Life Choices with Erie Chapman is a syndicated television show on health topics. The weekly, half-hour series was produced from 1987 to 1995 and was designed to motivate and inspire viewers to make choices resulting in a healthier lifestyle.
Life Choices began in 1987 as a locally produced program on WSYX-TV-6 in Columbus, Ohio - as a Phil Donahue-style forum for topical health issues, from fad diets to coping with stress. Later, the program become a magazine interview format, and in 1990, its producers expanded their efforts to take the weekly television show to a national audience. It entered its first season of syndication in 1992.[1] [2]
The show was hosted by Erie Chapman, author of Radical Loving Care and then chief executive of Riverside Methodist Hospital and U.S. Health Corp., now OhioHealth. Co-hosts included Kathleen Sullivan,[3] (a former ABC News anchor), and Robin Young (a correspondent for NBC Nightly News, Today, and CBS This Morning.[4] The show regularly featured segments with popular psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers.
At its peak, Life Choices was seen in about one-third of the United States, in such major markets as Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle and Denver. The show also was seen in the former Soviet Union.
Two spin-off radio shows also aired, including a celebrity show and a live call-in program broadcast on WBNS (1460 AM) [5]
Beginning in November, 1990, the program originated from Mills James Productions in a studio originally built as a permanent home for the weekly production.
Life Choices was produced by a staff of 16 at a nonprofit U.S. Health subsidiary, U.S. Health Productions Co., and received a number of awards, including 10 television Emmy awards for broadcasting excellence.[6]
Past episodes of Life Choices are kept in the corporate archives of OhioHealth in Columbus, Ohio.