The final episode of "Larry King Live" on CNN aired Thursday. I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but King isn't dead yet, and come to think of it, I have no problem with speaking ill of the dead anyway. Here's a classic moment from the program in which Jerry Seinfeld disabused King of his apparent belief that Seinfeld was ending because NBC cancelled it:
It's not a crazy guess. Maybe King figured NBC executives just got tired of making huge profits off their Thursday night lineup and wanted to roll the dice with something new.
In 1994, Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil published in TNR a poem consisting of excerpts of King's USA Today column:
Dick Van Dyke is the most enduring of television superstars.
Burt Reynolds improves the screen by being on it.
Kris Kristofferson never fails to move me.
Tommy Lasorda's pasta sauce is very, very good.
The rest can be read here. And now the great poet himself rides off into the sunset.