March 11, 2013

Recasting The View...


News broke last Thursday that Joy Behar was leaving daytime chat show The View after 16 years, thereby leaving Barbara Walters as the sole original cast member left standing.

I love the feisty liberal Behar, a standup comic by trade. She brought a lot to the show, but has looked totally bored the last few years and it is probably time to move on.

Then on Friday, the internet jumped all over Us Weekly reporting that cohost Elisabeth Hasselbeck was being let go from the show after ten years. This is a good thing as "Hasselbot" is a rude, disrespectful, stupid blowhard. And yes she is a conservative, and yes I disagree with her on almost everything, and yes the show needs a conservative, just not this one. She is nonsensical and socially regressive.

And much as I love Whoopi Goldberg, The View hasn't really been any good since Meredith Viera left the show and Barbara Walters lost her mind, all about seven years ago. Upstart rival The Talk is faster, funnier, more interesting and more entertaining.

While The View is cleaning house they should also dump Sherri Shepherd, the actress/comic/moron who makes even former cohost Star Jones look appealing.

So let's assume Walters and Goldberg stay and the other three go... who should they hire? Who would get me to care about The View again?

My fave choices --- Tina Fey and Amy Poehler  --- are presumably unavailable or uninterested. So who should join the show?

We need young and not so young, liberal and conservative, and likely a mom and a singleton. So here are five options for the three slots...


Brooke Shields: the actress, model and mom is smart and funny and kind. Ace choice... and a bit of a gimme, as she has been guest hosting lately and according to the internet has already been offered the job and is mulling it over.


Maya Rudolph: The very funny, often pregnant former SNL star is free now that her sitcom Up All Night vanished; she would bring some much-needed edge to the show.


Mindy Kaling: The very funny actor and writer is wasting her potential on The Mindy Project; she is brainy and bookish and charming on every talk show, let's get to see her live every weekday.


Megyn Kelly: Okay I don't know much about her, but as we need someone on the right, what little I have seen of Kelly, who trained as a lawyer and is currently on Fox News, is that she is conservative without being backwards, and smart and opinionated.


Anderson Cooper: yep, he's a guy, let's not discriminate based on gender, View people, and yes it's a long-shot as he already works for CNN and CBS while The View (or The Spew as my husband calls it) is on ABC, but Cooper is smart and geeky and sassy and newsy, and his talk show has been cancelled effective the end of this season. So he has mornings free...

Who would you hire to sit at the table on The View?