Forgive or Forget

Forgive or Forget
Genre	Talk show
Directed by	Alex Tyner
Presented by	Mother Love (1998–2000) Robin Givens (2000)
Theme music composer	Joel Beckerman Lloyd Landesman Alan Zahn
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
Production
Executive producers	April Benimowitz Stuart Krasnow Kathryn Seigel Levine
Producers	April Benimowitz Derek Che Michelle Cohen Deborah Koenig Risa Saslow Kathryn Seigel Levine
Editors	Greg Boas Kathleen Pearse
Running time	45–48 min
Production company	20th Television
Original release
Network	Syndication
Release	June 8, 1998 – May 25, 2000

Forgive or Forget is an American talk show aired in national syndication from June 1998 to May 2000. The original host of the show was Mother Love, but she was replaced with former Head of the Class actress Robin Givens for the series' third and last season.

The premise of the show involved people talking about past incidents in which the guests had wronged, or had been wronged by, a friend or a loved one, in search of making amends. Forgive or Forget was produced and distributed by 20th Television.

Format

Three segments usually took place per show. At the beginning of each segment, a guest (or several guests) told their side of the story to the host. Normally, the guest was someone who had done something to hurt a friend or a family member, in which case the guest wanted the other party to forgive him or her; in other cases, the guest was the one wronged by someone else, and wanted an apology from the second party. Occasionally, the other party was interviewed during the segment via closed circuit television, during which time the host usually tried to help the two parties come to a resolution.

Near the end of the segment, the guest or guests were asked to proceed to a large door at the end of the stage. If the offended party was willing to forgive or apologize, they would be waiting behind the door, and both sides would reunite when the door opened. However, if the second party was not willing to make amends, the door would open to reveal no one on the other side & instead a black curtain.

After the reveal, Mother Love would further counsel the parties involved in the situation; if the guest received an "empty door", a taped response by the second party was shown to the guest explaining why they would not come to the door (In later episodes, another live interview would be held via closed circuit TV, again with all guests participating; occasionally this second interview led to the offended party changing their mind and being willing to finally come to the door and reunite with the guest).

On several episodes, a guest would be featured who had lost contact with their family and wished to be reunited; if the family was willing to reunite with the guest (which usually happened), they would be waiting on the other side of the door.

New host and cancellation

Initially a highly rated series, ratings began to drop off after Forgive or Forget's second season. Producers decided to revamp the series and replace host Mother Love with actress Robin Givens on January 17, 2000. The new revamped format, which featured a more confrontational style and was structured more in the traditional "chairs, guest and host" talk show format though the previous set carried over, was not a hit and was cancelled in April 2000. The series continued to run original episodes through May 2000.

External links

• Forgive or Forget at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com