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CNN Larry King Live
Larry King: 50 Years of Pop Culture
Aired May 03, 2007 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: But when I hear people say that I'm softball, I've never understood what softball means. I try to ask very good questions. My role is to -- not to make a guest uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable if I make them uncomfortable. You don't learn a lot if you're confrontational.
It's exciting -- why did you do this?
Well, if someone points a finger at me and says why did you do this, I guarantee you will not learn why he did this. You will not learn it.
So I learned a long time ago that the best way to be is really curious.
Tonight, exclusive, she married Elvis.
Why is Elvis still a magnet?
We're back with Madonna.
With us on the phone is O.J. Simpson.
How did you hear the news of Lady Di's death?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it's all just a little bit of history repeating.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Fifty years, 40,000 interviews.
KING: Who came up with the bunny?
Do you miss it?
Was it embarrassing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Larry, it's nice to have you here.
KING: Do you know the Dalai Lama well?
What is it like to be shot?
How would you handle tabloids?
The one thing you didn't answer is why.
Was it true that you once thought of taking your own life?
Why do you have one name?
Now hold on there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I second that note.
KING: OK.
COOPER: From Brando to Broncos...
KING: O.J. Simpson is in that car.
COOPER: To Liza with a Z.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
JOAN RIVERS: He's asking the question after the guy on the couch has just said to his wife, "Gee, I wonder if Liza really is in love with him."
"Yes, I am, Larry."
LIZA MINNELLI: Oh my god.
COOPER (on camera): Liza Minnelli, David Gest...
KING: A train wreck.
COOPER: A train wreck?
I didn't want to say it, but it was.
(voice-over): Behind that mike, those specs, those suspenders beats the heart of pop culture.
KERMIT THE FROG: And the best thing about pop culture icon like Larry and I, well, it's that we get to go to all these pop culture icon club dinners together. At our table there's people like Larry and Mickey Mouse, Mick Jagger and whoever wins "American Idol" this year.
RANDY JACKSON: To me, pop culture is about things that are cool, that everyone is paying attention to. And he so does that.
WENDY WALKER, SENIOR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, LARRY KING LIVE: I have always thought our show was pop culture.
RIVERS: What's happening at the moment is on his show that night.
Where else in the week can you get Laura Bush on Monday and Little Kim on Tuesday?
WALKER: It is like Forrest Gump. You don't know what you're going to get.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "FORREST GUMP," PARAMOUNT PICTURES)
TOM HANKS: Would you like a chocolate?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: It is a total box of chocolates.
COOPER: Over the course of five decades, he has seen it all.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: He's been in broadcasting as long as I've been alive, which I find extraordinary, because I always think he's just like 10 minutes older than me. Apparently he's much older than me.
Hmmm, who knew?
COOPER: The stars, the scandals, the music, the moments, the people who shaped our lives.
(on camera): Do you consider the Frank Sinatra interview the best interview that you've done?
FRANK SINATRA: From the minute you step out into that spotlight, you've got to know exactly what you're doing.
COOPER: What comes to mind when you think of Monica Lewinsky?
MONICA LEWINSKY: Oh. Umm.
COOPER: Are there ever times you can't come up with questions with somebody?
AL GORE: They weren't fair.
ROSS PEROT: Well, we agree that we've made lousy choices (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
GORE: Let me finish now.
PEROT: Excuse me.
GORE: I let you talk.
PEROT: Excuse me.
COOPER (voice-over): From political to personal.
(on camera): Heather Mills McCartney takes off her leg.
KING: Well, that -- that's what you call good risk taking. I take risks.
COOPER (voice-over): Who better to weigh in on pop's biggest moments than the man dubbed "The King?"
MIKE WALLACE: What makes Larry King unique?
Well, first of all, he gets everybody. Nobody is afraid of Larry.
KING: Are you saying now that you were fired?
STAR JONES: I don't recall a question that I found to be tough. I recall that the time period was tough.
KING: Your illness, the blackout, every -- all these stories, the nervous breakdown.
What -- what happened?
MARIAH CAREY: I think I was probably more consumed with lightning. (LAUGHTER)
COOPER: So walk with us through 50 years of cool culture and risky business -- a career so rich, so deep, we invited Larry's friend and colleague, "American Idol's" Ryan Seacrest, to help tell part of the story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.
How are you?
COOPER (on camera): OK.
KING: I'm starting a new show.
RYAN SEACREST, "AMERICAN IDOL": Yes, we're doing a new show.
COOPER: Tonight, the tale of a pop culture icon in his own right, who's had a front row seat to history.
RIVERS: When someone says Larry King, what comes to mind is always fun in a hotel room.
KING: Should reporters be embedded?
JON BON JOVI: You get into a hotel and you go yes, Larry King is on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): And it's just a little bit of history repeating.
DONALD TRUMP: I just love the way he dresses. I wouldn't do it, but man, do those suspenders look good on television.
LIONEL RICHIE: He's so familiar. He's so comfortable.
BARBARA WALTERS: He listens. He gives you a chance to talk yourself.
CAROL BURNETT: He's interested in what you have to say. If he isn't, he's a hell of a good actor. KING: Trust me, I can wing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): And I fear again...
TRUMP: If I could turn the table on Larry, I think the question I'd ask is how have you done it so well for so long?
R. JACKSON: He's like a throwback to what it should all always be about.
RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Larry has a way of getting things out of you in a nice way that other people can't get out of you in a confrontational way.
KERMIT THE FROG: Why is why we all tell him our deepest, darkest secrets, whether we meant to or not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): Some people (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they don't know singing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You think of the world's greatest interviewer.
KING: Good evening.
We begin with the...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First of all, his style of talking. That's the Larry style right there, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got class. He's got humor.
BON JOVI: He is knowledgeable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He makes us very comfortable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People trust Larry King.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): That's just a little bit of history repeating.
GOLDBERG: It's effortless with him. I think it's the suspenders.
DOLLY PARTON: Larry King does not need an introduction. He's a big star, bigger than most of us, really.
KING: (LAUGHTER).
COOPER: Coming up, 1957 -- the radio, the rat pack and Larry's first big get.
KING: This is how big he was. This is bigger than big. At about five to nine, this limo pulls up. Two guys get out of the car.
(END VIDEO TAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ELVIS PRESLEY: Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it.
PRISCILLA PRESLEY: I really do believe that he was born to be a star.
E. PRESLEY: I can't help it. I mean I have to move around. I can't stand still.
DOMINCK DUNNE: Marilyn Monroe was one of those people who everyone on the lot loved. She was a fabulous woman.
R. JACKSON: I think the British invasion changed music forever. By god, what an invasion that was.
FRANK SINATRA: I made some pretty good albums here, didn't I?
LIZ SMITH, GOSSIP COLUMNIST: Well, everything Frank Sinatra ever did made headlines. He never did anything in a small way.
KING: Hi. Great having you with us.
COOPER: A stroll down memory lane with "American Idol's" Ryan Seacrest.
SEACREST: What year did you get this star?
KING: 1997. I'll always remember that.
The thing I was most proud of, Ryan, was to be next to --
SEACREST: The legend.
KING: Arthur Godfrey, who was one of my heroes.
SEACREST: Now, this is a guy you really admired, isn't it?
KING: I grew up listening to him. He was the first one in broadcasting to break all the rules.
COOPER: From Hollywood's Walk of Fame to Miami's golden beaches, Larry's 50 years of broadcasting began right here.
KING: It was May 1st, 1957, WHAR, Miami Beach. I always wanted to be in radio.
COOPER: That childhood dream became reality at WHAR, but not until the 23-year-old gave up a bit of himself.
KING: And he calls me in, the general manager, Marshall Simmons, dear Marshall Simmons.
And he says, "Well, are you ready to go, Larry?"
I says, "Yes."
He says, "OK. What name are you going to use?"
I said, "What do you mean?"
He said, "You can't use Zeiger."
SEACREST: Zeiger is your real name?
KING: Yes.
It's too ethnic. He said let's pick another name.
I said shhhh.
So he had the "Miami Herald" open and there was an ad for King's Wholesale Liquors, Washington Avenue.
And he said, "How about Larry King?"
COOPER: Lawrence Harvey Zeiger now had a new job and a new name -- Larry King. All he had to do now was do what he does best -- talk.
KING: I think I fade the music, nothing comes out. Nothing. I fade the music, I bring it up, I bring it down, I bring it up and I said to myself, you're not going to make it. You don't have the guts. You can't get through this. You're scared to death.
Marshall Simmons kicks open the door to the studio and says, "This is a communications business, dammit! Communicate!"
And I turned on the mike: "Good morning, my name is Larry King."
That's the first time I've said that.
COOPER: It was the beginning of a legend -- a broadcasting dynamo who'd talk to anyone.
RICK SHAW, MIAMI RADIO LEGEND: Occasionally somebody would be scheduled for an interview with Larry and for whatever reason didn't show up. And we then went into the emergency mode and we would just literally go out on the street on A1A and grab the next person who was coming down the street, saying, hey, you want to be on the radio?
And they'd look at you, you know, like are you crazy?
COOPER: On the radio, in the newspapers, bylines, headlines, Mr. Miami was everywhere, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Don Rickles.
DON RICKLES: He was doing a -- a disk jockey show and two waiters and one Cuban were listening.
COOPER: Joan Rivers.
RIVERS: Every Brooklyn Jew likes every Brooklyn Jew. We just got lucky.
COOPER: Larry befriended rising movie stars like Ann-Margret.
ANN-MARGRET: I met Larry in 1963. I was doing a publicity tour for "Bye Bye Birdie."
COOPER: Alan Alda.
ALAN ALDA: Oh, the first time Larry interviewed me, we were both starting out.
COOPER: And legends like the great honeymooner himself, Jackie Gleason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE HONEYMOONERS")
JACKIE GLEASON: One of these days (UNINTELLIGIBLE) one of these days, pow, right in the kisser!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Gleason had a nose for bright young talent like Larry and promised him his first big get -- Frank Sinatra.
