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LARRY KING: "Don't say goodbye, just so long" · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: A day has come that many people across the country
0:09
Speaker 1: and across the world cannot take in. Larry King is gone,
0:15
Speaker 1: a giant amongst men and women, a broadcast legend. He
0:21
Speaker 1: lived his life till the very last moment. God bless him.
0:35
Speaker 1: Condolences today from former President Bill Clinton, saying he gave
0:40
Speaker 1: a direct line to the American people and worked hard
0:43
Speaker 1: to get the truth for them. From Oprah Winfrey, it
0:47
Speaker 1: was always a treat to sit at your table and
0:49
Speaker 1: hear your stories. Thank you. Born in Brooklyn in nineteen
0:53
Speaker 1: thirty three, young Larry Zeiger dreamed of a career in radio.
0:57
Speaker 1: He chose the name King from a store ad Welcome
1:02
Speaker 1: to Larry King Live. In nineteen eighty five, Ted Turner
1:07
Speaker 1: lured him to the new Beyond the Block CNN Any
1:11
Speaker 1: Personal Regrets. King became the network's biggest drawer. We're honored
1:15
Speaker 1: to have the President and first Lady with us. He
1:17
Speaker 1: said his secret was not too over prepare, and some
1:21
Speaker 1: called him on it. I was the number one Shawn Television. Larry,
1:25
Speaker 1: you know who I am. King even bragged he never
1:27
Speaker 1: read the books his guests promoted. What I worry about
1:30
Speaker 1: is where I think I know too much. The day
1:33
Speaker 1: I go into a studio saying I've asked all the
1:35
Speaker 1: questions and I've heard all the answers is the day
1:37
Speaker 1: I gotta quit. You know, just hearing his voice makes
1:41
Speaker 1: my eyes fill up with tears. With me literally an
1:45
Speaker 1: all star panel that knew Larry very well, and I
1:50
Speaker 1: wonder who Larry's asking questions to right now? First of
1:53
Speaker 1: all with me. Tammy Hadad, former executive producer of Larry
1:58
Speaker 1: King Alive. Peter Tedeski, former Larry King Live executive senior producer,
2:02
Speaker 1: creator of Larry King Weekend, Bert Debrow, senior executive producer
2:08
Speaker 1: of Delhi Blast Live, nationally syndicated, and the creator of
2:13
Speaker 1: Sally Jesse Raphael. He knows about talk shows, the woman
2:17
Speaker 1: who went into the mind of Larry King, the head
2:21
Speaker 1: of his research team. She knew what he wanted, she
2:25
Speaker 1: knew where he wanted to go with every single story.
2:28
Speaker 1: Carol Buckland is with me with Larry for years. And
2:33
Speaker 1: Art Harris, Emmy Award winning National Investigative correspondent CNN National
2:38
Speaker 1: Bureau Atlanta, former Krepp reporter with The Washington Post. I mean,
2:42
Speaker 1: I don't even know where to start, so let me
2:45
Speaker 1: just start with you. Tammy had Dad, former executive producer
2:49
Speaker 1: of Larry King Live. When I hear someone as a
2:52
Speaker 1: friend of the Muppets, a friend of Clinton and Trump
2:56
Speaker 1: and Obama and Reagan, I mean, it's kind of hard
2:59
Speaker 1: to find with that, that's for sure. And it's great
3:03
Speaker 1: that all these people took the time to come out
3:05
Speaker 1: and talk about the relationship with Larry. But that's what
3:08
Speaker 1: was unique about what he did. He brought people together.
3:13
Speaker 1: He allowed them to tell their story. And isn't that
3:16
Speaker 1: the greatest gift that you could give someone. So you're
3:19
Speaker 1: president of the United States, Okay, you're a king, you're
3:23
Speaker 1: a taxi driver, you're a muppet, and when you go
3:26
Speaker 1: on TV, you know, it's exposure. If you'd think about
3:30
Speaker 1: all the guests you've talked to and how you're the
3:32
Speaker 1: same way. You always made people feel comfortable, even if
3:35
Speaker 1: it was the toughest story. And I think what he
3:38
Speaker 1: did would give people the gift of his attentions and
3:41
Speaker 1: his respect. And it's funny because this week and they
3:44
Speaker 1: keep running one of the serial killer clips and it's
3:48
Speaker 1: such a reminder that Larry never judged people's transgressions. What
3:53
Speaker 1: he was trying to do was give them the chance
3:56
Speaker 1: to tell their story. You know Carol Buckland with Larry
4:00
Speaker 1: for years and years senior editorial producer for Larry King Live.
4:06
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember Carol Buckland when I would be
4:11
Speaker 1: on Larry's show, or God help me sub anchoring for him,
4:17
Speaker 1: which I did for many years his guest anchor. Your
4:20
Speaker 1: notes would be meticulous. And when people mocked Larry for
4:27
Speaker 1: wanting to have a clean slate when he went out there,
4:30
Speaker 1: all he had with him were your notes. That was it?
4:33
Speaker 1: What did Larry want? What's the secret? But it's It
4:38
Speaker 1: always irked me when people said that, oh, he doesn't
4:41
Speaker 1: really prepare. He thought about his interviews, He thought about
4:46
Speaker 1: the people. He was a voracious reader, and he was
4:51
Speaker 1: insatiably curious. And I didn't tell him what to ask.
4:57
Speaker 1: I might suggest interesting topic. I always drew the analogy.
