Television interviews today feel stuffy. “Welcome to the show.” Then the guest is hit with a constant back-and-forth of dry question-and-answer dialogue. “Thanks for coming on.” And that’s that.
But the magic of journalism, especially for audiences sitting at home on their living room couches, happens when listeners can feel that they are taking part in the discussion. They feel as if the guest on television is sitting right next to them, answering their own questions.
But this was never the case with broadcast journalist Larry King, who died on Jan. 23. His recognizable hunched-over posture, suspenders, and Brooklyn accent will forever live in the memories of millions of Americans who watched his interviews and joined him in the American conversation.
The Wall Street Journal, when reporting on the icon’s death, said he was known for his “casual style of questioning [which] landed him high-profile interviews with world leaders, celebrities, and star athletes for decades.” And King did have a quite impressive repertoire.
From Elizabeth Taylor to O.J. Simpson to Vladimir Putin, King interviewed movers and shakers over a course of nearly five decades. But the power of King’s interviewing was his soft-spoken and conversational manner that allowed the audience to join the discussion.
The president of the United States may be sitting at King’s desk in front of his colorful dots, but average Americans could take off their coat jackets at the end of a long day and join King at his table.
King’s coffee table form of interviewing transformed the nature of evening broadcast journalism. Often, interviewers sit in rigid chairs across from one another, asking formal and meticulously edited questions to their guests, while both sat in finely ironed suits. But King’s interview style offered something far more comfortable.
The Wall Street Journal encapsulates King’s unique character: “Known for his rolled-up shirt sleeves, suspenders, and pompadour hairstyle, Mr. King had a gravelly baritone that gave off an authoritative, no-nonsense air. But his reputation for gentle questioning made his show, ‘Larry King Live,’ the go-to destination for anyone embroiled in controversy.”
King’s casual appearance facilitated interviews that naturally flowed from topic to topic like an effortless conversation.
Known for his “no-prep” approach, King had the flexibility to take an interview wherever the conversation inherently went. This worked in his favor and, after 50,000 interviews, it’s no surprise he produced some of the most memorable interviews of the last century.
In 1987, King interviewed a New York City businessman and real estate mogul — Donald Trump. Even then, King said Trump sounded “a lot like a politician,” despite the now-former president insisting at the time that he did not want to enter the political field.
King also brought out deep emotions from interviewees, like in 1993 when Elizabeth Taylor admitted to struggling with alcoholism. “Come 5:30, I’d have a Jack Daniels. Three, four, five. I’d have wine with dinner,” Taylor said. “I never got drunk. If you asked around nobody would have said Elizabeth Taylor is a drunk.”
King was able to open a forum for high-profile guests to talk about everyday human subjects and show a side of themselves that the rest of the media could not typically access.
His empathetic perspective allowed his guests to truly be guests, as in one’s home. He would open conversations with his guests in a friendly and comfortable manner, trying to learn more about their personal lives instead of their latest public achievements.
In a 2009 interview with TIME magazine, King discussed the “art of the interview.” He said, “I’m not there to pin someone to the wall. I try to ask perceptive questions, thoughtful questions that get at an arrival of what that person is, how they are, and what they bring forth.”
Growing up in Brooklyn and dying in Los Angeles, King’s life literally and metaphorically reached from coast to coast of the United States.
I don’t remember any specific interview questions or answers from King’s shows I saw as a child, but I distinctly remember those colorful lights and his suspenders that planted an image in my mind of what evening broadcast journalism is.
Today, as a journalism student myself, I see the natural talent that King had for simply talking. He conversed with his guests as if they were average people who might have something to get off their chest. He helped America see the human side of his guests.
We may not attribute the evolution of broadcast journalism to Larry King, but that old gentleman in suspenders with a coarse Brooklyn accent has forever changed the landscape of the American conversation.
Isabella Redjai is a senior George Washington Fellow studying political economy.