JACKSON: Sinatra, the chairman of the board.
I mean what can you say?
The way he carried himself, the movies, the friends that he hung around with.
COOPER: Frank Sinatra -- there was nobody bigger. And for a young, local radio talk show host, an almost impossible booking.
Could Gleason really deliver?
KING: Now, the radio station is going to run an ad in the "Miami Herald." And they called me in.
You know, they said, "We've called the Fadabu 10 times. He hasn't returned any calls. We're about to spend a lot of money on this ad."
I said, "Jackie says he's coming."
"OK."
Now it's that night. The whole station stayed in. The secretaries didn't go home. This is how big he was. This is bigger than big. At about five to nine this limo pulls in. Two guys get out of the car, Frank Sinatra and another guy.
SINATRA: Hi, this is Frank Sinatra.
I'm talking to you from WIOD, which has got to be the swingingest radio station in Miami. MARTIN ZEIGER, LARRY'S BROTHER: And Larry leaned over and said why are you doing this?
And Sinatra said many years ago Jackie Gleason did me a very good turn. At that time I told him, "I owe you one."
On your request, Jackie wrote this is the one. He was picking up a chip for Larry.
Isn't that something?
COOPER: Sinatra was just the beginning. Soon there was Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Richard Nixon.
SEACREST: Did he offer you a job?
KING: Yes, he offered me a job in the White House when -- after -- after he was elected. He asked me if I wanted to be an assistant press secretary. And I -- I couldn't take the cut in pay.
COOPER: Larry interviewed them all -- heady times in a turbulent decade that started with a bang but ended in a bust for Miami's king of talk.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Miami Beach -- sun, surf and the soothing radio sounds of...
KING: Larry King helps you do your thing.
RIVERS: Larry was a huge deal in Miami. When you went to Miami, you went on Larry King. That was very important.
JERRY LEWIS: I met Larry in Florida.
ROBERT WAGNER: I was on radio, I think, with him in Florida.
ANN-MARGRET: He just was unique. He was different.
COOPER: And then, after years behind the radio mike, Larry took his talk show to local Miami television and almost immediately started getting the big gets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY WTJV)
KING: I'm Larry King and my special guest this weekend is the editor and publisher of "Playboy" magazine, Mr. Hugh Hefner.
It's a great pleasure having you, Hugh.
HUGH HEFNER: It's a pleasure to be here. KING: Well, how does one start a magazine without a dime?
HEFNER: Well, "Playboy" literally started from nothing.
SEACREST: Hugh Hefner was a guest on one of those shows.
KING: He sure was.
COOPER: Larry discussed those days with "American Idol's" Ryan Seacrest.
SEACREST: Talk about Hef and why he's so vital to pop culture.
KING: Because "Playboy" is now part of the mainstream.
SEACREST: Did people think it was dirty back then?
KING: Oh, yes.
SEACREST: He was making a huge mistake?
KING: First of all, you hid "Playboy." You hid it in your...
SEACREST: You were embarrassed to have it.
KING: You hid it in your "New York Times." I always said, "I love the interview."
COOPER: Larry also loved the Miami Dolphins.
SEACREST: You got the job as the Dolphins' color guard.
Was that the job of a lifetime?
KING: A big thrill, man.
SEACREST: Give me some play by play. Come on.
KING: Good afternoon. The National Football League is on the air.
COOPER: The late '60s -- the graduate meets Mrs. Robinson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE GRADUATE," COURTESY MGM)
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Oh my god. Oh, no, Mrs. Robinson. Oh, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ROEPER, FILM CRITIC: But it had a huge impact on pop culture. I was the music. It was the attitude.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE GRADUATE," COURTESY MGM)
HOFFMAN: Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lift-off. We have a lift-off.
COOPER: Man meets moon.
JOHN GLENN: One giant leap for mankind.
WALLACE: Can you imagine, man on the moon?
COOPER: Kids meet Kermit.
KERMIT THE FROG: I was on the very first episode of "Sesame Street."
Gordon has asked me to say a word or two in behalf of the letter W.
COOPER: And, as John married Yoko...
SMITH: Some people could accept that and the wiggy things they did, like posing in bed together. And some people couldn't.
COOPER: Larry marries a "Playboy" beauty.
KING: Not a Playmate, a "Playboy Bunny.
SEACREST: A Playboy Bunny.
Different?
At this point, is she your -- I'm trying to do the math -- she's your fourth?
KING: She's the third.
SEACREST: The third.
You were with her twice?
KING: Yes. Later. She was third and fifth.
COOPER: Life in Miami was good for Larry, for a while maybe too good.
MARTIN ZEIGER, LARRY'S BROTHER: Larry became a little reckless. If Larry had $100, he spent $200. He went to the race track a lot.
SEACREST: Were you arrested?
KING: Yes, but they threw that out. They said I wrote a bad check, but I didn't.
COOPER: The charges were dropped, but in 1972, life in the fast lane caught up with him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He feel from grace in a jumble of nearly $300,000 in bad debts.
KING: I owed a guy a lot of money and he took court action and I lost my job.
COOPER: It was a tumultuous time for King...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Race riots broke out...
COOPER: And for the country as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... in Cleveland, St. Louis and Atlanta.
COOPER: Assassinations.
WALLACE: Martin Luther King was the greatest American to live during my lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Kennedy's death in 1963, then his brother gets killed.
COOPER: Vietnam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marine casualties mount when a U.S. Marine platoon is ambushed by the Viet Cong.
WALTER CRONKITE: We were beginning to say wait a minute.
What are we doing here?
COOPER: Scandal.
RICHARD NIXON: I'm not a crook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nixon was a savvy man.
COOPER: Manson.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five people, including actress Sharon Tate, were stabbed to death. Police arrested Charles Manson.
DUNNE: It used to be kind of an open era in Beverly Hills, where people walked a thing and there -- you'd say, oh, there's Katherine Hepburn. Oh, there's so and so. After this happened, gates went up, alarms came in, people began to have guards.
COOPER: And disgrace.
NIXON: I shall resign the presidency, effective at noon tomorrow.
COOPER: But it was also the beginning of a new era for Larry King. 1974 -- now living in Louisiana, he found work doing public relations for a race track. But Larry wasn't doing what he loved.
SEACREST: How down were you?
KING: Oh, really...
SEACREST: How depressed were you? How worried that you weren't going to be on the air ever again, were you?
KING: Oh, really worried, because I missed it so much, you know?
And I had trouble listening to other shows.
COOPER: Later that year, however, he got a second chance.
KING: And it was the general manager of WILD Radio. And he says, "You want to go work there?"
And now, Larry King helps you do your thing. If you have a problem, a question, has something been really bothering you, lay it on me. Let me take the burden, dear friend. Slip it off your shoulders and onto mine, because, what hell?
I don't care anyway.
COOPER: "The King" was back on air in Miami, interviewing everyone, including his old pal, Jackie Gleason.
KING: And we never know how we're going to go when we talk to each other. I guess we've done about seven...
GLEASON: Three hundred and fifty two hours.
KING: ... 52 hours, yes.
What's happened to the variety show?
We have, what, Carol Burnett and Howard Cosell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "CAROL BURNETT SHOW," COURTESY CBS)
BURNETT: You give me hope to carry on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: There are no variety shows like that anymore, like Cesar and Gleason and us.
COOPER: The '70s brought in a new kind of music that Americans either loved or loved to hate. It was the era of "Saturday Night Fever."
JACKSON: Welcome to the hustle. That's right, baby, disco was in the house.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER," PARAMOUNT)
BEE GEES (SINGING): You should be dancing...
COOPER: Disco -- one of the biggest things to hit the charts since Elvis. Coming up, the king of rock and roll and his shocking good night.
P. PRESLEY: I locked myself up in my room trying to figure out what went wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cause of death is cardiac arrhythmia due to undetermined causes.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We'll get back to Larry King: 50 Years of Pop Culture in just a moment.
But first, a look at the headlines.
The first GOP debate is over. It ended just moments ago. The 10 Republican presidential candidates squared off at the Reagan Library tonight. As expected, the war took center stage.
It wasn't the only issue, however, they clashed over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: When the majority leader of the U.S. Senate says we've lost the war, the men and women that are serving in Iraq reject that notion.
And if we lost, then who won? Did al Qaeda win?
When on the floor of the House of Representatives, they cheered. They cheered when they passed a withdrawal motion that is a certain date for surrender.
What were they cheering? Surrender? Defeat?
We must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos. There will be genocide and they will follow us home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With regards to Iraq, there are a lot of people that say let's just get out. I want to get our troops home as soon as I possibly can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The reality is the use of military force against Iran would be very dangerous. It would be very provocative. The only thing worse would be Iran being a nuclear power. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We'll have complete coverage and analysis of the debate coming up on a special edition of "360" at 11:00 p.m. Eastern tonight.
In other political news, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama has been placed under the protection of the Secret Service. A law enforcement source tells CNN the government is not aware of any specific credible threats against Obama, but the campaign has received hate mail, calls and other threatening materials.
Senate sources tell CNN that it was Obama's fellow Illinois senator, Dick Durbin, who relayed his concerns to the Senate majority leader, who then alerted Homeland Security.
That's just one of the stories we'll have in our All Politics segment tonight in a special edition of "360" at 11:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll also have complete coverage and analysis of tonight's Republican presidential debate, coming up in about 90 minutes on "360."
You can also check out the Political Ticker at cnn.com/ticker. The Political Ticker is your destination for the latest political news any time.
Now back to LARRY KING.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The king is dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People with tears in their eyes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) carrying the body of Elvis Presley. He leaves Graceland...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elvis dead of heart failure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't get to see Elvis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY NBC)
BRINKLEY: Elvis Presley died today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice-over): August 16th, 1977. It was the shocking announcement heard around the world.
BRINKLEY: He was found at his home in Memphis not breathing.
COOPER: Larry King, who was holding down three jobs -- radio, TV and print -- talked about that day with Ryan Seacrest.
