GENRE DECONSTRUCTION

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GENRE DECONSTRUCTION

• TALK SHOW MANIA

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Genre Formula

• Length one hour
• Setting interior studio, desk, couch, chair,
  roving host, live audience, panelists
• Characters
• Strong, charismatic host who is able to draw
  audience members and guests out while guiding
  them through an unscripted discussion
• Guests who are paid to be on the show, or
  accepted an invitation to be on the show, or
  requested to be on the show
• Experts who diagnose and provide remedies for
  troubled guests

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• Content
• Oddities of North American Life
• World of Misfits
• Social Controversies
• Relationships
• Emotion
• Extreme tears to rage
• Physical outbursts
• Values
• Audience can assess their own values through
  watching the values of guests

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• Kinds of Talk Shows
• Couch Shows evening shows, have a couch and
  guests move down the couchi.e. Rose Anne, Rosie
• Talk Shows have a moderator, cover a single
  topic, deal with problems people face, allow the
  audience to ask questions, offer advice
• Sub-sets variety shows, comedy shows, topical
  shows, relationship shows, bleep shows, interview
  shows, political shows, girl shows, etc.

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Talk Shows by Decade

• 1950s
• The Joe Franklin Show (lasted 43 years)Meet the
  PressYou Can Do It TooThe Mike Wallace
  InterviewArthur Godfrey TimePerson to
  PersonThe Shirley Graham ShowThe Gary Moore
  ShowMeet Betty FurnessTonight (Steve
  Allen)Broadway Open HouseThe Talk of the
  TownGood Morning America

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• 19602
• The Tonight Show (Jack Paar)The Mike Douglas
  ShowThe Diana Shore ShowThe Merv Griffin
  ShowThe Les Crane ShowThe Joey Bishop ShowThe
  Phil Donahue ShowThe Dick Cavett Show

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• 1970s
• The Dick Cavett Show The Tonight Show (Johnny
  Carson) Jack Paar ToniteTomorrowThe Phil
  Donahue ShowThe Mike Douglas ShowGood Morning
  America

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• 1980s
• The Late Show (David Letterman)Tonight Show
  (Johnny Carson)The Oprah Winfrey
  ShowSallyJenny JonesArsinio HallPolitically
  IncorrectMcGlaughlin GroupDonahueThe Jerry
  Springer Show

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• 1990s
• Rickie LakeMaury PovichThe Mike Bullard
  ShowConan OBrian The Tonight Show (Jay
  Leno)Late Night with David LettermanPolitically
  IncorrectThe Late Late Show

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Talk Show Analysis

• The technology for television had been around
  since the 20s. But it was the end of the war and
  the return to production that ushered in the TV.
  The arrival of television meant that programs had
  to be found to broadcast. Radio had been the
  medium of the day, but few radio shows could
  transfer to television because they required too
  much in terms of sets, costumes, and money. In
  order to fill the air time, producers looked for
  a new genre. Talk shows supplied the answer for a
  number of reasons.  They were cheap to produce
  because there were no actors, scenery, or special
  effects required.  They were immensely profitable
  for producers and the audience appeal was very
  large.  Thus, television talk shows were born.

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• Television talk shows consist of many
  sub-genres.  Three popular sub-genres of
  television talk shows are the early morning talk
  shows which generally focus on news and politics,
  the afternoon talk shows which concentrate on
  personal issues and sensationalism, and the late
  night talk shows which highlight celebrities and
  light conversation.  Each of these talk show
  styles have their own codes and conventions.  The
  television programs have changed with time and
  been a reflection of the times.

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• Meet the Press, which began as a radio show in
  1945 and premiered on television in 1947, was one
  of the first television talk shows. The host was
  Mike Wallace. His show was serious talk.  He
  invited prominent guests and celebrities to be on
  his show including such public figures as Joseph
  McCarthy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Fidel Castro, and
  Martin Luther King, Jr.    His show used the
  panel discussion format with Mr. Wallace as the
  moderator.   

