LOS ANGELES — For nearly two decades, Phil Donahue was virtually the only TV talk show host to tour his audience with a microphone and make it an essential part of his show.
His enormous cultural influence – especially among the women who tended to watch daytime television in his day – eventually led to a flock of cultural imitators in the 1980s, including one who would eventually dethrone him.
“For a long time I wondered why it took so long for someone to copy us,” Donahue told the Archive of American Television in 2001. “Then Oprah Winfrey came along. It is not possible to overestimate the enormity of her impact on daytime television.”
Donahue died on Sunday at the age of 88 after a long illness.
“I lost my loved one last night,” Donahue’s wife, actor Marlo Thomas, wrote on Instagram on Monday, saying she was leaving social media “to take care of myself and the many people who cared for and held Phil. close to their hearts.”
Among those who paid tribute to him after his death, Winfrey was always the first to recognize his importance.
“There wouldn’t have been an Oprah Show without Phil Donahue being the first to prove that daytime talking and women watching should be taken seriously,” she posted on Instagram on Monday along with a photo of the two embracing. “He was a pioneer. I’m glad I could thank him for that. Rest in peace Phil.”
By the time “Donahue” went off the air in 1996 after 29 years, nearly 7,000 episodes and 20 Emmy Awards, the daytime television landscape was littered with lookalikes.
Winfrey, based in Chicago like Donahue, premiered in 1985 and permanently overtook him in the ratings starting with the 1986-87 season, although Donahue often pointed out that she “raised all boats” and his ratings even raised as she passed him.
Later, the floodgates really opened for imitators, most of them much messier, including “The Jerry Springer Show,” “Geraldo” and “Jenny Jones.”
It was enough to make Donahue feel like he no longer belonged.
“The daytime arena changed, the ground moved under my feet,” Donahue told The Associated Press in 2002, “and I was happy to leave.”
Both before and after Oprah, the prematurely grizzled and always animated Donahue (Phil Hartman channeled his dramatic body language in a recurring “Saturday Night Live” impression) was a huge influence, making the day simultaneously more serious, newsy and timely. salacious when he emerged in the late 1960s amid a sea of game shows, soap operas and more frivolous talk shows.
He showed that, long before cable news, daytime viewers cared about world leaders, cultural figures and the debates of the day. He gave many Americans their first real exposure to issues such as sexual harassment and abuse, gay marriage and AIDS.
“We are very proud of the way our program has reflected our culture since 1967,” Donahue said at the taping of his last show in 1996. “In 1967 we never thought we would lose a war. In 1967, AIDS was a verb or a plural noun. In 1967 you could harass your secretary and she couldn’t do anything about it.”
When “The Phil Donahue Show” debuted on WLWD-TV in Dayton, Ohio, it wasn’t supposed to have an audience at all, but a crowd seemed to expect to see the variety show it replaced, and producers decided to let them stay . During commercials, he opened the floor to questions for his first guest, atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, and quickly decided the audience’s questions were better than his.
“Sometime during that first week I jumped out of my seat and ran into the audience,” he told The AP in 1996.
The program moved to Chicago in 1974, shortened its name to “Donahue” and was distributed across the United States.
He took risks and welcomed controversy. He announced a birth in his first week. In a later episode he aired an abortion. He hosted a show about sexual abuse and Catholic priests, decades before the subject rocked the church worldwide. He broadcast an episode from New York’s Attica State Prison and later fought in court to broadcast an execution, but was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Memorable “Donahue” guests included feminist activist Gloria Steinem, left-wing provocateur Jerry Ruben of the Chicago Seven, Muhammad Ali and Ryan White, the boy who contracted AIDS in 1984 at age 13 and one of the faces of the illness, thanks in large part to his appearances on “Donahue.”
However, the shows were not always elitist. He had episodes dedicated to male strippers and female wrestlers, while both were rare.
Phillip John Donahue was born on December 21, 1935 in Cleveland, the son of an Irish Catholic furniture salesman who said he had a Norman Rockwell childhood of front lawns, baseball and church dancing.
He had a full Catholic education until his 1957 graduation from the University of Notre Dame.
He married Margaret Cooney in 1958 and had five children – Michael, Kevin, Daniel, Mary Rose and James – before they divorced in 1975. He met actor Marlo Thomas, the 1960s “That Girl” star who was a household name at the time and would later become a regular on “Friends” when she appeared on his show in 1977.
He later said it was love at first sight, and they did a poor job of hiding it on air.
“You’re really fascinating,” Donahue said to Thomas, taking her hand. “You’re great,” Thomas said back. “You are loving and generous, and you love women and it is a pleasure, and whoever the woman in your life is, she is very lucky.”
They married in 1980.
After years of hiatus, he returned to television and was one of the first hosts on MSNBC, trading heavily on his name during early promotion. His show premiered in July 2002 and lasted only seven months.
The network had yet to become the liberal counterpoint to Fox News’ conservatism, and the left-wing Donahue never felt supported.
“It took almost three years for Fox to overtake CNN,” Donahue said in a statement after the show’s cancellation. “We had six months.”
He remained semi-retired after leaving MSNBC. His media appearances were mostly one-off appearances on talk shows and TV documentaries. His voice appeared three times in 1999 as a caller in need of a psychologist’s help to Frazier.
