Word: ares
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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We are seeing the future of the TV talk show, and it is, well, funky. The Arsenio Hall Show, a weeknightly joyride on 167 stations nationwide, is less a talk show than a televised party: hip, hyperkinetic and hot. The host can't sit still, and the crowd can't...
The TV industry is getting the message. Rather than merely redistribute the existing late-night audience, Hall's show has attracted new viewers. Some urban contemporary radio stations have noticed a drop in their listenership when Hall is on the air. The inevitable TV imitators are starting to appear, notably...
Hall's one concession to talk-show tradition is to perform an opening monologue. His topical jokes are lame compared with Carson's or Jay Leno's, but he exposes himself in a way those cool satirists never do. Talking about Ralph Abernathy's book, in which the former civil...
With guests, too, Hall often drops the reserve that talk hosts are supposed to maintain. Impulsive, sometimes off-color remarks frequently slip out. When actress Sally Kirkland told Hall she thought he was wonderful, he replied, "I can tell -- your nipples are hard." (Even Hall admits that one crossed the...
But, hey, do his fans care? At a time when most talk shows have moved into controversial issues (Phil, Oprah, even Rivers) or anti-talk-show parody (Letterman), Hall has returned the genre to its original raison d'etre: old-fashioned, unapologetic stargazing. His innovation has been to set the...