Inside the Guide: TV Guide 40 years ago this week (April 28-May 4, 1984) Part 4

You know how big Donahue was in the Eighties?

He was so big that in a market like Albany, his show was on 3 different channels at the same time every weekday--and all of them different episodes!

(Unfortunately, unlike the show we discussed, Gary Deeb is in none of these episodes listed above.)

This Day in TV History: Project Peacock presents Donahue and the Kids

NBC had a rough 1980-1981 season after a promising start led by Shogun, but it produced acclaimed work. Project Peacock was a series of prime time specials aimed at kids. 

Perhaps the most famous of them is January 1982's The Electric Grandmother, based on Ray bradbury's I Sing the Body Electric. Other specials include How to Eat Like a Child with Dick Van Dyke and The Big Stuffed Dog by Charles M. Schulz. The latter is the saga of a stuffed Snoopy--an adventure featuring Abe Vigoda, Noah Beery Jr., Gordon Jump, and Robert Ginty!

40 years ago tonight, the second of the series, Donahue and Kids debuted. Phil Donahue talked with kids who confronted lige-threatening illnesses in this hourlong program, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program.

The ideas of Donahue doing his regular show with a bunch of kids sounds funny, but this was a serious topic; the focus was on Gerald G. Jamplonsky's Center for Attiudinal Hearing, a California institute devoted to teaching kids positive thinking.

YouTube Spotlight: Donahue

Let's take a closer look at one of the cool clips in this week's YouTube playlist based on our Donahue episode.





Who better to host a special about the bible of television's anniversary than Phil? Well, Ok, maybe a few, but a lot more would be worse!

The mag celebrated the milestone with a book and with this NBC broadcast on Sunday, October 21, 1979. It aired as part of the network's The Big Event series of EVENT programming. I don't see the whole special online, but I would love to get a copy.

Here's the description from the Paley Center's online catalogue:

This special, hosted by Phil Donahue, looks at an era of history as it was portrayed on television. This special includes clips of programs and interviews with such personalities as Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Michael Landon, William S. Paley, Norman Lear, and others.

The entire description is here. It sounds pretty good!

The DONAHUE YouTube playlist is now live...caller!

This week on the YouTube playlist, we have the actual full-length Donahue episode we cover on the pod along with...David Letterman! Milton Friedman and Bernie Sanders! Marlo meets Phil and tells us we are Free to Be You and Me! And just what the heck was that Three's a Crowd game show? All this and more when you click below!

Remember to visit our official YouTube channel for past editions of the podcast plus more episode-specific playlists!

Show Notes: Episode 6-4: Donahue

*As of today, the Donahue episode we discuss is available on YouTube. It aired February 16, 1981, according to the uploader.

*Phil's series aired in syndication from 1970 to 1996, a record run for a nationally syndicated talk show.

*Donahue also appeared on The Today Show throughout the Eighties. After his syndicated series, he co-hosted a CNBC program with Vladimir Posner, then headlined an MSNBC show.

*Despite the sensationalist reputation The Donahue Show earned over the years, it also won 10 Emmys, and Donahue got a Peabody Award.

*Phil and Marlo Thomas married in 1980 and are still together. You can see their on-show meeting in our YouTube playlist this week!

*Donahue was born December 21, 1935, making him 83 today.

*Then Chicago Sun Times critic Gary Deeb is long retired and, sadly, has no social media presence. Here's an interesting 2003 article about a mini-controversy involving him and a Chi-town media personality. this 1975 Time piece (subscription required, unfortunately) described him as the wolf-man of the airwaves!

*The leading advocacy group for censorship on TV today is probably the Parents Television Council, founded in 1995 and still active.

*The hit list of broadcast shows targeted for advertiser boycotts according to an alleged 500,000 concerned voters:

Dallas, Soap, Saturday Night Live, Charlie's Angels, Three's Company. 

You can see our episodes on the last three in our archives.

And the syndicated ones:

Three's a Crowd, The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game.

*Chuck Barris created short-lived game show Three's a Crowd (September 1979-February 1980). It was hosted by Jim Peck and featured the premise, "Who knows a man better, his secretary or his wife?" Wikipedia reports:
According to Barris in his first autobiography, The Game Show King, the protests against the show—as well as the sometimes-evident lack of fun the contestants seemed to be having on it—prompted him to retreat from television production entirely

*Alan Thicke hosted a tamer version of Three's a Crowd for GSN in 1999.

*Sally Jessy Raphael hosted her own syndicated daytime talk show from 1984 to 2002.

6-4: Donahue "The Clean Up TV Campaign"

Is the caller there? Is the caller fed up with filthy TV? Well find out how people felt in 1981 as silver-haired TV talk legend Phil Donahue talks to Pastor John Hurt of the Clean Up TV Campaign and Chicago TV critic Gary Deeb. What shows did 1980s churchgoers find the most offensive? How did the Campaign actually want to clean up TV? What did the studio audience think? Plus which BOTNS favorite does Gary Deeb call a "toilet show"?


Check out this episode!

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...