Are there complaints about the length of the clips these days? I don't get it...
Of course, it's the quality of the clips, not their length. DM had some that were quite lengthy,
but they were done well. And a few long clips can help pad out an otherwise short set,
notably Monday's from 1963. That had to be just about the shortest 10@10 ever, and I can
think of several good ideas that would have extended it by a few minutes.
I agree it depends on the clip; that Tip O'Neill clip could've used judicious editing, as could that Ollie North thing. I think one difference is that Dave actually *lived* thru the eras he featured, so he knew what mattered; nowadays the clips are being chosen and edited by folks who have no personal/historical connection to the material.
While your point is valid and that factor certainly makes it easier to produce a good clip/montage,
I don't think it's prohibitive. I have very few memories specific to 1963, but with a little research
I could probably come up with plenty of good ideas. For me the issue is locating the source
material, but presumably they have better resources in that regard.
Annalisa had a different style than Dave, but she did a pretty good job on clips as well. It was
obvious she put work into them, and in fact in one of her e-mails she was very clear that she
didn't want to just copy what Dave had done. Contrast that with our current host, who has
used other's clips.