Sally Jessy Raphael Fans Will Remember This Iconic Moment From Her Final Talk Show Episode

For 19 years, Sally Jessy Raphael reigned over syndicated television with her talk show, "Sally." She was the first female host of a nationally syndicated daytime talk show. Raphael was among the successful '80s talk show hosts who inspired tabloid TV, where hosts bring on guests to settle their problems in front of a live audience. Alongside the wild guests she would have on the series, Raphael was best known for her signature red-rimmed glasses.

Raphael told The Television Academy Foundation that her trademark, the glasses, was purely accidental. "One day I looked at the teleprompter and couldn't see it as well as I should have," she said. "So I went to the store, and they tried to upsell me, saying, 'Do you want to spend a little bit more? Because the only glasses we have at that price are red.' So red it was."

So what did Raphael do when her show was canceled in 2002? Destroy the red glasses. In the finale, there was a montage showing Raphael breaking apart the glasses in increasingly elaborate ways, from dropping a bowling pin on them, to running them over with a car and train. The montage ended with Raphael throwing the glasses off a bridge while they were tied to two bricks, implying she's drowning the glasses. It was very clear that she was done with that era and ready to move on to the next.

The end of Sally Jessy Raphael's talk show career was sudden. She told The Television Academy Foundation in 2020, "That took my breath away. I had just told 250 people that they had a job. I've worked since I was 6 years old. Not being able to work is a killer."

Her next shows reached a smaller audience, which is why fans don't hear much from Raphael anymore. From 2005 to 2008, she hosted a daily radio show, "Sally Jessy Raphael on Talknet." Then, in 2014, she hosted a short-lived web series called "Sally Jessy Rides." But she had another important priority during these years. "My husband has Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and I'm his primary caregiver," she told The Television Academy Foundation. Raphael's husband, Karl Soderland, died in 2020 as a result of his Alzheimer's.

Despite years of not working, Raphael claimed she's not ready to end her career at 90. Raphael said on "Sherri" in 2024 that she was in the process of creating her own podcast. Raphael was also dating again following her husband's death. Without revealing her new partner's name, Raphael told People in 2025, "I've settled on somebody."