Get Your Phil

 God rest Phil Donahue. Phil passed away this week at the age of eighty-eight. The first thing that occurred to me was that he was ageless, he of the preternaturally silver helmet of hair, and the glasses that always looked as if they were in need of a finger's shove up the bridge of his nose. 

Phil paved the way for Oprah. And Morton Downey Junior. And Geraldo. And all those afternoon chatfests that began to populate the afternoon airwaves in the eighties. He was the guy roaming around the studio audience, ready with the mic to take their questions for the guests. The guests were not generally what would be considered talk show guests. If you had a movie to plug or a book to sell, you might find a spot on Phil's stage, but more often than not his shows were based on topics like child abuse in the Catholic Church, feminism and race relations. He brought issues to the table, and he wasn't going to let Hollywood dictate his broadcast. 

Based initially in Dayton, Ohio, Phil moved to Chicago in 1974. That's when his show became just Donahue, and everyone seemed to notice. In 1977, in an exception to that no Hollywood rule, Phil had a guest on who he found interesting enough to have back. Marlo Thomas. They liked each other well enough to get married in 1980 and stayed together until his death. 

Donahue was the precursor to so many of those talk-TV shows I mentioned before, but he tended not to go for sensationalism. Instead, he preferred to discuss topics in a more civilized fashion, leaving the studio brawls for Geraldo Rivera. Phil was interested in getting to the heart of the matter. He recognized that his audiences, largely female, were interested in more than "mascara and recipes," according to Oprah Winfrey who credited Donahue with making room for something more. In Mach of 1990, Phil Donahue scored the first American television interview with newly freed Nelson Mandela. Not the kind of show you might expect to see on any of his competitor's stage. 

His legacy was big enough to earn him The Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to him by Joe Biden in May of this year. Eventually his contributions to broadcasting will be fully appreciated as the powers that be start to recognize the way Phil Donahue stomped on the Talk Show Terra. He will be missed. 

Aloha, Phil.