(Image Source: CBS)

BY MEGAN NOE

Crusty, curmudgeonly.... and one of America’s favorite TV commentators.

Long-time CBS broadcaster Andy Rooney died Friday at 92. ABC has more on his legacy.

REPORTER: “He was America’s lovable, but grumpy, uncle.”

ROONEY: “You know it says, push in and pull up. It sounds good, but you can’t push it in, and if you do get it pushed in, you can’t pull it up. This is a box of Minute Rice. Fine, but it takes you three minutes to open the box.”

REPORTER: “Delivering more than one thousand commentaries on 60 Minutes beginning in 1978.”

Rooney is credited with inventing the genre of television essays, which he delivered on Sunday nights for 33 years. The segment made him, as the New York Times says, one of the most popular broadcast figures in the country.

“With his jowls, bushy eyebrows, deeply circled eyes and advancing years, he seemed every inch the homespun philosopher as he addressed mostly mundane subjects with varying degrees of befuddlement, vexation and sometimes even pleasure.”

Rooney published 16 books, had a syndicated newspaper column, and won four Emmys. But, says CNN, he always saw himself as a writer, not a TV personality.

“Rooney started his writing career in the U.S. military. He was assigned as a correspondent for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, after being drafted into the army in 1941. Rooney often wrote about the men in those bombing missions, eventually having a book published about their experiences in 1944.”

It’s no surprise that the outspoken icon’s comments sometimes got him into trouble. As CBS explains, controversy erupted after remarks on Native Americans, Kurt Cobain’s suicide and homosexual unions.

ROONEY: “Too much alcohol, too much food, drugs, homosexual unions, cigarettes. They were all known to lead quite often to premature death.”

REPORTER: “Amid fallout from that remark, CBS News suspended Rooney, but his fans stood by him, and the ratings on 60 Minutes dropped 20 percent in his absence. He was back on the air in a month.”

Rooney’s death was due to complications following a minor surgery. Just a month earlier, Rooney announced he would no longer regularly appear on 60 Minutes in a final essay -- My Lucky LIfe.

“I’ve done a lot of complaining here, but of all the things I’ve complained about, I can’t complain about my life.”