KING: I was at the "Miami News" where I was doing a column. My daughter was with me. And those were the days -- this may shock you, Ryan, you weren't there for those days -- where bells rang on a news machine. And there was actual sounds in the newsroom. Five bells meant biggie.
SEACREST: Big news?
KING: Big, big, big, big. Bigger than big. Bigger than big. Big, big, big. Big, big.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
And everybody runs to the teletype machine, you know, watching it type in. A.P. 4:13, Memphis, Elvis Presley found dead today. I went back to the radio station and did a whole show on Elvis that night.
P. PRESLEY: I locked myself up in my room -- I -- trying to figure out what went wrong and how it could have possibly happened. It was devastating and the grief that the world felt was even not to be believed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elvis.
P. PRESLEY: I still remember the people lined on the streets for miles -- hundreds of thousands of people. It's a sight I'll never forget.
COOPER: The king was gone and several years later, another pop icon would follow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chapman shot John Lennon.
KING: That was one of the most emotional nights in my life. That's when I started appreciating The Beatles, because we started playing Beatles music during that show. And I had no idea of the impact he had on people.
COOPER: On July 29th, 1981, the world got a glimpse of a pop icon in the making. Lady Diana would become Princess Diana and a fractured fairy tale quickly ensued.
PRINCE CHARLES: With this ring...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thee wed.
PRINCE CHARLES: I thee wed.
DUNNE: The royal family didn't like her, the aristocracy didn't like her, but the people liked her. She was vulnerable. She was not a perfect person and I guess she could be difficult. But she was good and she cared.
COOPER (on camera): Did you ever interview Princess Diana?
KING: No. I would have liked to. I met her once at a big charity benefit in Washington, in which -- she was a very tall -- I was surprised how tall she was.
"It's Lawrence of the telly." That's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THRILLER," EPIC RECORDS)
MICHAEL JACKSON: Cause this is thriller...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: If Diana was pop culture's princess, Michael Jackson was its king.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THRILLER")
M. JACKSON: ... from the beast about to strike. You know it's thriller...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEACREST: '82 -- Michael Jackson, "Thriller" -- Michael takes over the world. People are fainting, passing out to see this guy.
KING: I went to see him.
SEACREST: You went to the Michael concert?
KING: Correct, at RFK Stadium in Washington.
R. JACKSON: Michael Jackson was gynormous. You still see people wearing the jackets. You go to Europe right now, people are still wearing those "Thriller" jackets. I mean he was just unbelievable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THRILLER," EPIC RECORDS)
M. JACKSON: You're fighting for your life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
R. JACKSON: The records sold unbelievable. There was nothing like him ever.
Let me not forget another true icon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS)
MADONNA: Oh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Madonna, the material girl.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS)
MADONNA: Material...
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: Living in a material world.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SMITH: The greatest story about Madonna in the early years was when she was making "Desperately Seeking Susan."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN," COURTESY ORION PICTURES)
MADONNA: Good going, stranger.
ROSANNA ARQUETTE: Susan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: So she says to Rosanna Arquette, who's she making the movie with, "Wouldn't you give anything just to be me for a minute?"
And I think this says everything.
R. JACKSON: I think she was probably the boldest one of our time. And, once again, she's kind of a throwback to the '70s, which I think really, really helped her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't have this happen like every day, do you?
MADONNA: Thank god, no.
R. JACKSON: Culture, being pop music, being fashion, being religion, being politics, being everything all as a one.
COOPER (on camera): Is there anyone like Madonna?
KING: She's a great promoter. She's fun to be around. She's smart. But she sure knows herself.
COOPER: She's in control of it all?
KING: Whoo. And she knows what she wants and she knows how to get it.
Welcome back to hour number two of the "Larry King Show" for this Monday night.
COOPER: January, 1978 -- after 20 years in local broadcasting, the 45-year-old King was about to hit the big time.
KING: The Mutual Radio Network came to me and said how would you like to do a national radio talk show?
SEACREST: A dream of yours.
KING: Yes. And I said the only problem is can it work? If I have a guest on here, would Phoenix be interested in that?
And they said we think it can work. It could work especially as an all night show. And we started with 28 stations and it just took off. SEACREST: Could you feel it?
KING: Oh, yes. The "Wall Street Journal" did a big story like six months later -- you know, who is this guy?
COOPER (voice-over): That guy was becoming a household name for insomniacs and the graveyard shift.
KING: Welcome back to more of "The Larry King Show," coast to coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People who are physicians, you know, would tell me that Larry got them through the night shift. Truck drivers used to write to him and say you kept me awake.
COOPER: As Larry's audience grew, so did his guest list.
Desi Arnez...
DESI ARNEZ: By this time, "I Love Lucy" was number one.
KING: Desi was fun and Desi was like you, a very hip business guy.
COOPER: Johnny Unitas.
KING: Your hair, is it worn the high crew cut style because it's smarter for the helmet and the game you play?
JOHNNY UNITAS: I wear it like this because I like it this way.
COOPER: It was all night long for Larry's guests.
LIONEL RICHIE: At the end of the evening, I'd turn on and Larry King is on all night long.
SINGING: All night long...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "ALL NIGHT LONG," MOTOWN RECORDS)
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: All night.
RICHIE: Oh, all night long.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And a hit for '80s icon Lionel Richie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "ALL NIGHT LONG," MOTOWN RECORDS)
RICHIE (SINGING): All night long.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: All night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RICHIE: When "All Night Long" came along, you know, it was the launching of my solo career.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by. Ready three. Take three, Mike Hewitt.
COOPER: And on TV, the debut of an upstart cable news network.
DAVID WALKER: Good evening.
I'm David Walker.
LOIS HART: And I'm Lois Hart.
Now here's the news.
COOPER: Coming up, Larry catches the eye of a media maverick.
TED TURNER: We didn't have e-mail in those days. So I think I said to my assistant, "Would you please get Larry King on the phone?"
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): The '80s -- Michael moonwalked, Reagan ruled.
RONALD REAGAN: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
COOPER: And the cold war cooled.
It was a time of terror.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United States strongly condemns the hijacking.
COOPER: And a time of tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, a major malfunction. The vehicle has exploded.
COOPER: It was a time of fear...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: AIDS is a killer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, America. You did it.
COOPER: But also a time of hope.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY OF WORLDWIDE SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Live AID to our brothers and sisters all around the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been a long time since I took me a stroll.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: On the big screen, Tom Cruise.
"Batman" began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Batman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And Hanks made a splash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: But it was big hair and big hits that truly defined the decade.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY POLYGRAM RECORDS)
BON JOVI (SINGING): Living on a prayer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BON JOVI: We put our fingerprint on pop culture with that record.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY POLYGRAM RECORDS)
BON JOVI (SINGING): Oh, oh...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BON JOVI: We looked like the garage band next door that you could be, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY POLYGRAM RECORDS)
BON JOVI (SINGING): You give love a bad name.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY ELEKTRA RECORDS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's got the looks that kill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: To Madonna.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS)
MADONNA: Like a virgin, hey...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And everything in between.
Sweeping anthems...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY COLUMBIA RECORDS)
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: We are the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And surprising crossovers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PARTON: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PARTON: I think probably if I had a favorite decade, that would probably be the '80s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY ANCHOR BAY PRODUCTIONS)
PARTON (SINGING): Working nine to five...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PARTON: I had gotten into the movies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "9 TO 5," 20TH CENTURY FOX)
PARTON: No, I don't want you to call Ramp (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You won't listen, but you'll shut up and stay there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PARTON: As I was beginning to be like popular all over the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY ANCHOR BAY PRODUCTIONS)
PARTON (SINGING): Nine to five, for service and...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The queen of country wasn't the only one making a big crossover in the '80s. By 1985, CNN's maverick owner, Ted Turner, had set his sights on the king of talk radio.
TURNER: And we really needed a new prime time talk show host. And I knew Larry. I had been on his radio show.
KING: Because we are live from Washington.
TURNER: He was good. He was -- he was the best interviewer available and I thought he'd be interested in a proposition that put him in -- put him in prime time.
COOPER: Ted got his man. Larry was ready for CNN.
But was CNN ready for Larry?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roll five (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on it.
RANDY DOUTHIT, FORMER EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, LARRY KING LIVE: We actually got that show on, LARRY KING LIVE, on in about two weeks. From the time that he signed his contract to the time that we actually went on with our first guest, Mario Cuomo, we had two weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quiet on the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COOPER: In June of 1985, LARRY KING LIVE debuted.
KING: Good evening.
My name is Larry King and this is the premier edition of LARRY KING LIVE.
COOPER (on camera): Your first broadcast.
Were you nervous?
KING: I -- I -- I didn't know whether I was going to like it or not and I didn't know CNN. But five minutes in, I said it's going to make it. There was an electricity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN?
That's my favorite.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love CNN.
KING: Our first guest tonight is Oprah Winfrey. And she's nominated for best supporting actress for "The Color Purple."
Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE COLOR PURPLE," COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS)
OPRAH WINFREY: Like I said, fine with me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Did she hit you? WINFREY: Yes, you know, the thing about it is, Steven let her hit me, but I wasn't allowed to hit her.
COOPER: In 1986, you had a young talk show host on your program, Oprah Winfrey.
Did you know that she would become Oprah?
KING: Did I know she'd get this enormous?
No one could have predicted that.
Did I know she would be successful?
Absolutely.
COOPER (voice-over): LARRY KING LIVE was quickly embraced for its fascinating guests.
ANN-MARGRET: I feel a burn.
RICKLES: Larry's investigative and he probes and he does it pretty good.
KING: I've had a fantasy wish about you.
RICKLES: And he has fun and he's great with entertainers, because he knows the business so well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I deny that.
GOLDBERG: Well, honey, he is Larry King. I mean, you know, he's been around since the year one.
COOPER: The must stop spot on TV -- where viewers could talk directly to some of the world's most famous pop culture icons.
KING: Do you ever get sick?
GEORGE BURNS: Well, once in a while. Every three months I cough a little.
