The dramatically delivered line, “You . . . are not the father!” by American TV personality and broadcast journalist Maury Povich has been etched into the minds of many millennials and older Gen Z TV viewers since talk show “Maury” made its 1991 debut.
While I grew up loving the show and still have a soft spot for it, this is the right time for it to come off the air.
On March 20, NBCUniversal announced the TV show “Maury” will be ending after 30 seasons on the airwaves.
Povich, 83, said he was ready for the show to end, according to a March 22 Dateline article.
“I’m so proud of my relationship with NBCUniversal and all those who worked on the Maury show but as I occasionally tell my guests on Maury, ‘Enough, already,’” Maury said in the Dateline interview.
Since 1991, Maury has challenged television standards and reigned supreme in daytime TV. What separated Maury from other risky TV shows including “The Jerry Springer Show” and “People’s Court” was its segments.
The most popular and well-known part of the show was the paternity test segment. Where mothers would come onto the show and have men or multiple men take a paternity test to see who was the father. The show also featured wild, over-the-top segments, including out-of-control teens and people born with facial and limb differences.
My personal favorite segment was when Povich brought animals on set. These episodes were rare and not as entertaining as the other segments, but they were a nice change of pace from the drama-filled show.
The controversy of the show is what glued TV viewers’ eyes to their TV sets.
This has made it one of the most recognized and influential shows on the air waves, for both good and bad reasons. People would eat the fake storylines and continue watching, improving the ratings. However, this degenerate style of fake TV is not a good influence on a person.
I remember the nostalgic days of being “sick” in elementary school and staying home to watch TV and with nothing interesting to watch, I’d somehow find myself watching Maury. While it seemed real at the time I now realize I was just a dumb kid watching “bad TV.” As an adult watching the show now, the writing seems dull and fake.
One of the main reasons why Maury has been able to stay on the air for so long is because of Povich himself. According to the show’s website Mauryshow.com, Povich has been in broadcast journalism for over 50 years, starting as a street journalist in Washington D.C.
He hosted a show called “Panorama” from 1983-1985 which was a two-hour news talk show. Povich covered historical events including the John F. Kennedy assassination and anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam War. He would leave Panorama in 1987 to join “A Current Affair,” a half-hour news and entertainment show.
In 2011, he made a $1 million donation to the University of Pennsylvania Kelly Writers House to fund journalism programs and create the “Povich Fund” for journalism programs at his alma mater, according to a March 24, 2011 NBC Philadelphia article. He also established the Povich Writer-in-Residence, a program that helped the university add advanced journalism classes to the writing curriculum.
This is what separates Povich from other TV hosts: his experience in the journalism field helped the show thrive.
When Povich says his final goodbye, it will be the end of an era.
Even if the show was mindless, idiotic and fun, it had a good run and few TV show hosts can claim being on air for over 30 years.
