Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters (1929-2022) credits her drive to her early years. "Because my father was in show business and because there were these ups and downs, I always felt that I had to work to take care of myself," she says about being the daughter of a prominent New York nightclub owner. In her interview, Walters elaborates on the discipline and work ethic that has defined her broadcast career. She looks back upon her earliest work as a producer of the show Ask the Camera, at WNBT in New York, and later, her move to WPIX in New York where she worked for The Morning Show. She discusses being hired at WNBT in New York as the sole female writer on the Today show, and recalls her occasional forays in front of the camera during location segments. She speaks about the impact of the coverage of President Kennedy's assassination on television, and the role she played in reporting the national tragedy. She talks at length about her preparation for interviews, and how involved she is in the process of not only writing and producing her segments but also in editing them. Walters discusses her much-publicized transition from NBC to ABC in the mid-1970s, and the controversy over her then-unparalleled $1-million contract. She explains her collaboration with Harry Reasoner on ABC's Evening News, and her much more fulfilling work later on 20/20, alongside long-time colleague Hugh Downs. She also talks about many of the interviews that she has conducted throughout her career, with such notables including Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, John Wayne, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Fidel Castro, the Shah of Iran, Christopher Reeve, Monica Lewinsky, and John and Patty Ramsey. Finally, she describes her then-recent efforts on the ABC morning show The View. Don Carleton conducted the interview on May 23, 2000 in New York, NY.