Dungeons & Dragons: 60 Minutes feature from 1985

Embedded below is a You Tube video of a feature on Dungeons & Dragons from the CBS TV show "60 Minutes," which was originally aired in 1985.

1985 was pretty much about the high water mark of the game's popularity, I think. And it shows in this feature, which focusses more on the then widely publicized fear that D&D was somehow satanic and corrupted the minds of vulnerable youth, than the stereotype that the game was played only by geeky teenage boys who are unable to get girls, a powerful stigma that that has endured to this day.

Gary Gygax, who died only last year, is interviewed extensively in this piece. But my favorite part is at the start, when the suave Ed Bradly, who usually interviewed celebrities like Lena Horne, has to struggle through a labored description of what a role-playing game actually is.

One warning: the video and audio quality is a bit rough, unfortunately.