5:02
Speaker 1: The interview starts and he's walking down a really long
5:06
Speaker 1: corridor with thousands of doors, and my job was to
5:11
Speaker 1: put an X on certain doors, maybe give him a
5:14
Speaker 1: little hint, but essentially say knock on this door with
5:18
Speaker 1: one of your simple but on point questions, and interesting
5:22
Speaker 1: stuff is going to come out. And it was not
5:26
Speaker 1: only and I agree with Tammy that he paid attention
5:31
Speaker 1: to people. He gave them his respect. He also listened
5:36
Speaker 1: better than almost anybody I know in the business. If
5:40
Speaker 1: you go back and read transcripts of his programs, you
5:44
Speaker 1: will notice he doesn't talk. There's maybe a one sentence question.
5:50
Speaker 1: It's not a buffet question. And he was fond of saying,
5:57
Speaker 1: I'm not learning. My audience is learning if I'm talking.
6:03
Speaker 1: So for him, I knew it was all about the guest,
6:08
Speaker 1: the guests having an opportunity to tell his or her story,
6:14
Speaker 1: and Larry saw himself as a conduit, as a substitute
6:18
Speaker 1: for the audience, and his audience was as diverse as
6:22
Speaker 1: the guests he had on. And Carol, you should also
6:25
Speaker 1: explain how you think the other hosts read all those books, right?
6:32
Speaker 1: You know? It always makes me laugh, Like you know,
6:34
Speaker 1: I mean, Nancy, did you read the book of every
6:37
Speaker 1: person you had on? I mean Larry may have read
6:40
Speaker 1: you know, five reviews, but you know he wanted to.
6:43
Speaker 1: He wanted to learn about the author from what they
6:46
Speaker 1: had to say. Right, Carrol's just made me laugh when
6:48
Speaker 1: I heard all these people repeating that. Well, I did,
6:52
Speaker 1: as most editorial producers do. I did pre interviews with
6:58
Speaker 1: the guests, and I was not all of them, but
7:04
Speaker 1: many of them would say to me, oh my gosh,
7:07
Speaker 1: you've read me yuh, because I needed to know what
7:10
Speaker 1: would be interesting in it. But yes, the idea. Yes,
7:15
Speaker 1: some people do read some of the books, or they
7:18
Speaker 1: go to the movies or whatever. But for a lot
7:22
Speaker 1: of them, they're backed up even more significantly than Larry was.
7:27
Speaker 1: I mean, Larry had a lifetime of experience. The interviews
7:32
Speaker 1: might have been different if he hadn't had my research,
7:36
Speaker 1: but it wasn't a lot of things I knew. He
7:39
Speaker 1: didn't want to know what people were going to say
7:40
Speaker 1: to them. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, I want
7:53
Speaker 1: to jump right back in to morning and celebrating our
7:58
Speaker 1: friend Larry King, and I want to start with this.
8:01
Speaker 1: Do you recognize these voices? One day and said your dame. Well,
8:07
Speaker 1: now they ask around so there's no embarrassed to find
8:12
Speaker 1: out if you would be interested, and they do it
8:16
Speaker 1: in a very sly way because some people have turned
8:20
Speaker 1: it down and they don't want to be embarrassed. So
8:24
Speaker 1: when I heard this little hush wish, I screamed, I said,
8:31
Speaker 1: oh course I would. I wanted to be a dame.
8:34
Speaker 1: That's amazed. Nothing like a dame. There will have been
8:38
Speaker 1: abroad all my life. Is it still a kick when
8:41
Speaker 1: the man says and now, ladies and jump, They don't
8:43
Speaker 1: even say it, I guess anymore. You just walk out right. No,
8:46
Speaker 1: they're making a kick, Frank, that's still a kick. Absolutely.
8:51
Speaker 1: And the first, the first I swear on my mother's soul,
8:57
Speaker 1: the first forty first four five seconds. I tremble every
9:03
Speaker 1: time I will take the step and I walk out
9:05
Speaker 1: of the wing on to the stage, because I keep
9:07
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, I wonder if it'll be there, if
9:11
Speaker 1: when I go for the first sounds that I have
9:14
Speaker 1: to make, will it be there? Can you believe it?
9:18
Speaker 1: Peter Tadeski, former Larry King Live executive senior producer, creator
9:22
Speaker 1: of Larry King Weekend. Peter, in case you didn't recognize
9:29
Speaker 1: those voices, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra, I mean amazing
9:35
Speaker 1: because Frank Sinatra would not give interviews, right. Absolutely, It's
9:40
Speaker 1: amazing who Larry could get. And I'll tell you another one.
9:43
Speaker 1: It's actually before I worked on the show, I used
9:45
Speaker 1: to do Prime News with Bernie Shaw, which would go
9:48
Speaker 1: up until nine o'clock Larry started at nine. That's all
9:50
Speaker 1: I got to know Tammy originally, and Tammy very generously
9:54
Speaker 1: because you don't want to bother celebrities. One night had
9:57
Speaker 1: Audrey Hepburn on My mother is the world greatest Audrey Hepburn,
10:01
Speaker 1: like everyone on the planet Earth is a fan. And
10:04
Speaker 1: I said to Tammy, can I come meet her? Please?
10:06
Speaker 1: And Tammy said yes. So I got to hang out
10:09
Speaker 1: with Audrey Hepburn for a couple of hours. So where
10:11
Speaker 1: else in life you get to hang out with Elizabeth
10:13
Speaker 1: Taylor and Frank Sinatra and Audrey. I'm doing what Larry
10:18
Speaker 1: told me not to do. Interrupt. He told me that
10:20
Speaker 1: every single night I was on his program or guest
10:24
Speaker 1: host every night, and he said it in a very
10:27
Speaker 1: fatherly way. All right. He wasn't fussing or being made.
