Phil Donahue, talk show pioneer, dead at 88

Phil Donahue, whose pioneering daytime talk show launched a television genre that made household names of OprahWinfrey, Montel Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and many others, has died.He was 88.

NBC's Todayshow said Donahue died on Sunday after a longillness.

Dubbed "the king of daytime talk," Donahue was the first toincorporate audience participation in a talk show, typically duringa full hour with a single guest.

"Just one guest per show? No band?" he remembered beingroutinely asked in his 1979 memoirDonahue: My Own Story.

The format set The Phil Donahue Showapart from otherinterview shows of the 1960s and made it a trendsetter in daytimetelevision, where it was particularly popular with female audiences.

Later renamed Donahue,the program launched in Dayton, Ohio,in 1967. Donahue's willingness to explore the hot-button socialissues of the day emerged immediately, when he featured atheistMadalyn Murray O'Hair as his first guest.

He would later air showson feminism, homosexuality, consumer protection and civil rights,among hundreds of other topics.

The show was syndicated in 1970 and ran on national televisionfor the next 26 years, racking up 20 Emmy Awards for the show andfor Donahue as host, as well as a Peabody for Donahue in 1980. Itincluded radio-style call-ins, which Donahue greeted with hissignature, "Is the caller there?"

The show's last episode aired in 1996 in New York, where Donahuewas living with his wife, actress Marlo Thomas.He met Thomas theThat Girlstar of the 1960s who was a household name at the timeand would later become a regular on Friends when she appearedon his show in 1977.

He later said it was love at first sight, and they did a poor jobof hiding it on the air."You are really fascinating," Donahue told Thomas, grasping herhand.

"You are wonderful," Thomas said back. "You are loving andgenerous, and you like women and it's a pleasure, and whoever thewoman in your life is, is very lucky."

The two had been married since 1980. Donahue had fivechildren, four sons and a daughter, from a previous marriage.

Donahue returned briefly to television in 2002, hosting anotherDonahueshow on MSNBC. The channelcancelled it after six months,citing low ratings.

Moved radio talk show to TV

He was born Phillip John Donahue on Dec. 21, 1935, part of amiddle-class Irish Catholic family in Cleveland.

Donahue was in the first graduating class of St. Edward HighSchool, a Catholic all-boys preparatory school in Lakewood, in 1953and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree inbusiness administration in 1957. He later rebelled againstandleftthe church, though he poignantly recalled in his book that "alittle piece" of his faith would always be with him.

After a series of early jobs in radio and TV, Donahue was invitedto move an earlier radio talk show to Dayton's WLWD televisionstation in 1967. It moved in 1974 to Chicago, where it stayed foryears, then ended its run in New York.

The show featured discussions with spiritual leaders, doctors,homemakers, activists and entertainers or politicians who might bepassing through town. He said striking upon the show's winningformula was a happy accident.

"It may have been a full three years before any of us began tounderstand that our program was something special," Donahue wrote.

"The show's style had developed not by genius, but by necessity. Thefamiliar talk-show heads were not available to us in Dayton, Ohio.... The result was improvisation."

Explored contemporary and controversial topics

With an amiable style and a head of salt-and-pepper hair, Donahueboxed with Muhammad Ali. He played football with Alice Cooper. Hisguests gave cooking lessons, taught break dancing and, morecontroversially, described "mansharing," being a mistress, lesbianmotherhood or with the help of gathered video that got showsbanned in certain cities how natural childbirth, abortion or reverse vasectomies worked.

A stop on Donahuebecame a must for important politicians,activists, athletes, business leaders and entertainers, from HubertHumphrey to Ronald Reagan, Gloria Steinem to Anita Bryant, LeeIacocca to Ray Kroc, John Wayne to Farrah Fawcett.

Outside of his famous talk show, Donahue pursued several otherprojects.He partnered with Soviet journalist Vladimir Pozner for agroundbreaking television discussion series during the Cold War inthe 1980s.

The U.S.-Soviet Bridge featured simultaneous broadcastsfrom the United States and the Soviet Union, where studio audiencescould ask questions of one another. Donahue and Pozner alsoco-hosted a weekly issues roundtable, Pozner/Donahue, on CNBC in the 1990s.

Donahue also co-directed the documentary Body of War,which screened at the Toronto International Film Festivalin 2007 and was also nominated for an Academy Award.

In May, U.S. President Joe Biden awarded Donahue the nation's highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, at the White House.