Now or in the past, was tv talk shows ever a part of your tv watching diet??
This came to me when I was just taking a walk and was listening to this (to me) 10/10 podcast about Phil Donahue and his history and the history of his show. Highly encourage a listen: What Phil Donahue Meant to Me - The Daily - Apple Podcasts
I remember watching Phil here and there at least. I’m thinking maybe my mom sometimes had it on?? I do remember him FLYING through the audience with the mic and encouraging audience participation and his topics were often hot topics or controversial topics and he wasn’t afraid to push a guests buttons - not for drama but to encourage conversation. I respected him.
I loved (love) Oprah but those were the days withe little people and her time a lot was after school when lots was going on - but again, loved her variety of guests and how the show could have you laughing one day and crying the next.
I guess we can include nighttime talk as well ….but to me it’s a totally different animal. And I loved the totally different animal for a whole that was named David Letterman.
I don’t know if I watched much else. Whatever is out there now, we’ll I don’t know of it!
There were a few for me, Phil, Oprah and Dave (Letterman)for sure…but I actually loved Rosie O’Donnell’s show. Recorded it (on the VCR ) so I wouldn’t miss a thing. ETA I also loved Craig Ferguson’s show.
Same. Although growing up, I do also remember watching Phil Donahue flying through the audience
I think Oprah resonated with a lot of regular folks at first but then it started to become more about her than the guests she had on - at least to me, her interview style changed as she became more popular, and I never liked the highly produced specials she would do to show herself donating money to various charities. It just seemed icky - again just my opinion.
Same here, although I did watch the first few seasons of SNL on the common room TV with my dormmates in college. We thought we were so grown up staying up that late.
I listened to that podcast, too.
I had not watched any of those shows until I went to college and then my roommates filled me in. I was fascinated. We did not have a TV, though, so I only watched sporadically.
I watched Oprah pretty regularly when the kids were very small. I was not working, and her show came on when I was in the gym so it was on the TV there.
I did try all the new talk shows, Sally, Montel, Jerry, the one with Ozzy’s wife, but only Oprah’s stuck. She was so influential, and then she disappeared.
I loved Oprah! I’d watch her every day I could. Some of her episodes have really stuck with me - the one after the LA riots in 1992, the one with a police officer giving the advice of absolutely NEVER going to a second location with a criminal ( risk everything to get away) and one where a girl’s mother died from cancer - despite traveling all over as a family before she died, this girl’s cherished memory was sharing a bowl of cereal in the middle of the night.
I watched Oprah as I prepared dinner in the 90’s when I had a tiny television set mounted under a kitchen cabinet. I found it comforting, like the audience and I were part of the gang.
Also, I followed one of her design mentors, and put up candid photos of my children in black and white with identical frames in a block, and it’s still on my wall today.
Gonna be honest, but I definitely had a bit of a Jerry Springer binge back in the mid 90’s. (And I know someone else out there in CC land did too!)
I even saw Jerry Springer, The Opera, which was fabulous. Jerry Springer: The Opera - Wikipedia
) so I wouldn’t miss a thing. ETA I also loved Craig Ferguson’s show.
