90’s Daytime Talk Shows

[Carrie Fairchild]

This article made a major mistake regarding her show. The program was in fact called The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show, with the "Jim" not her infamous husband (or EX-husband by that point), but comic actor Jim J. Bullock

Yes, I noticed that when I looked it up. Tammy Faye talks about the show briefly in her Emmy TV Legends interview. She’s full of praise for Jim J and remained in contact with him after the show. She said the issue was that the producers wanted them to do multiple takes of everything and that it took the fun out of the show.

Cybill also talks about her stint as a talk show host in her interview. She said that Merv Griffin was a producer but the rest of the production team didn’t listen to him and kept demanding that she be more like Barbara Walters or Oprah Winfrey. She kind of talks around the rest of the questions about the show, which gives me the impression that it wasn’t an amicable parting when she was eventually dropped in favour of a panel.

 

[AndyB2008]

I don’t think many did and while it ran for three seasons, there’s very little about it online.

The only thing I’ve seen in reference to a timeslot is a print ad, promoting its 10am slot on NBC Chicago.

It was produced by NBC Studios, and mostly offered to NBC O&O stations.

Still it lasted longer than NBC's next effort - when they thought Megan Mullally's fame as Karen Walker on Will and Grace would translate to talk show success. Instead The Megan Mullally Show lasted just 4 months and failed to complete the season.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

It was produced by NBC Studios, and mostly offered to NBC O&O stations.

Still it lasted longer than NBC's next effort - when they thought Megan Mullally's fame as Karen Walker on Will and Grace would translate to talk show success. Instead The Megan Mullally Show lasted just 4 months and failed to complete the season.

That’s another one that I’d completely forgotten about. Caroline Rhea was another sitcom transplant that didn’t work out a few years earlier.

Around the same time as Megan Mullally’s show, Sharon Osbourne (riding high on the success of The Osbournes and The X Factor) had a short lived US talk show followed by an even shorter lived UK talk show. She’s one of a small group of hosts that had daytime talk shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Trisha Goddard had a 12 year run on UK TV before getting her own US show (as an offshoot of Maury I think) which ran for three seasons. Jeremy Kyle had a two season stint with his US show, which ran concurrent to his long running UK series. And after Trisha’s defection from ITV to Channel 5, ITV commissioned a UK version of The Jerry Springer Show. It trashed Trisha in the ratings, pulling in five times more viewers than her Channel 5 show, but appears to have only been a short term arrangement (Springer only signed a one month contract & made a dozen episodes) until Trisha’s permanent ITV replacement (the aforementioned Jeremy Kyle) premiered that autumn.

 

[AndyB2008]

That’s another one that I’d completely forgotten about. Caroline Rhea was another sitcom transplant that didn’t work out a few years earlier.

Around the same time as Megan Mullally’s show, Sharon Osbourne (riding high on the success of The Osbournes and The X Factor) had a short lived US talk show followed by an even shorter lived UK talk show. She’s one of a small group of hosts that had daytime talk shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Trisha Goddard had a 12 year run on UK TV before getting her own US show (as an offshoot of Maury I think) which ran for three seasons. Jeremy Kyle had a two season stint with his US show, which ran concurrent to his long running UK series. And after Trisha’s defection from ITV to Channel 5, ITV commissioned a UK version of The Jerry Springer Show. It trashed Trisha in the ratings, pulling in five times more viewers than her Channel 5 show, but appears to have only been a short term arrangement (Springer only signed a one month contract & made a dozen episodes) until Trisha’s permanent ITV replacement (the aforementioned Jeremy Kyle) premiered that autumn.

Caroline Rhea suffered from a couple of factors - some stations like WABC TV aired the show in late night, while Caroline wasn't as big a name to carry a talkshow as Rosie O'Donnell, who she replaced. (The main audience who may have recognised Caroline were the fan base of Sabrina The Teenage Witch).

Will and Grace had originally just come off air by the time Megan Mullally had her show. (NBC Studios were behind this as they were with W&G, so were trying to keep the cash cow going).

 

[AndyB2008]

Article from 2000 about the decline of the daytime talk show. I’d forgotten about Cybill Shepherd’s foray into the genre with Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Also, how did I miss the fact that Tammy Faye Bakker had a show in the mid 90’s?

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The Ainsley Harriott Show - the NBC O&O stations signed a deal with Disney's Buena Vista Television, the syndicator, to carry the show.

The NBC O&O stations I believe put Ainsley into the spot vacated by Aaron Spelling's struggling Sunset Beach when that soap ended it's short lived run.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I seem to recall a daytime show Howie Mandel had back in the late 90s. I thought it was pretty good actually but it didn’t seem to last long from what I remember.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

The NBC O&O stations I believe put Ainsley into the spot vacated by Aaron Spelling's struggling Sunset Beach when that soap ended it's short lived run.

They did. Or at least I remember this being reported to be the plan when the cancellation of Sunset Beach was announced.

I seem to recall a daytime show Howie Mandel had back in the late 90s. I thought it was pretty good actually but it didn’t seem to last long from what I remember.

