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

Episode Date: January 25, 2021

Nancy Grace and guests pay homage to the iconic interviewer Larry King. Several of King's co-workers and producers share their favorite stories with Nancy in this heartfelt tribute.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Carol Buckland - Creative Director & Executive Communication Coach, The Communication Center, Washington, D.C., Senior Editorial Producer for LARRY KING LIVE on CNN from 2000-2011, Former Editorial Producer for Larry King’s PolitcKING Burt Dubrow - Senior Executive Producer of Daily Blast Live (a nationally syndicated talk show), Creator and Executive Producer of 'Sally Jessy Raphaël' & Jerry Springer  Peter Tedeschi - Former Larry King Live Executive & Senior Producer, Creator of Larry King Weekend on CNN  Tammy Haddad - Former Executive Producer of "Larry King Live" Art Harris - Emmy Award-winning National Investigative Correspondent, CNN National Bureau in Atlanta Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. A day has come that many people across the country and across the world cannot take in. Larry King is gone. A giant amongst men and women, a broadcast legend. He lived his life till the very last moment. God bless him. Condolences today from former President Bill Clinton, saying he gave a direct line to the American people and worked hard to get the truth for them. From Oprah Winfrey, it was always a treat to sit at your table and hear your stories. Thank you.

Born in Brooklyn in 1933, young Larry Zeiger dreamed of a career in radio. He chose the name King from a liquor store ad. Welcome to Larry King Live. In 1985, Ted Turner lured him to the newbie on the block, CNN. Any personal regrets? King became the network's biggest draw. We're honored to have the president and first lady with us. He said his secret was not to over-prepare, and some called him on it.

I was the number one show on television, Larry. Do you know who I am? King even bragged he never read the books his guests promoted. What I worry about is where I think I know too much. The day I go into a studio saying I've asked all the questions and I've heard all the answers is the day I've got to quit. You know, just hearing his voice makes my eyes fill up with tears.

With me, literally an all-star panel that knew Larry very well. And I wonder who Larry's asking questions to right now. First of all, with me, Tammy Haddad, former executive producer of Larry King Live. Peter Tedeschi, former Larry King Live executive senior producer, creator of Larry King Weekend. Bert DeBrow, senior executive producer of Daily Blast Live, nationally syndicated, and the creator of Sally Jessie Raphael. He knows about talk shows.

The woman who went into the mind of Larry King, the head of his research team. She knew what he wanted. She knew where he wanted to go with every single story. Carol Buckland is with me, with Larry for years. And Art Harris, Emmy award-winning national investigative correspondent, CNN National Bureau, Atlanta, former crack reporter with The Washington Post. I mean, I don't even know where to start. So let me just start with you, Tammy Haddad, former executive producer of Larry King Live. When I hear someone is a friend of the Muppets, a friend of Clinton and Trump and Obama and Reagan, I mean, it's kind of hard to fight with that. That's for sure. And it's

great that all these people took the time to come out and talk about their relationship with Larry. But that's what was unique about what he did. He brought people together. He allowed them to tell their story. And isn't that the greatest gift that you could give someone? So you're president of the United States. Okay. You're a King. You're a taxi driver. You're a Muppet. And when you go on TV, you know, it's exposure. Nancy, think about all the guests you've talked to and how you're the same way. You always made people feel comfortable, even if it was the toughest story. And I think what he did was give people the gift of his attention and his respect. And it's funny because this weekend they keep running one of the serial killer clips. And it's such a reminder that Larry never judged people's transgressions.

What he was trying to do was give them the chance to tell their story. You know, Carol Buckland with Larry for years and years, senior editorial producer for Larry King Live. I mean, I remember Carol Buckland when I would be on Larry's show or, God help me, sub-anchoring for him, which I did for many years, his guest anchor, your notes would be meticulous. And when people mock Larry for wanting to have a clean slate when he went out there, all he had with him were your notes. That was it. What did Larry want? What's the secret? It always irked me when people said that, oh, he doesn't really prepare. He thought about

his interviews. He thought about the people. He was a voracious reader, and he was insatiably curious. And I didn't tell him what to ask. I might suggest interesting topics. I always drew the analogy. The interview starts and he's walking down a really long corridor with thousands of doors. And my job was to put an X on certain doors, maybe give him a little hint, but essentially say, knock on this door with one of your simple but on-point questions, and interesting stuff is going to come out. And it was not only, and I agree with Tammy, that he paid attention to people. He gave them his respect. He also listened better than almost anybody I know in the business. If you go back and read transcripts of his programs, you will notice he doesn't talk. There's maybe a one sentence question. It's not a buffet question. And he was fond of saying, I'm not learning, my audience isn't learning if I'm talking.

