A giant of the television world, Phil Donahue, died this week at 88. Born in Cleveland, Donahue was dubbed the “king of daytime talk” for his program which aired from 1967-96. He hosted everyone from entertainers to presidents. Carol Story, who also hails from Northeast Ohio, was one of his producers during a 29-year run.
She watched the show when it broadcast from Dayton. She was actually a guest on a show about adoptions while Donahue was later based in Chicago. The show moved again in the ‘80s, and in 1988 she received a call which would change her life.
“The call to go to New York and be with Donahue came about two days after our daughter got married,” she said. “So, I was free as a bird.”
Story spent much of the ‘70s and ‘80s producing Cleveland’s TV juggernaut, “The Morning Exchange.” Yet filling in for a “Donahue” producer who was on maternity leave from 30 Rockefeller Plaza was a very different experience. Story became part of a team of five producers and a large staff.
"I came from Cleveland ... you always had to hustle," she said. "When you worked at 'Donahue' and you were in New York City or Chicago, 'Donahue' was such a powerhouse that you could have anything you wanted at any moment. I mean, if you said to a publisher, 'I'm thinking of putting your author on television,' the book would be on your desk in 45 minutes. I wasn't used to that."
Donahue grew up watching Cleveland TV legend Dorothy Fuldheim and got his start as an announcer at what’s now WKYC-TV. He quickly nicknamed his new producer after his hometown.
“His nickname for me was Cleveland,” she said. “He was great to work with. The show taped at 4. Usually, he would get in at 2:30. If you were the producer of the day, you took your materials to him and sat down and chatted with him. He could take your material and make it sing. After every show, Phil would stand at the door and say goodbye to each audience member. Now, I defy you to tell me anybody else who does that.”
Despite so many stories of backstage shenanigans in recent years, especially related to talk show hosts, Story said that Donahue remained grounded.
“This sounds so fake and so phony, but this is the truth: He was a good guy,” she said. “Did he get mad? Did he get upset? Absolutely. He was never cruel. He was never vindictive. And if he were annoyed with you, you worked it out and it was over.”
Although the show was flying high in the ratings at the time, the daytime landscape was getting crowded with tabloid shows such as “Geraldo,” “Sally Jesse Raphael” and “A Current Affair.”
“I 'think ‘Donahue’ could bigfoot any of those shows if they wanted a guest,” she said. “I hate to speak for the management or for Phil, but we just sort of ignored it to tell you the truth.”
However, another talk show was gaining momentum and went national from Chicago just after Donahue left the Windy City for the Big Apple.
“'Oprah’ was a different thing,” Story said. “Obviously, Phil was in all the markets. ‘Oprah’ was starting to be in a lot of the markets. The difference was in the booking of the shows. So, when PMK, one of the big publicity houses in the country, said, ‘We're sorry, Robin [Williams] doesn't want to introduce his movie with Phil this time. He's going to talk to Oprah,’ that is an earthquake. That is huge. If you've done a show and you've not been told ‘no,’ that's a moment. So, everybody had to readjust.”
After her time at “Donahue,” Story moved to the other side of Manhattan and joined CBS News for the next 23 years. Yet when Donahue retired in 1996, he remembered his former producer.
“I got an invitation to go on an all-expenses-paid cruise with my husband,” she said. “It was from Phil.”
A quick chat with a former colleague confirmed the invite: Donahue was throwing a party on the high seas for anyone who had worked on his show for a year or more.
“I said, ‘I only worked there seven months,’” Story said.
Her former colleague's reply?
“I know, but he loved you.”
During the cruise came a reminder of the quiet generosity of Donahue and his wife, Marlo Thomas. Story and her husband were introduced to a man who called himself "Lillian's doctor."
"Lillian worked in Phil’s promo department for many, many years," Story said. "When the RSVP's came back ... Lillian couldn't go because she had kidney disease. Phil said, ‘Lillian has to go on the cruise.’ Phil hired a doctor and a nurse and converted a stateroom into a dialysis center so Lillian could go on the cruise. That is generosity and kindness and caring for people. It’s a good lesson for most of us.”