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• News was made and discussed on the program.  Mr.
  Wallace conducted the interviews and controlled
  the flow of the show.  The set was a newsroom.  
  The content was serious,  thus aiming at an
  intelligent and often influential  target
  audience of professionals, politicians, and law
  makers.  Meet the Press and shows similar in
  nature aired on television on Sunday evening.

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• During the 50s, The Mike Wallace Interview was a
  popular talk show. Wallace began to research
  lives of guests and to ask interesting questions.
  He gained a reputation for the "ambush
  interview", taking many of his guests by surprise
  and creating a level of emotion in his interviews
  (a technique most common to current talk shows).
  The Mike Wallace Interview became 60 minutes
  during the 60s.
• The Today show became and still is a popular
  early-morning talk show program.  It is the
  longest running daytime series and one of the
  most profitable shows in the history of
  television.   The first host was Dave Garroway. 
  This was the first show to use a   non-human cast
  member, a chimpanzee,  J. Fred Muggs in 1953.  

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• It was also the first show to feature a different
  young woman each day who became known as the
  "Today Girl".  "Today Girls" of the fifties
  included women such as Estelle Parsons, Lee
  Meriwether, Helen O'Connell, Betsy Palmer, and
  Florence Henderson.  At first the women were
  little more that beauty objects however, their
  role expanded and in 1974 the "Today Girl" became
  an actual co-host on the show.

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• An interesting show during the 50s was Queen for
  a Day. This show paved the way to daytime talk.
  The show featured guests who revealed how unhappy
  they were or how miserable their lives were.
  These quests were not famous people, just
  ordinary folks.  Each day a winner was declared
  through audience applause. This "parade of
  misery" is a current element of daytime talk
  shows.
• One of the earliest late night talk shows
  premiered in 1950 and  was called Broadway Open
  House featuring stand-up comedians, Jerry Lester
  and Morey Amsterdam.  The format was a
  combination of talk and a variety program
  resembling vaudeville with singing, dancing, and
  jokes.

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• It is interesting to note that talk shows began
  as daytime talk and catered to a primarily female
  audience however, in 1954, Tonight with Steve
  Allen premiered as a late night comedy talk show.
  Thus the target audience was broadened to include
  males.  The classic talk show format we recognize
  today started on Allen's show including an
  opening monologue, announcer/side-kick, musical
  content, and comedy.   This show was part talk,
  part comedy a new format.   Allen was as much an
  entertainer as a host.  He was a musician,
  composer, author, comedian, and actor.  Allen
  interviewed guests in a variety of ways,
  including skits. During the late 50s, Allen was
  given a prime time variety show Sunday nights.
  Producers needed to find a new host. Jack Paar
  accepted the position and The Tonight Show became
  an institution.

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• During the late 50s, Allen was given a prime
  time variety show Sunday nights. Producers needed
  to find a new host. Jack Paar accepted the
  position and The Tonight Show became an
  institution.
• This show was part talk, part comedy a new
  format.   Allen was as much an entertainer as a
  host.  He was a musician, composer, author,
  comedian, and actor.  Allen interviewed guests in
  a variety of ways, including skits. During the
  late 50s, Allen was given a prime time variety
  show Sunday nights. Producers needed to find a
  new host. Jack Paar accepted the position and The
  Tonight Show became an institution.

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• Paar hosted the show from 1957-63. During that
  time, Paar used improv, sometimes bringing
  unwanted results. Paar was controversial and the
  networks censored his programs at times.  Paar
  had an  announcer-side kick, Hugh Downs and a
  bandleader, Jose Melis.  He also included a 
  group of guests which could be considered
  regulars  and from time to time political figures
  such as Richard Nixon, and John and Robert
  Kennedy.

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• The 60's continued with news talk shows such as
  Today,  which gave Barbara Walters exposure with
  her   coverage of the assassination of President
  John K. Kennedy.  CBS Morning News which was a
  very straight news broadcast without the
  conversation, celebrity interviews, and friendly
  chatter of the Today show also premiered in the
  60's.