So for him, I knew it was all about the guest, the guest having an opportunity to tell his or her story. And Larry saw himself as a conduit, as a substitute for the audience. And his audience was as diverse as the guests he had on. And Carol, you should also explain how you think the other hosts read all those books, right? You know, it always makes me laugh. Like, you know, I mean, Nancy, did you read the book of every person you had on? I mean, Larry may have read, you know, five reviews, but, you know,

he wanted to learn about the author from what they had to say. Right, Carol? It just made me laugh when I heard all these people repeating that. Well, I did, as most editorial producers do, I did pre-interviews with the guests. And I was not all of them, but many of them would say to me, oh my gosh, you've read my book. Yeah, because I needed to know what would be interesting in it. But yes, the idea, yes, some people do read some of the books or they go to the movies or whatever. But for a lot of them, they are backed up even more significantly than Larry was.

I mean, Larry had a lifetime of experience. The interviews might have been different if he hadn't had my research. But it wasn't a lot of things. I knew he didn't want to know what people were going to say to them. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, I want to jump right back in to mourning and celebrating our friend Larry King, and I want to start with this. Do you recognize these voices?

They just called you one day and said, you're a dame. Well, now they ask around so there's no embarrassment to find out if you would be interested. And they do it in a very sly way. Oh. Because some people have turned it down and they don't want to be embarrassed. So when I heard this little whoosh-whoosh, I screamed. I said, of course, I want to be a dame.

That's amazing. There's nothing like a dame. Well, I've been abroad all my life. Is it still a kick when the man says, and now, ladies and gentlemen, they don't even say it, I guess, anymore. You just walk out, right? No, they're making an announcement.

Ladies and gentlemen. It was a kick. Frank's not. That's still a kick. Absolutely. And the first, I swear on my mother's soul, the first four or five seconds, I tremble every time I take the step

and I walk out of the wing onto the stage because I keep thinking to myself, I wonder if it'll be there. When I go for the first sounds that I have to make, will it be there? Can you believe it? Peter Tedeschi, former Larry King Live executive senior producer, creator of Larry King Weekend. Peter, in case you didn't recognize those voices, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. I mean, amazing because Frank Sinatra would not give interviews, right? Absolutely. It's amazing who Larry could get. And I'll tell you another one. It's actually before I worked on the show, I used to do prime

news with Bernie Shaw, which would go up until nine o'clock. Larry started at nine. That's how I got to know Tammy originally. And Tammy very generously, because you don't want to bother celebrities. One night had Audrey Hepburn on. My mother is the world's greatest Audrey Hepburn, like everyone on the planet Earth is a fan. And I said to Tammy, can I come meet her, please? And Tammy said, yes. So I got to hang out with Audrey Hepburn for a couple of hours.

So where else in life do you get to hang out with Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn? Peter, Peter, Peter. I'm doing what Larry told me not to do. Interrupt. He told me that every single night I was on his program or guest hosted every night. And he said it in a very fatherly way. All right.

He wasn't fussing or being mean. I could just see him looking at me on the screen when I would interrupt. But, Peter, I agree. The people you can meet in Larry King's green room. It's incredible, Peter. Absolutely incredible. And let me let me tell you how it happened with Kermit the Frog. I take credit for that one. We were doing a week. Larry's going to be on vacation for a week. And we were going to flip the chance, flip the table, basically, and have a week of guest hosts where like Dan Quayle was the host and Tim Russert was his guest. We did that for a week to try to figure out what to do with Larry. So coincidentally, that week, Friday was falling

on April 1st and it popped in my head and I said, I've got a brilliant idea for the guest host on Friday. Let's have Kermit the Frog be the guest host and we'll play it straight. And everyone loved the idea. I went up to New York. I met with the Henson people. We worked on it. So it was my childhood fantasy fulfilled. I got to go up and work with Henson Productions and their Muppet townhouse for a couple of days.

And we did this show and it was a blast. And at the end of the show, Larry's on vacation, but he called in. We had it set up. So that's part of Larry's generosity that even though he was on vacation, he called in to critique Kermit's hosting. But our phone system, and Tammy can attest to this, our phone system, you couldn't talk to the people, the callers, without being heard on air. So I couldn't wrap Larry, and he was running long.

