The View Time Capsule: 1999
As part of my efforts to de-clutter my home, I am going through all of my old VHS tapes to see which ones I should hang onto and which ones should be discarded. I was not very diligent with my labeling, so I have to watch each of them to see what exactly is on each. It is like a journey back in time with each tape I put in the VCR.
Last night, I found an old episode of The View from 1999. I had recorded it (and saved it) because Kevin Spacey was one of the guests on the show. He was on there to promote American Beauty, which had just been released and was getting Oscar buzz. It was funny to know how that all turned out.
From a production standpoint, there were many differences between the 1999 View and the 2008 View:
There were also some things that were exactly the same as they are now:
They also talked about how some stars have clauses in their contracts where they have to portray a certain image. They were specifically talking about Melissa Joan Hart posing for men’s magazines getting her in trouble with the creators of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Barbara said that her contract forbids her from endorsing a candidate. Meredith said that Barbara could sit there bare-breasted and not get fired. Barbara agreed that she could sit there bare-breasted, so long as she doesn’t endorse a candidate while doing it.
They were talking about endorsing candidates because several celebrities had recently expressed a desire to run for public office, including Warren Beatty, Cybil Shepherd, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump. Both Meredith and Star said if they were force to pick one it would be Donald Trump, which I thought was funny. Joy made a joke that if Arnold Schwarzenegger got elected then we would know what it would be like if Germany had one the war. Barbara scolded her for making an inappropriate joke. Some things never change I guess.
As an aside, the next thing on the tape was a 1999 episode of The Rosie O’Donnell Show which I had saved because Jesse L. Martin was on it. He had just gotten the role on Law and Order. Rosie convinced him to sing a little bit of a song from Rent, even though he was embarrassed. Her show still made me laugh all these years later.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:27 am
thanks for the trip down memory lane.
i look forward to more installments.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I just came across this quote, that I thought was so applicable to The View in general, and most particularly EH:
Never confuse passion with authority (I would add: wisdom, correctness, kindness)
It’s from the book “How To Get Anyone To Do Anything”
http://www.minezone.org/wiki/MVance/HowToGetAnyoneToDoAnything
April 4th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Thanks for posting about that Winnie, it was interesting to read.
I recently went through some old VHS tapes too the other day ironically, nothing worth saving, especially now that I have a DVR, but there were tapes and tapes of old talk shows. I even found a Regis and Kathie Lee from 1993, a 1996 Rosie O’Donnell show when her and Madonna vogued, it was Madonnas first appearance since giving her birth to her now 11 year old daughter.
I think The View was so much better back then, and I noticed even on an old episode from 2003 I found, that Barbara Walters seemed much more alert, and didn’t flub her words up at all like she does now. It may only be a difference of five years, but her old age is showing in the way she converses on the show now.She was not nearly as hard to follow like she is now.She also didn’t need help from the others to finish her sentences.
I never saw the episode of The View from ‘99 you mention. I cringe to think of how awkward that question must have been for Kevin Spacey to answer! What was his response?
April 4th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Vegas: I had a lot of stuff not worth saving, including an episode of Real World Hawaii. I cannot even remember a time when the Real World was so crucial to my existence that I would record it.
As for Kevin, he just smiled, looked out into the audience with an embarrassed grin and then Barbara said that she couldn’t believe she asked that and changed the subject to whether he was uncomfortable doing the scene.
April 5th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I wish I had access to old The View episodes. One episode in particular that sticks in my mind is when Star is making unforavable comments about a guest host. She was a young pretty blond with a pixie haircut. Apparently she said something Star did not like, and Star went on critizicing her hair, her ‘ugly’ sweater, etc. The guest was pretty gracious. I just don’t know who she was. That was when Star was heavyset. I tried googling to no avail.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
A thanks from me as well Winnie, for sharing this with us.
I watched the View back then as well.
I remember the things you describe, although not this particular episode.
And the Rosie show.