The Phil Donahue Show

India saw very little of Phil but thanx to "Star Plus" (Now Star World) the cable channel I was able to see a few episodes of "Donahue". I may be called idiotic but it was Oprah whose program replaced Donahue on my channel in India and I have never forgiven Oprah for that since. I sorely miss Donahue. Wasn't his show giving enough profits to continue for a few more seasons?

Phil Donahue was the alternative to the Oprah Winfrey Show. Sometimes, all it would take to pick one over the other was the topic or show's guest. I felt Donahue was better than Oprah as a talk show host because it tackled the controversial, difficult, emotional, and celebrity guests without being so cautious as Oprah is with celebrities. Phil tackled issues such as homosexuality, divorce, atheism, politics, religion, and others. The show had Phil running up and down with a microphone in the audience. While I have a great respect for Oprah, Phil was the alternative until he could no longer compete with the competition. I always felt that Phil tried to understand a person's point of view, lifestyle, or choice as well as a person's mistake be it a celebrity or your neighbor. Phil never really treated his guests with preferential treatment. He may have married Marlo Thomas but I don't recall an episode with her. The show's legacy was that it was cut short of Oprah's phenomenon and I wonder what might have happened if we were allowed to choose between the two hosts. I have to say that Donahue holds a special place in my heart and nobody could take that away.

High quality topics, the wisdom of his years, masterful tactics in eliciting answers from guests and audience, crafty spontaneous, and at times - well timed pertinent flow of questions and inquiries, not self-opinionated, all these qualities that present talk-show hosts don't seem to have.

It appeared in Australia, some years ago and I was always glued to it. I like intelligent intellectual conversational entertainment, a help to broaden one's knowledge on current issues.

Was ever so disappointed when it disappeared off the TV channel, and could not stand the Oprah Winfrey Show. I was puzzled, why such an intelligent and skillful man was cast away for low quality talk show hosts like the Gerry Springer Show and Oprah episodes which don't measure up to my expectations.

I wish him well and a happy life for all the enjoyment he has provided my wife and myself for several years. I can only hope he may resurface again. But if he is about age 70 and well-off financially, I wish him a happy retirement.

In my opinion, there will never be another as good as Phil Donahue. God Bless you Mr Donahue, and "Thank you".

RBoudville age 63 Australia

Before the reigns of TV talk shows were to become what they are today, there was one show in particular that broke the mold before even the days of Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey, and Geraldo Rivera for that manner, stumble into. Phil Donahue tackled tough issues before there time and his show was the center of these topics of morning discussion. While other shows back then,like Mike Douglas,Dinah Shore,and Merv Griffin were having guests and musical numbers and so forth,Donahue brought it out into the open and went head on with subjects that were strictly taboo for daytime television back then.

For instance, subjects like inter-racial marriages, homosexuality, bigotry, as well as political agendas, and even world affairs, as well as poverty and the overall point of drugs and drug addicts were some of the subjects his audience couldn't get enough of, and they wanted more (even in one episode show where the subject was cross-dressing and Phil came out in a woman's skirt!).

Donahue however, paved the way for the talk shows we have today, and for generations to come. Kudos to the father of daytime talk-Phil Donahue!!!!

Oprah, Sally Jessy Rapheal, Ricky Lake, Jerry Springer...before that it was Donahue, and I loved watching it! It was afternoon fare, and most of the shows were very thought provoking. Phil played devil's advocate at times, and it was sad his show ended in 1995.