Whoopi Goldberg And Sherri Shepherd Open Up About Support From The View's Late Co-Creator After Controversial Holocaust Comments And More
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The View audiences have witnessed myriad moments that might be considered problematic for many other series, so whenever something goes down that’s considered controversial or questionable even by the show’s own standards, you know it’s a doozy. And it sounds like all of those moments represented exactly the kind of TV that former executive producer Bill Geddie intended to deliver when he co-created the show with Barbara Walters back in 1997. Sadly, Geddie passed away on July 20 at the age of 68, and the daytime talk show dedicated part of its July 24 episode to his memory, with moderator Whoopi Goldberg and former co-host Sherri Shepherd recalling the times when he stood supportively in their corner during their respective comments about the Holocaust and the shape of the Earth.
Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd both joined The View’s table in 2007, which followed the prior exits of Meridith Vieira, Star Jones, and Rosie O’Donnell. And it didn’t take long at all for both to fall victim to their own mouths, albeit at different times, with the EGOT winner sharing that she wasn’t a full week into the gig before she came under fire for defending NFLer Michael Vick for his illegal dogfighting sitch, but that she didn’t need to worry about being hung out to dry by Bill Geddie. In her words:
My first week started with me having a conversation with y’all about Michael Vick, and the next thing I knew, child, they were saying ‘Burn that broad! Burn that broad and get her off of television.’ And every time I’ve stepped in it, he’d say, ‘That’s the beauty of the show. Everyone has an opinion, and that’s why we do it.’
Goldberg, who remained visibly emotional throughout the entire in-memory segment (if not the whole episode), also spoke to the point in February 2022 when she was suspended by ABC over comments about the Holocaust, a rare move for the show’s producers. And she said that Bill Geddie, who’d stepped down from executive producer duties in 2014, sent her a personal message of support that didn’t quantify or qualify what she said, but voiced that she had every right to say it. She continued:
And when I was — I’m trying to find the right way to say it — I was asked to stay off for a week or two. They told me to take a break. And Bill wrote me and said, ‘You know this is the nature of this show. This is the nature of the show. That’s why we brought you in. We pay you to do this. Not everybody’s gonna like, but don’t ever think that you did something you shouldn’t have done, because that’s what we do at The View.’ He did, yeah.
After Whoopi Goldberg's kind words, which also included loving references to Geddie being cranky and old, Sherri Shepherd spoke up about having her own memorably disastrous-in-the-moment incident play out during her early days on The View. As fans will no doubt remember, that's when the stand-up comedian got lost in the midst of the conversation and appeared as if she was clueless about the shape of the planet. The Sherri host championed the former EP for always having her back and being a huge reason why she landed on the show to begin with as someone without much background in anything The View was already known for. Here's how she put it:
He fought for me to be here, no experience on a talk show, and I think my first week, didn’t I say I didn’t know if the Earth was round or flat? I do know that it is round. It was a brain fart. I think it was the first or second week, Whoopi, and I said to Bill, ‘Oh, I do know! I gotta go back on and say!’ And he said, ‘Nah, this is ratings, baby! This is ratings!’
Now, was it weird that he didn't want this intelligent woman to go back and clear up the fact that she did, in fact, know that the pale blue dot is dot-shaped? It's not not weird, but perhaps the point was more that Geddie didn't want the hosts of The View to spend time worrying about the negative ways in which their points came across, since speaking one's mind is the entire purpose of sitting at the table. And if Shepherd took it as a positive, then that's how it I'll take it.
She also spoke to Geddie being overtly blunt and harsh with her at times, but that he put the same energy into pushing her forward, offering advice, and providing opportunities. In her words:
And he was very hard on me, he was tough on me. But he would fight for me, and every time I made a flub, I would run in his office and I’d go, ‘Bill, we gotta make a statement, and as soon as the show opens, I gotta apologize.’ And he said, ‘Sherri, if we apologized for everything we said, this would be called The Apology Show. And it’s not. It’s called The View.’ And I said, ‘Well they’re picketing outside,’ and he said, ‘Well go through the other door.’
Though she wasn't speaking about a response to anything controversial, Sunny Hostin provided her own anecdote about Bill Geddie that spoke plenty about his continued dedication to The View. She recalled his comments about her audition for the show, where he stressed that she not to be a spectator during the conversations, but an active participant. She followed by revealing he messaged her up as recently as two weeks prior to her death, saying:
'I told you to lean in, you’re leaning out.’ I couldn’t believe he was still providing guidance.
The View airs weekday mornings on ABC, with eps available to stream with a Hulu subscription, though only for a week before they expire. We at CinemaBlend send our thoughts and condolences to the family and friends of Bill Geddie during their time of mourning.