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• The 60s saw the continued success of The Tonight
  Show, but this time with host Johnny Carson.
  Carson would reign supreme in night time talk for
  30 years until his retirement in 1992 and the
  succession of Jay Leno as host.  He expanded the
  audience through these years. Young and old, male
  and female, intellect or not, many people found
  appeal in The Tonight Show and Carson's
  capabilities as a host.  Many celebrities got
  their start from an appearance on The Tonight
  Show.  Carsons success may be attributed to
  several things  he avoided controversy, he was
  always polite, and he was an outstanding comic
  improviser.

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• Throughout these years, the set remained very
  traditional. During the interviews, Carson asked
  the questions, the guests responded.   Carson sat
  behind a desk, the quests on comfortable sofas
  and chairs.  The basic format for the Tonight
  Show, then and now,  consisted of opening with
  the host, music, a monologue delivered to a live
  audience, a side-kick, and chit-chat and jokes
  among the host and guests.  Most often there was
  a guest host on Fridays.
• The Today show continued into the 70's with Tom
  Brokaw as host in 1976 and Jane Pauley as
  co-host. 

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• The only other early morning competitor at this
  time was Good Morning America which resembled
  Today in that it brought news, interviews, and
  feature articles,  but the set was a livingroom
  instead of a newsroom.  The effect of this
  setting was less formal, a more personal
  feeling.  This type of set would be reflected in
  other shows of the 70's.

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• It was also during the 60s that Phil Donahue
  entered the daytime (afternoon programming)  talk
  show realm. His show premiered in 1967 and The
  Phil Donahue Show altered the talk show format.
  Rather than "chatting" with a number of
  well-known guests, Donahue focused his show on a
  single topic, and that topic was always related
  to conflict. His show moved from news to issues. 
  He discussed topics which had been absent from
  television up to that time.   His show was one of
  the first to be boycotted by stations because it
  was too graphic and sexually explicit.  He
  sensationalized the issues, yet asked challenging
  questions of his guests. Donahue used an audience
  that represented his home viewing audience which
  was largely comprised of females.

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• Donahue altered the talk show format. He was the
  first host to take phone calls from the home
  viewing audience. More significantly, he was the
  first host to break the "fourth wall" that
  separated the audience from the guests and host.
  He addressed the audience with a microphone,
  roving in and out of the audience, and allowing
  audience members to respond to and ask questions
  about the topic of the day and the guests.
  Donahue did not sit behind a desk.  He became one
  with his audience.  Although he ultimately
  directed the flow of the show, much of shows
  content was dependent upon the audience.  These
  new conventions would pave the way for future
  talk shows. By 1977, Phil Donahue was a household
  name.

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• A technical advancement of the 70s which had an
  impact on the format of talk shows was the
  invention of the remote control. This gadget was
  a convenience for viewers, but a headache for
  producers. With the "clicker", viewing audiences
  were inclined to surf the channels. If they were
  bored with one program, they could effortlessly
  view another. The effect of this type of viewing
  demanded that programs immediately grab the
  viewers attention. One way to do that was
  through sensationalism. Talk shows competed with
  one another to produce shows that would capture
  an audiences attention producers had to
  overshadow their competition.

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• This competition led to shows such as The Morton
  Downey Jr. Show. Downey was extremely
  controversial and used the "fist in mouth"
  interviewing technique of Joe Pyne. His dialogue
  was free-form, not planned, not rehearsed. Loud
  talk led to physical confrontation and after
  fourteen months, sponsors pulled out and the show
  went off the air.
• Early morning talk shows, Today and   Good
  Morning America, continued in the 80's but a new
  arrival, Morning made its debut in 1980 as a
  ninety-minute daily program. 

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• In 82 the program expanded to two hours.  In 87,
  the format was changed and then became The
  Morning Program which later became This Morning
  in November, 87.   The popularity of individual
  early morning news talk shows shifted throughout
  the 80's.