10:31
Speaker 1: I could just see him looking at me on the
10:33
Speaker 1: screen when I would interrupt. But Peter, I agree. The
10:36
Speaker 1: people you can meet and Larry King's green room, it's incredible, Peter,
10:42
Speaker 1: absolutely incredible. And let me let me tell you how
10:45
Speaker 1: it happened with Kermitt de Frog. I pay credit for
10:47
Speaker 1: that one. We were doing a week Larry's going to
10:50
Speaker 1: be on vacation for a week, and we were gonna
10:52
Speaker 1: flip the chant, flip the table basically and have a
10:55
Speaker 1: week of guest hosts where like Dan Quayle was the
10:59
Speaker 1: host and Tim Russert was his guest. We did that
11:02
Speaker 1: for a week to try to figure out what to
11:04
Speaker 1: do with Larry. So coincidentally that week, Friday was falling
11:08
Speaker 1: on April first, and it popped in my head and
11:10
Speaker 1: I said, I've got a brilliant idea for the guest
11:12
Speaker 1: host on Friday. Let's have Kermit the Frog be the
11:15
Speaker 1: guest host and we'll play it straight. And everyone loved
11:20
Speaker 1: the idea. I went up to New York, I met
11:22
Speaker 1: with the Henson people, we worked on it. So it
11:24
Speaker 1: was my childhood fantasy fulfilled. I got to go up
11:26
Speaker 1: and work with Henson Productions in their Muppet townhouse for
11:30
Speaker 1: a couple of days and we did this show and
11:32
Speaker 1: it was a blast. And at the end of the show,
11:35
Speaker 1: Larry's on vacation, but he called in. We had it
11:38
Speaker 1: set up so as part of Larry's generosity that even
11:41
Speaker 1: though he was on vacation, he called into critique Kermit's hosting.
11:44
Speaker 1: But our phone system and Tammy can attest to this
11:47
Speaker 1: our phone system, you couldn't talk to the people, the
11:49
Speaker 1: callers without being heard on air, so I couldn't wrap Larry,
11:53
Speaker 1: and he was running long, so I had to tell
11:54
Speaker 1: Kermit to wrap them up. So Kermit's trying to shut
11:57
Speaker 1: Larry up, and Larry goes, Kermit, it, you're trying to
12:00
Speaker 1: shut me up on my own show, and Kermit then says, well,
12:04
Speaker 1: you know how it is with Peter, which of course
12:06
Speaker 1: nobody at home knew who Peter was. So then Larry
12:08
Speaker 1: kind of gave a little snarky comment about me. So
12:11
Speaker 1: my claim to fame in CNN history is that Kermit
12:14
Speaker 1: and Larry dissed me on the air. I love that,
12:17
Speaker 1: and I guess Mike claim to famous Larry fussing at
12:20
Speaker 1: me after every show, and I would try to do
12:22
Speaker 1: better and then do the very same thing the next
12:24
Speaker 1: time with me. Senior executive producer Daily Blast Live, nationally
12:28
Speaker 1: syndicated talk show and creator of Sally, Jesse Rafael and
12:36
Speaker 1: Jerry Springer. Let's don't leave that out, Bert Dbrow. I
12:39
Speaker 1: mean those red glasses. I mean, if you just put
12:42
Speaker 1: the red glasses on a billboard, most people would know
12:45
Speaker 1: Sally Jesse Raphael, tell me you're the you know, golden
12:50
Speaker 1: boy of talk show. How did Larry change talk? Well,
12:56
Speaker 1: you know what, I'll tell you, Nancy. I'm listening to
12:58
Speaker 1: everybody and I'm the audience here because I'm loving what
13:02
Speaker 1: I'm hearing here. But I think a word that we're
13:04
Speaker 1: leading out which is a really really important one, and
13:07
Speaker 1: you don't hear it a lot these days, and it's
13:09
Speaker 1: the word broadcaster. And you just don't have broadcasters anymoren't
13:14
Speaker 1: brought up that way. Larry was a broadcaster. And when
13:17
Speaker 1: I hear things, which of course I knew too, that
13:19
Speaker 1: he didn't read the book, he didn't do this, He
13:21
Speaker 1: didn't do that. At the end of the day, he
13:23
Speaker 1: didn't seem to have the ego that a lot of
13:26
Speaker 1: hosts did have. A lot of hosts like to brag
13:29
Speaker 1: that they read the book. They bragg and brag and bragg.
13:32
Speaker 1: And as everybody is saying, as I'm listening, Larry was
13:35
Speaker 1: interested in two things, the guests and the audience. And
13:39
Speaker 1: some people just have that something. And I know it's
13:43
Speaker 1: a cliche when I say that, but they just have
13:46
Speaker 1: that something. And in a world where talk has got
13:49
Speaker 1: all over the place all those years, very very aggressive
13:53
Speaker 1: as the show you mentioned that I did. Larry didn't change.
13:57
Speaker 1: Larry just was Larry. And you know why, That's what
14:00
Speaker 1: people loved when all is said and done. I think
14:03
Speaker 1: people have said this too. You like somebody the first ten, fifteen,
14:07
Speaker 1: twenty seconds, and everybody seemed to like Larry. He was
14:11
Speaker 1: able to throw softballs, not hardballs, and it didn't matter.
