target all three times; the results of tests with expert marksmen who re-enacted the shooting; how the Dallas Police Department could have based their manhunt of Lee Harvey Oswald on a description made by a man standing on the street looking up at the sixth floor of the Texas State School Book Depository; skepticism about the alleged shooting of police officer J.D. Tippit by Oswald; the brief amount of time that passed before Oswald was named the main and only suspect in the assassination; the discovery by Dallas police of Oswald's palm print on the rifle, which the FBI did not notice; the way nightclub owner Jack Ruby gained access to the police station when Oswald was transferred; the reasons, if any, that Ruby shot Oswald; actions by Ruby that heightened public suspicion of a conspiracy; Oswald's personal and political background; whether the CIA knew Oswald had been in the Soviet Union; the way the Soviet Union handled Oswald's renunciation of his U.S. citizenship; Oswald's acquaintances in New Orleans; the predominant conspiracy theory concerning the assassination; beliefs that either the CIA, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, or the mafia were responsible for Kennedy's assassination; the reason so few people believe the Warren Commission's lengthy report on the incident; the impact of the film, "JFK," directed by Oliver Stone, on U.S. youth; the extent to which the film may be fact or fiction; and the film's influence on government opinion on reopening the files on the assassination, which were classified for many years. Includes commercials and promos. This program is closed-captioned.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Marc Haas and Helen Hotze Haas Foundation, 1997.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: February 5, 1992 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:58:55
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:28099
- GENRE: Magazine; Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Assassinations; Central Intelligence Agency; Cuba - Foreign relations - U S; Magazine; U S - Presidency - 1963
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1988-
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - AT&T phone services
- TV - Commercials - Ace Hardware stores
- TV - Commercials - Advil pain reliever
- TV - Commercials - Arm & Hammer pure baking soda
- TV - Commercials - Classico pasta sauce
- TV - Commercials - Contact cold medicine
- TV - Commercials - Diet Dr. Pepper soda
- TV - Commercials - Dreyfus Tax Exempt Funds
- TV - Commercials - Dristan cold medicine
- TV - Commercials - Gillette Sensor razors
- TV - Commercials - Jergens moisturizing lotion
- TV - Commercials - Kaopectate antacid relief
- TV - Commercials - McDonald's fast food
- TV - Commercials - Mylanta antacid
- TV - Commercials - Playtex Ultimates tampons
- TV - Commercials - Salon Selectives hair products
- TV - Commercials - Sensodyne toothpaste
- TV - Commercials - TWA Airlines
- TV - Commercials - UPS delivery service
- TV - Promos - "1992 Olympic Winter Games"
- TV - Promos - "CBS Evening News"
- TV - Promos - "CBS Sports NCAA Basketball"
- TV - Promos - "Knots Landing"
- TV - Promos - "Scene of the Crime"
- TV - Promos - "Silk Stalkings"
- TV - Promos - "The 1992 Miss USA Pageant"
CREDITS
- Andrew Heyward … Executive Producer
- Liza McGuirk … Producer
- Nancy Duffy … Producer
- Jonathan Klein … Producer
- Linda Martin … Producer
- Mary Murphy … Producer
- Bernard Birnbaum … Producer
- Rand Morrison … Producer
- Claude Becker … Associate Producer
- Eric Shapiro … Director
- Mary Ellen Noonan … Researcher
- Joseph Young … Researcher
- Thomas Flynn … Writer
- Edd Kalehoff … Music by
- Dan Rather … Host
- Phil Jones … Reporter
- Erin Moriarty … Reporter
- Richard Schlesinger … Reporter
- Fidel Castro
- John B. Connally
- Richard Helms
- John F. Kennedy
- Michael Kurtz
- Mark Lane
- Lee Harvey Oswald
- Jack Ruby
- Oliver Stone
- Robert Tannenbaum
- J.D. Tippit
- Henry Wade
- Abraham Zapruder