"The humorist Erma Bombeck, a friend of his from Dayton, described Mr. Donahue as 'every wife’s replacement for the husband who doesn’t talk to her.'"

"By 1979, the show was reaching 9 million viewers, nearly 8 million of them female.... Over the years, he interviewed late night host Johnny Carson, pop star Elton John, boxer Muhammad Ali, anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, comic filmmaker Mel Brooks, and tennis rivals Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Some of his more controversial guests included Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler’s architect; novelist Ayn Rand; Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan; Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke; and porn star Harry Reems.... Mr. Donahue never claimed to be impartial. He was a strident liberal — his most frequent guest was Ralph Nader, whose presidential campaign he later supported. He belonged to the National Organization for Women, attributing what he described as his sexism early in life to his religious education. 'We were so busy trying to avoid sin that we could never make friends with women, never share ideas, never care how they felt,' he told TV Guide in 1978."

From "Phil Donahue, long-reigning king of daytime television, dies at 88/His award-winning show tackled tough social and political issues but also pioneered a breezy format that opened the door to successors like Oprah Winfrey" (WaPo)(free access link).