Larry King Live

Larry King, this man in the interview business who is often in a bad mood, not only bent forward, but also almost broken forward, wins with the interviewees and loses with them too. The reason? Larry King is obviously not a good interviewer, but an overconfident man who obviously thinks he can handle every topic off the shelf, but is actually not as informed as he thinks. Always with the same sedate and boring way, without tactics or goal in the interview, he speaks to his guests, often without consciously getting anything out of these conversations. If it ever happens, it's out of luck or the open or careless nature of the interviewee. It's not funny either. All in all a show that is not abysmally bad, but seems to be overrated if you look at the end results of the individual episodes and now also the résumé of the entire show.

Every time I watch Larry King Live, he rolls out the most softball questions for his guests. He rarely gets any useful information because he doesn't ask the hard questions. This comes from his start on radio.

King established himself on the radio and basically has not changed one bit of the format for television except for his talking head being visible. He becomes like a puppy for his guests & the only time he really gets useful information from them is whee they volunteer it or a caller to the show actually asks a hard question.

Larry is a nice, fatherly type of interviewer. This means he should not have a prime time show on a major news network if you consider CNN one. I don't because of the history of CNN.

Copying (ie. Cable) New Network was started by Ted Turner as an alternative to network news in that it could broadcast news 24/7. When it first started, the only TV competition was from NBC,ABC, & CBS. Because of this, CNN Copied the format of their competition & achieved respectable ratings.

This worked fine for CNN until they got competing networks which were innovative & provided better/ fresher news coverage. In response to the heating up of competition, CNN went into denial & panned its competitors who were eating their lunch & ratings because CNN wanted to resist change. This didn't work very long & their ratings began to plummet.

Now the Copying News Network is trying to re mold itself by re-inventing itself by copying the leading news network format. Unfortunately, this show represents a big piece of the problem. It is 21 years old & showing it's age very badly.

Sorry to say, King needs to be moved out of Prime Time or scrapped altogether.

I used to watch this show all the time one time he had Ron Popeil on his show to discuss the Showtime Rotisserie and Barbecue. At the beginning of the episode Larry asked Ron to put a chicken in the machine and he wanted to taste the chicken at the end of the show because chickens take about an hour and when he tasted the chicken he said something like This Is The Best Piece Of Chicken You'll Ever Have. And then he asked Ron a question but he interrupted Ron and said I've gotta another piece of chicken and went off for another piece of chicken. Another time he had Bob Barr and Larry Flynt on his show because Bob denied charges of pergniry and condemned Larry for false accusations. Another time he had Brenda Van Dam the mother of Danielle Van Dam on his show and Brenda told Larry how upsetting it was to see David Westerfield kill her daughter they used to end their show with a song they also at times discussed movies.

Larry is a perfect example of the Democratic Party in the United States, of which he is a staunch member. King used to be somewhat fair and unbiased and had a variety of guests on. The Party used to be centrist, too, but that was another era. Now, like, Larry, it's Far Left.

At least 90 percent of all the guests on King's show in the past year or two are Liberals who sit there and bash President Bush and every Conservative they can think of.....night after night. Bill Mahar, one of the more viscous ones, is - and you can look this up - the most frequent guest in the history of King's TV show. You can count on other outspoken Left Wingers to be on King's show each week, but don't hold your breath waiting for a Conservative. They are few and far between.

King was also one of the innovators of the media overkill. That all began with the O.J. Simpson trial. Night after night after night that's all you ever saw back in the mid '90s. Whatever latest gossip on Anna Nicole Smith, or the Petersen murder case, or Paris Hilton, Britney Spears or some other tabloid subject, you can bet Larry will beat it to death. Sadly, all the other networks do the same thing now. Larry was a leader in that regard.

King also has the nerve to sometimes give advice, such as on marriage. I am not kidding; I 've heard him say it. The joke is that he has been married and divorced a half dozen times! This man has few scruples, believe me. When it comes to morality, he is clueless. Maybe that's why he has Dr. Phil on, to explain some facts of life to him regularly. Larry will nod, but he doesn't understand any more than when Billy Graham used to talk to him.

King also is becoming famous for the "softball" interview, meaning he asks no hard questions. That is a lot due to the fact that most his guests are of his political persuasion. People know being on King's show is liking having an hour public relations gig.

What all this has meant is a serious decline in ratings the past five years. People see through him and his Liberal-and-tabloid-TV mentality and switched over from King and CNN to Fox News.

A very long career . And different guests. The two obvious pieces defining the show and the force of the name of Larry King. But, in essence, you feel be more. In essence, a special form of journalism. Provocative, nuanced, giving to guest the fair position in each edition of the show, proposing the smart way to give soul to the entertainment and to show the other in the right light. Short, unique work, model for many entertainers and great way for define near reality.