COOPER: Laughs.
Leaders.
TIP O'NEILL: We don't want anymore Vietnams.
COOPER: Larger than life personalities.
KING: Have you ever had a facelift?
BOB HOPE: God, no.
Are you kidding?
If I had a facelift, would I be stuck with this?
COOPER: LARRY KING LIVE covered it all.
WALTERS: When Larry King comes into your home, you feel he's a friend. He's part of the family, almost. And even though his questions are very probing, he doesn't attack.
COOPER: Within two years of its debut, LARRY KING was on top, breaking records, redefining the television talk show. Everything, it seemed, was coming up King.
And that's when the bottom fell out.
KING: I was smoking all the way over to the hospital.
COOPER (on camera): You were smoking on your way to the hospital?
KING: Correct.
He came right over to me and said, "Mr. King, you're having a heart attack."
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): By the late 1980s, Larry was king of the hill.
KING: Our guest is the vice president of the United States, the Honorable George Bush.
COOPER: Top of the heap.
WINFREY: Hi, Larry, by the way. Hey.
KING: Hello.
COOPER: The little boy from Brooklyn sitting across from the biggest names...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
COOPER: ... and the hardest guests.
SINATRA: A good question can open up doors in my mind that I would never think of discussing with anybody.
COOPER (on camera): You had Frank Sinatra on on CNN?
KING: I had him on on CNN. It probably was his last interview.
COOPER: Do you consider the Frank Sinatra interview the best interview that you've done?
KING: I'd say best if you consider difficult to get.
COOPER (voice-over): From the chairman of the board to the candy man himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMMY DAVIS, JR. (SINGING): Once in a lifetime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Once in a lifetime performers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVIS (SINGING): Pray dear (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Legendary and emotional final interviews.
DAVIS: Someday if you have a bad day, you know, and -- up here you have a bad day.
KING: Sammy was a tragic figure. He had, arguably, the most talent ever produced in America in one individual, and he couldn't stop smoking.
COOPER: For decades, smoking was also Larry's trademark.
LARRY KING, JR. LARRY KING'S SON: He smoked three packs of cigarettes, sometimes four packs of cigarettes a day.
PAT PIPER, LARRY'S FORMER RADIO PRODUCER: He would smoke all through the radio show. When you see the pictures of old interviews, there's always a pack of cigarettes or there's a cigarette in his hand.
COOPER: Larry smoked right up to the very day it almost killed him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening.
Larry King is off for a while.
COOPER (on camera): 1987 was, in many ways, a new beginning for you, a tough year.
KING: A bad year. I had a heart attack in February. I was smoking all the way over to the hospital.
COOPER: You were smoking on your way to the hospital?
KING: Correct.
COOPER: Did you know you were having a heart attack?
KING: No.
COOPER (voice-over): But his doctor left no doubt.
KING: And they -- he came right over to me and said, "Mr. King, you're having a heart attack."
And I said, "Am I going to die?"
And he said, "Good question."
COOPER: He laughs now, but Larry's heart attack was a life changing event.
ZEIGER: He's changed the way he lived. He stopped smoking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to LARRY KING LIVE.
COOPER: In late March, 1987, Larry was back on the air.
His first guest?
The Reverend Jimmy Swaggart.
REV. JIMMY SWAGGART: Larry, incidentally, it's good to see you.
How are you getting along nowadays?
KING: Feeling better.
COOPER: The topic?
Scandal. The scandal that would bring down the empire of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
SWAGGART: This cancer has been excised
KING: That was an incredible story, because Jim Bakker was one of those guys -- you know, he was the forerunner. All these that have come along of all these that have come along who preach one thing and practice another.
COOPER (on camera): What do you think it was about them that caught the public's fascination?
KING: They were just one of those unusual couples.
TAMMY FAYE BAKKER: I wanted to be there to support Jim. I knew he was going through hell.
KING: Tammy Faye is a good interview. She's herself.
T.F. BAKKER: I could not stop crying for three days and finally they brought someone in to help me through that period.
KING: She's emotional.
T.F. BAKKER: They paraded him across the yard in shackles.
KING: She cries.
T.F. BAKKER: And they drug him into a car half alive.
KING: Ducks it. If you can't interview Tammy Faye, get out of the business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, don't do this to me.
COOPER (voice-over): Breakdowns and hypocrisy.
SWAGGART: I have sinned against you, my lord.
COOPER: Less than a year after condemning Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart fell from grace in his own sex scandal.
(on camera): Swaggart would come on to criticize Jim Bakker. But when Swaggart got in trouble...
KING: He wouldn't come on.
COOPER: He wouldn't come on.
KING: They don't want to face the music.
COOPER (voice-over): Scandals and the crimes that captivated the nation. Larry covered them all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've heard of very few murders that were more savage than this one was.
COOPER: Beginning...
MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY: Who can possibly shotgun their parents to death?
COOPER: ... middle...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you kill your parents?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because we were afraid.
COOPER: ... and end.
KING: And joining us now from prison, where he is allowed occasional calls -- he has to call collect -- is Erik Menendez, convicted along with his brother Lyle.
How long have you been in prison now, Erik?
ERIK MENENDEZ: I've been in prison for over 15 years.
COOPER (on camera): When you're talking to someone who's been convicted of a murder, is it strange.
KING: Very. Someone convicted of a murder is always strange. And I have talked to the John Lennon killer, the Son of Sam. Sure, it's strange.
COOPER (voice-over): Strange?
That word doesn't even come close to describing what lay ahead for Larry in the '90s.
PEROT: What are you talking about?
GORE: Lobbying the Congress...
PEROT: Well, I mean spell it out...
GORE: You know a lot about it.
PEROT: Spell it out.
COOPER: High political drama and the murder trial that left America speechless.
WALKER: And all of a sudden in one of the matters I saw this white Bronco.
KING: They busted in my ear and said, "O.J.'s on the road in a Bronco being followed by police"
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
KING: Tonight, exclusive -- she married Elvis Presley.
Why is Elvis still a magnet?
We're back with Madonna.
With us on the phone now is O.J. Simpson.
How did you hear the news of Lady Di's death?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it's all just a little bit of history repeating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated.
PRES. GEORGE H.W. BUSH: We are not in the Middle East to protect oil. We are there to stand up against aggression.
RODNEY KING: Can we -- can we all get along?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The possibility exists that the explosion which occurred at the World Trade Center was a terrorist bombing.
JANET RENO: I made the decision. I am accountable.
GERAGOS: Before there was Hannibal Lecter...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't fly! (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SEACREST: Jeffrey Dahmer.
KING: The strangest story of all time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do.
CLARENCE THOMAS: It is a high tech lynching for uppity blacks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the summer blockbuster became such an event film in the '90s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look out!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY CAROLCO PICTURES)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Hasta la vista, baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS)
WHITNEY HOUSTON: And I...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
R. JACKSON: When Whitney did "I Will Always Love You," the Dolly Parton classic, it was another one of those iconic times.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS)
HOUSTON: ... always love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice-over): The early '90s -- the stock market soars and the Internet roars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY NBC)
JOHNNY CARSON: I bid you a very heartfelt good night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Johnny's off, but "Seinfeld" is on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY NBC)
JERRY SEINFELD: But are you still master of your domain?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY GEFFEN RECORDS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can still (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COOPER: Grunge explodes while glam metal implodes. Tattoos and piercings are all the rage and the cool guy with the sax takes center stage.
(VIDEO CLIP OF BILL CLINTON PLAYING SAXOPHONE, COURTESY FOX)
COOPER (on camera): What is it about him that whether people like him or hate him, they watch him?
KING: Bill Clinton changes the room. You can be hanging around a room and Bill Clinton walks in the room, it changes.
Las Vegas, Nevada, hello.
VIRGINIA CASSIDY BLYTHE: I want to say hello to my son, Bill Clinton.
BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hi, mother.
COOPER (voice-over): Fast friends with presidents, Larry grabbed exclusive interviews at their most vulnerable times. In '92, when then President George Bush, Sr. was criticized for being out of touch with the American people.
KING: Oh, so you do drive?
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: Yes.
KING: You drive-drive?
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: I've got a car in Washington, but I don't drive it very much. I'll drive around the circle in the -- in the Oval Office.
KING: Still a Texas driver's license?
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: Still.
You want to see it?
I'm legal, see?
Where's your car?
Let's go for a drive. KING: We'll be back.
Don't go away.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: He'll ask a question then you actually think, hey, he'd like to know what I think about this. You get your say without kind of yelling and feisty -- a feisty interviewer kind of hitting you before you even speak.
BARBARA BUSH: But he is man that does not accept no. He's very persistent.
KING: I know you're not going to be specific, but I can ask if he was asked.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: You can ask, but I don't have to answer whether he was asked.
PEROT: It's brains and witch time now.
COOPER: That same year, Larry rocked the nation and the vote when he introduced viewers to a billionaire Texan with big ears and bigger ideas.
PEROT: Create an electronic town hall.
I say OK, child, what do we, you know, you want a dump?
We're going to dump two ways, baby.
And I will not run as either a Democrat or a Republican.
Throw your old tax law out. It's like an old inner tube -- it's full of patches.
COOPER (on camera): Did you know he was going to announce on your show?
KING: No, I didn't.
A friend of mine in New Orleans tipped me off and said, you know, ask Ross Perot if he's going to run for president.
Finally, with a minute left, I said to him one more time, are you giving any thought of running of president?
And he -- I'll tell you what...
H. ROSS PEROT: You register me in 50 states and if you're not willing to organize and do that, then this is...
KING: Wait a minute. Are you...
PEROT: ... all just talk.
KING: Wait a minute. Hold, hold it, hold it, hold it. PEROT: I'm there waiting.
So many people have asked me to do it and I finally decided I had an obligation to do it. Larry basically wanted to know what are you really thinking?
TOM BROKAW: He knew were to go, Ross Perot did.