14:15
Speaker 1: I think that's why everybody did the show as much
14:18
Speaker 1: as they did, and why he got the people that
14:19
Speaker 1: he got. I mean Carol Bucklin, who was his senior
14:24
Speaker 1: editorial producer, and I know because of the I don't
14:29
Speaker 1: know how many times I had the honor of guest
14:34
Speaker 1: hosting for Larry King. I mean, as I always say,
14:36
Speaker 1: Carol Bucklin, how did a girl who grew up on
14:39
Speaker 1: a red dirt road in middle Georgia end up getting
14:43
Speaker 1: to meet Larry King, getting to be on with Larry King,
14:46
Speaker 1: and getting to guest anchor for Larry King. I mean
14:51
Speaker 1: literally every night I would pinch myself. I could not
14:55
Speaker 1: believe my good fortune to get to be part of
14:59
Speaker 1: the Larry King team. Talking about how he got these guests.
15:05
Speaker 1: Do you remember in all the conduit controversy. Remember, Larry
15:13
Speaker 1: managed to somehow end up getting conduit relatives on, He
15:17
Speaker 1: got their families on. I mean he had the nat
15:21
Speaker 1: I guess it's what Burt dubrog just said. He would
15:24
Speaker 1: give the guest a chance to speak, and they wouldn't
15:27
Speaker 1: go away feeling bad. He was non judgmental, Nancy, I'll
15:31
Speaker 1: never get when Tammy and Dodd called me and made
15:34
Speaker 1: a few headlines at the Washington Post as journalists covering
15:37
Speaker 1: the scandalous TV preachers down South, Kim and Tammy Faye Baker,
15:42
Speaker 1: and they read articles I've done for the Washington Post. Hey, Art,
15:46
Speaker 1: do you think you could get us in touch with that,
15:49
Speaker 1: with that very you know, the below the belt character
15:54
Speaker 1: you just wrote. Sure, And Larry had these people on
15:57
Speaker 1: who I had interviewed, and he was so non judgment
16:00
Speaker 1: and generous that they just opened up and he was
16:03
Speaker 1: in touch with with what people wanted to hear. He
16:06
Speaker 1: got out of the way. I'm like, as as Tammy
16:09
Speaker 1: was saying, a lot of hosts who insert themselves into
16:12
Speaker 1: the narrative, he was a listener, and I think that's
16:15
Speaker 1: what relax people and just made them feel so welcome
16:19
Speaker 1: and eager to go on the show. Are you say
16:22
Speaker 1: Jim and Tammy fay Baker? Yeah, yeah, yeah, And that
16:25
Speaker 1: was incurate all of them. Art actually helped us, right, No,
16:30
Speaker 1: art really launched helped the first round of great success
16:35
Speaker 1: of Larry King Live. Was you know, covering this community
16:40
Speaker 1: and now aren't you're actually reminding me about you know, Nancy?
16:43
Speaker 1: It was it was. It wasn't people from New York
16:47
Speaker 1: in LA that were featured on the show, right, It
16:50
Speaker 1: was really people that appeal to whatever Middle America you
16:54
Speaker 1: can call it now. So Jim and Tammy Baker were
16:58
Speaker 1: iconic important people. Hey, you know what, not a lot
17:02
Speaker 1: of people would have put them on the air, right Art, Well, yeah,
17:05
Speaker 1: And then when when Jimmy Swaggert had his fall from
17:08
Speaker 1: Grace and I got the first interview with the lady
17:10
Speaker 1: of the Knight who ministered to him in the Nottel motel.
17:13
Speaker 1: You got her to go on the show and Larry,
17:16
Speaker 1: she spoke after she told him. I asked her, said,
17:18
Speaker 1: Jimmy Swaggert says he's never kissed a woman other than
17:21
Speaker 1: his wife, Debora. And she says, well, I don't believe
17:23
Speaker 1: he ever kissed me. Okay, And on that note, I
17:30
Speaker 1: think there was kissing to be done, but not necessarily
17:33
Speaker 1: on the lips climb stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, who
17:50
Speaker 1: is Larry King? Well, this should be a little bit
17:54
Speaker 1: of an indicator. Take a listen to Larry King with
17:58
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan. One of the most difficult things about getting
18:03
Speaker 1: older is forgetting things. And a lot of people make
18:08
Speaker 1: have fun with you, comics have had fun with you.
18:10
Speaker 1: Is that for you frustrating to not remember something? Yes,
18:16
Speaker 1: it's very frustrating, and yet at the same time, I
18:19
Speaker 1: don't know whether it's all just the passage of the years. Incidentally,
18:22
Speaker 1: you've referred to that birthday that is coming up. I
18:26
Speaker 1: don't call them birthdays anymore. They are anniversaries of your
18:30
Speaker 1: thirty ninth birthday, and this would be the forty first anniversary.
18:35
Speaker 1: And you're thirty ninth. You're a kid. I just can
18:39
Speaker 1: I give you the background of that interview? Jump in.
18:42
Speaker 1: So that was the night that the Gulf War started,
18:47
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, and you know, when you know President
18:53
Speaker 1: Reagan was president, you know, no one was looking at
18:55
Speaker 1: cable News, to be honest with you, after they left
18:58
Speaker 1: the White House. We had it. Larryed in a interview
19:00
Speaker 1: with Nancy Reagan, and then Ronald Reagan wrote a book
19:03
Speaker 1: and agreed to come on. So he's on his way in.
