''Real Life with Jane Pauley'' was a

newsmagazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...

television program aired in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

from 1990 to 1991. ''Real Life with Jane Pauley'' seemed to be presented as an answer to both

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

s and members of the general public to the frequently-repeated viewpoint that "

television news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...

never seems to show anything positive". The opening credits featured Jane Pauley on-location at

Lawrence Hall of Science The Lawrence Hall of Science is a public science center in Berkeley, California that offers hands-on science exhibits, designs curriculum, aids professional development, and offers after school science resources to students of all ages. The Hall ...

, then

Boeddeker Park Boeddeker Park, more formally known as Father Alfred E. Boeddeker Park, is an urban park in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. This 1-acre park was renovated and reopened in 2014, especially intended to serve the needs of people in th ...

. ''Real Life'' focused on positive, human interest-type stories and occasional celebrity profiles.

Jane Pauley Margaret Jane Pauley (born October 31, 1950) is an American television host, and author, active in news reporting since 1972. Pauley first became widely known as Barbara Walters's successor on the NBC morning show ''Today'', beginning at the age ...

also presented less uplifting but still-lightweight features as well, such as a feature focusing on how less than 20% of the people who owned

VCR A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. ...

s at the time actually knew how to program them.

Boyd Matson Boyd Matson (born April 26, 1947) is the former anchor of ''National Geographic Explorer'' and a former co-anchor of NBC's '' Sunday Today'' program. He was also an NBC News correspondent in the 1980s, working mostly on news features and earlier ...

was also featured as a correspondent; his reports featured stories on out of the way places. ''Real Life with Jane Pauley'' began as an hour-long program aired on Tuesday nights in the summer of 1990. It was put on hiatus in September of that year, returning in January 1991 as a mid-season replacement. At this time it was reduced to a half hour, the length it was to remain throughout the balance of its run. The last broadcast was on November 1, 1991. Although the series was one of over a dozen attempts by NBC to launch a newsmagazine, Pauley and the network prevailed in 1992 with ''

Dateline NBC ''Dateline NBC'' is a weekly American television news magazine/reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasion ...

.''

References

*Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' NBC original programming 1990s American television news shows 1990 American television series debuts 1991 American television series endings NBC News {{US-nonfiction-tv-prog-stub