Violations of Taboos Make Great TV, Talk Show Finds

“I LIKE the missionary position!” a young woman shouts.

Instead of clenching their teeth, the producers of the Sally Jessy Raphael Show smile. Comments like this, they feel, make great television.

Few subjects are taboo on Raphael’s hourlong talk show, considered by some a forum for anything peculiar. But she is the true star of the show, not her guests--lesbian nuns, neuter liberationists and men who love obese women.

Winner of the 1989 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host, Sally may not be as popular as Geraldo or Oprah or Phil, but to her following--she’s syndicated on more than 120 stations in the United States, Canada and Britain--she’s the host with a heart.

She looks her guest straight in the eye and asks the wife of a man who lived his first 20 or so years as a woman, “How IS your love life?”

Known for her laid-back, common-sense style, Sally tries to be a confidante and adviser to her audience and guests. She holds hands while guests cry. She’ll hug and console. She’ll even match guests up with therapists and counselors.

Occasionally her style backfires, and guests reveal things about themselves that perhaps they wish they hadn’t.

On one show a man who works as a model for women’s clothes was asked, “Does your mother know you’re a homosexual?”

“She does now,” he replied.