19:07
Speaker 1: And that question that Larry asked, You have to understand,
19:10
Speaker 1: this is years This is years before the Alzheimer's diagnosis
19:15
Speaker 1: or any of the sense that there was anything going
19:19
Speaker 1: on with President Reagan in it in a real, you know,
19:22
Speaker 1: medical way. And he came in that night and everyone
19:27
Speaker 1: was very nervous. His people were very nervous. We were nervous.
19:31
Speaker 1: You know. It's you know, oh, well, he doesn't really
19:34
Speaker 1: know about the golf war. Should you know? How much
19:37
Speaker 1: time should we spend on it? Should we talk about it?
19:39
Speaker 1: He walked on that set with Larry and it's like
19:42
Speaker 1: they were looking at the same person. You see how
19:45
Speaker 1: easy that interview was. And to ask that question again
19:50
Speaker 1: really gutsy, Yeah, to ask a president do you feel
19:55
Speaker 1: bad when you keep forgetting things? But the way he
19:58
Speaker 1: said it, the way Larry framed the question, Reagan took
20:02
Speaker 1: it and strike Carrol Bucklin and Peter Tadesk especially Um
20:06
Speaker 1: and Bert de braw I guess this is a guest
20:08
Speaker 1: you always wish you had take a listen to this,
20:14
Speaker 1: joining us them up at leader Kermit the Frog, thank you,
20:18
Speaker 1: we loove it, missus Piggy, and they are dressed appropriately.
20:21
Speaker 1: That's right. You wore both wore braces in my honor.
20:24
Speaker 1: That's right. We certainly did. We wanted to just because
20:26
Speaker 1: you always wear these things. We wanted to do this
20:29
Speaker 1: just in honor of you. And mine are pink and blue,
20:31
Speaker 1: and yours, kermital we're sort of blue. Yeah. I wasn't
20:35
Speaker 1: making a move for it, leads. Okay, do you like
20:39
Speaker 1: wearing suspenders? That's particularly No, would you wear them in
20:43
Speaker 1: my honor? Oh? Yeah, told me I had to. I mean,
20:48
Speaker 1: Carol Buck Peter I produced, I produced that episode. Actually, yeah,
20:54
Speaker 1: so great, so wonderful. Okay, can I tell you something, Um,
20:58
Speaker 1: every Christmas Eve we watched the same program in it
21:02
Speaker 1: is a Muppet Christmas with of course Kermit and Piggy.
21:06
Speaker 1: They are stars, stars across the world, but especially to children.
21:11
Speaker 1: How what possessed you to get Kermit and Piggy on
21:15
Speaker 1: with Larry Well? It was funny because they were they
21:18
Speaker 1: were promoting something. I mean, the Muppet organization was promoting something,
21:21
Speaker 1: and I don't remember exactly what they were promoting. It
21:23
Speaker 1: was like a MeTV special or a movie, and they
21:27
Speaker 1: were willing to come down and do the show. And
21:30
Speaker 1: what was really exciting was rather than do it remote
21:32
Speaker 1: from New York, they were willing to travel to Washington
21:34
Speaker 1: so we could do it in person and set up
21:36
Speaker 1: the whole, the whole situation because they wanted to have
21:39
Speaker 1: the inter connection with Larry. So Frank Oz was there
21:44
Speaker 1: as Miss Piggy, and Steve Whitmier, who had taken over
21:46
Speaker 1: for Jim Henson, was there. So I got to meet
21:48
Speaker 1: like kind of childhood heroes of my own in many
21:51
Speaker 1: ways and really see how they lived and interacted with him.
21:55
Speaker 1: And the puppeteers, of course, are extraordinary, but Larry had
22:00
Speaker 1: this way of talking to them like they were people
22:04
Speaker 1: on his set because he could just do that because
22:07
Speaker 1: he was just that good and it was it was
22:10
Speaker 1: just extraordinary to watch because Muppet characters aren't like like
22:14
Speaker 1: Disney characters. They think they live in the real world,
22:17
Speaker 1: if that makes any sense. So Larry, I mean, who
22:20
Speaker 1: lives more in the real world than Larry King? So
22:22
Speaker 1: it cannot in goold can I jump into because you
22:26
Speaker 1: just reminded me of this. It's Burt, I think one
22:29
Speaker 1: of the things that Larry was also great at it,
22:31
Speaker 1: and it was real. And when you say miss Piggy
22:34
Speaker 1: and Kermit, he was a fan. So when he would,
22:37
Speaker 1: you know, talk to them, or when he would talk
22:40
Speaker 1: to Sinatra, or when he would talk to Elizabeth Teller
22:42
Speaker 1: or any of these people, you always got the sense
22:45
Speaker 1: he was a real, real, real fan. And again I
22:47
Speaker 1: think that was part of his appeal. There was no
22:50
Speaker 1: sort of show business there. He was a fan. Am
22:52
Speaker 1: I right? Oh man? Let me tell you something, Larry
22:56
Speaker 1: king Um just even talking about it now, I feel
23:00
Speaker 1: joy and sorrow that he is leaving about him speaking
23:06
Speaker 1: to presidents and famous actors, singers Elizabeth till or Marlon Brando.