(MIMICS ROSS PEROT): Larry, I'll get my head under the hood there and I'll just fix it you know? I'll just take care of it.
He was a huge force in American politics as a result of that.
COOPER: What followed was the LARRY KING event that made cable TV history -- one of CNN's highest rated shows ever -- 16.3 million viewers tuned in to hear about a complicated trade issue.
KING: Right before we started, Perot was sitting with me and Gore went up to one of the cameras, leaned against the camera like this and then came and sat down.
And I said, "What was that?"
And he said, "I said a prayer. That's how important this is."
This was the first time in history that a sitting vice president ever debated an ordinary citizen.
GORE: Go ahead.
PEROT: I would like to finish a sentence.
GORE: All right.
PEROT: May I finish?
GORE: All right, go ahead.
PEROT: And this...
(CROSSTALK)
GORE: By the way, I do want to respond.
PEROT: Let's have an unnatural event and try not to interrupt me.
KING: And it changed it. That night changed it. It broke the all time phone record.
PEROT: Oh I didn't -- I never knew it. It couldn't have been a Super Bowl game night, that's for sure.
COOPER: In the '90s, Larry also made history with leading ladies. The King went one on one with screen siren Sharon Stone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: But this is the first time we are together.
SHARON STONE, ACTRESS: Yes.
KING: Right? It was always...
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Want to do that again?
STONE: Yes.
KING: Go ahead. I don't care. They pay me for this. This is a good job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: My ex-wife, she said, you know, you're slimming down. You stopped smoking. Maybe you need a new look.
PHYLLIS DILLER, ACTRESS: His stroke of genius are the suspenders. I would give him an A for style.
(LAUGHTER)
JOAN RIVERS, ENTERTAINER: On the red carpet with the suspenders and the glasses and the pants up to here, oh, worst dressed, hall of fame.
KING: So, I tried them one night. And I wore them. All I had to hear was, three people called and said, you looked terrific. That was enough.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, ACTRESS: And, when you're sitting there with him, you only see him from here up, half of a man.
DOLLY PARTON, ACTRESS/MUSICIAN: He's got his own style. He's the king.
PEROT: I have to admit that I wear suspenders. But you never knew it.
CAROL BURNETT, ACTRESS: Suspenders.
KING: But I like them. They hold your pants up better.
DON RICKLES, COMEDIAN: Some of the outfits, and those shirts and the suspenders can put you away. You know, we ought to put him in a firehouse with a bottle of beer and forget about him.
KING: I'm a brace freak.
COOPER: From megastars, to Muppets, everyone has an opinion of Larry's iconic look. KERMIT THE FROG, MUPPET: And I saw him, and I wanted suspenders. Well, actually, I wanted shoulders first. And then I wanted suspenders.
KING: The most fun I think I had was with Kermit the Frog and his gang. You totally believe you are talking to a frog. You totally accept him as a frog.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: Who fell in love first?
KERMIT THE FROG: Larry -- I will let you take that one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KERMIT THE FROG: I don't even understand why a frog and a pig would get together. I will have to talk to Sanjay Gupta about that.
COOPER: Frogs, film stars, first ladies, Larry kept asking questions in the '90s.
But, when we come back, a famed car chase takes Larry and the world on an unforgettable wild ride.
(on camera): Could you believe that this was happening?
KING: It was surreal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: Now police radio is saying that Simpson has a gun at his head.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a Bronco. We believe O.J. Simpson is in it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And all the overpasses that we have seen have been lined with cars and pedestrians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice-over): It was the watercooler event of the '90s.
KING: They were in airports watching this. They were watching it in bars. All we're doing is along for the ride.
COOPER: Not a Bruckheimer action flick, but a blockbuster just the same. And the night, well, it belonged to Larry.
WENDY WALKER, SENIOR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, LARRY KING LIVE: All of a sudden, in one of the monitors, I saw this white Bronco. So, I called Atlanta. I said, what is this car?
KING: They buzzed into my ear and said, O.J.'s on the road in a Bronco, being followed by police.
So, we go right to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: OK, I'm going to have to interrupt this call. I understand we're going to go to a live picture in Los Angeles.
Police believe that -- that O.J. Simpson is in that car.
This is Interstate 5, one of the many famed California freeways. We don't know if they're going north or south.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I don't know L.A. I live here now. They bring me a map.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: They veered off 91 on to 710 North.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And, for three hours, following the roads on a map.
WALKER: We had so much adrenaline going in the control room. And we just couldn't stop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: Police radio is saying that Simpson, the passenger in the car, has a gun at his head...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no.
KING: ... which has explained why they haven't been stopping and why they haven't moved up alongside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: This is really winging it. But -- and that was the most high-life drama.
COOPER (on camera): And do you like that?
KING: Oh, come on. It's the high of all highs.
COOPER (voice-over): The O.J. drama began on LARRY KING LIVE and, six months later, was still going hot and heavy in a Los Angeles courtroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O.J. SIMPSON, DEFENDANT: Absolutely, 100 percent not guilty.
JOHNNIE COCHRAN, ATTORNEY FOR O.J. SIMPSON: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
MARCIA CLARK, PROSECUTOR: Mr. Bailey has been caught in a lie.
JUDGE LANCE ITO, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT: It became necessary for me to excuse one of the jurors in this case.
CLARK: Can you demonstrate for us how loud it was?
(BANGING)
CLARK: After he took her youth, her freedom, and self-respect, Orenthal James Simpson took her very life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: You were totally shocked?
DENISE BROWN, SISTER OF NICOLE BROWN SIMPSON: I was totally shocked at the extent of all the abuse, yes. After I read her notes, I was completely shocked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: That's the one thing that Larry has been able to let me do, is let people know who Nicole was, let me get the word, the issue of domestic violence, out to the public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARK: We ask you to find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT SHAPIRO, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR O.J. SIMPSON: First week of the trial, and my phone rings.
And Judge Ito growls down and says, "Is that a cell phone?"
"Yes, Your Honor. It's my phone."
And I look at it. And I said to the judge, "But, Judge, it's just Larry King."
COOPER: The King landed a backstage pass to what was dubbed the trial of the century.
(on camera): You actually went to the trial for a day.
KING: I went through the wrong door. I'm in the courtroom. The cameras are on, because Ito is coming back in. As I walk in, he walks behind me.
O.J. says, "Hey, Larry."
COOPER (voice-over): After four months of grueling testimony, the jury returned a verdict in just three short hours.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Outside the courtroom, cheers and jeers.
O.J. Simpson was found not guilty. A few hours later, Larry got a surprising viewer call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: With us on the phone now is O.J. Simpson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: We gave O.J.'s people the number of the control room. We never really thought it would happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
SIMPSON: Fortunately for me, the jury listened to what the witnesses said, and not Marcia Clark's or Darden's or anyone else's rendition of what they said.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: It was just such a shock that we were -- it was the first time we had heard from him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: Would you describe yourself as relieved? Angry? What?
SIMPSON: A little bit of everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: There would be no shortage of shocking moments in the '90s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 9:04 a.m. this morning, the Federal Building was almost completely destroyed by what we believe was a car bomb.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The bombing at Centennial Olympic Park this morning was an evil act of terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reeve struck a rail head-first when he was thrown from his horse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Reeve apparently has no movement or spontaneous respiration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was the guy. He was Superman.
KING: He didn't blame the horse. He blamed himself. And he became a fighter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The body of Kurt Cobain was found in a room above the garage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It does appear self-inflicted. There is a suicide note.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What may be the real reason Lisa Marie Presley is divorcing Michael Jackson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only shocking thing about it is that we have never known why she married him.
COOPER: In the '90s, Larry was the place for star sightings. In '94, he landed "A Streetcar Named Desire" actor Marlon Brando.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE")
MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: Stella!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Over the years, the film legend had become something of a recluse.
WALKER: One day, we got -- out of the blue, we get a call. He's decided to write his own book. They're making him do one interview. And he's chosen Larry King. KING: The phone rings. I pick it up. I'm a little nervous.
"Hello?"
And this voice says: "Larry King, It's Marlon."
I said, "Marlon who?" I swear to God. I said...
(LAUGHTER)
KING: And he goes, "Marlon Brando."
(LAUGHTER)
KING: So, he says: "I'm going to send a car for you. It will be downstairs in about 20 minutes."
So, I go downstairs. And who pulls up but Brando in the car, driving a white Chevy, like a Chevy Nova. I get in the car. And we start to drive, doing songs.
Like, he would do the first line of the song, and I had to do the second.
COOPER: The duo took their show on the road.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
L. KING (singing): I can't get...
BRANDO (singing): Still, I can't get no place...
BRANDO AND L. KING (singing): ... with you.
(CROSSTALK)
KING (singing): I have flown...
BRANDO AND L. KING (singing): ... around the world in a plane...
(CROSSTALK)
BRANDO AND L. KING (singing): ... in Spain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Before the show was over, the songbirds were in a lip- lock. The kiss became a king classic.
BRANDO: Goodbye. Goodbye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I kiss my brother on the cheek and I have had friends hug me, but he's the only man to ever kiss me on the lips. And I can't stop thinking about him. (LAUGHTER)
TOM BROKAW, NBC NEWS: Well before the movie "Brokeback Mountain" came out, he got kissed by Marlon Brando. And he's always been a trendsetter.
COOPER: From trends to tragedy.
When we come back: the shocking murder that sent a shiver down the nation's spine...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The body of the former Little Miss Colorado was found in the basement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: ... and kept viewers tuned into Larry for another explosive debate.
KING: That's a crystal moment in my broadcast life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): The dawn of a new millennium. "Seinfeld" signed off. "The Sopranos" signed on. Millions wanted to be millionaires. And a Catholic schoolgirl broke all the rules.
RANDY JACKSON, "AMERICAN IDOL" JUDGE: "Baby, Hit Me One More Time," I think even I could have had a hit with that song. That's how great of a song it was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "TITANIC")
LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: I'm the king of the world!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: A titanic blockbuster ruled the box office. And near, far, wherever you are, no one could escape Celine.
