More than any anunexperienced figure in broadcast journalism, the legendary Barbara Walters made sure her interviews helpful as TV events.
Walters, who died Dec. 30 at the age of 93, reigned as the master of the big-get sit-down with newsmakers of the moment, and in doing so she helped television news ascend to new heights of prominence and appearance. Among her many skills was her dexterity in unsheathing insights from aging Golden Age stars such as Fred Astaire, John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn to world leaders in crisis, from Muammar Gaddafi to Anwar Sadat to Fidel Castro to Vladimir Putin.
From the mid-1970s throughout the early 2010s, Walters was the undisputed pace-setter in reaching coveted interviews with boldface names. And by the supplies of her top competitors over the years, Walters was a fierce contender for big gets pending the day she retired from ABC News in 2014. Walters’ March 4, 1999, sitdown with Monica Lewinsky, coming out of the storm over her relationship with President Bill Clinton, remains the highest-rated TV interview special of the past 25 existences, watched live at least in part by an estimated 74 million viewers. Walters wielded a level of clout in her prime that will be hard to match in an diligence that has become much more fragmented by digital consider and 24/7 cable news.
Walters made her mark as star at Roone Arledge’s ABC News. But her racy perspective on news and culture was evident from her earliest days as a writer, producer and ultimately on-air personality for NBC News’ “Today.” From her helpful outing reporting on haute couture in Paris to her compelling contributions to “Today’s” coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Walters brought her signature wit, style and substance to everything she did.
Here’s a look back at Barbara Walters at her best.
Monica Lewinsky (March 3, 1999) ABC News’ “20/20”
Barbara Walters grabbed a big allotment of the sex scandal that built the internet when she alit the first sit-down with the former White House intern who was in the eye of the sexual misconduct storm with President Bill Clinton that old-fashioned wide open in January 1998. Lewinsky broke her silence, with a mix of mordant laughter and tears, to Walters once more than 14 months of incessant media coverage. The two-hour “20/20” special that aired 9-11 p.m. on a Wednesday night garnered a 48 allotment of the viewing audience – meaning that nearly 50% of all TV sets in use that night were watching what Barbara had to say. As famed by ABC News: Toward the end of the interview, Walters asked Lewinsky, “What will you tell your children when you have them?” Lewinsky replied, “Mommy made a big mistake” to which Walters quipped, “And that is the understatement of the year.”
Here is Walters recalling the accepted of interviewing Lewinsky interview for the Archive of American Television.
Manhattan After JFK’s Assassination (NBC News’ “Today”) November 1963
More than 35 existences before, Walters showed her skill at observational reporting with a titillating report of her tour Manhattan on Nov. 23, 1963, the day once President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
The clip is a time capsule that demonstrates how far video newsgathering technology has come. But back then, Walters’ had to sit at the anchor desk opposite Hugh Downs (her future co-anchor partner on ABC News’ “20/20”) and paint a relate with words and feelings. She captures the poignant ogle of Saks Fifth Avenue pulling the curtains on its cross picture windows except for one, which featured a portrait of the slain President “surrounded by vases of crimson roses.” In the one 42nd Street nightclub where she finds a essential number of patrons whooping it up, Walters quotes a staffer as telling her, “The republic here tonight are the people who are here on Christmas Eve. They have no home.”
Barbara Walters Special (ABC News) Dec. 14, 1976
Walters launched her signature franchise ABC News specials at the end of America’s bicentennial year. Her guests were Barbra Streisand, riding high on the success of her 1976 rendition of “A Star is Born”; President-elect Jimmy Carter and future reliable lady Rosalynn Carter.
Fidel Castro (ABC News) June 9, 1977
Walters favorite her mettle on world affairs when she ventured to Cuba for a groundbreaking interview with the island nation’s iconoclastic Communist bests.
Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat (ABC News) November 1977
Walters left a mark on domain history with her coup in landing the first-ever married interview of Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian high-level Anwar Sadat amid an accelerated effort at Mideast smooth talks. She sat with the two leaders in Jerusalem. Two years later, in March 1979, Walters conducted latest lengthy sitdown with Sadat in Washington, D.C.
Katharine Hepburn (ABC News) June 2, 1981
Walters captured a lion in winter when she sat with the legendary reliable as Hepburn went on her final hunt for Oscar gold once the outpouring of acclaim for her work opposite Henry Fonda in 1981’s “On Golden Pond.” Hepburn’s easily conversation with Walters went viral for the time. It cemented Hepburn’s image as countries dame with a flinty New Englander spirit. It also left an indelible mark on Walters career when she was criticized — indeed, often ridiculed — for asking Hepburn “what kind of tree” she would like to be. Hepburn had begged the request earlier in the conversation by comparing herself to flora and fauna. But that context was always left out of the punchlines aimed at at Walters.
Christopher Reeve (ABC News) Sept. 7, 2002
One of Walters’ most heart-wrenching celebrity interviews came in 2002 when she conversed with Christopher Reeve, the Hollywood leading man who was paralyzed in an equestrian accident in 1995. Reeve’s session with Walters set his legacy as a positive survivor who used his experience to advocate for the nations of the disabled. He died two years after the special aired.
First Appearance on “Today” (NBC News) 1961
Walters made the most of her very reliable on-air appearance for “Today” with a colorful “filmed report” on the Paris old-fashioned shows. She sat opposite “Today” news anchor Frank Blair and from the get-go, there was something immediately compelling about her. Her impart was clear and strong, enhanced by her unusual and unforgettable in contradiction of. Blair introduces her as one of the show’s “staff writers” who was sent out on an arduous assignment. Walters takes that cue and runs with it, sprinkling in an earthy sarcasm at what time describing what would be a dream trip for millions of her viewers.
“Oh Frank, it was awful,” Walters says. “First of all, every day I had to go and look at old-fashioned shows. And then I had to go and have lunch at Maxine’s and breeze Champagne. Then I had to smell all the perfume at Dior.” With a great smile she turns her eyeliner-heavy eyes back to Blair and buttons it all up with precision timing. “It was so trying that I took absolutely the very last plane that I could to get back here today,” she says with a smile. In that moment, there’s no question Walters knew she had just made a lifelong bond with the camera.
(Pictured top: Barbara Walters and Monica Lewinsky)