23:14
Speaker 1: But he could, as I've mentioned, even make a girl
23:19
Speaker 1: who grew up on a red dirt road with a
23:22
Speaker 1: well dug in the backyard feel incredible. Take a listen
23:28
Speaker 1: to this. We thought we spent tonight learning about who
23:32
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace is and how she got to be the
23:35
Speaker 1: way she is. Where'd you grow up, Larry? I grew
23:38
Speaker 1: up in Macon, Georgia. It's a very tiny town about
23:42
Speaker 1: an hour and a half south of Atlanta. What was
23:45
Speaker 1: want to be a lawyer? No? As a matter of fact,
23:48
Speaker 1: I wanted to be an English teacher. I majored in
23:50
Speaker 1: Shakespearean studies at a very tiny school in Georgia, and
23:55
Speaker 1: that was my intent. So Carol Buckland, I know you
24:00
Speaker 1: remember that night and I couldn't believe at the time
24:02
Speaker 1: I was sitting in a chair where presidents and famous
24:05
Speaker 1: stars had sat. Did you know that was the very
24:09
Speaker 1: first time ever that I revealed why I became a
24:14
Speaker 1: lawyer and less Shakespearean studies and became a prosecutor. It
24:20
Speaker 1: was because of Larry King. All those years I prosecuted,
24:24
Speaker 1: I never breathed a word. Larry told Nancy told me
24:27
Speaker 1: once upon a time, and a profile adit of you,
24:29
Speaker 1: and I think they may have seen that, and they
24:31
Speaker 1: knew that you had a poignant story that no one
24:35
Speaker 1: had heard much of, but that you did it because
24:39
Speaker 1: you related to the victims, because you had been one,
24:42
Speaker 1: and that story just touched so many people. And I
24:46
Speaker 1: like to say, or you'd like to say, you know,
24:48
Speaker 1: I may have discovered you, but Larry discovered me as
24:51
Speaker 1: well in terms of the recurring put us out there.
24:54
Speaker 1: He was so generous with his you know, with his
24:57
Speaker 1: praise and acknowledge, really producer. He was Caryl Blin. Do
25:00
Speaker 1: you remember that night? Yeah, And it's as I said,
25:07
Speaker 1: for Larry, it was about the guest and we had
25:11
Speaker 1: and I'm sure Tammy will attest to this, we had
25:14
Speaker 1: more than a few guests come off the set and
25:18
Speaker 1: say I didn't intend to say that, but Larry made
25:22
Speaker 1: it so easy that people they go into interviews Dave
25:29
Speaker 1: drawn lines, but Larry because and I know people call
25:32
Speaker 1: them softball questions, but they were questions of interest that
25:37
Speaker 1: came from a genuine place. He would ask them and
25:42
Speaker 1: then he would step back and simply look and listen
25:47
Speaker 1: and pay attention. Sometimes he would follow up, other times
25:52
Speaker 1: he wouldn't follow up. He had the luxury of time
25:56
Speaker 1: so he could go back and perhaps life little bit
26:01
Speaker 1: of a different way. The other thing that you talked
26:04
Speaker 1: about him being a fan, he so admired talent, and
26:11
Speaker 1: that even people whose work maybe he didn't particularly like,
26:15
Speaker 1: he admired people who did well, and like the Frank
26:20
Speaker 1: Sinatra's actors, actresses, artists, I mean, fashion designers. I remember
26:26
Speaker 1: he did an interview with Carl Logerfeld and people you
26:31
Speaker 1: wouldn't expect, but he was just so interested in what
26:36
Speaker 1: they did and how they did it, and if I
26:38
Speaker 1: can say for me one of the most touching things.
26:41
Speaker 1: Larry was not a particularly religious person, spiritual person, but
26:47
Speaker 1: he was fascinated by people of faith. His interviews with
26:51
Speaker 1: Billy Graham. He really wanted to understand Billy Graham. How
26:56
Speaker 1: do you reach this point where Graham was ill and
27:01
Speaker 1: but he was at peace? And you mentioned Tammy Faye Baker.
27:05
Speaker 1: We did an interview with her literally several a day
27:11
Speaker 1: or two before she actually died. It was a very
27:14
Speaker 1: painful interview to watch, but it was comfortable I think
27:19
Speaker 1: for people because Larry let her talk about her fears,
27:24
Speaker 1: her belief And maybe they are better political interviewers. Maybe
27:30
Speaker 1: there are better celebrity interviews, but I don't think there's
27:33
Speaker 1: anybody who had the range that Larry had me Back
27:37
Speaker 1: to you, back to you that night, Did you plan
27:41
Speaker 1: to say that, I mean, or did you just get
27:44
Speaker 1: so comfortable, as Carol had discussed, it just came out
27:49
Speaker 1: of your mouth. I can tell you this. I said
27:51
Speaker 1: more that night, as Art Well knows, than I ever
27:56
Speaker 1: had before. Crime stories with Nancy Grace, so so much
28:12
Speaker 1: swirling in our minds about Larry King and what an
28:15
Speaker 1: All Star panel to discuss it. Take a listen to
28:19
Speaker 1: this superstar on Larry King. Bump bump bump, Got a
28:24
Speaker 1: date with an Angel, You're off key, gotta be there
28:27
Speaker 1: at seven. Got a date Angel and I'm on my
28:33
Speaker 1: way to heaven. Got a name to beside me to
28:39
Speaker 1: guide me. Got a Jane with an Angel and I'm
28:44
Speaker 1: on my way to heaven. When the chapel bells ring out,
28:49
Speaker 1: I want to make him an offer he can't refuse.