So I had to tell Kermit to wrap him up. So Kermit's trying to shut Larry up. And Larry goes, Kermit, you're trying to shut me up on my own show. And Kermit then says, well, you know how it is with Peter, which of course, nobody at home knew who Peter was. So then Larry kind of gave a little snarky comment about me. So my claim to fame in CNN history is that Kermit and Larry dissed me on the air. I love that. And I guess my claim to fame is Larry fussing at me after every show. And I would try to do better and then do the very same thing the next time with me,

senior executive producer, Daily Blast Live, nationally syndicated talk show, and creator of Sally, Jesse, Raphael, and Jerry Springer. Let's don't leave that out. Burt Dubrow. I mean, those red glasses. I mean, if you just put the red glasses on a billboard, most people would know Sally Jesse Raphael. Tell me, you're the golden boy of talk show. How did Larry change talk? Well, you know what? I'll tell you, Nancy, I'm listening to everybody and I'm the audience here because I'm loving what I'm hearing here.

But I think a word that we're leaving out, which is a really, really important one, and you don't hear it a lot these days, and it's the word broadcaster. And you just don't have broadcasters anymore brought up that way. Larry was a broadcaster. And when I hear things, which, of course, I knew, too, that he didn't read the book, he didn't do this, he didn't do that. At the end of the day, he didn't seem to have the ego that a lot of hosts did have. A lot of hosts like to brag that they read the book. They brag and brag and brag. And as everybody is saying, as I'm listening, Larry was interested in two things, the guest and the audience.

And some people just have that something. And I know it's a cliche when I say that, but they just have that something. And in a world where talk has got all over the place all those years, very, very aggressive, as the show you mentioned that I did, Larry didn't change. Larry just was Larry. And you know what? That's what people love. When all is said and done, I think people have said this too, you like somebody the first 10, 15, 20 seconds, and everybody seemed to like Larry. He was able to throw softballs, not hardballs, and it didn't matter.

I think that's why everybody did the show as much as they did and why he got the people that he got. I mean, Carol Buckland, who was his senior editorial producer, and I know because road in middle Georgia end up getting to meet Larry King, getting to be on with Larry King, and getting to guest anchor for Larry King? I mean, literally every night I would pinch myself. I could not believe my good fortune to get to be part of the Larry King team. Talking about how he got these guests, do you remember in all the Condit controversy, remember? Larry managed to somehow end up getting Condit relatives on. He got their families on. I mean, he had the knack. I guess it's what Bert Dubrow just said. He would give the guest a chance to speak, and they wouldn't go away feeling bad.

He was nonjudgmental, Nancy. I'll never forget when Tammy Haddad called me and made a few headlines at the Washington Post as journalists covering the scandalous TV preachers down south, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. And they read articles I'd done for the Washington Post. Hey, Art, do you think you could get us in touch with that very, you know, below the belt character you just wrote? Sure. And Larry had these people on who I'd interviewed, and he was so nonjudgmental and generous that they just opened up. And he was in touch with what people wanted to hear.

He got out of the way, as Tammy was saying, a lot of hosts who insert themselves into the narrative. He was a listener, and I think that's what relaxed people and just made them feel so welcome and eager to go on the show. Are you saying he had Jim and Tammy Faye Baker on? He had everybody on. Yeah, and that was, in fact. He staggered all of them. Art actually helped us, right? Art really launched, helped the first round of great success of Larry King Live

was, you know, covering this community. And Art, you're actually reminding me about, you know, covering this community. And Art, you're actually reminding me about, you know, Nancy, it wasn't people from New York and LA that were featured on the show, right? It was really people that appealed to whatever middle America you can call it now. So Jim and Tammy Baker were iconic, important people. Hey, you know what? Not a lot of people would have put them on the air, right, Art? Well, yeah.

And then when Jimmy Swigert had his fall from grace, and I got the first interview with the lady of the night who ministered to him in the No-Tell Motel, you got her to go on the show. And Larry, after she told me, I asked her, I said, Jimmy Swigert says he's never kissed a woman other than his wife, Deborah. And she says, well, I don't believe he ever kissed me. Okay, and on that note, I think there was kissing to be done, but not necessarily on the lips. crime stories with nancy grace guys who is larry king well this should be a little bit of an indicator take a listen to larry king with ronald Reagan. One of the most difficult things about getting older is forgetting things. And a lot of people make fun with you.

