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American Morning
Saying Goodbye Wasn't Easy for Talkshow Host Sally Jesse Raphael
Aired May 03, 2002 - 08:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Saying goodbye wasn't easy for talkshow host Sally Jesse Raphael, and she didn't go quietly. The smashing of her trademark red glasses symbolized her feelings about having the longest running daytime talk show in television history canceled just a month or so shy of her 20th anniversary on the air. The final show airs later this month, and Sally Jesse Raphael joins us now.
Good to see you.
SALLY JESSE RAPHAEL, TALK SHOW HOST: Thank you. You know I'm wearing the red glasses, because they haven't been smashed yet.
ZAHN: Was that a second pair that you used?
RAPHAEL: No, no, that is for, like, the last show. Since the last show hasn't aired, people are saying why aren't you wearing those glasses?
ZAHN: They are too nice to smash.
RAPHAEL: The miracle of television.
ZAHN: So what is the deal? With suits that wouldn't even allow you to get to your 20th anniversary.
RAPHAEL: I don't know. It's always financial. I mean, everybody always says it's bottom line, and it's financial, and you just have to expect that. It is not terribly nice, especially since they had said we were a go, and then they changed their minds and said no, we're not.
ZAHN: How did you find out about it?
RAPHAEL: They called me in. Usually you call an agent, or a lawyer or something like that, but they called me in and called my personally. I come from the school where it better to say clean out your desk today, because then you can deal with it. But this was a long funeral. Man, it was like a wake. It's a terrible way to work, because you go in everyday, and all the people, their minds and of course their ego is no there. They're somewhere else. They're off getting their next job.
ZAHN: And they're worried about mortgages and putting kids through school and all that other stuff.
RAPHAEL: Of course. So there is something to be said for a short dismissal.
ZAHN: Are you bitter?
RAPHAEL: No. No, no, no, I'm a journeyman broadcaster, Paula. I've been on television for 46 years, which I think is some kind of a record, and I've been fired or let go 18 times. I've quit five jobs.
ZAHN: There you are.
RAPHAEL: I've been in 22 cities. I am just used to -- this is the nature of the business, and I've been fortunate enough already to receive some nice offers. I worry more about the other people who are in there now, because we're in New York City, and last year there were seven shows that started in New York. Times are hard, and there's only one show now that's coming on in New York.
ZAHN: It's very discouraging for all those people who have been highly reliant upon you.
RAPHAEL: Exactly.
ZAHN: I know after this all came about, you said you had some regrets about the direction the show took. Why couldn't you have spoken up anywhere in that 19-year cycle, and say, I'm not going to do this?
RAPHAEL: I did. You see, I'm not Oprah and I'm not Barbara Walters. I get a salary. I don't own the show. From the very first moment when there was a move to do that kind of daytime television, because, let's face it, that's the most successful daytime television. There's nothing more successful than that. We always said, well, it can't last long. Well, it's lasted four years, five years or whatever.
ZAHN: So sleaze has traction.
RAPHAEL: Sleaze has a long life and sleaze has traction, but I fought it every day, day after day. The problem is the producers are paid by the suits, and the suits tell the producers what to produce. And you come in and say, I don't want to do that. You can make yourself a diva and walk off and do things like that, and that's, to me, not a very professional thing to do. That's acting more like a star than a person whose job this is.
So I complained and complained. I went to the company and complained. I sent e-mails and complained. And you know what, I didn't complain enough. And that's the regret, I tried, but I didn't try hard enough.
ZAHN: Let's quickly watch a clip from a show did you on the KKK to remind people of what happened here.
Let's listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even niggers get diseases that we don't get. But it's a proven fact that if you get a white man, a black man and a Spanish man the test, nine out of 10 times, that white man's scores are going to be higher than the nigger's or Spanish!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: What happened to this woman? Was she a member of the KKK?
RAPHAEL: Oh, yes. Her husband I guess is the grand dragon of whatever it is up there, and her children are against this. Her name is Jan Ralston, and 2,000 people were in that auditorium, telling her what she was saying was wrong, and she had a form of epiphany, and I got a call almost the next day, saying I saw myself and I looked terrible, and I don't really believe that, and so she changed her mind.
ZAHN: Based on that way that sometimes you got slapped around with the content of the show, is that one of the higher moments for you in terms of what is your deal?
RAPHAEL: No, there were a lot. There was Susan Smith, who had drowned her two children in the lake. There was a cabinet member whose husband was beating -- a member of the cabinet was beating his wife up. There were all kinds. There was boy preachers. We did hundreds and hundreds of news stories, hundreds and health stories. This was at a time when some other company owned the show. You see these people have only owned the show in the last four years. The people before that allowed us to do those kinds of shows.
ZAHN: Well, we'll be looking forward to seeing where you end up next. What do you think, 47 years on television? Do you got another 10 more years in you?
RAPHAEL: At least.
ZAHN: But the next time you are going to own the show.
RAPHAEL: No, I don't think so. I'm just going to say no, no, no!
ZAHN: Good luck to, Sally. Great to see you. Appreciate you stopping by.
RAPHAEL: Thank you.
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