The late Barbara Walters was famous for interviews that gave viewers a more personal look at her celebrity subjects than they’d ever seen before.
But a new documentary about the legendary newswoman turns the tables, revealing as much about Walters herself as she ever got out of one of her subjects.
“Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything” drops Monday, June 23 on Hulu.
On “Good Morning America,” the director of the documentary, Jackie Jesko, said to develop the documentary, she started with Barbara Walters’ autobiography “Audition.”
“Her own book, ‘Audition,’ was kind of our guide. I wanted to know what was important to her. What were the career highlights that really stood out to her? That was really, really helpful,” said Jesko.
But Jesko also got unprecedented access to all of ABC’s archival footage of the legendary journalist. “That’s fifty years of footage. So it was difficult. You know you get 90 minutes, right? So it’s like how do you do her entire career, her personal life and whatever else you want to say about Barbara in that time? So that was difficult.”
Barbara Walters Made History at ABC News
In 1976, Barbara Walters became the first-ever female to anchor a national evening news program, when she joined Harry Reasoner on ABC News. She was given a record-high salary of $1 million, but the experiment was not a success, largely thanks to Reasoner’s obvious resentment of sharing the anchor desk with a woman.
âI would walk into that studio, and Harry would be sitting with the stagehands, and theyâd all crack jokes and ignore me. No one would talk to me. There was not a woman on the staff,â Walters recalls in archival footage in the documentary. She called it, âthe most painful period in my life.âÂ
In 1979, Barbara found success as co-host of news magazine show “20/20.” And in 1997, she launched “The View.”
But it was her interviews, on “20/20” and her “Barbara Walters Specials,” that made her a household name. Walters interviewed everyone from Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to Taylor Swift.
Her 1998 interview with Monica Lewinsky about her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton while she was a White House intern brought 74 million viewers to “20/20.” That made it the highest-rated TV interview special in the last 25 years, according to Variety.
“She asked the question that nobody else had asked, and asked it in a way that always hit a nerve,” Oprah Winfrey said of Walters in the documentary.
The documentary includes interviews with not only Oprah Winfrey but also Monica Lewinsky, Connie Chung, Katie Couric, Joy Behar, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Bette Midler.Â
How to Watch ‘Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything’
“Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything” begins streaming on Hulu and Disney + Monday, June 23.
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