Talkshows in America - Essay Example

A man being a social animal and the most knowledgeable living being on the earth has always craved for such means of entertainment that will not onlyamuse him but also provide him with knowledge. Humans have always been in search of different mediums that will help them to live a meaningful life. He has always endeavored to find new ways of entertainment. In the primitive period, the only means of entertainment were, musical concerts, Shakespearean plays, dances, ballets, religious functions etc. The people had discussions on various issues either in their homes or some other places, where few learned people came together and delivered speeches to the audience. But then these shows or discussions could only be attended by a group of people living in the proximity of the places where those meetings or discussions were arranged. And contrary to what is today, earlier people from other parts of the world were not aware of such events or discussions, as there was no medium through which others could witness these events. But with the invention of Television and Radio, the world came closer, and people from all over the world could hear them on Radio or see them and hear them on Television. In the early twentieth century, Radio was the only medium of entertainment. According to the historian, Wayne Munson, the first ever Talk Show was broadcasted on Radio over WBZ in Springfield, Massachusetts in the year 1921. It was related with farming. Usually experts conducted such talks and the purpose of arranging these programs was for educating the audiences. The hosts of these shows took the audiences in altogether different world of knowledge and entertainment. One Mr. Alexander Woolcott on WOR in New York shared his experiences of the different kind of people he met and the books he read, on the radio. Thus, at that time, hosts were the people who spoke and the audiences listened to what they said. Audiences were passive listeners and there was no one to one interaction between the host and the audience. But in 1930's there was a sudden change and the audience became an active member of these shows. In a radio program hosted by Houston called Vox Populi, a recorded interview of a man on the street was broadcasted. Thus audiences were enthralled by this innovative idea of involving audiences in the program, which thereby increased the popularity of that program. Thus many other producers too were inspired by this idea and they too copied the same. This is how the audiences were also involved in the programs. It was for the first time in the program of Barry Gray on WMCA that a phone call was received while the program was on air. Thereafter, 'audience request lines' were developed and the novel idea of playing music on the request of audience was implemented. (Ellen Hume - Talk Show Culture) In the year 1948, after the invention of television, people began to enjoy the audiovisual programs. It was during this time that people could actually see their favorite celebrities talk on the shows. Talk show, was a program on television, wherein a certain group of people came together to discuss certain issues. It was conducted by a host and different people who were experts in that particular field were invited on the show. The host before conducting the show prepared the outline of the program keeping in mind the public interest. And he invited the experts who could speak on this topic very well and who could answer the questions of the spectators satisfactorily. The show was generally interactive. The concept of Talk Shows was an outcome of the fusion of news and entertainment. It was informative as well as entertaining. In a talk show the host asks questions to the experts and they answer those questions. Sometimes if a small group of experts are invited then there is a group discussion on certain topics. With every expert or participant giving his personal opinions, the spectators can make a study of that particular topic from different angels. The topics selected for Talk Shows are mostly sensitive or have great social significance. The host of these shows plays the role of the speaker who speaks the minds or views of thousands of people all over the world. The guests invited on the talk shows are from different fraternities, like politics, films, medicine, social workers, artists or experts from other fields. People who otherwise cannot meet or see these people get an opportunity to see and hear them in these talk shows. Nowadays, the audiences also get a chance to speak with their favorite celebrities on phone while the show is going on. This has aroused interest in the audience as they can directly speak with their favorite celebrities. Even as an audience, they get exposure, as all the people in the world can hear them. The celebrities speak about social issues, different topics on which they have sufficient knowledge and even on their personal lives. But the host plays a vital role in conducting a show. The prerequisites for a host are that he should be presentable and smart, he should be an eloquent speaker and he should be capable enough to establish a connection between the audience and the guests on the show. It is his responsibility to make the show interesting, as he has to handle the situation very skillfully. It is his duty to see that the show doesn't turn out to be monotonous. He should