The Rosie O'Donnell Show

The best thing I can say about her show is that she for the most part had good, main stream, "pop culture friendly" guests on. The best thing I can say about Rosie is that she is probably a cash friendly genius. I mean, she managed to create a talk show based upon her childhood dream of meeting celebrities. She is the ultimate "groupie" and made no bones about it. She's a smart gal and should retire, live privately and laugh all the way to the bank.

If I ever understand why this show is so popular, I think I will understand everything there is to know about people.

I would like to stress that if you are a fan of Rosie O'Donnell's show, that you stop reading this review right now, because you are going to hate it with a passion! I am about to tear into Ms. O'Donnell and her show after this sentence, so I suggest you leave now before I offend you.

Now, if you're still here, then you mustn't mind my upcoming Rosie bashing. If you do, than it's your own fault, cuz I warned you. Where do I begin in what I call the worst talk show in the history of television? Let's see, how about the host.

Rosie O'Donnell, as many of you know, was an actress in movies for several years, and in this format, I don't really mind her. In fact, I even saw "The Flintstones" more than once, (Though she would not have been my first choice to play Betty Rubble) In addition to films, she also did some acting on Broadway, like I care! Now, she hosts the worst talk show I have ever seen, and I've seen "The Howard Stern Radio Show" and "Open Mike with Mike Bullard!!"

Granted, the show is on in the day time, therefore it has to be cleaned up a bit. But this show is way too clean for my likes. The comedy is for babies, and the ranting is for yuppies and old people. In the era when most shows try to target an 18-30 demographic, Rosie said, "Nah! I want to appeal mostly to people with no teeth." Great! That leaves babies, old people, and the people of Branson, Missorui. (Sorry, that was one of Dennis Miller's).

Rosie also uses the show as her own personnal forum for expressing her opinions. While I usually aplaud this, it is not something I look for in a talk show. Also, kudos to Rosie for getting involved in so many chariatable organizations, but does she have to keep hitting us over the head with this fact? Fine Rosie, you're great, I'm a loser, are you happy?

Also, there's a limit to how many personal opinions one person can express, or so I thought. Recently, Rosie saw the film, "Fight Club", a film I had planned to go see. The day I was going to go see it, I happened to come across Rosie's show and for some insipid reason, I watched it. There was Rosie, saying how much she hated "Fight Club" and then, in an inforgivable action, announced the ending on the air, ruining the film for me and so many other people!! Why is this applauded? She should have known form the previews that she wouldn't have liked it, cuz it didn't have a namby pamby G rating.

In short, I hate this show! It is the worst Talk show in the history of television.

Overall rating: No stars (Kinda like most of her guests, eh?)

Like many, I absolutely loved this show when it debuted. Rosie's sweet, energetic, and friendly personality won over viewers and lit up the screen. The set was bright, colorful, and cheerful. And her passion for things such as Broadway musicals, Barbara Streisand, and old TV shows made you love them too. I was in college at the time, and would watch this during summer breaks and before I went to class. It was the first show I watched every day. It was a refreshing antithesis to the Jerry Springer-type shows that were popular at the time.

And then Rosie stopped being nice and started getting political. While I respect other people's beliefs, even if they differ from my own, Rosie had a decidedly lack of civility when she expressed them on her show. Following the Columbine incident, she could have used her bubbly personality to cheer people up and give them hope for a better world. Instead, she decided to use her show as her own anti-gun platform, even going so far as accosting Tom Selleck about the NRA in that infamous segment. I remember watching that interview as it aired, and had to change the channel mid-way because I couldn't watch it anymore. People didn't watch Rosie to hear political debates. They watched her to escape from the world. When Rosie lost sight of that, her show went downhill and lost viewers.

Coincidentally or not, it was when she decided to come out as a lesbian that her opinionated side really began to surface and change the show for the worse. (The gun incident was just a taste of what was to come.) It kind of made me wonder whether her sweet personality at the show's start was all just for show. She kind of came off as superficial. Who was the "real" Rosie?

For the hostess of a program that started out as a breezy talk/variety show, Rosie O'Donell did at times display a startlingly opinionated side. That's certainly true. But regarding the infamous dust-up with Tom Selleck, it should be pointed out that Rosie said she had asked Tom if they could have an on-air discussion about gun control and she claimed Tom agreed to it. Anyone watching the day that debacle occurred saw that after the first half of the interview was over, Rosie went to break saying they'd be back to talk about the issue of guns and Tom didn't seem surprised to hear that. "Sounds a lot like America" was his response, so obviously it was not a complete "ambush" on Tom by Rosie as many have unfairly described it.

Clearly, the debate grew more intense than Tom had expected, but one has to wonder if even Rosie went in there intending to so vociferously drive her point home the way she did. Initially, she did allow him time to make his case, but as things wore on she increasingly seemed to jump in before Tom could finish his thoughts on the subject. If nothing else, they may have simply demonstrated that a 10 minute segment is not sufficient time for an in-depth debate about such a complex and emotion-charged topic. It just looked like the two of them got caught up in the moment and yes, Tom, too as he was at times less than polite with her and towards the end he was downright surly.

By the way, while it's been mistakenly claimed to the contrary, before that segment wrapped Rosie most definitely did apologize to Tom. His response was "it's your show, and you can say what you want on it" and then he turned away from her.

I don't think either one of them represented themselves very well during that exchange, but since the emotion they displayed was almost certainly in part fueled by the mood of those painful post-Columbine days, maybe Rosie and Tom should both be cut some slack here. Nobody's perfect, and while you could go back and forth all day long about who was right and who was wrong, one thing is undeniable about that particular incident: it sure was riveting TV.

This show was on while I was in middle school, and for me, it was the biggest advantage of staying home sick. Rosiewas surprisingly good at giving interviews, and i have to admit, she really paved the way for Ellen's show right now. If I were to choose who i prefer as a comedienne and a person, i would say Ellen, but Rosie's show did have some benefits which Ellen's does not. For one thing, Rosie did give a somewhat more interesting interview than Ellen does, and most of all, for me anyway, Rosie's support to Broadway. Rosie's exposure of Broadway plays and musicals to T.V audiences helped keep Broadway alive and well, and one can't help but notice how the state of Broadway has changed without Rosie. With Rosie's show, serious Musicals like "Ragtime" could thrive, today musicals seem to have to either star Hugh Jackman or be based on a popular film or be marketable to thirteen year old girls to at all survive. Yes, by the end, when Rosie let her politics get the better of her, the show lost steam, and i agree with most of the criticism she received surrounding that, but for me anyway, her show will be missed.