Producer by Wendy Walker Page A

to run a show on tape, which would be such
     a waste since the Gores were “almost” there.
    What should we do in the meantime? My staff and I racked our brains for someone we could throw on in New York or Los Angeles
     to fill in the time while we waited, but we couldn’t come up with anybody. There were no famous people in our various news
     bureaus and we had minutes to fix this problem. As luck would have it, though, it was Larry’s birthday and his wife, Shawn,
     and their two kids, Chance and Cannon, three and a half and two and a half at the time, were at the studio. “Let’s start with
     the kids,” I said suddenly.
    We carted the kids onto the set and when the show aired, Larry proudly introduced his boys and let them wish him happy birthday
     for the first segment.
    KING: They’re expected [the Gores]. They’re on the way. But one of the problems in working live, and I love working live, is that
     sometimes traffic difficulties get in the way. And Al and Tipper Gore were in Los Angeles. Pretty humid in LA today. I don’t
     know if that had anything to do with it. Temperature’s in the mideighties. But the Gores have not yet arrived… So we decided
     to spend those three promised minutes with my two kids and my wife. Today is my sixty-ninth birthday, so on the left on your
     screen is Chance King. He is three and a half years old. In the middle is Shawn King. On the right is Cannon King. He’s two
     and a half years old. And I thought maybe we could sing “Happy Birthday.”
    CHANCE: I want to do a Halloween song.
    KING: Okay, a Halloween song. Which one?
    CHANCE: And Halloween and Halloween and Halloween.
    KING: Okay. And what do you want to sing, Cannon?
    CANNON: A ghost.
    They continued to talk for the next few minutes until we cut to commercial. The kids had been very cute and when Larry went
     back on the air, Al and Tipper Gore had arrived and were sitting opposite him. Whew!
    KING: What happened? Where were you?
    TIPPER GORE: Traffic in LA. Misjudged the time, perhaps. We came from the East Coast today. We wanted to give your kids a chance to have
     their network debut.
    KING: In the old days, there would have been flashing lights… Do you miss the trappings? You would not have been late if you were
     vice president… or president… I mean, what’s it like to come from the life of that to not having the life of that?
    AL GORE: I’ve joked about it a lot, but the truth is… it’s great to be out of the so-called bubble and to be able to go on your own.
     There are disadvantages like being late here. I’m sorry.
    KING: Don’t you miss the trappings?
    TIPPER: No. No, not at all. It was a privilege when we had them and when Al was vice president. And it was great. But that’s over
     with. We’ve moved on. And it’s nice to have our freedom back and be able to, unfortunately, get lost or be in traffic.
    Besides a guest being late for the show, I am very uncomfortable when Larry or the show itself becomes part of the story.
     I believe that our show is about presenting the facts in a neutral way, and then the audience can draw their ownconclusions. Larry agrees. I always try to keep him out of the foreground, but there are times when it’s unavoidable and it
     just doesn’t work out that way, no matter how prepared I think I am.
    It was November 1993, when I got a phone call from one of my bookers. He had been on the phone with Al Gore’s people and it
     seemed that the vice president wanted to challenge financier Ross Perot to debate the NAFTA trade agreement on
Larry King Live
. Were we interested in hosting the debate?
    This highly controversial trilateral agreement, a hotly debated topic, was on track to be signed by the United States, Canada,
     and Mexico, to supersede the existing Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement. Gore was for the legislation, Perot was against
     it, and they wanted the debate to occur on our show. How could I say no? Gore was a sitting vice president,