28:52
Speaker 1: By goodbye, Ball and Brando. That was a kiss on
28:58
Speaker 1: the lips that you just heard. You know, Bertie Brow
29:03
Speaker 1: with me, senior executive producer Daily Blast Live, Nashally syndicated
29:07
Speaker 1: talk show who created Sally Jesse Rafael's show, and Jerry Springer.
29:13
Speaker 1: You know, I guess you're coming from Jerry Springer. Things
29:16
Speaker 1: happen you don't expect, right, Oh my goodness. Yeah, and
29:19
Speaker 1: I certainly I remember that. And I have to say,
29:22
Speaker 1: by the way, that before I leave this show, that
29:26
Speaker 1: I'm flatter than you invited me with all these wonderful
29:28
Speaker 1: producers who who did Larry King and were responsible for
29:32
Speaker 1: what happened every night. So yes, I mean when those
29:34
Speaker 1: things happen, but I think they happened more on Larry
29:37
Speaker 1: because Larry made it safe. He made you feel so
29:41
Speaker 1: damn comfortable. That's certainly a tribute to Larry. And again,
29:45
Speaker 1: something you can't put your finger on. Either you got
29:48
Speaker 1: it or you don't. And I think everybody to time
29:51
Speaker 1: this right now would agree he simply had it. But
29:54
Speaker 1: what is I think, what is it? Who is that?
29:57
Speaker 1: Tammy or Carol Pammy? And I want to jump in
30:00
Speaker 1: and say, because Bert, we watched your show it's every
30:03
Speaker 1: single day, and I think you did something that we
30:06
Speaker 1: try to replicate and I think Nancy did it too,
30:09
Speaker 1: and that is to make people always feel like they
30:14
Speaker 1: were in it with you. We were all part of
30:16
Speaker 1: a club. When you tuned into the show, you were
30:19
Speaker 1: part of it. It wasn't you know, some you know giant,
30:23
Speaker 1: sorry Walter Cronkite, but it wasn't Walter crime Kite telling
30:26
Speaker 1: you how to think whatever. There was an experience that
30:29
Speaker 1: happened and you had it together and you felt like
30:32
Speaker 1: you were part of it. Lay always brought you along.
30:34
Speaker 1: Nancy you did the same thing. But I would say
30:37
Speaker 1: that Sally's show was one of the first shows and Bert,
30:41
Speaker 1: you get all credit for that. For showing how you
30:44
Speaker 1: can make people on the TV, you know, feel like
30:50
Speaker 1: you're there your family, right, because that's what made it works.
30:53
Speaker 1: I think that's the it that you're talking about. Yeah,
30:56
Speaker 1: I think I think that's part of it. And you
30:58
Speaker 1: know it shouldn't go on said that Larry and Sally
31:02
Speaker 1: were sort of rivals in Miami. I don't know how
31:04
Speaker 1: many people know, right, Oh, yeah, they were. They were rivals,
31:08
Speaker 1: and um, I always wanted to get Sally and Larry,
31:12
Speaker 1: and I was scared to death to do it, and finally,
31:15
Speaker 1: finally we did. I don't know if any of you
31:17
Speaker 1: guys were there, if anybody I was there, but I
31:21
Speaker 1: can remember when Sally did it, Honest to god, she
31:25
Speaker 1: was scared to death, and Larry of course treated her
31:28
Speaker 1: like a queen. He treated her like gold. You know,
31:33
Speaker 1: your red glasses in many ways helped us get him
31:38
Speaker 1: on TV and put him in suspenders. That it wasn't
31:41
Speaker 1: a bad thing, that there was some sort of iconic
31:43
Speaker 1: part of his body. It was first suggested by Sharon King,
31:46
Speaker 1: Larry's wife at the time, because Larry hunched over. You
31:50
Speaker 1: know how radio people are, You're all wrapped around the
31:53
Speaker 1: you know that there's giant microphones at that time, and
31:57
Speaker 1: if we needed him to look more like you know
32:00
Speaker 1: Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams and less like you know
32:03
Speaker 1: a radio guy who broadcasts from a boat in Miami Beach. Right,
32:07
Speaker 1: So he said, how the suspenders, And of course it
32:11
Speaker 1: was it looked he looked more vertical. Let's put it
32:15
Speaker 1: that way. I always wondered about that. Go ahead, Bert,
32:19
Speaker 1: I have to say, and I've got a jump, but
32:21
Speaker 1: I will tell you that as I sit here in
32:23
Speaker 1: my office, I'm looking over and the red glasses are
32:26
Speaker 1: right next to you. I've got him by the way.