CELINE DION, SINGER: I didn't want to be part of another movie. I didn't want to do it. And I'm glad we recorded the song. And, when -- we did a demo, actually. I never recorded the song again. The song that you hear, the record, the actual record, is the demo. It's the recording of the demo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "TITANIC")
KATE WINSLET, ACTRESS: Jack, this is where we first met.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: "Titanic" was not the only love story in 1997. Larry King married again, though, according to his bride, their first meeting was a little awkward.
SHAWN KING, WIFE OF LARRY KING: So, he walked across the street and looked up at me, had his hands in his pockets. And he looked up and went, "Mmm," literally grunted. And I just that thought that -- how bizarre.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: On September 5, 1997, Shawn Southwick became the new Mrs. King. But the wedding was nearly called off.
S. KING: He went in for a checkup. And the doctor said: "You can't leave this hospital. If you leave, you could die."
COOPER: Just before an emergency angioplasty, vows were quickly improvised.
ASHER DAN, FRIEND OF LARRY KING: Only Larry King would get married at 5:00 in the morning in a hospital bed.
SID YOUNG, FRIEND OF LARRY KING: Yes. Yes. There were eight of us there.
DAN: And they wanted to fly him out. Did they fly him out?
(CROSSTALK)
SID YOUNG, FRIEND OF LARRY KING: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
DAN: They fly him out.
(CROSSTALK)
YOUNG: Right after that.
COOPER (on camera): The joke -- people tell the joke that, you know, you like to ask questions. Your favorite question is, will you marry me?
(LAUGHTER)
KING: I don't mind that. You know, hey, it goes with the territory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
NORM MACDONALD, ACTOR: And how long have you been married?
KING: Seven months.
MACDONALD: Seven months, which is a record.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice-over): Fatherhood came in 1999, with the birth of a son, Chance. One year later, Cannon arrived.
KING: They totally own me. If anything ever happened to them, I would die. I -- I can't believe how much I love them.
Hey, who's there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cargo.
KING: Cargo who?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Car go vroom, vroom, vroom.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Sometimes, I'm walking to school with them, I walk them to school, and I look at their side views and their profiles. And I can't believe it. I can't believe that I had something to do with creating this.
CHANCE KING, SON OF LARRY KING: He is a really good dad. And I really like him because he -- he's, like, really patient.
L. KING (singing): The infield, the outfield, the catchers and pitchers abound.
CANNON KING, SON OF LARRY KING: This is him on LARRY KING LIVE.
COOPER: In 1998, a scandal at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
W. CLINTON: I did not have...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
W. CLINTON: Indeed, I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
MONICA LEWINSKY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN: People still don't fully know me as a person. And people are still getting to know me, because there was an entire year spent with the media sort of creating Monica Lewinsky. And that -- that wasn't me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Smart, bubbly, infectious laughter, nice personality. I wouldn't picture Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky having dinner.
COOPER (on camera): Apparently, neither did he.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER (voice-over): Scandal, tragedy, unsolved murder, sometimes all in one story, case in point, a 6-year-old beauty queen found dead in her Colorado home, her name, JonBenet Ramsey.
KING: And another thing that made her story was those pictures we had of her. There were pictures of her in contests.
COOPER (on camera): And something about that fascinated the public.
KING: The public. It added to it. And it fascinated the television producers, who said, we have something here. I was saying, if we didn't have that film and those pictures of her, that smiling picture, that would not have been a story.
COOPER (voice-over): Suspects in the court of public opinion, but never charged with the crime, John and Patsy Ramsey faced their accusers as Larry looked on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
STEVE THOMAS, FORMER BOULDER POLICE DETECTIVE: After it became a homicide, Patsy, you waited four months before you came and talked to the Boulder Police Department and answered questions.
PATSY RAMSEY, MOTHER OF JOHN BOLTON: No, Steve, I did not.
THOMAS: Well, tell me when. I was there every day. Tell me how many hours...
P. RAMSEY: Were you in our home that day? Were you in our home the day JonBenet was missing?
(CROSSTALK)
JOHN RAMSEY, FATHER OF JONBENET RAMSEY: Let's read some press release, Steve.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Rather than talk over each other...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
J. RAMSEY: I mean, how would you feel if someone accused your wife of murdering your child on national television? It was pretty bizarre.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are just getting word that the French government has informed all of us that Princess Diana has died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: August 31, 1997, Princess Diana dies in an automobile accident in Paris.
BROKAW: I saw a man who was a real British working-class guy, with a cockney accent. And his daughter was all dressed up. And he was tear-stained, this guy with tattoos and a short haircut holding his daughter by his hand. And he was obviously in great grief. I went over to talk to him. And he said, "She was our princess."
KING: She also is a tragic figure, unhappy in marriage, kind of a marriage she should have never entered into. I liked a lot about some of the roles she had to play, that of helping people around the world, didn't like that royal aspect at all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The plane believed to be carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., which he may have been piloting himself, has now gone missing. And an intensive search is under way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: July 16, 1999, Camelot loses its crown prince. JFK Jr.'s plane is lost in the fog. We knew him first as a little boy, saluting his father's flag-draped casket.
BROKAW: Called a couple of people there and discreetly said, "Did John show up last night?"
And they said, "No, I guess he didn't."
I said, "Did anybody say anything?"
And they said, "No."
And then it all began to unfold.
COOPER (on camera): A bright future ahead of him?
KING: I think he would have been anything. I think he could have been -- he said he wasn't interested in politics. But, if he got interested in politics...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN F. KENNEDY, JR., SON OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: ... he would have been anything.
COOPER: When we return: a Republican member of the Kennedy clan becomes the unlikely Governator of California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: I, Arnold Schwarzenegger...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... do solemnly swear...
SCHWARZENEGGER: ... do solemnly swear...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We will get back to "Larry King: 50 Years of Pop Culture," in just a moment, but, first, a look at the headlines.
The Republican candidates wrapped up their presidential debate tonight. The stage at the Reagan Library was packed with opinions, but the candidates seemed to agree on one subject, Hillary Clinton, and why they feel she and her husband shouldn't return to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only thing I can think of that would be as bad as that would be to have the gang of three running the war on terror: Pelosi, Reid and Hillary Clinton.
JAMES GILMORE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Where you have been is where you're going to go.
And Hillary Clinton tried to socialize medicine in this country, a very bad idea. You need to keep that in the private sector.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It would mean that the appointment of Supreme Court justices and other judges would be -- take a very sharp turn to the left.
RUDOLPH GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It would mean that we were back on defense against terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We will have complete coverage and analysis of the debate coming up on a special edition of "360" in about 35 minutes from now, at 11:00 p.m. Eastern.
Another political story developing tonight: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama is now getting Secret Service protection. A law enforcement source tells CNN, the government is not aware of any specific, credible threats against him, but the campaign has received hate mail, calls, and other threatening materials.
Senate sources say Senator Dick Durbin is the one reported who reported concerns about Obama's safety to the Senate majority leader, who then alerted Homeland Security.
The only other candidate under Secret Service protection is Senator and former first lady Hillary Clinton.
The Obama story is just one of the items in our "Raw Politics" segment tonight. We will, of course, have complete coverage of the Republican presidential debate coming up next on "360" -- now, back to Larry king.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
RUDOLPH GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK: When I first found out about it, I was -- I was just finishing a breakfast at the Peninsula Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
DAN RATHER, CBS NEWS: I was at home, just about to leave for work. The radio read a bulletin. Something had happened at the World Trade Center.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
LIZA MINNELLI, ACTRESS: And I turned on the television, and I thought, OK, the world's gone mad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which way to go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay right where you are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay where you are, ma'am.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
JIM CARREY, ACTOR: I wanted to be there so badly to -- to get involved.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: September 11, 2001, the world changed in the blink of an eye.
(on camera): Nine-eleven, the impact the coverage had?
KING: Oh, my gosh. That was the worst. That was the hardest to cover, the worst to do. And we all went to work, and everyone worked every night, and worked so hard.
COOPER: You had more than 700 guests.
KING: God forbid there's ever a story like that again.
COOPER (voice-over): War followed. The Taliban was defeated, and Baghdad fell.
KING: I thought, when the statue of Saddam came down, Bush lands on the aircraft carrier, "Mission Accomplished," it looked like a walk in the park.
COOPER: In 2003, pop and politics collided when an Austrian-born actor named Arnold muscled his way into California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHWARZENEGGER: Hello. Good morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO")
SCHWARZENEGGER: I am going to run for governor of the state of California.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
SCHWARZENEGGER: Larry, this has been a really exciting thing so far. I mean, it's a great learning experience. Then, you -- it's a refreshing thing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROKAW: He loves the notion of getting things done, pulling people together. When he sees a big crowd, he gets turned on by it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHWARZENEGGER: I, Arnold Schwarzenegger...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... do solemnly swear...
SCHWARZENEGGER: ... do solemnly swear...
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: As the curtain rose on a new millennium, Madonna and Britney made tongues wag. Ozzy Osbourne became reality's coolest dad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OZZY OSBOURNE, MUSICIAN: Rock 'n' roll!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And catchphrases from a spy spoof trilogy were everywhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "AUSTIN POWERS")
MIKE MYERS, ACTOR: Oh, behave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT WAGNER, ACTOR: Started a whole new fan base for me. Now I got kids that are 8 and 10 coming over to me, saying, "Behave, baby. Behave."
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: OutKast was in. Enron was out. And magical movies conjured box office spells.
RICHARD ROEPER, FILM CRITIC: "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings," we're talking about, you know, some of the most successful franchises in movie history. And they're filled with special effects that probably would have made these movies impossible to make years ago.
COOPER: Larry King had some special effects of his own, in 2002, a memorable moment with Paul McCartney's soon-to-be-ex, Heather Mills.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
HEATHER MILLS MCCARTNEY, WIFE OF PAUL MCCARTNEY: ... which I will pop off, actually, if you don't mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: I had no idea it was going to happen. Larry had no idea it was going to happen. And that's why it was such an amazing moment. If you see Larry, the first thing you thought of is, was what do I do? And he was very quick to take the leg.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: Well, it feels like a leg.
