Word: beene
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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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...
In addition to his tiff with Spike Lee, Hall has been embroiled in a feud with Willis Edwards, president of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. When Hall's show began, Edwards complained publicly about the scarcity of blacks in key behind-the-scenes positions. (Hall's producer...
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...
The press's fixation on race nettles Hall even more. Though he takes pride in giving exposure to many black performers ("I have a commitment to correcting the wrongs of TV history"), Hall insists he is doing a show for everybody, black and white. "I'm out to bring the...
Show-biz stirrings came early. As a teenager, Hall hired himself out as a magician at parties and played drums and bass guitar in a couple of groups. He started college at Ohio University and finished at Kent State, where he majored in speech communication and played the lead in...