The passing of Phil Donahue at age 88 is, among other things, a time to reflect on when Chicago was the epicenter of daytime talk show America.
Donahue, who began his groundbreaking talk show in the 1960s in Dayton, Ohio, moved the show to Chicago in 1974 and there it stayed for 11 years until Donahue decamped for New York. But it was during that period in Chicago when his show was most central to the cultural zeitgeist in the U.S.
Dayton and Chicago were appropriate touchpoints for a native Ohioan who applied a common sense touch to topics that, when he started, Americans were not accustomed to seeing addressed on TV. Homosexuality, cross dressing and the discussion of other sexual topics were a regular part of the conversation, along with touchy subjects such as religion, but Donahue was respectful to his guests in ways many of his successors, seeking ratings from gawkers rather than curious human beings, were not. Along the way, Donahue involved the studio audience in posing questions to his guests — a groundbreaking move later adopted by virtually all who followed him in the genre. And throughout his tenure, Donahue always felt to us more like a TV journalist than an entertainer. We would not say the same of most of those who followed.
Donahue’s politics were to the left of many in his viewing audience, most of whom were women, but his friendly manner and light touch helped allow for open exploration of topics from which many viewers would have recoiled in different hands. America is the better for his courage in doing so.
Donahue’s legacy can’t be divorced from the even bigger phenomenon later launched from Chicago — Oprah Winfrey. Oprah’s Chicago-based syndicated show ran from 1986, just a year after Donahue left for New York, until 2011, and she became a global icon even as Donahue’s show was canceled due to lackluster ratings in the 1990s. It’s fair to say, though, that Oprah might never have had the chance had Donahue not paved the way.
Donahue died in New York after a long illness. Oprah is in California, and her Harpo Studios, where her show aired from the Near West Side for so many years, has been demolished and is now the site of McDonald’s corporate headquarters.
No major figure in Chicago has succeeded those two giants to carry on our city’s unlikely decades-long status as the center of the talk show format’s universe; it was a fun period that brought Chicago jobs and helped unloose many celebrities from New York and Los Angeles.
“Donahue” was provocative and honest while it lasted, and the credit for that goes to Phil.
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