they do from the corporate board room. thank you. up next, a story that practically writes its own punch lines, but it is no joke. and here is a live look at phoenix, arizona from fox affiliate ksaz. the big story there, fire storm over a state official blaming the leader of an elite fire fighting team for their deaths last month. forestry division this afternoon is apologizing for those comments. that s their top story there. we will be right back.
mayberry. griffith played a single bad who kept the peace and doled out advice in a country town. in the 1980s he found fame again in the courtroom drama matlock. he was a member of the tv and christian music hall of fame. want to bring in our own larry king who joins us by phone who knows mr. griffith well. you interviewed him several times. give us your impressions, your sense of who he was. well, suzanne, he was an incredible person. not only as a talent but as a friend and as an individual. he was always kind and sweet and he was an underrated performer in my opinion. he did a movie called a face in the crowd in which he played a i guess it was sort of a controlling media figure who played sort of a hit who suddenly becomes a famous american, influencing politics and everything has and his comeuppance at the end. he got an academy award nomination. he was bbrilliant. he did a play call eed no time for sergeants which was turned into a film, a great theatrical co
or what the deal was. and there was a lot bigger explosion after that. you re on the fire fighting team, of course, what you did because that s your duty. you went out and grabbed your gear and went to the fire fighting station. you saw the rig on fire. how were you struck by that scene? when i saw the derrick on fire, you knew that there was no way we were putting that fire out. i knew we were going, more than likely, going to abandon the rig. i still kind of in shock. i just didn t expect to see that. did you fear for your life at that point? absolutely. that was the main thing going through my head. it just hit me in my stomach. i just that s all i kept thinking is there is no way we re getting off here. we re all dead. and one of the first things that you saw was you saw the crane operator who had been knocked off of his staircase and fallen probably 40, 50 feet to the deck. you and a partner who was on the fire fighting team thought about trying to get to him. why were