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''Like It Is'' was a public affairs television program focusing on issues relevant to the
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
community, produced and aired on
WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighbor ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
between 1968 and 2011. It was one of the longest-running, locally produced programs of its kind in television history. In spite of being aired only in the New York area, ''Like It Is'' achieved wide acclaim nationally based on the renown of its topics and interview subjects. ''Like It Is'' was originally co-hosted by actor
Robert Hooks Robert Hooks (born Bobby Dean Hooks; April 18, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and activist. Along with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone, he founded The Negro Ensemble Company. The Negro Ensemble Company is credited with the launc ...
and WABC-TV news reporter
Gil Noble Gilbert Edward "Gil" Noble (February 22, 1932 – April 5, 2012) was an American television reporter and interviewer. He was the producer and host of New York City television station WABC-TV's weekly show '' Like It Is'', originally co-hosted with ...
. Noble eventually became sole host, and produced the series after 1975.


History

Within the backdrop of the
Civil Rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
and Black power movements, the program was created by WABC-TV to fill a void in black-oriented programming. In its earlier days ''Like It Is'' focused primarily on black celebrities; later it would focus entirely on politically related matters after Noble became sole host and producer. As host and interviewer Noble exercised a low-key style, often subtly playing
devil's advocate The (Latin for Devil's advocate) is a former official position within the Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith: one who "argued against the canonization ( sainthood) of a candidate in order to uncover any character flaws or misrepresent ...
in an effort to get the most out of his guests. For a time ''Like It Is'' was also co-hosted by
Melba Tolliver Melba Tolliver (born 1939) is an American journalist and former New York City news anchor and reporter. She is best remembered for her defiant stance against ABC owned WABC-TV when she refused to don a wig or scarf to cover up her Afro in order t ...
. The program won seven New York-area
Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
. Along with discussions on current events, ''Like It Is'' featured full-length interviews with many prominent
African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...
, African-American and
Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
political and cultural figures of the 20th Century during the course of its run. This list includes: *
Ralph Abernathy Ralph David Abernathy Sr. (March 11, 1926 – April 17, 1990) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was ordained in the Baptist tradition in 1948. As a leader of the civil rights movement, he was a close friend and ...
*
Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
*
Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Unite ...
*
Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...
*
Yosef Ben-Jochannan Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan (; December 31, 1918 – March 19, 2015), referred to by his admirers as "Dr. Ben", was an American writer and historian. He was considered to be one of the more prominent Afrocentricism, Afrocentric scholars ...
*
Maurice Bishop Maurice Rupert Bishop (29 May 1944 – 19 October 1983) was a Grenadian revolutionary and the leader of New Jewel Movement – a Marxist–Leninist party which sought to prioritise socio-economic development, education, and black liberation ...
*
H. Rap Brown Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (born Hubert Gerold Brown; October 4, 1943), formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is a civil rights activist, black separatist, and convicted murderer who was the fifth chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ...
*
Jim Brown James Nathaniel Brown (born February 17, 1936) is a former American football player, sports analyst and actor. He played as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 through 1965. Considered to be one ...
* Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) *
John Henrik Clarke John Henrik Clarke (born John Henry Clark; January 1, 1915 - July 16, 1998) was an African-American historian, professor, and pioneer in the creation of Pan-African and Africana studies and professional institutions in academia starting in the ...
*
Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...
*
Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...
*
Billy Eckstine William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously ...
*
Louis Farrakhan Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader, black supremacist, anti-white and antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and former singer who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI). Prior to joining the NOI, h ...
*
Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...
*
Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...
*
Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
*
Leonard Jeffries Leonard Jeffries Jr. (born January 19, 1937) is former departmental chair of Black Studies at the City College of New York, part of the City University of New York (CUNY). Jeffries is a political scientist, historian, educator, master-teacher/adm ...
*
Michael Manley Michael Norman Manley (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program, and has been d ...
*
Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...
*
Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...
*
Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive ...
*
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was an American Baptist pastor and politician who represented the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 until 1971. He was t ...
*
Leontyne Price Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) is an American soprano who was the first African Americans, African American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera, where s ...
*
Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz Jazz drumming, drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in h ...
*
David Ruffin David Eli Ruffin (born Davis Eli Ruffin;Ribowsky, p. 88 January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991) was an American soul singer and musician most famous for his work as one of the lead singers of the Temptations (1964–68) during the group's "Clas ...
*
Al Sharpton Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...
*
Fred Shuttlesworth Frederick Lee Shuttlesworth (born Fred Lee Robinson, March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2011) was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a co-founder o ...
*
Chuck Stone Charles Sumner "Chuck" Stone, Jr. (July 21, 1924 – April 6, 2014) was an American pilot, newspaper editor, journalism professor, and author. He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and was the first president of the National ...
*
Billy Taylor Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the ...
*
Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer. Nicknamed "Sassy" and "Jazz royalty, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine ...
*
Andrew Young Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...
Other episodes have featured Noble presenting archival material on figures such as
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
,
W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
,
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
,
Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his p ...
,
Fannie Lou Hamer Fannie Lou Hamer (; Townsend; October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting rights, voting and women's rights activist, Community organizing, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the co-foun ...
, Jack Johnson,
Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He rei ...
, and many others. Special episodes were also devoted to single topics, such as the civil rights movement, the
Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...
, and the effects of drug use, particularly that of
heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
, in the Black community.


