ABSTRACT
A genre well-known in the United States, the television talk show was something of a milestone in Italian television, initiating a new form of communication with the audience. The inventor of the Italian talk show was Maurizio Costanzo with his Bontà loro (With Their Kind Permission) in 1976. Previously there had only been Processo alla tappa (Stage Under Trial), a programme dedicated to cycling and to the Giro d’Italia, but for the most part this was no more than a clarification of the rules of the game. Costanzo’s show was something different. Cleverly mixing important guests and ordinary people (a plumber, for example, on the first night), an interest for the private dimension of life and a touch of polemics, the television screen was soon transformed into lively forum where people could speak, confess and quarrel. Under the watchful eye of the camera, Costanzo allowed his guests-politicians, actors, sportsmen, writers-to reveal all their virtues and their vices. A significant novelty for Italian television, Bontà loro also demonstrated the viability of programming after 10 p.m., a time slot which until then had virtually abandoned.
