Talk show host Phil Donahue is credited with pioneering the daytime television talk show format. His programs introduced viewers to sensitive and intelligent discussions of topics and issues that had never before been seen on the small screen. From the debut of The Phil Donahue Show in 1969, which originated out of Dayton, Ohio, Donahue challenged, informed, and entertained daytime audiences and helped establish the talk show as one of television's most prolific and profitable formats. Beginning in the 1970s, his promotion of feminism, and the frequent airing of women's health issues on his program identified him as the embodiment of the "sensitive man." As daytime TV shows became raunchier in the 1990s, Donahue came to be viewed as the patriarch of the genre. While he did present programs with outrageous content—senior citizen strippers, for example—he continued to offer sober conversations about politics...