The renowned talk show host, Phil Donahue, died this past weekend at the age of 88. This is Entertainment Tonight's tribute to the guy who invented the afternoon, audience participation talk show. If it wasn't for Phil Donahue's show, Oprah, Sally Jessie, Maury, Jerry Springer and all the others may have never had the shows we know them best for.
Somewhere in a box, probably in my sister's attic back east, there's a picture of me when I was 19-years-old. I was about as close to thin as I ever got, and I was wearing my Boise High School letterman's jacket, red with white sleeves, and a big red "B" on it. Believe it or not, my fat ass got a letter in cross-country during my senior year of high school (Go Braves!). In the photo, my hand is raised up, left hand, I believe, and there's a small monkey on my hand. I had a splint on one finger that I had smashed or something. It wasn't broken, but the doctors at the ER put a splint on it, to keep it from moving for a few days. The monkey kept picking at the white tape and splint, trying to figure out what it was for. The photo was taken in San Francisco, in either the fall of 1985, or spring of 1986, I think it was in the spring. My mom and I were standing in line to see a taping of the Phil Donahue Show. Or Donahue, as it was called then. That episode had something to do with grandparent's rights, when their kids were abusive to their grandkids, something like that. The show did a few days of taping in San Francisco for some reason. The monkey was owned by a guy working the line, letting people take photos with the monkey for tips. There were a few hundred of us lined up for an hour or more, so I imagine he made a decent amount of money. My mom snapped the photo.
As I recall, once we were all seated, Phil Donahue came out before the show, and let the audience ask him questions. My mom was really excited, and he came over, pointed the mic towards her, and let her speak. My mom, Kathy, told Phil Donahue that she had been a fan of his show since he was a local talk show host in Dayton, Ohio. In fact, she explained, she once was in the studio audience of the local show when she was pregnant with her son, who's now 19-years-old. She pointed to me. She told Phil Donahue that she'd been a fan all those years, and was delighted to be able to come to another taping.
Now even for a TV host who has interviewed hundreds of celebrities, and pointed a mic at thousands of audience members, that's a pretty unique story. Phil Donahue was incredibly gracious and professional, and said he was glad she came to a show taping all those years later. It's been a long time, obviously, but I think that all happened before the show taped.
He went backstage after the questions, and came back out to tape the show. During the latter half of the show, my mom got to make a comment about the topic of the day, which, of course made her happy. Because of that, we were both on camera for a few seconds during the actual show. She might have mentioned seeing him before in Dayton in the show, but I think it was before hand. My memory is hazy on that part. In any case, we watched the show being taped, and it was pretty cool.
After the show, the audience was told that Phil was available to get a photo with, back in those days before cell phones and selfies as we know them today. My mom, of course, wanted a photo. We left the auditorium, and there was a big line of well over 100 people to get a photo. So we stood in another line for probably 20 minutes or so, and eventually made it up to say "Hi" to Phil, and to take a photo. As my mom walked up, he smiled and said, "You're the lady from Ohio, right?" Wow. That one floored me. The audience probably had 400 to 500 people in it, and he had talked to quite a few of them, both during the question period, and while taping the show itself.
As you can imagine, my mom was ecstatic that he remembered her, and she talked to him for a minute, and I shot a photo of them. We headed out, and back home to San Jose, where my mom promptly called everyone she could think of and told them she saw Phil Donahue, and that he remembered her after the show.
I'd heard the story about my mom going to see a Phil Donahue Show taping live, while she was pregnant with me, several times before that day. I remember her watching his show going way back in my childhood. Today I looked it up, and found that the local Dayton Phil Donahue Show started in 1967. I was born in 1966. But he did an earlier afternoon show called Conversation Piece, at the same station, WHIO-TV, from 1963 to 1967. We did live in both Dayton and Cincinnati (close by) when I was little. We moved out of Dayton when I was five. But my parents lived up by Akron, in the opposite part of Ohio, when I was born. My guess is that my mom went with a couple of other women to the taping back in 1966. I never heard the whole story of the trip. My mom died earlier this year, so I can't get the details from her.
As a kid in Ohio until I was 14, I watched a lot of Phil Donahue Shows as a kid. My mom, and most other moms we knew, watched it nearly every afternoon. The show was on a lot, whether us kids wanted to watch it or not. My dominant memory is my mom folding laundry while watching it, on many different occasions.
From all of his shows I watched on TV, and the one taping that I went to when I was 19, I have to say Phil Donahue was a class act, on TV and off. He and his team figured out in the 1960's that you can do a really interesting TV show, day after day, with a live studio audience and a good topic to talk about. He invented the afternoon talk show genre' and taped thousands of interesting shows. RIP Phil Donahue.
I couldn't find the photo of me with the monkey anywhere online, or on social media. If I find it, I'll put it up here, or link to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment