Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2004 > September > 17 > Entry
BYE BYE, BABA
Barbara Walters’ career on television spans almost the entire history of the medium. Don’t believe me? You can see snippets from the early days of NBC’s “Today” to ABC’s “20/20” in a two-hour retrospective tonight at 8 on ABC.
This is a tribute, but not yet the farewell.
Walters, in case you haven’t heard, has decided to step down as co-host of “20/20.” Her last night as host is next week, and, not surprisingly, she’s landed a doozy of an interview: Mary Kay Letourneau, the former sixth-grade teacher who went to prison for having sex (and two kids) with her then-13-year-old student.
Walters will continue to do celebrity interview specials, such as the traditional pre-Oscar telecast, and occasional pieces for “20/20” and ABC News. But she’s turning over her weekly partnership with John Stossel to Elizabeth Vargas.
Walters, 73 next week, started out in the ’60s as a writer on “Today” and became the morning news show’s first female co-anchor, paired with her eventual “20/20” mate, Hugh Downs. After 15 years on the crack-of-dawn beat, she suffered through a miserable year as the first female co-anchor of a nightly news program, perched beside a grumpy, obviously begrudging Harry Reasoner at ABC.
Over 40 years, Walters figures she’s done 744 interviews and countless hours of television. She has chatted up every president and first lady in her professional lifetime (starting with Nixon), as well as most major celebrities and worldwide newsmakers.
The list includes Boris Yeltsin (of whom she asked, “Do you drink too much?”), John Lennon’s murderer Mark David Chapman, Monica Lewinsky, Moammar Gadhafi and, of course, Katharine Hepburn. As in, “What kind of tree would you be?” Walters has come to be known more for her celebrity chats — some of which are embarrassingly fawning, like that awful flirtation with Paul Newman. “You’re eyes really are the bluest,” she purred.
But she truly was a pioneer, a ground-breaker for women in TV news. She started out as a serious news hound, and she’s still capable of asking tough questions of serious subjects.
Walters deserves to slow down, and she deserves more respect than perhaps she has been paid over the years. I hope tonight’s tribute is as informative about her remarkably distinguished career as it is reverential. But that probably won’t be the case.
Dumb Donald
You can’t tell me Donald Trump fired Bradford on last night’s “Apprentice” because he deserved it. No, the Donald axed Bradford simply to spark water-cooler conversation and higher ratings for next week’s episode.
Bradford had earned immunity in the boardroom, but foolishly gave it up, apparently believing his performance in the ice-cream selling task was strong enough to save him regardless.
But the Donald thought giving up immunity was “stupid” and fired Bradford even though he said repeatedly that Bradford was the best worker on the team. Donald’s decision was even more stupid than Bradford’s, if you ask me. Which you didn’t, but if you had, that would be my opinion.
Now we’re still stuck with Ivana and Stacie, both of whom deserved to go if only for their childish spats and overall immaturity.
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