In 1997, daytime television was basically a sea of soap operas and talk shows hosted by single personalities like Oprah or Phil Donahue. Then Barbara Walters had an idea. She wanted a "multigenerational" panel of women from completely different walks of life to sit down and just talk. No script. No teleprompter for the heart of the show. Just a conversation. It sounds normal now because every network has a version of it, but the original cast of The View TV show was a massive gamble that changed the way we consume morning media.
People forget how weird the concept felt at the time.
The chemistry wasn't immediate. It was forged through a very specific blend of personalities that Walters and producer Bill Geddie hand-picked. You had the legendary journalist herself, a legal mind, a working mom, a broadcast veteran, and a complete newcomer. They didn't always like each other. Honestly, that was the point.
Meet the Women Who Started It All
The first seat belonged to Barbara Walters. By the late 90s, she was already a deity in broadcast journalism. She didn't need to do a daytime talk show, but she wanted to prove that women's "water cooler" talk had intellectual value. She was the anchor, the person who could pivot from a joke about dating to a hard-hitting question for a head of state.
Then there was Meredith Vieira. Before she was the face of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire or a Today show anchor, she was a serious 60 Minutes correspondent who had famously left that role to prioritize her family. Vieira was the moderator. She had this incredible ability to keep the "Hot Topics" moving without making it feel like a forced segment. She was the relatable one—the person who would admit to having a messy house while Walters sat there in perfect Chanel suits.
Star Jones brought the legal fire. As a former prosecutor, she didn't just give opinions; she cross-examined topics. She was flashy, confident, and unapologetically ambitious. In the early years, Jones provided the show’s "expert" lens, breaking down the O.J. Simpson trial fallout or the Clinton scandals with a lawyer’s precision.
Then you had Joy Behar. Interestingly, Joy wasn't even supposed to be a full-time permanent host at the absolute beginning. She was brought in to fill in for Barbara on days Walters was off filming 20/20. But her comedic timing was so vital that she became indispensable. She was the "older sister" from New York who said the things everyone else was thinking but was too polite to voice.
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Finally, the wildcard: Debbie Matenopoulos.
She was only 22. She was literally plucked from an MTV internship/production world to represent "Generation X." She was the "niece" of the group. Often, the older women would mother her or, more frequently, look at her with utter confusion when she talked about pop culture.
The Dynamics Nobody Tells You About
The show worked because it felt like a real dinner party where things could go off the rails at any second. It wasn't "safe."
If you go back and watch 1997-1998 episodes, the pacing is much slower than the chaotic, high-decibel political shouting matches the show eventually became in the 2010s and 2020s. Back then, the original cast of The View TV show focused more on social issues, parenting, and interpersonal relationships.
But there was tension.
Debbie Matenopoulos struggled. It's a tough gig for a 22-year-old to hold her own against Barbara Walters and a seasoned prosecutor. The media was brutal to her. Saturday Night Live parodied her as a "bimbo," which Matenopoulos has since said was devastating. She was eventually let go in 1999, marking the first of many, many cast changes that would define the show's reputation for having a "revolving door."
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Why the Original Lineup Matters Today
We talk about "The View" now as a political battleground. It's a place where Meghan McCain or Alyssa Farah Griffin spar with Whoopi Goldberg. But the original quintet wasn't primarily about Democrat vs. Republican. It was about perspective.
- Age Diversity: They had a woman in her 20s, 30s, 40s, and 60s. That hadn't been done.
- Professional Backgrounds: You had a comic, a lawyer, a journalist, and a legacy news icon.
- The "Hot Topics" Format: This was revolutionary. The idea that you could spend 20 minutes just reacting to the morning's news without a pre-set interview was a nightmare for producers but a dream for audiences.
The chemistry between Star, Joy, and Meredith was particularly potent. They actually spent time together. They were building a brand-new genre of television in real-time. When people look back at the original cast of The View TV show, they're often nostalgic for that specific era because it felt less like a shouting match and more like a messy, interesting, occasionally heated brunch.
The Departure of the Foundations
Nothing lasts forever in TV.
Debbie left in '99. Lisa Ling came in to replace her, bringing a more journalistic "Gen X" vibe. Then Star Jones had her very public, very messy exit in 2006. If you want to see a "cringe" moment in TV history, go find the clip of Star announcing her departure before the producers expected her to. The look on the other women's faces? Pure shock.
Meredith Vieira left shortly after to take the Today show gig. That was arguably the end of the "classic" era. Once Vieira and Jones were gone, the show's DNA changed. It became louder. It became more about the viral moment and less about the sustained conversation.
Barbara Walters remained the North Star until her retirement in 2014, but she often remarked that the early years were some of her favorites because of the sheer novelty of the experiment. She wasn't just the boss; she was a participant in a cultural shift.
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What You Can Learn from The View's History
If you’re a student of media or just a fan of pop culture, the evolution of this cast is a masterclass in "lightning in a bottle." You can't just throw five famous people at a table and expect them to resonate. It requires a moderator who can listen (Vieira), a provocateur (Behar), and an authority figure (Walters).
The takeaway for anyone looking at the history of the original cast of The View TV show is that conflict is actually a feature, not a bug. The show didn't succeed despite the hosts disagreeing; it succeeded because they did. But unlike the modern version, the original group seemed to have a deep-seated respect for the "seat" they held.
To truly understand the show's impact, you have to look at the landscape of 1997. No social media. No 24-hour Twitter cycle. These women were the first "influencers" who told you what to think about the news before the internet told you what to think.
Actionable Next Steps
If you want to dive deeper into the history of daytime TV and the "Barbara Walters" effect, here are a few things you should actually do:
- Watch the 10th Anniversary Special: It’s one of the few times the original cast (mostly) reunited to discuss the early days. It’s available in clips on YouTube and shows the stark difference in their younger vs. older dynamics.
- Read "Ladies Who Punch" by Ramin Setoodeh: This is the definitive, unauthorized account of the show. It’s based on hundreds of interviews and gets into the nitty-gritty of why the original cast eventually splintered.
- Contrast and Compare: Find a "Hot Topics" segment from 1998 and watch it back-to-back with one from this year. Notice the difference in volume, the length of time given to each host to speak, and how many times they interrupt each other. It’s a fascinating look at how our collective attention spans have changed.
- Follow the Originals: Many of the original hosts are still active. Joy Behar is still on the panel, providing a direct link to the 1997 pilot. Meredith Vieira often does long-form interviews where she speaks candidly about her time on the show—look for her recent podcast appearances for the most "unfiltered" takes.