Comics have had fun with you. Is that for you frustrating to not remember something? Yes, it's very frustrating. And yet at the same time, I don't know whether it's all just the passage of the years incidentally you've referred to that birthday that is coming up i don't call them birthdays anymore they are anniversaries of your 39th birthday and this would be the 41st anniversary of your 39th so you're you're a kid. Nancy, can I give you the background of that interview? Jump in.

So that was the night that the Gulf War started, 1991. And, you know, when President Reagan was president, you know, no one was looking at cable news, to be honest with you. After they left the White House, Larry did an amazing interview with Nancy Reagan, and then Ronald Reagan wrote a book and agreed to come on. So he's on his way in. And that question that Larry asked, you have to understand this is years before the Alzheimer's diagnosis or any of the sense that there was anything going on with President Reagan in a real, you know, medical way. And he came in that night and everyone was very nervous. His people were very nervous. We were nervous.

You know, oh, well, he doesn't really know about the Gulf War. You know, how much time should we spend on it? Should we talk about it? He walked on that set with Larry and it's like they were looking at the same person. You see how easy that interview was. And to ask that question again, really gutsy. Yeah. To ask a president, do you feel bad when you keep forgetting things? But the way he said it, the way Larry framed the question, Reagan took it in stride. Carol Buckland and Peter Tedeschi especially, and Bert DeBrow,

I guess this is a guest you always wish you had take a listen to this. Joining us are the Muppet leader, Kermit the Frog. Thank you very much. And his beloved Miss Piggy, and they are dressed appropriately. That's right. You both wore braces in my honor. That's right. We certainly did. We wanted to, just because you always wear these things, we wanted to do this just in

honor of you. And mine are pink and blue, and yours, Kermit, are... Watch the hand. Mine are sort of pink and blue. Piggy, I wasn't making a move for you. Fine, fine. Fine lines. Okay.

Do you like wearing suspenders not particularly no no but do you wear them in my honor oh yeah kermit told me i had to i mean carol buckler peter i produced that i produced that episode actually yeah so great so wonderful okay can i tell you something um every christmas eve we watch the same program and and it is Muppet Christmas with, of course, Kermit and Piggy. They are stars, stars across the world, but especially to children. What possessed you to get Kermit and Piggy on with Larry? Well, it was funny because they were promoting something. I mean, the Muppet organization was promoting something. I don't remember exactly what they were promoting. It was like a new TV special or a movie. And they were willing to come down and do the show. And what was really exciting was, rather than do it remote from New York, they were willing to travel to Washington so we could do it in person and set up the whole situation because they wanted to have the interconnection with

Larry. So Frank Oz was there as Miss Piggy and Steve Whitmire, who had taken over for Jim Henson, was there. So I got to meet childhood heroes of my own in many ways and really see how they lived and interacted with him. And the puppeteers, of course, are extraordinary. But Larry had this way of talking to them like they were people on his set. Because he could just do that because he was just that good. And it was just extraordinary to watch because Muppet characters aren't like Disney characters. They live in the real world, if that makes any sense. So Larry, I mean, who lives more in the real world than Larry King? So it's bold.

Can I jump in, too? Because you just reminded me of this. It's Bert. I think one of the things that Larry was also great at, and it was real, and when you say Miss Piggy and Kermit, he was a fan. So when he would, you know, talk to them or when he would talk to Sinatra or when he would talk to Elizabeth Taylor or any of these people, you always got the sense he was a real, real, real fan. And again, I think that was part of his appeal. There was no sort of showbiz in there. He was a fan. Am I right?

Oh, man. Let me tell you something. Larry King, just even talking about it now, I feel joy and sorrow that he is leaving. Think about him speaking to presidents and famous actors, singers, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando. But he could, as I've mentioned, even make a girl who grew up on a red dirt road with a well dug in the backyard feel incredible. Take a listen to this. We thought we'd spend tonight learning about who Nancy Grace is

and how she got to be the way she is. Where'd you grow up? Larry, I grew up in Macon, Georgia. It's a very tiny town about an hour and a half south of Atlanta. Always want to be a lawyer? No. As a matter of fact, I wanted to be an English teacher. I majored in Shakespearean studies at a very tiny school in Georgia, and that was my intent. So, Carol Buckland, I know you remember that night and I couldn't believe at the

time I was sitting in a chair where presidents and famous stars had sat. Did you know that was the very first time ever that I revealed why I became a lawyer and left Shakespearean Studies and became a prosecutor? It was because of Larry King. All those years I prosecuted, I never breathed a word. Larry, Nancy told me once upon a time in a profile I did of you, and I think they may have seen that, and they knew that you had a poignant story that no one had heard much of, but that you did it because you related to the victims because you had been one.