It lasted ten months and probably only gets a mention these days as it featured the TV singing debut of Britney Spears.

 

[ginnyfan]

This is a fascinating topic and I'm glad we can discuss it cause recently I've seen a lot of clips from some of these 90s talk shows on Instagram, mostly Sally Jesse Raphael and I'm usually shocked that this kind of drivel ever got to air in DAYTIME hours, on US network tv. Of course I knew about Jerry Springer and his crappy show which aired here for a couple of seasons, just to show us how ''retarded'' Americans are, I guess. But I was surprised to learn that it wasn't just Jerry but dozens of other daytime talk shows that had the same, trashy, crazy concept. Sally's show often had a theme '' My teenage daughter is a slut'' where mothers come to complain and fight their daughters, who are dressed in 90's worst grunge stripper fashion. Some of the videos I watched are mind boggling and make you question the sanity of guests, hosts and viewers. Did people really enjoy watching teenage hookers during their lunch? Or those Boot Camp episodes during their morning coffee? How was stuff like this allowed to air on US daytime tv? This was not night time or cable where pretty much anything goes, it was daytime networks and I though there were/are some rules when it comes to sexual content, minors etc that have to be followed by networks? Can anyone explain this?

As for the other talk shows, of course we had Oprah on Croatian national tv (HRT) which I watched religiously in late 90s and 2000s and it truly was a great talk show and its topics and subjects were so interesting and shocking for the audiences back in the day. Oprah was also a sympathetic host, someone you could relate to. I guess it was all a good act since she showed her true colours recently. I was also surprised to see that even Oprah was quite trashy in late 80s/early 90s when this whole thing started. Anyway, we also got Rosie's talk show in late 90s which I thought was the best showbiz talk show, a great place to see acting legends, Broadway stars give insightful interviews and Rosie treated them with respect and showed huge knowledge and kindness while talking to them. I also loved Roseanne's talk show, I guess mostly cause her sitcom was my favorite as well.

Netflix has a great episode on the demise of Jenny Jones' trashy talk show after the whole gay murder scandal, as part of its Trial by Media series which I recommend to anyone interested in the subject.

Finally, returning to my shock of how these trashy talk shows could ever get to air for such a long time. After their decline, this sort of trash content transitioned into reality and moved to cable, at least in daytime, while networks got a total clean up and ever since we've had a very clean, family friendly daytime slate of programming. Ellen, Kelly Clarkson, Drew Barrymore, failed attempts by Katie Couric, Meredith Vierra and currently still on air Tamron Hall, are all very decent and normal shows, though at times very bland, boring and just the same.

So what happened in the 90s, why was such crazy programming that surely broke all sorts of rules and guidelines, allowed to air for so long?

 

[ClassyCo]

Oh, the talk shows. TV is cluttered with them, and has been for many years.

I remember watching MAURY ("You are not the father!") probably the most back when I was barely ten years old. It was ridiculous how so many women in America didn't know who the father of their baby was, and how they had to go on live TV to take a DNA test. Of course, I know the show started out as a more legitimate talk show, just as THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW did, before it turned into a reality-style soap opera whose audience was as enthusiastic as the WWE crowd.

My mom used to watch OPRAH a lot, and she's said numerous times how she liked Ricki Lake's old show, but the latter was before my time. There was a time I watched ELLEN and THE TALK -- oh, and THE REAL sometimes, too. I liked them okay. I'd be particularly interested if those tabloid-like talk shows had guests from old TV shows.

So many people have had talk shows over the years -- Roseanne Barr, Vicki Lawrence, Marie Osmond, and so many more.

Before she passed, my granny had a daily regimen of watching MAURY, JERRY SPRINGER, and STEVE WILKOS after the GSN stopped showing the old reruns of THE MATCH GAME and CARD SHARKS (which, by the way, I love those old game shows and I loved watching them with my granny). My dad used to joke that his mom loved watching "trash TV" on a daily basis.

I honestly haven't watched any of these shows in years, and I haven't any desire to, either. They're all very "P.C." and "woke" (especially THE VIEW, which I've never watched anyway) and I'm not wasting my time on any of that.

 

[DallasFanForever]

It lasted ten months and probably only gets a mention these days as it featured the TV singing debut of Britney Spears.

Thank you! I knew it wasn’t on long but had no idea it was actually less than a year. I don’t even remember Britney doing her TV singing debut on that particular show.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

we've had a very clean, family friendly daytime slate of programming. Ellen, Kelly Clarkson, Drew Barrymore, failed attempts by Katie Couric, Meredith Vierra and currently still on air Tamron Hall, are all very decent and normal shows, though at times very bland, boring and just the same.

I think Steve Wilkos is the only one still on air that follows the old style tabloid format with guests doing battle. As you said, the rest of them are a lot more normal these days with celeb guests rather than paternity tests.

 

[CeeCee72]

Netflix has a great episode on the demise of Jenny Jones' trashy talk show after the whole gay murder scandal, as part of its Trial by Media series which I recommend to anyone interested in the subject.

