What is wrong with Larry King?

[Starving_Artist]

@Loach

I know we don’t have enough bandwidth to do the topic justice. This isn’t a Pit thread. I have no problem with his show or his softball questions. I choose not to watch but it doesn’t bother me. Yesterday I was a captive audience(doing cardio in front of a TV I had no control over) and what I saw confused me. He had Clay Aiken on. Before the show started it was billed as “Clay Aiken’s first interview since the death of his father.” OK maybe he had something important to say about his dad and the impact he had on his life. Maybe his father was a great man who needed to be remembered by America. Nope. First we find out his father died in February . Then we find out he has had almost no contact with his father since he was twelve . They spent about 20 seconds on the subject of his father. It was a half hour interview. Throughout most of the interview there was a graphic under Aiken’s name stating “this is the first interview since his fathers death.” He hasn’t done any interviews because not that many people care about him and he has been busy making two new albums and writing a book. I couldn’t care less about Clay Aiken but how this interview was packaged was just bizarre.

I think these deceptive billings are probably more due to CNN’s promotions department than to King himself. CNN seems to be floundering somewhat in light of Fox’s success and it looks to me like they’re stooping to tabloid headline tactics to attract viewers.

I remember a tabloid (National Enquirer or Star, I think) a couple of months after John Ritter’s death proclaiming a “New tragedy in the life of John Ritter’s widow!” Upon glancing at the article while standing in line at the grocery store (didn’t want you to think I actually bought one ) I discovered this “new tragedy” was that she and her daughter were facing their first Christmas without him. Well, duh! :rolleyes:

Anyway, it sounds like CNN is starting to go that route…with King’s show at least.

[Liz]

One of my favorite Larry-King-has-lost-it moments was when he interviewed Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne a couple of years ago. IIRC, it was at the height of their Osbournes fame, where they were massively overexposed and every detail of their life was front page news. At some point in the interview, after talking about the MTV show and the kids and stuff, King seriously turns to Ozzy and exposes his total failure to research his guests with one question: “So… did you do a lot of drugs?” Ozzy, god love him, answered with a perfect deadpan… “Oh, no. Just a lot of certain ones.” Sharon, myself and the other million Ozzy fans proceeded to piss ourselves laughing.

[Loach]

@Starving Artist

I think these deceptive billings are probably more due to CNN’s promotions department than to King himself. CNN seems to be floundering somewhat in light of Fox’s success and it looks to me like they’re stooping to tabloid headline tactics to attract viewers.

That sounds about right. I was just wondering if it was the usual practice now. I don’t generally watch the show.

[Chastain86]

@Shayna

As for King’s style, someone on the Television Without Pity boards posted the perfect summary of last night’s interview…

“Clay, we’re happy to have you here. You’ve got a new CD out, right? And your father’s dead. Do you like the color blue? I like brussel sprouts, and speaking of Brussels, I’m sure you’ll head to Belgium someday. You’ve got a 20 city tour coming up and a new book out. Did you write the book yourself? What do you think about my tie? I like your sweater. Are you close to your Mom? Do you still talk to friends back home? Arnold Schwartzenegger is here tomorrow!!! Get in your phone calls even though we’re only taking two. So tell me why you’re here again?”

I’ve read this 6 times, and I haven’t failed to laugh out loud once.

[fishbicycle]

Does anybody remember when he hadn’t lost it yet? Did anyone here ever listen to his radio show on Mutual? I stumbled across it when it was still so new, that he didn’t have enough clout to attract the giants, nor enough calls to fill up the hour. So he told some stories from his youth. These were occasionally touching, sometimes funny, and a couple of them were downright hilarious. I don’t recall him seeming to be as vacuous as he is now. Hey Larry, there is something to be said about knowing something about your guests before they come on your show!

[Marley23]

What do you mean what’s wrong with him? He’s an idiot windbag and he clearly doesn’t prepare for interviews. And he has a TV show. That’s what’s wrong with him.

I don’t watch him much, although I did see him waste airtime on CNN during the election coverage, but no matter who is on the show, you know at this point that he’s going to be clueless about important information, sound out of touch, and instead of asking good questions and letting you see another side of the subject in an extended interview, he’ll waste an hour with small talk.

[kelly5078]

I think hunching up that way all the time cuts off the carotid arteries.

[Gyrate]

I was reading some article the other day about a couple of artists who take bags of celebrity garbage, clean it up and mount and frame it as artwork (not the disgusting stuff but things like discarded containers, clothes, broken toys, whatever). Apparently they found adult incontinence pads in Mr King’s trash (which they initially thought were diapers); he got a tad miffed and denied that they were his. You probably didn’t want to know that.

In the UK we’ve got Sir David Frost’s Sunday morning show to offer the same level of rambling and softball questions. Sir Dave hasn’t quite gone round the twist yet but it’s only a matter of time…

[Rube_E.Tewesday]

Huh, David Frost is still around? Does he still have that damn clipboard?

[rockle]

[parrot sketch]
What’s wrong with 'im? I’ll tell you what’s wrong with 'im, lad. He’s DEAD, that’s what’s wrong with 'im![/parrot sketch]

(Sorry, but y’all DID ask …)

[KidCharlemagne]

@The_Raven

So whose bright idea was it to stick Larry in the CNN studio on election night? Jesus, Mary and Joseph, hours of Larry dropping in out of nowhere with the most asinine questions imaginable.

-Rav

I don’t typically watch Larry King so I was shocked to see just how inane his comments were. I can’t imagine a broadcaster of his experience didn’t recognize it.

[twickster]

He probably recognizes it – he just doesn’t care. (See the “getting lots of young, deluded boo-tay” comments above.)