The Rosie O'Donnell Show

This is probably the most insipid thing that's ever been on TV. I don't know who they are supposed to be appealing to. They stick America's favorite Doyenne of Dumpiness out there to push gooey smarm on the unfortunate viewer for half an hour (except when Rosie goes after something she DOESN'T like, like Tom Selleck, and out comes the bile). I think someone has to be seriously masochistic to actually watch this. I personally can't even stand Rosie doing that wobbly-lookin' chicken dance in commercials on NBC anymore.

Seriously, I seriously think that this show's survival is either some trick of the devil or just because she's some sort of sacred cow to NBC's programmers. I really wonder who this show is supposed to appeal to. Someone staying at home during the afternoon, which eliminates most people with jobs. Poor people? I doubt they would get or be interested in Rosie's rosy and banal world. Independently wealthy people? Usually people that have already made their mark have better things to do than watch TV in the afternoon. Housewives? I guess this has to be it but I've really wondered how they can identify with her not-so-well-disguised... different lifestyle from them. You know what I mean. ;)

Even Rosie's "good person" act is getting tired and definitely wearing thin. A double-edged sword that, as her worldview is apparently rather viciously absolutist and probably quite a few degrees from the mainstream. She's all nice and warm and sugary and likes things that are nice and warm and sugary but anything apart from that, like guns, Fight Club, or whatever and she hits the roof. She's sort of like an evil Miss Manners, or better yet, a socialist counterpart to Dr. Laura (sans the protesters, of course).

I consider this show a one-woman equivalent of Regis and Kathy Lee, but even less scintillating or relevant. One can spend one's life more productively watching the Weather Channel or the Farm Report in the afternoon than this garbage. Even if you like this show, there's better things to do at 3 in the afternoon. Go out, do something big. Direct a movie, write a book, publish a website, start the Save the Children from Big Meanie Republicans Foundation, whatever, and maybe you could actually be a guest on the show.

As for Rosie, well, I'm just waiting 20 years or so for the E! True Hollywood Story about her. I'm really curious as to what that's going to say about her in hindsight.

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.

A long time ago when Tom Selleck was being interviewed on the Rosie Show she started bashing him thoughtlessly and trying profusely to hurt his feelings, etc. Nice to her guests? You must be joking! She is obviously not in support of the NRA and Tom is. This is what the big fight was about and he had very good points to make about the association while Rosie didn't have anything to really stand on she still continued to try to bash him on live television. In my opinion (and I know many others) she still owes a great big apology to Tom for this humiliation (where actually she was probably humiliating herself more than anything). Yes this happened. It really did! It was horrific. I haven't watched the show since.

this is by far the most annoying talk show i've ever seen. like one person has already commented on here, she goes way overboard with her own opinions. she's so damn annoying it's not even funny. some of her deeds are good, but she tries too hard sometimes to prove she's this nice person. she also tries too hard to be funny way too often. on a scale of 1 to 10 i give this show a 2

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?