And that story just touched so many people. And I like to say, or you like to say, you know, I may have discovered you, but Larry discovered me as well in terms of the recording. He put us out there. He was so generous with his, you know, with his praise and acknowledgement. He really was. Carol Buckland, do you remember that night? Yeah, and it's, as I said, for Larry, it was about the guest.

And we had, and I'm sure Tammy will attest to this, we had more than a few guests come off the set and say, I didn't intend to say that, but Larry made it so easy that people, they go into interviews, they've drawn lines, but Larry, because, and I know people call them softball questions, but they were questions of interest that came from a genuine place. He would ask them and then he would step back and simply look and listen and pay attention. Sometimes he would follow up. Other times he wouldn't follow up. He had the luxury of time.

So he could go back and perhaps in a little bit of a different way. The other thing that you talked about him being a fan, he so admired talent. And that even people whose work maybe he didn't particularly like, he admired people who did well. And like the Frank Sinatras's actors, actresses, artists. I mean, fashion designers. I remember he did an interview with Karl Lagerfeld and people you wouldn't expect. But he was just so interested in what they did and how they did it. And if I can say, for me, one of the most touching things, Larry was not a particularly religious person, spiritual person, but he was fascinated by people of faith.

His interviews with Billy Graham, he really wanted to understand, Billy Graham, how do you reach this point where, you know, Graham was ill, but he was at peace? And you mentioned Tammy Faye Baker. We did an interview with her literally a day or two before she actually died. It was a very painful interview to watch, but it was comfortable, think for people because larry let her talk about her fears her beliefs and maybe there are better political interviewers maybe there are better celebrity interviews but i don't think there's anybody who had the range that larry had, back to you, back to you, that night, did you plan to say that? I mean, or did you just get so comfortable as Carol had discussed? Well, I can tell you this. It just

came out of your mouth. I can tell you this. I said more that night, as Art well knows, than I ever had before. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. So, so much swirling in our minds about Larry King, and what an all-star panel to discuss it. Take a listen to this superstar on Larry King. Got a date with an angel. You're off key. Gonna be there at seven.

Got a date with an angel. And I'm on my way to heaven. Got an angel beside me. Got a love to guide me. Got a date with an angel beside me. Got a love to guide me. Got a date with an angel. And I'm on my way to heaven. When the chapel bells ring out. Gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.

Darling, goodbye, goodbye. Marlon Brando. That was a kiss on the lips that you just heard. You know, Bert G. Brow with me, senior executive producer, Daily Blast Live, nationally syndicated talk show. Who created Sally Jesse Raphael Show and Jerry Springer. You know, I guess you coming from Jerry Springer, things happen you don't expect, right? Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

And certainly I remember that. And I have to say, by the way, before I leave this show, that I'm flattered that you invited me with all these wonderful producers who did Larry King and were responsible for what happened every night. So, yes, I mean, when those things happen. But I think they happened more on Larry because Larry made it safe. He made you feel so damn comfortable. That's certainly a tribute to Larry. And again, something you can't put your finger on. Either

you got it or you don't. And I think everybody that's on this right now would agree he simply had it. But what is it? What is it? Who is that, Tammy or Carol? Tammy, and I want to jump in and say, because Bert, we watch your shows every single day. And I think you did something that we tried to replicate. And I think Nancy did it, too. And that is to make people always feel like they were in it with you. We were all part of a club when you tuned into the show. You were part of it. It wasn't, you know, some, you know, giant, sorry, Walter Cronkite, but it wasn't Walter Cronkite telling you how to think, whatever. There was an experience that happened and you had it together and you felt like you

were part of it. Larry always brought you along. Nancy, you did the same thing. But I would say that Sally's show was one of the first shows and you get all credit for that for showing how you can make people on the tv you know um feel like you're there your family right because that's what made it work i think that's the it that you're talking about yeah i think i think that's part of it and you, it shouldn't go unsaid that Larry and Sally were sort of rivals in Miami. I don't know if any of you guys were there, if anybody on the show was there. But I can remember when Sally did it, honest to God, she was scared to death. And Larry, of course, treated her like a queen. He treated her like gold.

