reporter: barbara walters was one of the most fascinating people of any year in the television era. i know i ve done important interviews. i know that i have been a part of history. was she ever? are you sorry you didn t burn the tapes? yes, i think so because they were private conversations. we read you are mad. from murderers. why did you kill john lennon. to movie stores. are you a changed man since the illness? did it effect you very much? did you mind being thought of as sex, sex, sex? i think that what is important is to have curiosity. follow that cure iosity. i m a great believer in homework. before people revealed all on social media, barbara walters was the interviewer to open up the stars. does he hit you? he shakes, he pushes, he swings. i hope they think i m fair and i can be penetrating without being a killer and i am, i hope. and which interview was her most important? the first and at that time the only interview. you are al
but it was not for women only, but it was for women. and then later on she revised it in many ways by creating the view. it was her concept and idea. when i worked with her at 20/20/ she was originally in a writer on the today show. when i worked with her at 20/20 we would sit at these meetings and i would watch her say, no, this is what we should say and she would be scribbling on a piece of paper. and i knew what she was doing. she was creating a story line and sort of basically saying this is what i m going to say and i want you know, i want all of you to get together with this idea. that s interesting, connie because obviously at her heart she s a storyteller. she was a storyteller, and i
my gosh. she was the only one who could really console me. she called me i know what you re feeling because we were both working with people who didn t want us sitting next to them. wow, yeah. you have so many parallels, connie. what do you think it was about with barbara on the air we showed a few clips there of people she was interviewing, celebrities. and, you know, her signature move i don t know if it was intentional, but she always ended up making people cry to the point where people would start the interview by saying and i m not going to cry, barbara, you re not going to get me to cry and then they cry. what was her secret sauce for making people connect on such an emotional level? i think she just she provided an intimate setting. they didn t realize she was drawing them out. it was almost like i used to try to play shrink with people and i think that s what barbara was
at abc news. connie, great to have you on tonight. tell us your thoughts as you hear this sad news about barbara walters. alyson, i can t imagine journalism without barbara. barbara was one of a hand full of women who was in a news business at the time i started but beyond that, she blazed a trail for the men, too. in other words, the men were sitting back there not aggressively going after interviews, one on one interviews and they were not picking up the phone, frankly. she did everything she could to get an interview. she was emphaticable. i met her in 1969 first when i was working at a local station in washington d.c. and she was just she was bigger than life. she met me at her limousine at the southwest gate of the white
joined abc 20/20. we ll never forget the phone call when she asked me to join the groundbreaking program. and her view co-host michelle collins said a right of passage to become a co-host on the view is have lunch with barbara walters. few times in my life have i been that nervous. she was an absolute trailblazer, class, elegance, smarts that are increasingly hard to come by. i ll always be grateful. and this without barbara walters there wouldn t have been me nor any woman you see on evening, morning or daily news. she was indeed a trailblazer. i did my very first television audition with her in mind the whole time. grateful she was such a powerful and gracious role model, grateful to have known her and grateful to have followed in her light. and the one and only connie chong joins me now. she worked with barbara walters