The Soapbox View: Retirement Not Attention Addicted Larry King’s Thing

As remnants of celebrity-driven entertainment lunge forward shedding the moniker of Television, celebrity star Larry King has returned kicking off the brand-new upstart digital video network, Ora.tv Web endeavor with Larry King Now which is also currently carried by Hulu TV. The New York Timesdescribes “Larry King Now,” which Mr. King created in partnership with Ora, as an example of how the Internet accommodates old age as easily as youth. Saying Justin Bieber and Lena Dunham got their D.I.Y. start on the Internet. Conjecturing it’s probably an even better alternative than cable, because most people don’t surf their remotes as far as AXS TV, the cable network formerly known as HDNet, where Dan Rather went after leavingCBS News.

Mr. King stepped down from his old talk show “Larry King Live” in 2010 after 25 years on CNN. The Web version is close to half an hour-long with new taped episodes posted daily four days a week. Mr. King interviews most guests in his house, next to a wall-sized display of his memorabilia. A backdrop that suggests restless retirement according to The Times reporter, ALESSANDRA STANLEY, who says his first guest Seth MacFarlane (“Family Guy”), who is promoting his film, “Ted,” treated Mr. King with the amused deference of a nephew visiting an eccentric, beloved uncle. Hulu.com with Seth MacFarlane.

Mr. King, 78, is also described as trim but somehow looks and sounds older, perhaps because he’s lasted for so long in show business. However he hardly seems to have aged a day holding his make-up rather well while seemingly defeating the very idea of his shooting the show at home, though the obvious benefit is the chronicled daily set can obviously be easily verifiably tax-deductible as a home office and conducive to a finely budgeted show. Though it’s hard to say how many salaried professionals are off camera that Larry looks to for live feedback as if he might care whether any jokes work for anyone else. Otherwise he and the guests run a regular laugh track he no doubt honed through years of experience. A couple of decades back I even once unobtrusively observed Larry, early one morning on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets, manage the few admirers with skilled professionalism, just saying hey with obvious magnetism to the few fans on the street.

Adweek’s Charlie Warzel on May 17 2012, after Ora’s March announcement, wrote it’s shaping up to be the summer of online video and Larry King wants in as Ora.tv joins a long list of companies looking to get in on the Web broadcasting game. Though the online video model is untested and competition great with Hulu, YouTube and the Huffington Post, along with many others making original Web content pushes, Ora feels King’s name recognition can attract necessary ad dollars. King and “richest man in the world” Carlos Slim recruited former president of digital journalism at News Corp., Jon Housman, to create Ora.

Housman and King explained to Adweek that the network aims to get the TV icon, King, watched by more viewers than ever before and they think they can make it happen on the Web. “We’re only doing things we love,” said Housman. Warzel added they said they’ve been able to attract a blend of recognizable names, and names they’d like to make recognizable. “We are not looking to build the network around one personality,” Housman told Adweek, noting that while the network will launch first with King, the hope is to bring enough quality content that King is just one of many draws. Traditional online advertising methods will be a priority, but also expect partnerships and co-publishing with brands. Housman said they were definitely looking to experiment with their new space both in the ad realm and programming. Unchartered territory, but with a newsworthy future of conventions, the Olympics, and election ahead, now may be a good time to experiment.

In the wake of uphill battling poor-performing niche networks like Oprah Winfrey’s OWN, Ora.tv looks to be learning from their mistakes. Housman notes that unlike OWN, Ora.tv will roll out slowly, and will be an on-demand network, instead of a livestreaming site. When Adweek asked King what to expect in terms of output, he simply replied, “I am a performer. I want to do this every night.” King wouldn’t name names, but the broadcasting legend’s eyes lit up during mention of the impending presidential election. King noted that the political conventions and 2012 election will be a prominent focus for his show. As King never showed a penchant for ignoring the well-financed celebrity stars.

7/19/2012

---------------------------------------------------------------

Retirement Not Attention Addicted Larry King's Thing

7/19/2012 concluded: When Adweek asked King what to expect in terms of output, he simply replied, “I am a performer. I want to do this every night.” King wouldn’t name names, but the broadcasting legend’s eyes lit up during mention of the impending presidential election. King noted that the political conventions and 2012 election will be a prominent focus for his show. As King never showed a penchant for ignoring the well-financed celebrity stars.

February 12 - March 21, 2018

Scapegoating Larry's Celebrity Infatuation's Out?

No, not Larry David's celebrity infatuation. Larry King's. And I dare not write as if in dialogue with Mr. King. Although anyone of enough cultural exposure, has a degree of public influence. Speculating on Mr. King's interpretations are, is unnecessarily picayune. Especially since I'd prefer sounding less flippant about the benign and malignant aspects of celebrity adoration. If only, at least, to myself.

