"20/20" (1978) TV series 1978-????

Creator:

Roone Arledge

Seasons:

unknown

Release Date:

6 June 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | News

Plot:

ABC's original hour-long news magazine.

Plot Keywords:

Newsmagazine | Reenactment | Number In Title

Awards:

22 wins & 16 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Fri. Nov. 13	10:00 PM	ABC
Fri. Nov. 20	10:00 PM	ABC

Cast

Elizabeth Vargas	...	Herself - Host / ... (6 episodes, 2004-2009)
Matthew T. Johnston	...	Himself (4 episodes, 2007)
Barbara Walters	...	Herself - Anchor / ... (3 episodes, 1984-2009)
Diane Sawyer	...	Herself - Contributing Anchor (2 episodes, 1998-2009)
Hugh Downs	...	Himself / ... (2 episodes, 1978-1999)
Geraldo Rivera	...	Himself / ... (2 episodes, 1978-1985)
Sylvia Chase	...	Herself / ... (2 episodes, 1978-1980)
Liza Minnelli	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1980-1999)
Patty Duke	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1989-2004)
Christopher Chacon		(2 episodes, 1991-1993)
Mariah Carey	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1998-2002)
John Stossel	...	Himself / ... (2 episodes, 2003-2009)
Fantasia Barrino	...	Herself (2 episodes, 2004-2005)
Jim Avila	...	Himself - correspondent (2 episodes, 2005-2007)
JuJu Chang	...	Herself / ... (2 episodes, 2006-2009)

Also Known As:

ABC News 20/20 (USA) (informal title)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG

Company:

ABC News

Trivia:

In 1998, ABC News combined "20/20" with "Primetime Live" (1989) to compete with "Dateline NBC" (1992) which aired four days a week at the time. The new editions were called "20/20 Monday", "20/20 Wednesday", "20/20 Friday", "20/20 Sunday", and _"20/20 Downtown" (2000)_. In 2000, ABC News returned "20/20" and "Primetime" to their original forms but kept "20/20 Downtown" as a spin-off.

Quotes:

Himself - Co-Anchor: I'm Hugh Downs
Herself - Correspondent: And I'm Barbra Walters and this is 20/20.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Saturday Night Live: Neve Campbell/David Bowie (#22.12)" (1997)

One of the Quintessential Television News Shows

I first started watching this show after the TGIF line-up with Family Matters, Step by Step (A show I hated) and some others that were on that line-up. This was a good show, still is, but I have not watched it in many years. When I watched it Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters were the chief stars of the show, and they were very good.

There were and probably still are very interesting segments on this show, some about politics, some about social issues, some human interest stories, all of them are very good. This is far better then that stupid Dateline NBC, which NBC seemed to use almost solely as a filler for bad nights, a show to make up for bad nights, I think that show was on at one point four nights a week.

This is a solid show, was on Thursday for a long time, but it now on Friday. This will definitely rank among one of the best news shows ever on television but definitely not as good as Sixty minutes. Some of my favorite segments talked about how people lie, on a day to day basis, another discussed a very controversial Christmas video produces by a local western Republican Party, and another had a woman whose children were living with her, and was telling them their father did not love them, when in fact the father desperately wanted to talk to them. This is good stuff, and if you have nothing better to watch on a Friday night, this won't be too bad.