also possess the funny side to his personality, so that he can crack jokes or pass funny punch lines that can make the participants as well as the audiences laugh. The producers of the Talk Shows decide about the topic and the nomination of the guests to be invited on the show. And whatever the host is going to speak, is normally not scripted, it is spontaneous. He very well knows the context of the talk, but whatever he speaks is impromptu. And that is why while making a comment on anything or while asking questions to the celebrities, he has to take the caution that it should not hurt anyone's feelings. A single remark here and there and it may give rise to any controversy. A host is also required to be aware of the time frame allotted to him and it his responsibility to finish that show in the given time. The Talk Shows are mainly named after the name of the hosts or are named in a unique and catchy way, so that the audiences remember the name of the shows. The hosts are renowned personalities who are great speakers and who are full of wits. They are the ones who make the shows popular amongst the masses. Different channels that get different shows have a dedicated research team that works on giving something new and unique to the audiences. For example, some channels came up with the innovative idea of cookery shows, where renowned cooks or chefs were invited on the shows to share their knowledge of recipes. Women and men both find these shows very interesting and they watch these shows with full enthusiasm and interest. There are many other shows that deal with sports, social issues, crime, films, arts, music etc. These shows are watched on a large scale because they deal with different issues and are really very enlightening and entertaining. The popular talk shows during the early twentieth century were - "Arthur Godfrey and his Friends" of Arthur Godfrey, "The Today show of Dave Garroway and the Tonight Show of Jack Paar. The 'Today Show' had become very popular amongst the Americans since the year 1952. The presenter or the host of the show, Dave Garroway was liked by everybody for his unique style of presenting the show. The distinguished people like John Chancellor, Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Willard Scott, Jane Pauley, Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric followed his tradition of successful presentation of the show in the years to come. Later, number of talk shows were produced and most of them were the copies of 'Today Show'. For example, "Good Morning America" was a show, which was based on the same lines as that of 'Today Show'. They too showed the audience standing outside the studio etc. But this show was perhaps the longest one and highly viewed by the viewers. It was mainly popular because of the accurate presentation of the various subject matters and also because of its superior production values. Phil Donahue, the founder of today's talk show culture was the first to introduce the system, wherein the host takes the cordless mike from one audience to the other asking their opinions on certain issues. By introducing this system of roving mike, he gave star status to the audience. They suddenly became celebrities. Such shows became extremely popular among the masses. Donahue further experimented by discussing issues pertaining to serious problems like divorce, relationships, AIDS, unemployment, education etc., on these shows, which otherwise would have been difficult to discuss publicly. But the people who were suppressing their views and thoughts because of certain limitations got vent to express their feelings in the form of these talk shows. Also the audiences who were facing similar problems got relief as they got solutions to their problems from the experts who came on the show. Donahue's formula of roving mike, that had worked wonders was copied by many upcoming hosts and channels and thus became a benchmark in the world of talk shows. It became a standard practice and is used even today. The Talk Shows are not only popular amongst the masses but also amongst the producers of the same, because the production value of a talk show is much lesser than the daily soaps or serials. Production of an episode of talk show costs less than $1,00,000 whereas the production of an episode of a serial may cost more than 1 million dollars. One more interesting thing about the show is that even if a show is recorded one day before of the telecast, the celebrities and the hosts, both have to make it sound fresh. They have to speak in such a way that audience should feel that it is a live telecast. It is the skill of the host and the producer to make the program feel fresh to the audience, even if it is re-telecasted or even if a program shot one year ago is on air. Thus while producing a Talk Show, a producer has to keep several things in mind. His show should be unique; it should sound and appear different as compared to the other Shows. There is a tough competition among all the different channels that produce similar programs. It is a difficult task indeed to draw the attention of audience to their programs by giving them something unique. Effective advertisement plays a vital role in popularizing these shows. The producers use different strategies to popularize their shows. They include some of the interesting clippings from some episodes, which involve high profile