MILLS MCCARTNEY: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: She was describing what it's like to have a leg. So, all I said, was:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: Pick -- pick your leg up again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Can I see the leg? Now, she could have said no.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: ... have any feeling there?
MILLS MCCARTNEY: Yes, yes, yes, full feeling, completely.
KING: Full feeling?
MILLS MCCARTNEY: Full feeling. If you touch it, it makes me feel like my toes are completely opening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I knew she was so expressive about it. And, obviously, it didn't bug her to have a wooden leg. She took it off.
COOPER: That same year, rumors of a meltdown, Mariah Carey.
MARIAH CAREY, MUSICIAN: I think, during that time, a lot of questions were unsettling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: Your illness, the blackout, all these stories, nervous breakdown -- what -- what happened?
CAREY: OK. Well, it was an emotional and physical collapse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAREY: Basically, I came out of the studio feeling like, that was really cool. I just got interviewed by Larry King. I have been watching him my whole life. And, wow, this is amazing.
COOPER: And that's exactly what people said when Hollywood's oddest honeymooners stopped by for a visit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING LIVE)
KING: This story is, like, bordering on the bizarre.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Someone at the Beverly Wilshire, where David Gest used to stay, soon after the marriage, said to me, he got married? He was like, you're kidding?
Hi. I'm Larry King. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth.
RICHARD ROEPER, FILM CRITIC: I see a movie, and Larry King makes that appearance as Larry King, interviewing a fictional character.
SAMUEL JACKSON, ACTOR: I'm always frank and earnest with women. In New York, I'm Frank. In Chicago, I'm Ernest.
(LAUGHTER)
ROEPER: There is always a certain kick out of that. Because you're like, OK, this is a movie that has a humor about itself.
KING: OK. Let's go to phone calls now on LARRY KING LIVE. White Plains, you're on the air with Glen Harris (ph).
MARIAH CAREY, SINGER: When Catherine Zeta-Jones goes...
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, ACTOR: I love Larry.
CAREY: ... right after...
ZETA-JONES: I just wanted to reach over and choke him to death with those stupid suspenders.
CAREY: That's just one of my favorite moments in a movie ever.
COOPER: Indeed, with more than 20 credits to his name...
KING: Professional paranormal eliminators in New York are the cause of it all.
COOPER: ... Larry proved himself a cameo king throughout the years.
JOHN TRAVOLTA, ACTOR: Look at King, look at his face.
COOPER: He even got to do drag in an animated land far, far away.
KING: Hey, buddy, let me clue you in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My dad was a woman.
JOAN RIVERS, TALK SHOW HOST: I think "Shrek" should not have been animated. I think it should have been live. And I think Larry and I finally would have gotten our due and got the best supporting actor and actress. Spielberg was a fool.
KING: They did a takeoff on the "American Idol." I won the DVD singing "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."
RYAN SEACREST, HOST, "AMERICAN IDOL": In 2002, a television show called "American Idol" signs on the air for the first time. Kelly Clarkson.
KING: I forecast its doom. I was so right on that show. It had a young host. He had no chance.
(LAUGHTER)
SEACREST: You are going home tonight.
RANDY JACKSON, JUDGE, "AMERICAN IDOL": I think people are really drawn to "American Idol" because it's one of the first times on TV that you've had a music show that's very specific that's about music. And I think it's the greatest talent show ever.
KING: We never had guys sitting there saying, you're terrible. I mean, that was unique.
SIMON COWELL, JUDGE, "AMERICAN IDOL": You can't sing. You can't dance. So what do you want me to say?
COOPER: Coming up, a domestic idol behind bars. For her, not a good thing.
(on camera): Were you surprised that she went to jail?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANHCOR: He defined an era.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was the greatest president of the 20th Century.
ZAHN: He transformed a party and did so much to change...
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States is now dead.
COOPER (voice-over): In Spain, 10 bombs turned Madrid's early morning commute into a death trap.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beantown, baby! Beantown!
JAKE GYLLENHAAL, ACTOR: I wish i knew how to quit you.
ROEPER: There is something about "Brokeback" that just permeated the culture.
R. JACKSON: Justin Timberlake became the iconic one out of the whole boy band movement.
DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MAGNATE: "The Apprentice" hit the right nerve at the right time. You're fired.
You're fired.
You're fired.
PETER JENNINGS, ABC ANCHOR: I have learned in the last couple of days that I have lung cancer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anchor and journalist Peter Jennings has died tonight from lung cancer.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We will not allow violence to change our societies or our values.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The execution of Saddam Hussein was carried out 10 minutes ago.
COOPER: '04 through '07, years dominated by natural disaster. A monster tsunami thrashed Southeast Asia, a killer quake devastated parts of Pakistan, and Katrina changed the Gulf Coast forever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get up all the way to the roof. And water came, it had just opened up, devoured it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who was at your house with you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And where is she now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't find her body. She gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would love to help.
WENDY WALKER, SR. EXEC. PRODUCER, LARRY KING LIVE: We put on a special on the weekend to try to just show everybody where they could contribute.
KING: Joining us now is an old and dear friend, Celine Dion.
WALKER: Celine came on. And when she started talking, nobody knew that was going to happen.
CELINE DION, SINGER: I'm sorry for crying so hard. Because I'm holding it for the last week. And I'm trying to tell my son that everything's going to be OK. But I see those mothers over there, they are like, (INAUDIBLE).
I can hold my emotion normally, I manage that pretty well. But sometimes you can't control things like that. And there was just a little too much.
COOPER: Disasters weren't limited to the natural. In 2004, Michael Jackson, perhaps the biggest star on the planet, was charged with seven counts of child molestation. (on camera): You've done a lot of Michael Jackson. Who's to blame for what has happened to Michael Jackson?
KING: When you come right down to it, he's an adult. He is. I don't think you can blame anyone else. You know, I knew him when he was 12 years old. When he was 12 years old, they were the Jackson 5 and they were on my show in Miami.
What happened to him?
COOPER (voice-over): After a star-studded trial, the former "King of Pop" was found not guilty. No prison time for Michael.
But Martha could not escape the big house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Martha! You go, girl!
COOPER: After a highly-publicized stock scandal, Martha Stewart went from domestic diva to convicted felon.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Martha Stewart found guilty.
SEACREST: Did you think that that was the end for Martha Stewart?
KING: No. Because she has gumption. I known her for a long time. She has comeuppance. And she would never quit. I knew she would make a story out of prison.
Tonight, exclusive, Martha Stewart.
COOPER: And what a story it was. In 2005, Martha turned to Larry for her prison tell-all.
KING: You say you were treated well in prison?
MARTHA STEWART, FOUNDER, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: I was treated just like any other inmate.
COOPER: Martha was just one of a multitude of celebrity scandals and slip-ups. Tom jumped the couch. Janet's wardrobe malfunction. Britney shaved.
R. JACKSON: Any successful star that's an icon like her, is one hit away from being back.
COOPER: Lindsay misbehaved. Ashlee fumbled. And Star and Barbara crumbled.
STAR JONES, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": And I will not be returning as co-host next year. I'm going to hold your hands right now, because as you might imagine, this might be a hard thing to do. OK?
KING: What a night that was. She's dismissed from the show. And she flew right in.
We're back with Star Jones.
Came on our show. I felt sorry for her.
COOPER (on camera): She surprised Barbara Walters by basically announcing she was going to leave the show.
KING: Yes, she did. And I think Barbara took it as a stab in the back.
Are you saying now that you were fired?
JONES: My contract was not renewed.
KING: That's fired, right?
JONES: Well...
It was one of the toughest interviews I've ever done. There was absolutely no other option considered on who I would sit down with. And the reason why is the reason that I share with everyone who sits across from Larry. You know that the truth will come out.
COOPER (voice-over): After nearly a decade of dish, Star Jones was off "The View." But that did not end the daytime drama.
BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": It's the hot topics. And it's the chemistry of the people involved. And the chemistry continues with Rosie now and the rest of us.
Maybe we should introduce you or is that...
ROSIE O'DONNELL, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": Oh, they know. OK. My name is Meredith Vieira.
COOPER: Rosie O'Donnell was the new star of "The View." Just a few months in the hot seat, Ro and The Donald took it to the mat.
O'DONNELL: And there he is, hair looping, going everywhere...
TRUMP: She's a bad person. She's an evil person.
O'DONNELL: This is man is like sort of one of those, you know, snake oil salesmen in "Little House on the Prairie."
TRUMP: Rosie is bad news. And I have absolutely no qualms about attacking her.
COOPER: But then, even more drama. And a surprising announcement.
O'DONNELL: Did you hear it's on CNN as breaking news?
COOPER: After just one year on "The View," Rosie says good-bye.
O'DONNELL: They couldn't come to terms with my deal with ABC. So, next year I'm not going to be on "The View." And that's show biz. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was found in her room lying unresponsive.
COOPER: In February 2007, celebrity scandal reached a fever pitch. Anna Nicole Smith, the 39-year-old former model and reality TV star, was found dead in her Florida hotel room.
BLITZER: Larry King is on the phone. He's joining us from Los Angeles.
WALKER: I called Larry at his house and immediately got him on Wolf Blitzer's show. He knew her better than anybody because she'd been on the show so many times.
KING: I first met her many years ago. I went through with all the marriage to the elderly gentlemen, the weight gains up, the weight gains down.
I'm going to miss her. She was a lot of fun. I knew her so many times and she'd been on the show so many times and I genuinely liked her. She could laugh at herself.
COOPER (on camera): Was she a tragic figure?
KING: I would call her a tragic figure. Well, you lose your son at your bedside with your brand-new daughter. And then, three men say they fathered the child. And then, you die. Bad fiction.
COOPER (voice-over): Tragic figures...
