Larry King's best moments
There's no doubting Larry King's status as a living icon. His glasses are iconic. His braces are iconic. The way he often doesn't seem to know who he's interviewing is iconic. Larry King has interviewed everyone who is anyone, and several people who aren't. And now he's calling it quits.
Yesterday King announced that his nightly Larry King Live show, a staple of CNN's programming for 25 years, was to end. Whatever the reason for his departure - whether it's the pressure of the daily grind or increased scrutiny of his perpetually muddled personal life - it's a sad moment, and not simply because Piers Morgan looks likely to take his place. So, to commemorate Larry King's record-breaking stretch as host, here are some of his best moments.
1 The Al Gore/Ross Perot Nafta debate, 1993
For more than a decade, this King-chaired debate between the then vice-president, Al Gore, and Ross Perot over the North America Free Trade Agreement - the US equivalent of the Maastricht treaty - was the most-watched cable broadcast in history. It helped to strengthen Gore's reputation, turned Perot into a perennial target for satirists, and Larry King himself holds it up as his greatest moment. This video is only part one of eight; if you get the chance, you should really try to watch it in full.
2 Celine Dion breaks down, 2005
Along with Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" line, Celine Dion's emotionally frenzied appearance here stands out as one of the most memorable responses to Hurricane Katrina. Within the space of seven minutes, Dion cries, screams, launches into a stream-of-consciousness tirade about helicopters and the privilege of touching televisions, apologises for her fury and then bursts into an impromptu rendition of one of her songs. Incredible.
3 Michael Moore v Sanjay Gupta, 2007
4 Carrie Prejean walks off, 2009
5 Dog the Bounty Hunter apologises, 2007
Thanks to his reputation for being a soft touch, Larry King eventually became the first stop on the atonement circuit of every controversial celebrity. Perhaps the greatest illustration of this came when Dog the Bounty Hunter - a leathery, bizarrely-coiffed reality star who'd been taped using racist epithets - used a Larry King appearance to make a soggy-eyed plea for forgiveness that occasionally bordered on the Dion-esque. Never has a man so confusingly dressed looked so sad.
6 Forgetting Seinfeld, 2007
Let's end with the clip that Larry King will probably be remembered for above all others. During an interview with Jerry Seinfeld, King let slip that he couldn't remember how his sitcom ended. What followed was a rant that was only a handful of slap-bass riffs away from being a classic Seinfeld moment. Say what you like about Larry King, but you have to admit that when he didn't care, he really didn't care.
By Stuart Heritage, The Guardian
