Book review is a traditional part and parcel of the Print medium. Nearly every printed newspaper, magazine and periodical has a section dedicated to book review. The Internet is choc-a-bloc with book reviews. Amazon has a whole section devoted to the tradition of book reviews comprising 11 million titles across 28 genres available on the Internet.
A book review’s length may vary from a single para to a substantial essay. It can be an opinion, summary or scholarly review. The reviewer may display his learning or promulgate his own idea on the topic of a book. Like all market segments, the book review also has its own niche audience that commands market slots of advertising target demographics.
The Spaghetti Book Club is one such for reviews by kids for books for kids. It is the largest site of children’s book reviews written and illustrated by kids for kids. The books are rated for selection, according to popularity. There are many special journals devoted to book reviews and they are in special databases such as Book Review Index, Kirkus Reviews, and newspapers and scholarly databases such as arts, humanities, citation index, social sciences citation index and discipline specific databases. Each segment has its own loyal followers.
The radio broadcast medium is also similarly placed with book review sections ever since the dawn of radio broadcasting. But the wonder of wonders is that the vast crop of television channels do not incorporate book review sections. This has set me thinking. What could be the reason? From the beginning of the television era, solo presenters read out news bulletins without any visuals. The genre of the news slot was replicated on the model of the radio news bulletin. Such was the structure of the slot till the advent of Walter Cronkite in the seventh decade of the 20th century. He restructured news presentation into a new genre altogether. He was the first to introduce visuals directly from the field, as he explained it to the TV viewer. His presentation of the news on CBS was the most widely viewed news slot in the US, and he earned the epithet of the “most trusted man” in America. He became an icon of the times.
Let’s talk of the Top 10 Talk Show Hosts of All Time. Every host is here because they either contributed something unique to the genre or became a legend by finding a place in our hearts and minds. What stands out on this list is the lack of female hosts. Only two made it to the list – Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O’Donnell. Oprah for being the general queen of all media-ness and Rosie for single-handedly reviving the daytime talk show formula made famous by Merv Griffin and Dick Cavett.
Hopefully, that trend will change, and this list will change to reflect it. Johnny Carson will be forever known as the king of late night television. His 30 years as host of ‘The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson’ is something that current and future talk show hosts will aspire for -- both in terms of longevity and art. Carson reinvented the monologue, scored with clever skits and memorable characters, and became loved by Americans, young and old. Nearly every major talk show host of the last 20 years includes Carson as both an inspiration and an influence, including David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.
Oprah is beloved internationally and the sovereign of a media empire that includes television, film, radio, web and social media, education, and more. She has her own network and slate of shows. She’s been called “the world’s most powerful woman” by ‘Time’ magazine and ‘Life’ pinned her with the title “the most influential woman and the most influential African-American of her generation”.
The magazine even included her in a list of the “100 people who have change the world”. The list included Jesus Christ and Mother Theresa. And there are just way too many accolades to list. What’s amazing is... this all started with one little talk show, launched in Chicago 25 years ago and ending in the summer of 2011.
You’ll find a lot of ‘Tonight Show’ hosts on our list. Jack Paar followed Steve Allen. Perhaps most famously, Paar abruptly quit the show after one of his monologue jokes was censored by NBC. He left right after delivering his monologue the following evening, leaving his announcer, Hugh Downs, to fill in for the remainder of the programme. He eventually returned a month later, delivering the famous line, “As I was saying before, I was interrupted... I believe the last thing I said was ‘There must be a better way to make a living than this.’ Well, I’ve looked -- and there isn’t.”
Steve Allen was Tonight’s first host and his run on the show (from 1954 to 1957) set the stage for nearly every talk show to come. Allen is considered the originator of the talk show monologue, sketches and audience interaction. So, in a very big way, we could consider Allen the father of the modern day talk show. As he was so popular with viewers, NBC gave him his own prime time talk show. Rather than quit the ‘Tonight Show’, Allen hosted both programmes simultaneously, sharing hosting duties with Ernie Kovacs during his final 1956-57 season.
You can’t talk about talk shows without talking about Dick Cavett. The man hosted chat fests for more than 50 years. Slate writer Clive James calls Cavett “a true sophisticate with a daunting intellectual range, Cavett was the most distinguished talk-show host in America, if sophistication and an intellectual breadth were what you wanted”.
The book review is the closest in the order of studio arrangement to the genre of talk shows. Yet we have to wait for book review hosts of the calibre and standards of the talk show hosts. Imagination is the key.
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