MICHAEL EISNER So, Barbara Walters, this is the highlight

							                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         So, Barbara Walters, this is the highlight of my year.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
         Oh, sure.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         No, it is. Cuz I am interviewing you. I don't know how--
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
         Ah.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         I don't know how long you'll let it go on. And you won't turn around, and be interviewing me. But I've
been interviewed by you a few times. And I've seen--
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
         Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         --obviously, thousands of interviews you've done. And I just thought this would be fantastic.
Particularly-- coming out of an election. And before we get into a lot of other stuff-- cuz I've talked to you a
little bit about the election,. Was it like, frustrating when you weren't hosting the election on ABC, last night?
And you were doing 27 other things, and specials; and right in the middle of the political fray of --
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
         No. I'll tell you something. Beverly Sills was on The View-- this past week. Because we were supposed
to bring our best friend in. And Beverly is-- one of my, if not my closest friend. And she told a story about--
when she had stopped singing in the opera.

        And then she-- headed-- the City Center Opera company. And when it was over, her husband gave her a
ring. And he said, "You don't have to keep doing the same thing over and over again. You don't have to prove
yourself. It's okay." And when she left the City Center Opera, after ten years, I was leaving from-- when I left
20/20, I guess, she gave me the ring.

        And she said, "Look at this. And remember it." I happen to be wearing the ring today. And what the
ring says, is, "I did that already."
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        Wait a second. You flew around the world, to Australia, to interview Terry Irwin, the-- crocodile
hunter.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        Steve Irwin’s widow.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        I wouldn't say that you've given up the ring.




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     SIDE A                                                                                                  PG.2


               BARBARA WALTERS:
        No. I didn't say that I've given up the ring. I did give up 20/20. I did give up week-in, week-out, doing
murderers and movie stars. I can now pick and choose. I love doing The View. It's dessert for me. It's just
sheer fun.

       And when there is something that I very much want to do-- specials-- I do three to four specials a year;
sometimes more. That--
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       But you still get the best people.
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       Well, I-- I do it very-- occasionally. The difference is, that I don't have to do week-in, week-out, the
same interview again and again; the next movie star; the next-- tabloid star. I did that already.

                MICHAEL EISNER:
       --my information is, when somebody wants to be interviewed, knows there are going to be tough
questions, knows they're going to be treated well, you're the one. Whether it's Terry Irwin, or Monica
Lewinsky, or the President of the United States, or Yasser Arafat, or whoever it is.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       He’s a little hard to do.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       He’s hard now. He’s hard now.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       Yeah.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       But you could get him.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       It's harder to do the dead ones.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       It (LAUGHS) is?

               MICHAEL EISNER
       How many of these people that you've talked to, do you think, when they sit and they talk to you, you
put your hand on their leg, and--
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       I don't put my hand on their leg.
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       --close to their leg.
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       I don't put my hand close to their leg.
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       Well, when you wave --
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       It was only when I interviewed you, that I put my hand close to your leg.


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     SIDE A                                                                                                   PG.3


               MICHAEL EISNER:
       Ok. When you say, "Now, tell me dear."
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       And I didn't say-- (LAUGHS).
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       Tell me.
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       Yes.
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       What is the truth?
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       What is the truth?
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       And they tell you something. And it's an out-and-out lie.
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       You know. This program that I have coming up, called, 30 Mistakes in 30 Years, which is based on 30
years of doing specials for ABC. And one of the mistakes-- I can't remember which mistake it is-- but one of
the mistakes is, "Never lie in a Barbara Walters special."

       Because the one who lied to me the most, was Richard Pryor.

                  BARBARA WALTERS:
          The first time I interviewed him, we did a long, long interview. And I loved him. I thought he was the
most honest-- tragic, funny-- and that's part of why he had become so famous, and so wonderful, because he did
tell it the way it was.

        After he set himself on fire, he said that it was an accident. After he'd burned 80 percent, or whatever it
was, of his body. The next time he came on, he-- admitted the truth. He'd been freebasing. It was cocaine. He
was-- totally out of it; and he was trying to kill himself.

       And I said, "You lied to me." He said, "Yes. I lied to you." Now, I-- that was a lie that I could
understand. Tom Selleck lied to me, because, I think I asked him if his wife was pregnant. And he said no.
and he said, "Look, there are some legitimate lies." There are lies that you tell to protect your family.

