When The Mic Goes Silent: Phil Donahue Dead At 88

“Is the caller there?”

Fans of The Phil Donahue Show, once the nation’s top talk-show on television, remember the bespectacled, silver-haired, stocky host always saying those words during the call-in portion of his show.

He last said those words when his daytime program went off the air 28 years ago. And now no words can be said to do justice to a media legend who passed away at age 88 on Sunday.

To talk about him in a statistical sense, we can say he and his show won 20 Emmys, that he was inducted into his industry’s hall of fame, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, that his program ran for 26 years (7,000 one-hour shows) in syndication, and was a daily staple in the lives of multiple generations. It gave way to Oprah — and Montel Williams, Jenny Jones, Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, Richard Bey, Morton Downey Jr., Dr.Phil, Geraldo, and Sally Jessy Raphael.

But he was more than that.

He raised the consciousness — and conscience — of America.

He discussed issues intelligently, compassionately, and thoroughly. He showed how experts saw things and how common people in the audience or on the phone did as well. He discussed controversial topics in a legitimate manner, not looking to create a circus but to get to some kind of agreed-upon truth, or at least to provide a better understanding of all sides to an issue. It was informative, provocative, enlightening, and entertaining — and never dull.

America needs a show like that today.  

In our divisive and segregated media landscape, a new Phil Donahue Show is exactly what would serve us well. Missing on TV for many years has been a show that can bring all people together to discuss any issue from all sides. No fists flying or threatening engagements. Just good old debate and a free-flow of ideas. 

As the NY Daily News said of him: “was a television trailblazer credited with first establishing a format in which actively engaging audience members was essential to the program.” 

His career disappeared at around age 60, which always was mystifying to me, but he had a great run and will always be remembered fondly. 

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 4,900+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.