The Barbara Walters Interview

[Shaun]

I was watching the special Barbara Walters did on the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2005 the other day and it got me to thinking about the the interview she did with Kate in the 80s (anything can make you think of Kate ;D). For those who have seen it, how does it stack up against the Cavett interview?

[smith]

The interview with Cavett was very wide ranging and covered a lot of Katharine' career - but because it was 1973 it didn't cover her personal life which is fine . I actually didn't like Walter's interviews as much but she was more probing .

Katharine's energy and wit really showed in 1973 - she was a lot younger -plus you get to see her devastating effect on men .

[Cate]

Didn't Barbara Walters ask her "If you were a tree what kind of tree would you be?" To which Kate replied with something like "What a stupid question.." I want to see it just for that. I'm dying to see the Cavett interview.

[Shaun]

On Barbara Walters' last episode of 20/20, she showed a clip of that interview she did with her. She wanted to prove that she wasn't the one who asked that "stupid question." Kate was the one who said she'd like to be a tree. Especially an oak because they're strong and "very pretty." At the end of the clip Walters said something like "there I told you that I wasn't the one who asked that question." It would have been funnier if it had happened like you said Catherine

[Judy]

Didn't go exactly like that, Catherine. Kate offered the comparison to a tree and when she did, Walters asked, "What kind of tree would you be?" To which Kate replied, an oak. And then said something like - I think everybody would like to be like an oak because it's strong. Something like that.

And Walters has been razzed for this for years and she never really asked the question. She even brings it up in the later interview with Kate, telling her that everyone has been laughing at her since then. And Kate replies that she does NOT think it was a foolish question. She thought comparison to trees was insightful.

I have seen the interviews and although I agree with Smith in one respect - the Cavett ones certainly covered more ground and covered her ideas about things - and was, after all the FIRST such TV interview and, therefore, was a true rarity - I love the Walters ones. Specifically the 1987 one that was done to promote Kate's book on The African Queen. Kate obviously felt protected and comfortable with Walters and Walters was able to ask much more personal questions than Cavett would have ever dared - and not in the sickeningly smarmy way that Phil Donahue would do when he interviewed her about ME. Walters sort of asked the personal questions any of us would have loved to ask her. And because she trusted Walters, for the most part Kate answered them. And was beautiful to boot. And quite funny in them.

That's the 1987 one. The first - in 1981 - was done on the stage of The West Side Waltz. This was an early meeting but one could see that Kate had an admiration for Walters that made her comfortable. This one has a favorite exchange for me: Walters is going on about how she thinks women look at Kate, saying something like, women admire you because you've always lived your own life and made no compromises.....And Kate interrupts her and says, "I compromosed all the time!" And she continued a bit in that vein. I LOVED this comment because it sort of lit a lightbulb over my head. To me it was Kate saying that it's one thing to be admired, but don't admire me for something I was not. I didn't live a life devoid of compromise. Life is full of compromises.

This is where she started to morph in my mind from being merely an childhood icon into something much deeper and richer and fuller.

The 1991 interview is also swell, covering ME as it does. Kate's older, but still full of beans.

Judy

[Shaun]

So Walters interviewed Kate in '81, '87, and '91? What kind of questions did Donahue ask to make him so slimy? Didn't she appear on Good Morning America once? I really want to see all of these interviews she did, but they are no where to be found.

[smith]

I actually liked the Donahue interview - sure some of the questions were tough but Katharine was able to cope with it . He asked her about being the "other woman" - I really don't think that impressed her because she definitely wasn't and didn't think of herself as the other woman .

[Judy]

smith said:

I actually liked the Donahue interview - sure some of the questions were tough but Katharine was able to cope with it . He asked her about being the "other woman" - I really don't think that impressed her because she definitely wasn't and didn't think of herself as the other woman .

I don't think they were tough questions; I think they were embarrassing - Did you sleep in the same room? is one that comes to mind. I may be paraphrasing cause I haven't watched it in a while. And he has a simpering way of asking a question that irritates me.

I agree that Kate acquited herself, as she usually does in interviews, but I think Mr. D could have and should have taken a higher road with her. It was as if the National Inquirer had sent someone to interview her - in my view.

Judy

[Sherry]

[




I agree that Kate acquited herself, as she usually does in interviews, but I think Mr. D could have and should have taken a higher road with her. It was as if the National Inquirer had sent someone to interview her - in my view.

Judy[/quote]

I have to agree with Judy's comments -- was like the National Enquirer had sent someone to do the interview. I am a huge Donahue fan but he lowered himself in my eyes with that interview because he was smarmy and insinuating and was going for the titilating comment. Kate was always too much a lady to have to sit there and take take that from him. I had the feeling that a younger Kate would have told him off and refused to finish the interview.

As it was -- she did reprimand him for one of the things that he said to her. He should have been ashamed of himself for the manner in which he conducted himself.

Sherry