90 Days is a video news magazine produced by McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, MO and distributed at the end of every business quarter through the mail to employees and shareholders of the company in VHS format. From its inception in September 1989 until the final episode in 1996 under the "90 Days" title, the program routinely featured segments about employees and company programs or products, all while incorporating a review of financial results from the previous quarter. An example clip from the program can currently be found on the video website YouTube. It was "a video report about issues, events and people important to you and McDonnell Douglas."
Overview
As Mr. McDonnell explains in "Number 1," the purpose behind going to the expense of producing and distributing 90 Days was to facilitate better communication between the company and its employees and shareholders. In fact, the first episode came with a postcard so viewers could share their comments on the show, and a special mailing address was established for comments throughout the life of the program. When "Number 1" debuted, the company was in the midst of a major transition, and at the time this was an innovative form of communication that served as an insight into the company's direction.
Hosts
Over the course of the program's production, 90 Days had three hosts:
John McDonnell
Harry Stonecipher
Guest host
Episode Summaries
Each episode of 90 Days was named according to its numerical order in the series, and featured a summary of that episode either on the reverse of the VHS video cover or printed on a label on the video itself.
As you'll notice in the infobox, there is little information regarding the production staff that was behind the creation of each episode of 90 Days. This is because there are no formal credit titles either before or after episodes. So for now, everyone from the theme music composer to the graphics designers live on in anonymity.
Legacy of ''90 Days''
There are not any known plans to resurrect either 90 Days or its successor, Flight Times TV by Boeing. However, at least one episode from the program is currently available on video site YouTube. As such, 90 Days has fallen into complete obscurity. But for those who look closer, 90 Days lives on as a valuable reference into the ups and downs of the aerospace industry in the late 1980s and most of the 1990s.
