History
The View (originally titled The View from Here) premiered August 11, 1997 replacing Caryl & Marilyn: Real Friends, which was dropped due to low ratings. The original set was a leftover set from a cancelled soap opera, The City; ABC introduced a new set for The View for its fifth season, located within the ABC Television Center in New York City. A New York Times review published ten days after the show premiered, describes what critic Caryn James thought was distinctive about the show, "The idea of women talking to one another on daytime television is not exactly radical. The idea that those women should be smart and accomplished is still odd enough to make The View seem wildly different. It actively defies the bubbleheads-'R'-us approach to women's talk shows.... After a year on the air, a review of the show from Salon.com attempted to summarize what had made the show a "(very guilty) pleasure" for its mostly female audience. "The View has caught on with viewers because it gives expression to feelings more complicated, and real, than its detractors realize. Like the Rat Pack, it's all about freedom in an uptight world. Vieira, Walters, et al., have confessed to a lot of things on the show that women are supposed to feel guilty about: forgetting to vote, being too lazy to exercise, hating skinny models, letting the kids watch too much TV, admiring Hollywood's latest hunk.
The show premiered with four co-hosts: Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos, and Barbara Walters. Walters and Joy Behar initially took turns as the fourth co-host but Behar has since become a full-time co-host. The panel expands to five when Walters joined in. The subsequent opening credits for the show, featuring voice-over from Walters, explain the show's premise:
- I've always wanted to do a show with women of different generations, backgrounds and views: a working mother ; a professional in her 30s ; a young woman just starting out ; and then somebody who's done almost everything and will say almost anything . And in a perfect world, I'd get to join the group whenever I wanted....
Bill Geddie, the co-executive producer, is the lone recurring male persona sometimes shown as stepping out from behind camera to interact with the hosts. In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable he stated: "I'm not an on-air personality and I think anybody who's seen me realizes that. But early on, the network thought it would be kind of fun to see there's this guy here in charge, but if you watch the show, you see that generally speaking I’m a side player and I’m basically there to get a laugh." Mostly five women discuss current issues and news items ranging from social and political issues to tabloid headlines and celebrity news. Walters, "a co-owner (with ABC) and co-executive producer" of the show, likely has final decisions as to the casting of her co-hosts. Every show is ended by one of the co-hosts, primarily the person moderating or Barbara Walters, simply saying "Have a great day everyone and take a little time to enjoy The View!" Or if short on time simply, "Enjoy The View!"
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