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• The 80s ushered in numerous daytime talk shows
  such as Sally and Jenny Jones, but the most
  popular of all shows was The Oprah Winfrey Show.
  Oprah has been referred to as "the Queen of
  daytime talk". Oprah, like Donahue, altered the
  format once again. Her show dealt with risky
  topics such as abortion and abuse. She
  personalized issues by revealing secrets from her
  own past. She offered therapy to her guests. Her
  shows were emotional, dramatic, and surprising.
  Oprahs seemingly sincerity and charismatic
  personality endeared her to her audience and home
  viewers. The culture of the 80s, a time of Aids,
  drug abuse, disintegration of the family, spawned
  a number of self-help talk shows.

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• In 1986, The Oprah Winfrey Show was syndicated
  nationally. In 1988, Oprah bought her on TV
  studio and became the sole owner of her show. She
  turned daytime talk into a non-fiction version of
  a soap opera.  Her target audience remained
  primarily female.
• The real changes to daytime talk shows occurred
  in the 90s. Talk shows were "big money". Ratings
  controlled what was broadcast and what was not.
  To capture the ratings, hosts had to be popular
  and topics had to be captivating. Talk show
  titles read like headlines from the tabloids. In
  1993, there were twenty daytime talk shows geared
  to female viewers between the ages of
  twenty-eight and forty-nine.

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• To remain on the air, a new strategy had to be
  found. Talk shows shifted their target audience
  to a younger audience - teens. Thus Ricki Lake
  was born. Other shows like Donahue and Jerry
  Springer followed suit.
• Springer admitted, "when the show went young, it
  went crazy". With the shift in target audience
  came the shift in content topics were out and
  relationships were in. Shows competed for the
  most outrageous relationships, often containing
  R-rated material. Some shows, like Donahue, could
  not compete. 

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• The Jerry Springer Show was ordered several times
  to tone down the violence in the show.  Attempts
  were made to do this, but as soon as ratings
  would begin to fall, the show returned to its
  previous format of violence, cursing, and
  sensationalism.  Quests have reported that the
  appearances were staged and scripted, although
  these claims have been denounced by Jim Benson, a
  spokesman for Springer's show.
• Critics of such talk shows feel that people are
  being exploited by the medium. Incidents, like
  the Jenny Jones episode, which resulted in the
  death of one man because he had confessed his
  love for another man, led to controversy.

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• In 1995, William Bennett began a campaign
  entitled "Empower America" to scare advertisers
  out of these shows. Oprah joined  in denouncing
  these shows and changed her format to a gentler
  style.
• In news talk shows competition between Good
  Morning America and Today continued in the
  nineties. In 1999, Later Today, a mixture of
  news, entertainment, and issue- related 
  segments, premiered.  Early morning talk shows
  continued to focus on news and information with a
  bit of entertainment thrown in.

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• Daytime talk shows, however, continued to get
  progressively trashy in the first half of the
  decade.  Daytime talk shows in the nineties
  continued to be popular, relationship orientated,
  aimed primarily at young female audiences,
  comprised of "normal", everyday people, conflict
  based, diagnostic, and audience involved.
• TheTonight Show moved on to Jay Leno as host in
  1992 after Johnny Carson retired.  The set
  remained basically the same, but there was a new
  band. 

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• However, The Tonight Show continues to be one of
  the most popular late night talk shows, competing
  with shows such as Late Night with David
  Letterman, The Late, Late Show with Craig
  Kilborn,  and Larry King Live.
• Talk shows remain a very integral part of
  television programming in the new millenium. 
  Producers continue to favor the simplicity and
  cost effectiveness of talk shows.   Various
  sub-genres are presented, but the early morning
  talk-news show, afternoon talk-relationship
  shows, and the late evening talk-entertainment
  shows remain supremely popular.

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Talk Shows Changing Form

• The major changes to talk shows can be summarized
  as follows
• Daytime talk spilled into night-time talk.
• Style changed from serious talk to
  comedy/interview talk to idle talk to physical
  talk.
• Conversation was replaced by entertainment.
• Celebrity guests were replaced by "ordinary
  people".
• Content went from topics to relationships.
• Changes in societys morals and ethics resulted
  in a coarser, more "in your face" attitude.
• In the 90s the soundbite rules.   Programs have
  to be simple, short and loud.