celebrities. Thus a viewer is curious to know more about that particular episode and also with great efforts manages to make himself available at the time of the show. This is how he starts developing interest in it and becomes a regular viewer of the same. While we speak of Talk Shows, we always wonder how this idea of talk shows was conceptualized and how did the popular hosts of today thought of taking this up as a career. Whenever we think of hosts or anchors of the talk shows, we think of Oprah Winfrey. She is inarguably one of the most dynamic and talented hosts in the world. She has carved a niche for herself in the world of Talk Shows. She is a multifaceted personality. Besides being a popular host, she was a scholar, good actress, and a philanthropist. Despite of living a tumultuous life, she has come out of all the obstacles as a phoenix and has stood erect against all the odds in her life. It is said that interviewing people was the passion of Oprah. When she was just three years old, she used to interview her dolls. As a teenager she started anchoring a show on radio. In 1983, Oprah relocated to Chicago where she got an opportunity to host a TV show on WLS, which was aired for half an hour in the morning. Within a few months of her taking over the show, it reached the top in the rating list. She overtook even Donahue who was considered to be a monopolist in the world of talk shows. And this show, which was called as "AM Chicago", was renamed as "Oprah Winfrey Show". The movie critic, Roger Ebert had predicted that if Oprah took over the show, it would generate revenue 40 times as it would do earlier. When Oprah conducts a show that deals with serious issues, she plays the role of a counselor more as compared to the role of a host of the show. She is popular amongst the masses as she does not listen to the problems of the participants as a third party but gets involved in them to the extent of having tears in her eyes when they narrate their problems to her. She is so concerned about their problems that they too confide in her very easily and open their hearts and feelings to her. She possesses the unique skill of making them comfortable on the show and allowing them to open up with ease. Her style of speech is appealing to the masses, supplemented by acute humor. She is very witty and also very hard-hitting, when it comes to criticizing the duffers. She has the guts to retaliate strongly if a person tries to be stubborn and acts over smart. She is a great philanthropist as she was the one who had raised funds for the disabled in her show. She has handled multiple social problems like cancer, charity work, sexual abuse etc. in her show. She interviews common people who have done extraordinary things. She has proved herself to be an extraordinary woman who has hosted the shows with difference. She has developed her own style of anchoring. She is rated as the richest African American woman and is the multiple Emmy Awards winning American who has won awards as the best anchor. There are some memorable moments of Oprah Winfrey Show. In her show of fall 2004, she pleasantly surprised all the audiences by presenting them all with Pontiac G6 car. Her act of giving away of the cars was supposed to be a publicity stunt by Pontiac. This company had donated cars to Oprah. Then in another episode, a person called David Caruso had come on the show. He was weighing 525 pounds but he had lost 300 pounds. He had expressed wish of sitting in a Porsche. And to his surprise within minutes one Porsche Boxter S worth $63,000 was presented to him. Besides having good experiences Oprah had also experienced some bizarre moments while interviewing the celebrities. Once when she had interviewed Elizabeth Taylor, she had similar experience. Elizabeth refused to speak on her marriages and her relationships. And because of the lack of communication from her side, it was very difficult for Oprah to carry on with the show. Elizabeth Taylor later realized her mistake and apologized for the same and appeared on the show in the next year. In a talk show that was aired on 23rd May 2005, she had a strange experience while interviewing Tom Cruise. He became so ecstatic during the interview that he jumped on the couch and ran around and jumped on the set while declaring his love for his new girlfriend. Once in a tete-a-tete with a non-celebrity guest on the show that was aired in the fourth season, Oprah was broken to tears. She was interviewing Truddi Chase, a woman who had multiple personality disorders. She was mercilessly molested at the age of two. Truddi had come on the show to promote her book called 'When Rabbit Howls". While she was reading the teleprompter she suddenly broke into tears. She remembered her childhood incident, when she too had experienced sexual abuse at a very tender age. Oprah Winfrey show had also helped the upcoming stars gain tremendous publicity. James Blunt saw a remarkable rise in the sales of his album after he appeared on the show. Dr. Phil McGraw, "Relationship and Life Strategy Expert" helped Oprah by appearing on the show every week. He helped her in counseling her guests on the show. He advised the people on issues related with the planning of finance, weight loss and errant children. A woman who could not overcome the death of her daughter had benefited a lot from this show, as she had planned to kill herself