The View premiered on ABC in 1997. The show had a unique format for daytime television, so Barbara Walters explained the premise in the open for the first few years:
I’ve always wanted to do a show with women of different generations, backgrounds and views: a working mother; a professional in her 30s; a young woman just starting out; and then somebody who’s done almost everything and will say almost anything. And in a perfect world, I’d get to join the group whenever I wanted…
The show’s original set was a leftover from the cancelled ABC soap opera The City. From the beginning the music was composed by theme music legend Edd Kalehoff. This is the third and perhaps most beloved version of the theme.