The View co-hosts praise show's creator Barbara Walters in touching tribute  trends now

Past and present co-hosts of the The View came together to pay tribute to legendary newswoman Barbara Walters for being 'the original role model for everybody else.'

The Emmy-winning ABC talk show returned from its holiday hiatus Tuesday, for the first new episode since the passing of Walters, who died peacefully at her New York home on Friday at the age of 93. The entire hour was dedicated to Walters, who created the show in 1997 when she was 68 years old. 

'She is the reason we're all sitting here today,' Whoopi Goldberg said as the show opened, adding that Walters was respected by the TV industry in part because 'she did not allow them to not respect her.'

Among those who paid tribute to Walters on Tuesday were The View's original co-hosts: Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos and Joy Behar. 

Walters, who was also the first female co-host of the Today show and first woman to anchor evening news, was affectionately remembered on Tuesday as an unrivaled behind-the-scenes teller of tales, lover of dirty jokes and holiday-time 're-gifter.'

Behar, Vieira, Jones and Matenopoulos were the original co-hosts with Walters who spent 17 years on the show before she retired in 2014. 

On Tuesday, current hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin were joined by Vieira, Star Jones, Matenopoulos, Lisa Ling, Sherri Sheperd and Elisabeth Haselbeck either in-person or virtually for the tribute.

'We knew her better than anyone, I think,' Behar said. 'She was the original role model for everybody else.' 

'She was not just a friend to us, she was really one of a kind and very important to the industry,' Behar said, adding that Walter 'defied sexism and ageism' and recalled the skillful way the legendary interviewer often went 'into the jaws of the lion.' 

Behar shared that Walters pushed the show on a grassroots level, going door-to-door to campaign for the show to be on more channels. After the show became a household name, Walters quickly became known for more than her groundbreaking journalism. 

Behar also shared Walters' secret to being 'the hardest-working person' in television, which was: 'I asked, 'How come you always get the interview?' She says, 'Because I don't go to the bathroom.''

Whoopi Goldberg, who had said she didn't know where she'd be without Walters, added: 'There was nobody like her. There isn't anyone like her and like all firsts, she's the first. There are many of us duplicates, but there will never be another Barbara Walters.'

Meredith Vieira, one of the original hosts, was home sick but phone in her tribute to Walters on Tuesday. 

She remembers Walters' wild sense of humor, her love for dressing up for Halloween and the opportunity to let loose: 'She could be anything she wanted to be.' 

Behar also shared during the show how Walters loved a dirty joke, 'one in particular that I can't tell [on TV].'  

Vieira said she initially took The View audition because after two decades in TV news, she wanted to spend more time at home with her children. 

'I find myself in this hotel room with you ladies and Barbara Walters. By the time the audition was done, I just wanted in. … It opened the door to so many opportunities and it made me realize, you don't have to stay on one path in life. … And I owe that to Barbara Walters.'

Vieira also spoke about how Walters always had the best gossip.   

'She could tell you everything about everybody in the room,' she said. 'She had either interviewed them, done a story on them, heard a story on them. And she could dish with the best of them. Everybody knows her as the brilliant, iconic journalist … but we got to dish with this woman in ways that other people will never, ever appreciate. She was the best gossiper. She had all the tea.' 

'She could tell you everything about anybody in the room,' added Jones, who called in from the Bahamas. 'She was the best gossiper, she knew how to tell tales…If you wanted to know the tea, Barbara Walters had it.' 

All the co-hosts who came together on Tuesday spoke of Walters' tenacity amid sexism and ageism and shared common theme of how the newswoman was their 'TV mom' and supported them both professionally and in their personal lives. 

Ling said it was a 'surreal' experience to sit next to Walters and thought of her as a mother figure: 'I believe she thought of us as her kids, her daughters.'

'My entire life, all I wanted to do was make her proud,' Matenopoulos said through tears.

Matenopoulos added that Walters taught her the business. 

'I was a 22-year-old journalism student at NYU,' Matenopoulos said.

She added that Walters' instructions and advice were essential for the newcomer, including at social functions.

'Baby, you're going to wear these shoes,' Matenopoulos said, using Walters' nickname for her, 'and this is what you're going to say and what you're not going to say.'

Hostin said Walters always 'validated my opinion' and Griffith called her a 'trailblazer' and a 'pioneer.' 

 Haines added: 'What she endured, to then make a table for more people to sit at, I think that's when you sit here and say… I will be forever grateful that she made a seat for us.' 

Hasselbeck spoke the close relationship she had with Walters for the 10 years they shared on the air despite their frequent disagreements on the air as being opposite sides of the aisle.

'She and I had a layered relationship,' she said. 'She was my TV mom, my mentor… she was contagiously, compassionately curious. We know how well she researched and she gave her guests a chance to express themselves in a safe way, and we all benefit from that.'

'She gave me a chance,' adding that she always 'put our relationship over the roles that we had.'

While many past and present

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