You know, that brings me to this question. Your red glasses, in many ways, helped us get him on TV and put him in suspenders, that it wasn't a bad thing, that there was some sort of iconic part of his body. It was first suggested by Sharon King, Larry's wife at the time, because Larry hunched over, you know how radio people are. You're all wrapped around the, you know, the giant microphones at that time. And we needed him to look more like, you know, Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams and less like, you know, a radio guy who broadcasts from a boat in Miami Beach, right?

So he said, how about the suspenders? And of course, it was a, it looked, he looked more vertical. Let's put it that way. I always wondered about that. Go ahead, Pert. I have to say, and I, I've got to jump, but I will tell you that as I sit here in my office, I'm looking over and the red glasses are right next to me. I have them. I've got them. They're not on you, by the way. You know, I just wonder about, you're talking about the red glasses, Bert Dubrow. Thank you, Bert, friend. Thank you. I just wonder about all those suspenders. Peter Tedeschi, former Larry

Keefe line, Larry Keefe Live executive and senior producer, creator of LKL Weekend. Peter, tell me about what a lot of people don't know about Larry's background. Where did he come from? And he had a little brush with the law. Well, that brush with the law is not anything that I really know about. To tell you the truth. I know he came from a radio in Miami. He was a Brooklyn kid who just wanted to wanted to be on the air. And he went to Brooklyn. He went to Miami, became a radio personality there and ultimately mutual broadcasting. And my great joy with Larry was when I was in high school and I would be coming home late from a late night teenage outing, normal teenagers would be listening to music and I'd be listening to

Larry King's neutral radio show in the middle of the night as I was driving home or late at night, I should say. And so I eventually go to CNN and I would just fanboy when I would meet him through Tammy, really. And all the time I was like, this is one of the reasons I went into broadcasting into journalism was because as a teenager I was listening to Larry King and that he segwayed into television and did it so seamlessly was just was just joyous and if I may add one quick thing we're talking about celebrities Larry was such a great news man Carol said earlier about being a voracious reader two things jump out at me one is we did a show

where we got together. This is getting a little wonky, but we got together Ken McGinnis of the Ulster Unionist Party and Jerry Adams of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA. These two men had never met in person that I'm aware of. They met in person in the makeup room at Larry King Live in Washington, D.C. And Larry went on to do an hour-long show with these two men basically negotiating peace in Northern Ireland. You can find them now in internet searches. There were stories in the 90s written at the time. Why is this on American television and not on British television? And we got them to come in because of Larry. And also talking about Larry's ego, our lack there, production, let Larry ad lib sort of what's going

on. We said, let's really do this right. We contacted the London Bureau, CNN's London Bureau. We had them do a three or four minute piece, which is an eternity in television of really solid background. That wasn't Larry's voice. It didn't have to be his voice. He didn't have to record it. He let the people who really covered the story do the story. And then he did this hour-long interview that was right at the time that peace was being negotiated in Northern Ireland. And real quick, the second one was at about the same time in history. We did a 90-minute show that night of the NAFTA debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot. And people now talk about the famous NAFTA debate as though it was something

from like the League of Women Voters that every network carried. No. Larry got those two on the air. We produced it. We did the NAFTA debate. Larry King did the NAFTA debate. And we shouldn't forget, he could navigate Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn and Al Gore and Ross Perot and the warring parties in Northern Ireland. Larry King did that. And breaking news, you all had the brilliance to put O.J.'s slow-speed chase on for, was it two hours? The highest-rated two hours on CNN that kicked off the amazing O.J. coverage. And he would have on different journalists who had broken stories. I mean, when I got the interview with Tom Sneddon,

when he apologized on the air on CNN for calling Michael Jackson wacko jacko, Larry put that right on, and he was very, very kind in recognizing the reporting. It was just an amazing thing the way you all helped him shift gears. People are now talking about, well, he interviewed stars and this one and that one. But this is a man, a legend that could interview warring factions, navigate breaking news, the works. You know, I would love to sign off myself in honor of my friend who helped me so much, Larry King. But let's sign off with cut number 12. When I started 25 years ago at a little studio in Washington, D.C., I never thought it would ever last this long or come to this.

So I'm going to go on, do a lot of other things. We're going to do specials here on CNN. I'm going to be seen in other places. We'll do some radio work. Be around baseball. So you're not going to see me go away. But you're not going to see me here on this set anymore. For two weeks, they're going to be playing highlight shows.

I I am I don't know what to say except to you my audience thank you and instead of goodbye how about so long? Okay so long.