after the show. Thus we can see that Oprah is not merely a good presenter of the show, but she is also a great spiritual leader, a counselor and a great philanthropist. The Jenny Jones Show was also one of the most popular Talk Shows in America. This show was obviously presented by the famous comedian, actress and a singer Jenny Jones. It was produced under the banner of QD Productions and Telepictures of Quincy Jones and was distributed by Warner Bros. Television. The show mainly dealt with various issues related with the teenagers. The topics discussed on the show were, teenagers who had gone out of control, fashion, dance, music, beauty pageants, strippers and secret crushes. The producers used various tactics to attract the audience like the rhyming punch lines that described their topic of the day. One such example is, "You may shake it for money, but leave those sexy clothes at the club, honey!" This was mainly aimed at those women who worked in nightclubs and stripclubs and those who desperately wanted to go for a makeover. (wikipedia) There was a controversial episode wherein a person called Scott Amedure, a homosexual confessed about his love to his dearest friend namely Jonathan Schmitz. Although Schmitz took the issue sportingly at that time, it had indeed created a deep impact on his mind. After three days of the recording of the show, Schmitz allegedly murdered his best friend. This came as a big blow to the show, as they had to stop that episode from airing. The producers stopped arranging talk shows related with homosexuals. Later, audience lost their interest in this show, and it miserably failed in the rating list and ultimately it was closed down because of the Amedure's court case. There was another show called Jerry Springer Show that was popular for wrong reasons and was full of controversies. This show had guests who mainly came on the show to discuss about their disturbed family life. It mainly dealt with serious issues like divorce, adultery, bigamy, pornography, racism etc. These people were provided with solutions to their problems on this show. It received lot of criticism from the masses, as the language used in the show was very indecent and embarrassing. The sensitive issues discussed on the show often led to catty fights and whirling of chairs, which created bad impression. Thus this show was condemned of promoting the ugly way of gaining publicity by encouraging violence and indecent behavior. In the year 2000, a married couple namely Ralph and Eleanor Panitz had come on the show and the topic was "Secret Mistresses Confronted". In this show they criticized Mr. Panitz's ex-wife, Nancy Campbell, for her behavior and also accused her of creating nuisance in their lives. Few hours after the show was telecasted, Ms. Campbell was found dead in the house over which the three of them were fighting. Mr. Panitz was convicted of killing his ex-wife. He tried fleeing away to Canada to avoid arrest. Mr. Panitz was awarded life imprisonment. Jerry Springer defended himself by saying that his show had no connection with the murder and they were not responsible for the tragedy. He also clarified that their show did not encourage unlawful and indecent behavior. Although the show had got popularity for wrong reasons, it had become a tough competitor of 'Oprah Winfrey Show'. It had affected the society very much and people severely criticized the issues that were discussed on the show and the ill effects it had on the audience and the participants as well. The show had to go through the scanner of FCC rules and all the episodes were edited as it had nudity, obscenity and violence. Ellen DeGeneres is a comedian actress who won Emmy Award for her notable work of hosting a show called "The Ellen Degeneres Show". She is popular for her humor and wit. She has also hosted the prestigious shows like Academy Awards and the Prime Time Emmys. She also featured in two television programs namely, The Ellen Show and Ellen. While she was in the fourth season of her program Ellen, she was invited on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she revealed that she is a lesbian. She struggled right from her childhood and persevered to attain this position. Her parents got divorced when she was very young. She took her higher education in New Orleans. She did odd jobs to earn her living. She worked as a clerk in a law firm, sold clothes, worked as a waitress in a restaurant, worked as a house painter, as a hostess and also as a bartender. While doing these jobs she came to a conclusion that she cannot work for someone else and she didn't want to answer the boss. She realized that she was meant for doing something different. Soon she started performing as a stand-up comedian in different clubs and coffeehouses. In 1980s she began touring the whole country and continued to perform as a comedian. She won the title of "funniest person in America" in a competition organized by a cable network called Showtime. After six years she got a real break when she got an opportunity to appear for the first time in the "Tonight Show" of Johnny Carson. She performed in the television programs like Open House and a film called Cone heads. She truly came into limelight when she revealed that she is a lesbian on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Thus Ellen continued working in various programs as a stand-up comedian. She