Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. Walters is known for having hosted a variety of television programs, including Today, The View, 20/20, and the ABC Evening News. Since retirement as a full-time host and contributor, she continued to occasionally report for ABC News through 2015.Walters first became known as a television personality in the early 1960s, when she was a writer and segment producer of "women's interest stories" on the NBC News morning program The Today Show, where she began work with host Hugh Downs. As a result of her outstanding interviewing ability and her popularity with viewers, she received more airtime on the program. Even though her production duties made her a significant contributor to the program, she had no input in choosing a successor for Downs when he left in 1971, and Frank McGee was hired. In 1974, at the time of McGee's death, Walters became co-host of the program, the first woman to hold such a title on an American news program.In 1976, continuing as a pioneer for women in broadcasting, she became the first female co-anchor of a network evening news, working with Harry Reasoner on the ABC News flagship program, the ABC Evening News, earning an unprecedented US$1 million per year.
From 1979 to 2004, she worked as co-host and a producer for the ABC newsmagazine 20/20.
In 1997, Walters created and debuted as a co-host on The View, a daytime talk show with an all-female panel. She retired as a co-host of The View in 2014 after 16 seasons, but still serves as its executive producer.Since her retirement from The View, she has hosted a number of special reports for 20/20 and ABC News, as well as a documentary series for Investigation Discovery. Additionally, Walters continued to host her annual 10 Most Fascinating People special on ABC. Her final on-air appearance for ABC News was in 2015.In 1996, Walters was ranked #34 on the TV Guide "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time" list, and in 2000 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
“The world may be full of fourth-rate writers but it's also full of fourth-rate readers.”
Occasionally attributed to Walters; actually coined by Stan Barstow.
Misattributed
On Barack Obama
Interview with Piers Morgan, 12-17-2013. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/12/17/barbara_walters_on_obama_we_thought_he_was_going_to_be_the_next_messiah.html
Occasionally attributed to Walters; actually said by Earl Warren, as quoted in Sports Illustrated (July 22, 1968).
Misattributed
“She made me laugh. I will miss her. Baba Wawa.”
Note sent to Gene Wilder, husband of the late Gilda Radner following Radner's death from ovarian cancer; Radner had done an impersonation of Walters where she had poked fun at Walters' difficulty in pronouncing the letter "r", introducing herself as "Baba Wawa". Stated in an interview at Inside the Actors Studio.
Chris Chase, "A Talk With the Unsinkable Barbara Walters", New York Magazine (March 25, 1974), Vol. 7, No. 12, p. 65.
“A man cannot be comfortable [or cannot be made comfortable] without his own approval.”
Occasionally attributed to Walters; actually written by Mark Twain in What Is Man? and other essays (1917), p. 17.
Misattributed
“Deep breaths are very helpful at shallow parties.”
How to Talk With Practically Anybody About Practically Anything (1970).
How to Talk With Practically Anybody About Practically Anything (1970), p. 136.
It was really very touching.
Chris Chase, "A Talk With the Unsinkable Barbara Walters", New York Magazine (March 25, 1974), Vol. 7, No. 12, p. 62.