               MICHAEL EISNER:
       Well, I grew up with you.
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       Yes, you did.
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       I grew up, getting ready to go to work, watching The Today Show. The first woman host of The Today
Show, with Hugh Downs. I knew exactly at what commercial I had to be downstairs to catch my bus. I grew
with you moving to be the first woman anchor at--



walters web transcript.doc
     SIDE A                                                                                               PG.4


                BARBARA WALTERS:
        Co-anchor.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
        --ABC.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
        Co-anchor.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
        Co-anchor.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
        I-- network news program.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
        I talked to you extensively, before the Walt Disney Company acquired Capital Cities/ABC. I had to be
pretty sure that you were not thinking about moving somewhere else.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
        That I felt happy in-- I loved your predecessor. But I felt happy, knowing you were coming on.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
        And I also feel somewhat akin to you, because of your history in New York. Your father being in the--
entertainment business, starting owning the--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
        Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                MICHAEL EISNER:
        --the Latin Quarter--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
        Nightclub. Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                MICHAEL EISNER:
        --nightclub. Latin--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
        The Latin Quarter. Uh-huh (AFFIRM). Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                MICHAEL EISNER:
        Latin Quarter. Yeah, Latin Quarter nightclub. And I'd read a lot about that. And I know a lot of people
know about that. But you were in a show biz family.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
        Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                MICHAEL EISNER:
        And you, therefore, met a lot of celebrities, as a little kid. And they didn't make you nervous?
                BARBARA WALTERS:
        Celebrities don't make me nervous. And-- and maybe it isn't part of-- of what you just talked about.
The Latin Quarter, in its day-- there was one in Boston, where it began. I'm from Boston-- born in Boston.
People think I'm a-- a New Yorker, born and-- and bred. But I was actually born in Brookline, Massachusetts.

      Mike Wallace is also from Brookline. We think they must have put something in the water, to make us
grow up the way we did. But the Latin Quarter was, at the time, the most famous-- nightclub in America. One
in New York; one in Florida; one in Boston. Okay.


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     SIDE A                                                                                                 PG.5




        So, I grew up, seeing-- these stars backstage; seeing them, literally, without their makeup. I knew they
had problems. I knew they had kids who, you know-- might be giving them trouble. And-- and, in part, I think
it helped me with my own interviews. Because I have a different understanding, perhaps, than I might have if I
just grew up, and was so stage struck.

         "How can I be talking to this person?" I knew that I was talking to somebody whom I could have some
understanding of.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
         Well, you were-- (CLEARS THROAT) you also talked to people who had difficulties, and childhood
crisis, and-- and parental crisis. And you seem to have a sympathy and understanding for them. And certainly,
your father was extremely successful, and--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
         And then lost it all.

               BARBARA WALTERS:
        … And that's when I had to go to work. And-- and really, if I had not had to support myself, I'm not
sure I would be-- where I was now. Because there are a lot of jogs that-- that weren't that much fun.

         A man has to go to work. It's expected. You don't like the job? Too bad; that's why it's called "work."
But a woman, certainly in my time-- I could have gotten married.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         And didn't you also have a sister, and you--
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
         Well, that was another part of it.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         --had to take care of.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
         I had a sister who was, what we would call today, "mentally challenged." What we would call then,
"retarded," whom I had to take care of. And I supported my family for many years. So, I had to stay in the jobs
that I didn't love. And you know, the rest is history. But-- but it did give me--
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         You did --
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
         --me an understanding--
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         So did you work out of necessity or ambition?
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
         (SIGHS)
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
         Or both?




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     SIDE A                                                                                                    PG.6


               BARBARA WALTERS:
       Well, I had to work out of necessity. I obviously, must have been ambitious. Because-- if there were
opportunities to-- to do less, I-- I-- I guess I didn't take them. But for many years, I had to support my family.

END PT ONE

                MICHAEL EISNER:
       Most people think celebrities like you are carried in and out of, you know, studios, and--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       No.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       --limousines, and private airplanes. And they don't realize-- so, one of the reasons that maybe, you can
understand about leaders, or non-leaders, or average people, is that everybody has--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       --background.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       Everybody has economic issues. And everybody has parental issues; and all of those kinds of things.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       It's true.
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       For many years, I-- I didn't have an agent.

       Nobody-- nobody-- who had agents? You know, you're supposed to be too pure to ask for money, to
have an agent. I don't have a limousine. I don't have a private plane.

       You would never let me have a private plane. I'd like to talk to you about that. (LAUGHTER) Last
time we had a flight out -- where I was flying commercial. We should be, probably. But we are not treated the
way actors and actresses are. P-- people will come up and say, "Hello, Barbara," to me.