received appreciation for hosting the Emmy Awards. Since then, there was no turning back for her. In the year 2004 her "Ellen DeGeneres show was launched. The show saw consistent rise in the popularity amidst number of other shows on television. Her show won 15 Emmy Awards in the first three seasons, after it was aired. The Ellen DeGeneres show is the first of it's kind to have won the Emmy Awards for the Outstanding Talk Show in the history of television. The Ellen DeGeneres show is different than other tabloid talk shows. It has multiple shades of entertainment. The show is a combination the topics of public interest and musical entertainment. It does not guide or counsel the participants on the serious issues as it is done in the other shows. Ellen possessed that skill of putting all the participants at ease. She awarded the celebrity status to the common man for 15 minutes, no matter to what age group they belonged to. Her guests included intelligent children, small shop owners or a person like Jim who had refused to dance on her show, and who was named as Carl by Ellen on the basis of his looks. Ellen had a very unique way of presenting a show. She danced in the show and also used sarcastic and funny punch lines to make the show more interesting. It was she who introduced dancing in the show. She danced along with the participants on the show. While doing this she sometimes used the purse of some participant or also asked for someone's chair. By doing this she developed a connection between the audience and herself. She made them feel as if they all were a part of one family. This style enthralled the audiences, thereby increasing the rank of the show on the rating list. Ellen tried her best to be different from the other hosts of different shows. Not only was her style different from others, she also changed the sets of the studio irrespective of the mood and theme, light arrangement also played a vital role in creating the mood of discussions. She also pleasantly surprised the participants by giving them gifts. She was so devoted to that show, that despite of her back injury, she continued doing the show, by shifting the entire set and crew to the hospital. And she hosted the show, lying on the bed. Ultimately she was concerned about only one fact and that was "The show must go on". Thus, her show was rated as the highest viewed daytime show. With the success of a number of talk shows, newer concepts were introduced in the show. There are a number of different shows like game shows, cookery shows, shows related with crime etc. We can say, that the Americans thoroughly enjoyed these shows and loved their favorite hosts wholeheartedly. But these shows had good as well as bad impact on the audience. The shows like Oprah Winfrey Show gave vent to the feelings of those people who were suffering immensely as they faced such kinds of problems, which they were not able to discuss in public. Number of needy and handicapped people who were suffering because of lack of money, got financial aid from the funds raised on the Show. Many people who were living a secluded and ordinary life suddenly experienced star status because of the unexpected publicity they got on the show. Because of the cutthroat competition among different channels for giving something different to the audience, the people benefited a lot because they could gain information on diverse topics because of these shows. The audience came across different people who came from all spheres of life. Some of them were successful and rich, while some of them were distressed and poor. Some of the people were strong enough and achieved great success by overcoming the obstacles that came their way, whereas there were some who were weak-minded and had lost hope in their lives. Serious issues like those of gays and lesbians were discussed openly. Although these issues came as a shock to the viewers, yet people at least became aware of the abnormalities in the society. Some people lost their lives as their secrets came to light, while some people gave up the idea of committing suicide as they got a new ray of hope and a purpose to live. People should consider such shows as means of entertainment and medium of gaining knowledge. They should not take the shows so seriously as to affect their lives. They should pickup only whatever is useful to them and ignore those things, which will be harmful to them. One should not forget that such shows are only meant for entertaining the audiences and it is the medium of minting money for those who produce these shows and all those who are involved in the production of these shows. We have observed that all the hosts mentioned above accidentally came into this field. Most of them possessed skills which were required to be a good host. They were excellent orators, having attractive personality, intelligence and were full of wits. They had an urge and capacity of doing something outstanding in life, which made them so popular. Thus so far as audience wishes to see such shows, and so far as the producers give the audience something qualitative and something different, these shows will continue to be hit amongst the masses. Sources: Web sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey http://www.talkshowsusa.com/ http://www.tv.com/talk-shows/genre/13/topshows.htmlera=&pop=1&g=13 http://www.ellenhume.com/articles/talkshow1.htm Read More