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He is truly the father of modern daytime talk television. His shows may seem subdued by today’s standards but when the Phil Donahue Show premiered in 1967, it was considered radical and, at times, scandalous.

Donahue first got involved in broadcasting at his college station. After graduation he became a news director at a Michigan radio station and from there to news anchor at WHIO-TV, Dayton in the late 1950s. Later, the general manager of WLDW-TV, Dayton would suggest Donahue host a program that combined the talk radio format with the TV interview style and the “Phil Donahue Show” was born.

Donahue’s assessment was that daytime TV had a narrow view of women and he believed they had more to say about controversial, timely topics. So, in 1967 his first guest was Madalyn O’Hair, the atheist who was mounting a campaign to do away with prayer in public schools. Other topics covered included abortion and the Masters and Johnson studies.

The show moved to Chicago in 1974 and began to feature high profile guests in addition to the controversial topics. In 1984, the program moved to New York and as the years passed and his competition became racier and more dumbed-down, his ratings fell. Donahue quit the program at the end of the 1996 season.

Donahue is often chided by today’s radio and TV talk hosts as being “liberal” but that’s a narrow view. Donahue’s contribution to the daytime talk genre is immense. At a time when cooking and crafts were all that was programmed to women, Donahue took a higher, more controversial and dangerous road to opening up discussions of social importance for women and men alike via the television.

He has just returned to television as host of a daily evening talk show on the newly revamped MSNBC as part of its heightened competitive stance.