E! True Hollywood Story: The View, Recap
Now airing on E! is the True Hollywood Story of The View. Overall I was not impressed with the episode, as it did not really reveal anything new. What I usually like about the THS is that they get exclusive interviews with former colleagues or uncover some secret that was not widely known. This episode did not have anything like that.
The show gives a brief history of the careers of all of the hosts, both past and present. I did enjoy seeing old clips from when Meredith Vieira first started out in local television in Rhode Island. It also explained the beginnings of the show and Barbara Walters’ search for the initial hosts.
What I found most perplexing about this show was the people who they chose to interview for the show. They only had one host, Debbie Matenopoulos, and her interview clip did not even talk about the controversy surrounding her departure from The View or anything remotely scandalous. They had lots of old clips from the various hosts, but nothing done for this show.
The majority of the people interviewed had no actual connection with the show. There was an entertainment reporter, the editor of Gawker, and some man whose tagline said “Professor of Television.” (Who knew there was such a thing). I found the professor to be rather rude overall, like calling Lisa Ling “smarty-pants.”
If they were going to do a show where people regurgitated information that was widely spread in the media during the time it occurred (i.e. Star Jones leaving, the fight between Rosie and Elisabeth), they should have just had me on the show. Their “experts” certainly did not say anything that I could not have said.
They did have one strange former hairstylist on the show, but he did not really offer anything other than to say that he saw Debbie Matanopolous crying. Shocking!
Did any of you see the episode? Were you as underwhelmed as I was?
The View, E! THS, True Hollywood Story
September 22nd, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Yes, Winnie, I did see this. I posted about it elsewhere on your blog, where you announced it. If you can find my post, you’ll see I agreed with your take on it. There were so many unanswered questions. The E THS has really gotten bad; they used to do more than what this show did. Do you think they got sued in the past and that’s why they have changed their format so much? The clips did make the show fun, though. In any event, it is a must-see for anyone who watches The View.
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I felt the same way as Winnie and Peaches. This THS episode was lame. Absolutely nothing new was revealed or discussed. With a topic like The View, I really expected it to be much more exciting!
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Winnie, here is my old post on the THS episode:
Did anyone watch this? I did. The old footage was very entertaining, especially of Joy, so I recommend catching it in reruns if you have time. There were some glaring omissions, though:
–Debi M.’s departure was not really gone into and was treated like a mystery. I remember at the time it was reported that they let her go because of her ignorance about current events; she was said to not be able to contribute much to discussions. But in the THS it just said she pissed off Babs when she chose to celebrate her birthday at Hooters rather than go to LeCirque with Babs. It said she was in the tabloids too much and the show wanted to think of itself as more of a New York Times kind of show.
–Nothing was said about the constant rumors about Star’s husband being gay, and how that contributed to her lack of credibility with viewers (along with her bridezilla-ness).
–Nothing was said about Meredith’s controversial tenure and departure from 60 Minutes. I recall that she was supposed to have been booted off because she wanted to work part time after becoming a mother, and Don Hewitt wasn’t having any of that. Also, I remember she was crucified in the press for having gained too much baby weight and or not taking it off quickly enough for their (60 Minutes’) liking. For a while she did TV commercials for some product like a Slim Fast or somthing similar.
–EH was given a free pass. None of the controversial comments from the recent New York Post article about her, quoting her former Survivor castmates, was mentioned.
–Rosie was portrayed as having been a casting mistake from the get-go. They even said that during her final show, in the epic showdown with EH, it was Rosie herself who wanted to not cut to commercial.
Interestingly, they only mentioned Bill Geddie briefly and didn’t talk about his role and influence. They interviewed a bizarre hairstylist who worked on the show when Debi was on it. He was very melodramatic. Most of the other people who were interviewed were entertainment “journalists”–you know, where they talk about the show and the cast as if they know for certain what was said and what the reasons were for various things that happened. I hate that. These people are just speculating and repeating what they’ve been told, but they present it like they were there on the scene. It’s very irritating to have a show made up of those types of interviews.
September 23rd, 2007 at 4:54 am
So, in other words, Rosie didn’t come off looking so wonderful which means the show was bad.
September 23rd, 2007 at 4:45 pm
By my count Peaches made seven major points, both positive and negative, one of which referred to Rosie.
September 24th, 2007 at 6:11 am
Exactly, Rana.
What I read from the other posters that saw the show was ETHS ‘The View’ just skimmed the surface. It also appears the show did not interview or talk with many people ‘in the know’ or behind the scenes that could add anything of substance. Winnie, littlej and Peaches all gave concise reasons why they felt the show was bad. Not sure how anyone could turn that into an ‘all about Rosie’ issue.
September 24th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
“Not sure how anyone could turn that into an ‘all about Rosie’ issue.”
Well … it all starts at the top: We have “the Decider” wasting his breath on similar sandbox taunts (as well as lack of logic), with his chorus of right-wing enablers emulating him. Let’s hope if, god forbid, the Republicans win the White House next time, they at least put in someone who has a little more maturity than this embarrassing juvenile, who stands up in front of the UN and refuses to pronunce “nuclear” correctly, and who refers to the opposition party as “the Democrat Party.”
September 25th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I was completely underwheled by this show too. There was nothing that I didn’t know. I was hoping to hear some scoop on why Lisa Ling left. Curious if she was pushed out as Debbie was? Very disappointed with this show.