STEVE IRWIN, "THE CROCODILE HUNTER": You're a legend in my book. My -- absolute legend. You're at the top of the food chain, just like the crocodile.
COOPER: Fallen heroes. Breakups.
NICK NOLTE, ACTOR: It was controlling my life.
COOPER: Breakdowns.
KING: Never dated a con before. I'm only kidding.
STEWART: Would you stop it?
COOPER: Unbeatable comebacks.
BOB WOODRUFF, ABC ANCHOR: Every week, better than the last.
JIMMY CARTER, 39TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Not Apartheid.
COOPER: Riveting interviews.
KING: Why, Dolly, have you been so open to discuss your cosmetic procedures?
DOLLY PARTON, SINGER: Well, because people like you ask me. COOPER: Five decades in the making.
KING: Intimate scenes, are they harder to do?
JENNIFER ANISTON, ACTOR: God, get me out of here.
KING: (INAUDIBLE) it was funny.
COOPER: Coming up, will the man dubbed "the most remarkable host in talk" ever leave the chair?
KING: Who knew it would come to this? We'll be back with more moments and more phone calls. Don't go away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by, Larry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You ready?
KING: Do a couple of reads here, right?
What was your last audience figures?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-seven-point-five.
KING: And he's playing the fiddle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what that means. Here he goes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Reservoir Dogs" for CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you hear the name, "Larry King," you think...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mischief-maker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America's host.
DION: Professional.
KERMIT THE FROG: Suspenders.
JUDGE JUDY SHEINDLIN: Suspenders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trouble.
JERRY LEWIS, ACTOR: Annoying.
ALAN ALDA, ACTOR: Dollar bills.
RIVERS: Divorce lawyer. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tremendous sense of humor.
CAREY: Funny guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pop icon.
TED TURNER, FOUNDER, CNN: He's my pal.
WALTER CRONKITE, FORMER CBS ANCHOR: Well-informed.
JONES: The utmost of professionalism.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Established.
PARTON: The best.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspenders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blue lights on the wall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspenders.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, COMEDIAN: And the mike. Why is the mike there? I don't know.
COOPER: The man, the microphone, a milestone. For 50 years, he has been at the top of pop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, he is pop culture. He's the pop of culture.
COOPER: With those iconic set lights, Larry has interviewed everybody, from Dolly to Dalai.
WALKER: He never gets nervous. He never worries about what he's going to ask. I'm the one that's in the background worrying all the time. And he will say to me, so what are you going to worry about now? All you do is worry.
KING: I don't need a script.
COOPER (on camera): And you still love it?
KING: I like some shows better than others. And I don't like doing every show I have to do. But once the red light goes on, I'm in.
COOPER: No matter who it is.
KING: That's right.
COOPER: Politics, entertainment?
KING: As long as there's variety. Don't give me politics every night, or sports every night, or crime every night. Give me a mix-up.
COOPER (voice-over): That mix-it-up mantra melds into his personal life, as well. Every morning like clockwork...
KING: You can read me like a clock. I have the same thing.
COOPER: It's corn muffins and conversation at Nate'n Al's in Beverly Hills.
SHAWN KING, LARRY'S WIFE: I used to call it "Larry's sandbox."
KING: Sports. Politics. Music. Today, we're talking about ESPN and CNN.
TOM BROKAW, FORMER NBC ANCHOR: Larry King is everyman. He grew up in the New York area. He lived a long time in Florida. He is very comfortable on the West Coast at Nate'n Al's.
KING: It's a comforting part of my day. Take the boys to school.
Oh, we're going to have a good time in the schoolyard today.
Then, it's downhill from there on.
BROKAW: You could drop him into the Midwest, though, into a farmer coffee shop. And he'd be asking all the right questions within about 15 seconds. He just is interested in what people have to say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never dull.
KING: Never dull.
COOPER (on camera): I was asking around to a couple of people who have been on your show about what it is that makes it work so well. And they said that you make guests comfortable to the point where they feel they can say anything.
KING: Paul Newman said something to me. He says, you know the secret. You'll be back tomorrow night. I want the guests to be good. I want them to be responsive. I want them to react. And I'm going to be tomorrow night. So if the guest commands the hour, so what? And by the way, you're always in control. The interviewer is always in control.
COOPER (voice-over): He has been dubbed the most remarkable talk show host on TV ever. But in the world of big gets, there are regrets. Yes, he's had a few.
(on camera): Who do you wish you had interviewed that you haven't interviewed?
KING: I would love to have interviewed the last pope. And we got a maybe once, which was a big thrill. Look, we got an e-mail from the Vatican. Maybe.
COOPER: What about Jackie O.? You never talked to her.
KING: No, I would have loved to have talked to Jackie O. COOPER: Are there ever times that you can't come up with a question for somebody?
KING: NO. That has never happened. Sometimes it gets rough. The roughest was Rock Hudson's wife.
A great pleasure to welcome Phyllis Gates to LARRY KING LIVE tonight.
You married Rock Hudson? Yes, I did.
Did you love him?
GATES: I think I was in love in with him.
KING: When did you last speak to him? About 20 years ago.
Did you have any idea he was gay?
GATES: No.
KING: Did you see all his movies?
GATES: No. Why would I do that?
KING: Well, because he was once your husband. Four minutes after the hour, I'm out. She knew nothing about Rock Hudson.
COOPER (voice-over): More than 40,000 interviews. An infinite amount of what, where, when and...
KING: Why?
Why? Why?
Why do you have one name?
MADONNA, SINGER: As opposed to what?
KING: Two names, like Madonna...
MADONNA: Ciccone.
KING: ... Liebowitz (ph).
MADONNA: That's good. That's good. I like that.
COOPER (on camera): What is it that brings people to your table?
KING: There's a great line in "Fiddler on the Roof." When they come to Tevye, the father of the five daughters, Tevye is Jewish. The first daughter's in love with a Catholic. And all the townspeople in Russia can't believe this. Tevye, how could you allow this? How could you permit this? Tevye, your daughter's in love with a Catholic? And Tevye looks up and says, I like him.
COOPER: Thanks, Larry.
KING: Thanks, Anderson.
COOPER (voice-over): Fifty years and counting. People still like him. Larry King, 50 years of history in the making.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Congratulations, Larry, 50 years. You deserve all of the success that you have had.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're ready. Stand by. In three, two, one.
KING: Good evening. It's...
CAROL BURNETT, ACTOR: Here's to another 50.
BROKAW: I thought you'd been around for 100 years.
KING: Next, Bob Woodruff, the ABC News anchor.
DION: Happy 50th anniversary.
TRUMP: You're now 50 years in broadcasting.
DON RICKLES, COMEDIAN: I'm sorry I can't be there to blow out the cake because I know it's going to be a cheap one.
KING: It's his first, live, prime-time interview...
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, 41ST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Larry, congratulations.
LEWIS: You are something, Larry.
RIVERS: Happy anniversary.
KING: It's at the top of the hour on LARRY KING LIVE.
RIVERS: And at our age, healthy.
SHEINDLIN: Fifty years, Larry.
JON BON JOVI, SINGER: Like a fine wine, you keep getting better.
KERMIT: Fifty years is a long time. But we're still young, aren't we?
DOMINICK DUNNE, AUTHOR: Happy anniversary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty good.
ANDY GRIFFITH, ACTOR: Larry, it's Andy. And I want to wish you a happy anniversary.
JOHN WALSH, HOST, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": You have made a difference in so many people's lives. Including mine.
R. JACKSON: Happy 50th, baby.
ROSS PEROT, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to wish you a happy 50th anniversary, even though I think it's a lot longer than that.
TURNER: Happy 50th anniversary in broadcasting, pal.
WALTERS: Happy 50th...
MIKE WALLACE, HOST, "60 MINUTES": ... anniversary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Larry, thank you.
KING: Thank you.
GOLDBERG: Happy anniversary-sary.
LIONEL RICHIE, SINGER: From me to you.
ROBERT WAGNER, ACTOR: Happy anniversary.
CRONKITE: And so, old boy, happy anniversary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's great to be around a professional like you, man.
KING: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty years, everybody.
KING: Fifty years.
The king will return tomorrow. He bids all of his faithful followers, farewell.
KERMIT: It would be tough to say I'm more popular than Larry King. I would never say that. Of course, I certainly would never say that because this is his tribute show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are an icon in the business.
LEWIS: An acorn?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An icon.
LEWIS: Oh.
PRISCILLA PRESLEY, WIFE OF ELVIS: I was promoting my book, "Elvis and Me" at the time. And I had really never done Larry before, as far as being a guest on his show or any other time, excuse me. For me, I'd never done Larry. That didn't sound right.
(LAUGHTER)
JONES: Oh lord, I thought I had the simple hair today so we didn't have to worry about it. TRUMP: Could you just move your head over? Could you move your head?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Like he says, Shawnie (ph), we're going to be late. And my mom goes, I'm coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is how he walks. This is how he walks.
BROKAW: And I think that when she -- the toilet's flushing here in the background.
WALTERS: Larry has never made our most fascinating list because he isn't fascinating. It has never even occurred to us to put :Larry on our fascinating list.
That's not true, Larry. You are fascinating. Maybe next year, darling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Larry calls you one of his oldest and dearest friends. Would you agree with that statement?
RICKLES: Well, oldest, right. Dearest, I don't know about that. I'm not that crazy about him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was hitting the ball. I come up, he pitches it. Dad couldn't even see the ball. It went 100 miles per hour. Like 200 miles per hour. Hit him in the eye. His glasses fell off.
KERMIT: Well, you see, I dressed like Larry tonight, just to honor him. It's what they call in Hollywood a...
In Hollywood, it's what they call an homage. Everybody else just calls it copying.
PARTON (singing): And I will always love you, and I'm sure I'm speaking for millions and millions of people out there.
I don't know him that well. I'm making up some of this (expletive deleted).
(LAUGHTER)
PARTON: I don't guess you care.
RIVERS: Well, truth is going to count in this one?
(LAUGHTER)
RIVERS: Not even sure who Larry it is.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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