I have seen that episode. I had forgotten all about that Jenny Jones scandal. Seems like a lot of the guests on those trashy talk shows were mentally unstable and producers just pounced on them to take advantage of it to create "good" TV.

 

[AndyB2008]

I have seen that episode. I had forgotten all about that Jenny Jones scandal. Seems like a lot of the guests on those trashy talk shows were mentally unstable and producers just pounced on them to take advantage of it to create "good" TV.

If I remember as well, Time Warner, who owned Telepictures Productions, were sued by the victim's family and had to pay damages, only for a appeals court to overturn the verdict.

 

[AndyB2008]

Yes, I definitely think that reality TV became the successor to the tabloid talk shows as they featured similar conflicts and dramas, albeit in ongoing settings. The various dramas of the Kardashian family alone, as portrayed in their shows, could’ve filled a couple of seasons of Ricki Lake.

The season that they premiered (1995-1996) also featured the talk show debuts of Gabrielle Carteris, Danny Bonaduce and George Hamilton & Alana Stewart, none of whom had journalistic backgrounds or had presented talk shows previously. That year appears to have been the peak for random celeb talk show commissions.

UK TV never really went in for the celeb fronted talkers although following her departure from Coronation Street after 25 years, soap queen Julie Goodyear made a pilot for a daytime talk show with Granada. It wasn’t picked up and I think the perception at the time was that the public were only interested in seeing Julie as her Corrie character Bet, not as Julie. She’d eventually do a stint hosting LiveTime, a kind of phone in talk show on lifestyle satellite channel Granada Breeze.


I’m sure they were one of many to pull the wool over producers eyes. Well known Irish drag queen Panti (Rory O’Neill) appeared on Maury in the 90’s alongside his “sister” Katherine, where they shared tales from their childhood before Panti underwent a “back to boy” makeover. Only Katherine wasn’t his sister but his friend, comedienne and actress Katherine Lynch, who happened to be in the pub with Rory when he got the email invite to come on the show.

Gabrielle Carteris - 20th Television (the syndicator) probably were hoping for big things with her talk show as she was coming off her stint on Beverly Hills 90210 by the time it launched.

 

[CeeCee72]

Sometimes I think some of these 90s talk shows were the start of fake news. Donahue, Geraldo, Maury....All of these guys did a lot shows on repressed memories, the satanic panic, etc. Geraldo is very much responsible for that McMartin Preschool trial disaster (although, I think that may have been a primetime special).

 

[DallasFanForever]

The show I remember the most, that ironically I don’t think has been mentioned yet, was Morton Downey, Jr. That wasn’t really a daytime show but it had such an impact on 80s television. The fights alone on that show were legendary, Definitely one of the most tense talk shows I remember watching at the time.

 

[CeeCee72]

The show I remember the most, that ironically I don’t think has been mentioned yet, was Morton Downey, Jr. That wasn’t really a daytime show but it had such an impact on 80s television. The fights alone on that show were legendary, Definitely one of the most tense talk shows I remember watching at the time.

I had forgotten all about him! As I recall, he was even worse than Springer! Hugely famous for a few years.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I had forgotten all about him! As I recall, he was even worse than Springer! Hugely famous for a few years.

From Wikipedia: Using a large silver bowl for an ashtray, he would chain smoke during the show and blow smoke in his guests' faces.

There’s a “best of” compilation of his show on YouTube and the two minutes I’ve watched of it so far are absolute chaos. As you said, he does appear worse than Springer. There’s an almost Roman colosseum feel to what I’ve seen, with a guest pitted against Downey Jr at a lectern while the audience are whipped up into a frenzy like a baying mob.

 

[AndyB2008]

From Wikipedia: Using a large silver bowl for an ashtray, he would chain smoke during the show and blow smoke in his guests' faces.

There’s a “best of” compilation of his show on YouTube and the two minutes I’ve watched of it so far are absolute chaos. As you said, he does appear worse than Springer. There’s an almost Roman colosseum feel to what I’ve seen, with a guest pitted against Downey Jr at a lectern while the audience are whipped up into a frenzy like a baying mob.

Morton Downey Jr was also in a episode of Diagnosis Murder, alongside coincidentally Vicki Lawrence.

He played a radio shock jock who was killed by Vicki's character.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The "shock jocks" thing was a late-1980s phenomenon in syndicated radio that spawned not only Morton Downey but Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage, doing more "performance" than chat despite it being called "radio talk". So Morton Downey's show was just an effort to take his in-your-face style to television (where Howard Stern also went for a time in his self-proclaimed "King of All Media" period). AM radio was seen as dying in the late-1980s so the resurgence of talk radio basically kept AM radio from going the way of 8-track tapes, and syndicated hosts of shows heard nationally basically took over the format that had been mostly local talent and local topics. Downey was seen as much too intense and became a laughingstock with all the hand-waving and yelling. things one did not see when he was just on the radio.

One anecdote from this "talk show glut" period of the mid-1990s I recall was a story that claimed that staff on shows like Tempestt Bledsoe and Gabrielle Carteris had to basically hire "extras" to fill up the studio audience, such was the lack of enthusiasm for those shows.