Barbara Walters – 25 on 20/20 (ABC News)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Main Program: B

 

 

Barbara Walters is one of TV’s greatest journalist survivors.  When she went from being a standard news journalist to finding here classic role as an interviewer of celebrities like they had never been interviewed before, one of her famous colleagues (to paraphrase, and I will not name that person) said she had sold out.  They are both still working, but Walters is entering a third era of her career.  The change is marked by her departure from the huge hit news magazine she helped to launch.  Barbara Walters – 25 on 20/20 shows how she reached new heights of success by breaking ground and making TV a better medium.

 

Besides her big star interviews usually broadcast before any of ABC’s Academy Award broadcasts, Walters and old friend (and former Today Show co-host) Hugh Downs broke the monopoly CBS’ monster hit 60 Minutes had on TV by being the premiere news magazine.  After many had failed to capture what CBS had done, 20/20 was a surprise hit and the medium took another solid step forward.  That 25 years have passed and Walters has stepped down is sad because instead of more great news shows, we get the living hell of people abusing each other and themselves in the sham known as “reality TV” for those who cannot separate reality from TV.

 

The main show offers about 90 minutes of highlights from her great, often daring and even endangering work over the decades and it is always riveting.  From her famous interview with Katharine Hepburn to recent interviews from the events of 9/11/01, Walters has been one of the most consistent journalists in television history and though many have been trying to write her of as a panderer to “the Left” (or is part of that UFO called the “Liberal Media”), her legacy is undeniable.  Her critics who think they can use The View talk show as a summation of her credibility, a show she only co-shows when she can be there, are being idiotic.  That is why this is such a great show to have produced.  Barbara Walters – 25 on 20/20 is a show everyone should catch, especially if they missed it or have not seen it in its entirety.  And to think, this only scratches the surface of this era of her career.

 

The 1.33 X 1 full frame image comes from the many years of NTSC analog video and some 16mm film archives, all in decent shape, so the ABC News archive is being kept well.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo does not have any surrounds, and in many places is boosted monophonic sound as best it can be.  That is really good for such a program, something we do not always see when we get older TV programming on DVD.  Extras include a brief tribute by her colleagues, an interview of her about her career by one of ABC’s new journalists, and four extended interview pieces including with Christopher Reeve, Michael J. Fox and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that I wished went on longer.  Koch’s ABC News DVDs have been an underrated series of DVD releases that deserve more attention.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo