BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This year, CNN celebrates 20 years. And to commemorate the anniversary, every day we will recall a news event that made headlines. Two years ago, the nation was shocked by the death of a congressman and former entertainer: Sonny Bono.</s>JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: Entertainers and politicians may be remembering Sonny Bono for very different reasons tonight. Friends say his easy smile and showmanship served him well in all his endeavors. The 62-year-old California congressman was killed instantly on a ski trail.</s>JILL NEFF, GUEST BOOKER: We had heard about Sonny Bono possibly being missing late in the evening. And I remember I went home and at 2:30 in the morning my phone rang, and it was the assignment desk in Atlanta telling me that, indeed, they had found Sonny Bono's body. There are so many different facets of Sonny Bono's life, I mean, his career as a star and then his career as a congressman, so it is hard to start thinking who is your first call, do you go for the entertainment side of Sonny Bono or do you go for congressional, very serious side of Sonny Bono.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I knew him fairly well because I had covered him in Congress. It is my job, of course, to know all of these characters very well. He was a character. He was somebody who was a freshman, he was considered lightweight by many people. I said when he died, and I would say even today, that he really -- his tenure was too brief to have any lasting impact. Talk about operating on the seniority system, Congress certainly does. You can't really, really make an impression until you've been here for a while. But Sonny Bono, whether he was an influential member of Congress or not, was somebody very easy to get along with, just about everybody liked him on both sides of the aisle.
CNN 20: Sonny Bono Dies, January 5, 1998