But what's gnawed at me was missing Sean Hannity's mega-celebritized shows. His website headlined Rexit for the Secretary of State's dismissal. Catch the drift? Virtually everything the public consumes is a catchphrase. Especially loyalty to winning. Everyone loves winning, right? Nice being reminded of that, right?
Well, I knew hearing Mr. Hannity's comrade Mark Levin on WABC 770, Monday - Friday, 6 - 9 PM, that the world's being saved by painting liberals as Democrats steadfastly believing so-and-so about such-and-such would be emphasized. As if The American People will never wake up to understanding the lineage of the moniker "Democrat Party" as coming from Joseph McCarthy's opportunistic abuse of patriotism, referring to the Democrats' Democratic Party as "democrat party."[1] Probably someone's cocktail party idea Senator McCarthy ran with, like his never verified, February 9, 1950, list of 205 communist names in American government. After all, many a cocktail party idea's slipped through the public consciousness as, genuinely evolved, salt of the earth, policy. Without hint of jargon hidden façade.

Radio personalities must find their worked up, acting out, deliveries cathartic. Standing up for conservative principles, while shading facts that "the rest of the story" contains. Carving a nuance-less, regurgitating, political awareness, that's molded an aggressively embellished patriotism. That you're either on board with, or allied to enemies of freedom. That's the country's political equation, right? That the country's expected to dance to, right? Adding up to, more than naught, two wrongs not making a right. Or is there much more, smaller, small print I'm missing in the small print? ... Never met any piece of jargon not to like?
Mr. Levin's "expert" synopsizing, described Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's, too-long-at-the-helm tenure as, chronic to the institution, and result of an "over-active ego and selfishness." Yep. That catchphrase does loads of good.

Of course people are defensive and scared. People do bad things to people that serves them. Even for sport. Nice thrill, all shrill, the show on behalf of American anger? ... Don't believe the media, believe ours? ... What the world's come to is some business,

huh?

___________________________________________________

Celebrity Larry King Essay Follows Sean Hannity

Yeah well, you know. Ya wonder, contemplate and act accordingly.

Is it possible Larry King-esque celebrity worship represents culture? Where impressions are shaped within narrowly agenda-rich, nuancelessness, intertwined, but graspable, mental images that deliberately shield any scepticism, or even suspicion, the show's the whole show. Voilà - humanity's so many plots.

How Embarrassing?

Celebrity's not an easy gig. For example, something from the grapevine on Mr. King's stardom.

Oh, Larry King! He once interviewed Paul and Ringo in Vegas at the start of the Beatles-Love run. Then he brought the boys out to see the Vegas theatre crowd...but walked in front of them, so that he could hear and first accept all the jubilant love. That, to me, is Larry King in a single gesture. We all want love and acceptance; Larry feels he deserves his more. And, to quote Paul Simon, he has a wristband (my man).

So why snap at him, when Mr. King's (trending) absorption is somewhat sympathetic? Because what's unsavory about fame's process, is, beneath the gloss, it's still the rough world. Meaning clichés are bowled right out on over us, as if all discourse were simple alleyways.

Too Embarrassing

January 24, 2018, CBS announced the Murphy Brown TV show's return. Here's what I e-mailed, January 17, 2018, to CBS and AT&T executives.

Dear ATT.com Executives,

I understand AT&T Inc.'s where the legacy of the Internet provider Prodigy landed.

January, 1995, Prodigy had a relationship with TVSM (Total TV Magazine - Cable Guide) where I freelanced. Evidently, it was CBS' co-owning Prodigy that explains why Diane English, almost immediately, chided my claim I thought her CBS show Double Rush, about bike messengers, used canned laughter.

My editor Jay Gissen then set up, with Prodigy and Ms. English, an evening discussion with subscribers reading and writing questions. A format with celebrities Prodigy'd already been doing. Now quaint, in this era, when we can all be on TV anytime. Yet, still, there's a tradition to letter writing that people hold dear. Why beyond the lights and social media gadgets, the expression of writing is tangible.

It was a nice forum, and Ms. English's sister-in-law happened upon a promotion I'd done the night before, so the evening ended upbeat and family. Mr. Gissen definitely managed the dialogues well.

Remembering this little pebble, from within the chunks of Internet History, would be a good vehicle for Diane English to express herself.

Thank ya'll for your time.

Sincerely,

Charles M. Fraser

Apparently a better method for expressing herself was already arranged for Ms. English.

Ah, celebrities. You can't live with them, so you must live without them. For everyone's peace of mind.

Wonder what Mr. King would think of what I thought of Murphy Brown.

Celebrity. Pop, and, or otherwise. Cultural timing.
Brazen financing. Good news for a change?
Clichés reign in the Celebrity Entertainment Complex's
settling of our socially polished conundrums?
When scapegoats are involved either way.

Anyway. Riding home the other night, I happened upon an unfortunate sight, made for paused reflection. When the juxtaposition of New New York's replacing Old casts shadows of discernible shape. Amazingly, looking around, except for pedestrians, I was the only tourist, there, where Rockefeller Center meets Times Square. ... This is the (in progress) short story -

Where New York's Yesterday's Today