32:30
Speaker 1: You know, I just wonder about you're talking about the
32:33
Speaker 1: red glasses, burn Do Brown, Thank you, Bert, friend, I
32:37
Speaker 1: just wonder about all those suspenders. Peter Tideski former Larry
32:41
Speaker 1: kiv Lying Larry Keen Live executive and senior producer, creator
32:45
Speaker 1: of lk L Weekend. Peter, tell me about what a
32:50
Speaker 1: lot of people don't know about Larry's background. Where did
32:53
Speaker 1: he come from and he had a little brush with
32:55
Speaker 1: the law. Well, that brush with the law is not
32:58
Speaker 1: anything that I know about. To tell you the truth,
33:01
Speaker 1: I know he came from a radio in Miami. He
33:03
Speaker 1: was a Brooklyn kid who just wanted to wanted to
33:06
Speaker 1: be on the air, and he went to Brooklyn, he
33:09
Speaker 1: went to Miami, became a radio personality there and ultimately
33:13
Speaker 1: Mutual broadcasting. And my great joy with Larry was when
33:17
Speaker 1: I was in high school and I would be coming
33:19
Speaker 1: home late from a late night teenage outing. Normal teenagers
33:22
Speaker 1: would be listening to music, and I'd be listening to
33:25
Speaker 1: Larry King's Mutual radio show in the middle of the
33:27
Speaker 1: night as I was driving home or late at night,
33:29
Speaker 1: I should say. And so I eventually go to CNN
33:33
Speaker 1: and I would just fanboy when I would meet him
33:37
Speaker 1: through Tammy really and all the time I was like,
33:40
Speaker 1: this is one of the reasons I went into broadcasting,
33:42
Speaker 1: into journalism, was because as a teenager I was listening
33:44
Speaker 1: to Larry King, and that he segued into television and
33:47
Speaker 1: did it so seamlessly. Was just was just joyous. And
33:51
Speaker 1: if I may add one quick thing, we're talking about
33:52
Speaker 1: the celebrities. Larry was such a great news man, Carol
33:55
Speaker 1: said earlier about being a voracious reader. Two things jump
33:59
Speaker 1: out at me. One is we did a show where
34:02
Speaker 1: we got together. This is getting a little wonky, but
34:04
Speaker 1: we got together Ken McGinnis of the Ulster Unionist Party
34:07
Speaker 1: and Jerry Adams of Shinfine, the political wing of the IRA.
34:11
Speaker 1: These two men had never met in person that I'm
34:13
Speaker 1: aware of. They met in person in the makeup room
34:16
Speaker 1: at Larry King Live in Washington, DC, and Larry went
34:19
Speaker 1: on to do an hour long show with these two
34:21
Speaker 1: men basically negotiating peace in Northern Ireland. Then you can
34:25
Speaker 1: find them now in internet searches. There were stories in
34:27
Speaker 1: the nineties written at the time why is this an
34:29
Speaker 1: American television and not on British television? And we got
34:32
Speaker 1: them to come in because of Larry and also talking
34:36
Speaker 1: about Larry's ego, our lack there productions. Let Larry ad
34:39
Speaker 1: lib sort of what's going on. We said, let's really
34:42
Speaker 1: do this right. We contacted the London bureau CNN London Bureau.
34:45
Speaker 1: We had them do it three or four minute piece,
34:47
Speaker 1: which is the an eternity in television of really solid background.
34:50
Speaker 1: That wasn't Larry's voice. It didn't have to be his voice,
34:53
Speaker 1: he didn't have to record it. He let the people
34:55
Speaker 1: who really covered the story do the story and then
34:59
Speaker 1: he did this our long interview that was right at
35:02
Speaker 1: the time that peace was being negotiated into Northern Ireland
35:06
Speaker 1: and real quick. The second one was at about the
35:08
Speaker 1: same time in history. We did a ninety minute show
35:11
Speaker 1: that night of the NAPTA debate between al Gore and
35:13
Speaker 1: Ross Perow, and people now talk about the same as
35:17
Speaker 1: NAPTA Debate as though it was something from like the
35:19
Speaker 1: League of Women Voters that every network carried. No, Larry
35:24
Speaker 1: got those two on the air. We produced it. We
35:27
Speaker 1: did the NAPTA debate. Larry King did the NAPTA Debate,
35:31
Speaker 1: and we shouldn't forget he could navigate Frank Sinatra and
35:35
Speaker 1: Audrey Hepburn and Al Gore and Ross Perot and the
35:39
Speaker 1: warring parties in Northern Ireland. Larry KINGO and breaking knew
35:43
Speaker 1: we all had the brilliant foot OJ's slow speed chase
35:47
Speaker 1: on for with it two hours the highest rated two
35:50
Speaker 1: hours on CNN that kicked off on the amazing OJ coverage,
35:56
Speaker 1: and he would he would have on different journalists who
35:59
Speaker 1: had oaken stories. I mean, when I got the interview
36:02
Speaker 1: with Tom Sneddon, when he apologized on the air on
36:07
Speaker 1: CNN for calling Michael Jackson wacko Jacko, Larry put that
36:12
Speaker 1: right on and he was very, very kind and in
36:14
Speaker 1: recognizing you know, the reporting. It was just an amazing
36:18
Speaker 1: thing the way you all helped him shift gears. People
36:21
Speaker 1: are now talking about, well he interviewed stars and this
36:24
Speaker 1: one and that one. But this is a man, a
36:27
Speaker 1: legend that could interview warring factions, navigate breaking news, the works.
36:35
Speaker 1: You know. I would love to sign off myself in
36:40
Speaker 1: honor of my friend who helped me so much, Larry King.
36:45
Speaker 1: But let's sign off with cut number twelve. When I
36:49
Speaker 1: started twenty five years ago at a little studio in Washington, DC,
36:56
Speaker 1: I never thought it would ever lest this long or
36:59
Speaker 1: come to that. So I'm going to go on do
37:02
Speaker 1: a lot of other things. We're going to do specials
37:04
Speaker 1: here on CNN. I'm going to be seen in other places,
37:07
Speaker 1: do some radio work, be around baseball. So you're not
37:12
Speaker 1: going to see me go away, but you're not going
37:16
Speaker 1: to see me here on this set anymore. For two weeks.
37:19
Speaker 1: They're going to be playing highlight shows. I am. I
37:25
Speaker 1: don't know what to say except to you, my audience,
37:30
Speaker 1: thank you, and instead of goodbye, a about solo. Okay,
37:39
Speaker 1: so long