‘She Moved Mountains’: Inside the New Barbara Walters Documentary Premiering This Month
Plus, what her daughter really thinks about having such a famous mother
When Barbara Walters first stepped onto the broadcast journalism scene in the 1950s, people were impressed by her poise, strong work ethic, and go-getter attitude. She was a star, and none a little less than three years after her death, her friends, family and colleagues are coming together to discuss the late TV personality’s personal and professional life in a brand new Hulu documentary Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything—which is set to release on June 23 after it debuts at the Tribeca Festival on June 12. To gear up for this, we have feathered up everything you need to know about both Walters and the documentary below. Read on for more.
What to know about ‘Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything’
Directed by Jackie Jesko (Vice and Savior Complex), Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything will tell the story of how Walters became one of the most influential people in broadcast journalism, despite the sexism and backlash she received over the years. It will feature clips from her interviews with notable figures such as President Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, Vladimir Putin, the Kardashians, Michael Jackson, and more. It will also have people like Andy Cohen, Oprah Winfrey and Bette Midler speaking on behalf of Walters and sharing their own personal interactions with her.
“I hope people feel like they get to see a different side of her in the film, and leave understanding her struggle about what she wanted to accomplish in life,” Jesko said in June, per Adweek. “She was a complicated, interesting woman who had this unquenchable drive within her. And she moved mountains with it.”
You can watch the trailer for the documentary below!
A look back at Barbara Walters’s life
Born in September 1929, Walters was born and raised on the East Coast. She attended Sarah LAernce College, and studied English. From there, she went on to become a journalist and worked at NBC’s flagship location, WNBT-TV, writing press releases, before leaving to work at CBS’s The Morning Show in 1955. She then went back to NBC in 1961 to work as a writer and researcher on The Today Show.
Following that, she was given her own NBC show, Not for Women Only, in 1971. Three years later, she was asked to co-host the Today show, making her the first female in history to do so on an American News Program.
“I don’t think there could be another news anchor of her power, just because of the decline in viewership,” Jesko said in that same Adweek article. “I’m sure there are YouTubers who could achieve something like it, but there’s not enough concentrated attention now. If you think about the ratings that network news used to get in the ’80s and ’90s, I don’t know if that many millions of people would tune into the same thing anymore.”
After her time at NBC came to a close, Walters moved to ABC, where she hosted ABC Evening News from 1976 to 1978. She was paid $5 million, making her the highest-paid news anchor in history. She then went on to host 20/20 in 1984 and remained there until 2004.
Perhaps Walter’s most well-known on-air show, however, was The View, which she created in 1977 and hosted until 2014. It was her longest TV role and is perhaps what she is most recognized for.
Barbara Walters’ personal life
Throughout her career, Walters was married four times to three different men. She had one daughter named Jacqueline Dena Guber, whom she adopted in 1968.
“We have come to appreciate each other’s quirks,” Guber told Glamour in 2008. “If my mom wasn’t my mom, I would still want to be her friend. That says a lot. We believe 100% in each other, and I think that that’s what love is all about.”
Walters died in December 2022 due to dementia complications. She was 93.
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