Scheduling

''Like It Is'' aired on Saturday, and later Sunday afternoons. Later, it was part of a dedicated two-hour block of public affairs programming on WABC-TV, paired with ''Up Close with
Diana Williams Diana Williams (born July 18, 1958) is a retired American television journalist. She was a news anchor at WABC television in New York City, where she co-anchored the one-hour 5 p.m. ''Eyewitness News'' broadcast. She also hosted the Sunday mo ...
'' and the
Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...
-focused ''Tiempo''. This block was notable as most television stations no longer devote such a large amount of airtime to such programming, and if so relegate these programs to early-morning weekend time slots. WABC-TV scheduled these three programs between 11:00 A.M. and 1:00 P.M. on Sundays. ''Like It Is'' was occasionally preempted for network sports coverage, but preemptions became more common when
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
acquired
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
coverage (though corporate cousin
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
) for Sunday afternoons in
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
. As a result, during basketball season ''Like It Is'' was reduced from a full hour to 30 minutes some weeks (to accommodate a
pregame show A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger fixt ...
), and did not air altogether on others. Largely due to the preemptions caused by basketball, rumors abounded that WABC-TV was being pressured by corporate parent
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
to cancel the program. If that were the case, such plans were scrapped due to a large outcry from viewers and community leaders. ''Like It Is'' was put on production hiatus in August 2011, after Gil Noble suffered a severe stroke. In October 2011 Noble's family announced that he would not return to the program, ending ''Like It Is 43-year run. The series concluded on October 16, 2011, with a tribute program hosted by
Lori Stokes Lori Stokes (born September 16, 1962) is an American former journalist and news anchor. She was the evening news anchor for the 5, 6, and 10 O’Clock news at Fox 5 NY WNYW in New York City from 2021 to 2022. She formerly co-hosted ''Good Day Ne ...
. The episode featured appearances from past guests including Leontyne Price, Bill Cosby,
Danny Glover Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films include ...
, and others who shared their memories and thoughts on the significant role ''Like It Is'', and by extension Gil Noble, played in the advancement and preservation of the African-American experience. This program was repeated the following week. WABC-TV premiered a new African-American public affairs show, titled ''Here and Now'', in the ''Like It Is'' time slot on October 30, 2011.


References


Further reading

*


External links


"Like It Is" page on WABC-TV website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Like It Is (Public Affairs Program) 1970s American television series 1980s American television talk shows 1990s American television talk shows 2000s American television talk shows 2010s American television talk shows 1968 American television series debuts Local talk shows in the United States 2011 American television series endings