Today's Fact

[yelladawg]

Saturday, September 25, 2004
BABA WAWA DAY


Happy Birthday to the woman who can spin circles around just about any other interviewer on television, Barbara Walters, born this day in 1931.
Originally, Walters was mere window dressing for the Today show on NBC. She had little to do with the program except for reporting women’s features. Eventually she was able to show her prowess in incisive interviews and in-depth features before moving to ABC as a news anchor on ABC News Tonight with Harry Reasoner.

It was this move in 1976 that garnered Ms. Walters an annual salary of $1,000,000 -- an unprecedented sum for a woman broadcaster at that time. Reasoner and Walters didn’t quite click and Reasoner quit. Walters then put her own brand of interviewing style to work in Barbara Walters Specials, which garnered a birthday present for her on this night in 1983. The show received the Outstanding Informational Series Emmy.

In 1984, Barbara Walters was reunited on 20/20 with her former co-host on the Today show, Hugh Downs. She had been promoted from correspondent to co-host. One of her most famous exclusive interviews on 20/20 was with Gulf War hero General Norman Schwarzkopf on March 15, 1991, shortly after the end of Operation Desert Storm. We have also seen Barbara as anchor, taking turns with Diane Sawyer and Forrest Sawyer on the news documentary, Turning Point in 1994.

And, many wondered, when she was given the million-dollar salary, how someone who couldn’t pronounce r’s and l’s could be so successful in the news biz. Even comedians used Barbara in their material. Ignoring the snide comments, Barbara Walters went on to become a highly respected and talented interviewer and journalist; and was elected to the Television Hall of Fame in 1990. After more than twenty years with ABC-TV, she probably could care less if we call her Baba Wawa.