               BARBARA WALTERS:
       Nobody's afraid of me. I-- I don't walk through the street with my bodyguards. My press agents don't
show up in advance and tell you how to-- treat me. And this is for everybody in news. We work very hard.
And we're in a somewhat different category. You don't get spoiled.
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       This is why you've had a long career. This is why you don't have a five-year career. This is why you
can go in, and call on me, on the phone-- or others, and say, "I'd like to do a show; you know, at four or five,
maybe we can get together, and disc-- different kinds of women-- (LAUGHTER) that discuss themselves."
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       Gee, that show'll never make it.


walters web transcript.doc
     SIDE A                                                                                                  PG.7


                MICHAEL EISNER:
       And that show is interesting, in that, on one hand, the first woman host of a morning show; first woman
co-host of the evening news, which was the male bastion of-- you know, Edward R. Murrow, and--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       --Walter Cronkite. And then, this show, The View, which is information and entertainment, and fun.
And when you all have a problem, and you decide you want to change-- one of your panelists for Rosie, the
world writes about it like you are-- it-- entertainment celebrities; not a news person.

               BARBARA WALTERS:
       …Roone Arledge, who was the brilliant head of ABC News, said to me, "Don't do this. People will take
you very seriously. You were in a position of authority." I was doing 20/20 then. I was doing heads of state. I
was doing the most important interviews. "Now, you're gonna do this show, with a bunch of women who are
not news women, necessarily."
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       Did he know you had a sense of humor?
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       Nope.
               MICHAEL EISNER:
       Where was he--
               BARBARA WALTERS:
       My daughter said, when I started this show, "People now know you have a sense of humor." And that's
why I only did it two days a week, you see. Because I thought I could sort of cometh and goeth.

       And what I hoped, was that people would have enough respect for what I had done, to realize that I was
the same person, who could be funny.

                MICHAEL EISNER:
       So, you put together this really brilliant show. And the-- and the one thing that I thought-- and we
discussed this at the time-- that was quite selfless, and also smart, was for you, not to say, "I'm gonna be the
host."
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       But I'll tell you why I don't. And I think it's important to know. Because I think it's good for the show.
And I am--
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       Everybody doesn't do things that are--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       --no, everybody doesn't.
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       --good for the show.


walters web transcript.doc
     SIDE A                                                                                                 PG.8


                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        No. Everybody-- ev-- I know other people who have ruined their own careers, because they don't think
of the whole program; they just think of their own, "Am I being seen? Am I being seen? Am I-- " And that--
and that can, sometimes, be a very big mistake.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        -- here is something that is quite amazing. And-- and I saw that once, in Cheers, where we changed the
cast, and it-- and it kept going. And I saw Mission Impossible.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        And they changed the cast. Other than that, most television, when you change that cast, that's it. And--
and Meredith Vieira gets this op-- opportunity to go on the CBS--
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        NBC.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        --NBC morning show. And not only do you change the cast, you bring in Rosie, who was not really
succeeding at the end of her run. You don't bring her in to replace Star Jones. You put her as the host.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        The odds are that that's very risky.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        And it's a smash.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        Now, did you think that all through? Or were you lucky?
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        When Meredith decided to leave, I felt we had to go in a different direction. What was interesting, is
that there is nobody who did not want this job. I mean, we heard from doctors, history professors at
universities. Everybody had a cousin. And I… we heard from you. You had somebody too, I think, that you
thought was the--
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        I did.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        And you know-- (LAUGHTER)-- and you know, there-- now, a lot of good that did.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        I did.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        That-- every--
                 (OVERTALK)


walters web transcript.doc
     SIDE A                                                                                                 PG.9


                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        --everyone did their--
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        I had no influence.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        You-- (LAUGHS) because everyone feels, all you have to do is, to sit down, and be reasonably
intelligent; and you can do a-- you can do a show. I knew that wasn't true. I mean, I used to have friends, when
I was growing up, who said, "I don't know why they pay you. I could sit down and do interviews." It's not that
easy. It's-- you-- you-- there are certain qualities you need.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        By the way, I'm a testament to how difficult it is.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        It's very tough. Yeah.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        I've had 40 years, doing one thing. But sitting here, interviewing you, I'm soaked. I never got-- I could
sit, and talk to the president of France, about a deal. I could talk to the chairman and CEO of General Electric.
I can buy ABC's Capital Cities. I get-- fine. I'm sitting here, talking-- and I know you. And I'm like-- my shirt
is wet. My belt's wet.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        Ah. No, that--
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        So, it is hard.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        --by the way, I want to say something about your-- when-- when-- about your shirt being wet. Because I
want to tell you why I'm so successful. And this is not something that I tell everybody.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        You don't wear a shirt?
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        No. The reason that I am so successful, is that I do not sweat; and I don't have to go to the bathroom
very often. That is the key to my success. Which means, that I can be on the air for a very long time. I mean, I
remember interviewing Richard Nixon, who had-- you know, he used to perspire all the time.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        Oh really? And I…
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        You mean this?
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        Exactly.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        Right.
                 BARBARA WALTERS:
        I never have to do that.
                 MICHAEL EISNER:
        Albert Brooks; Broadcast News.


walters web transcript.doc
    SIDE A                                                                                                  PG.10


                  BARBARA WALTERS:
        That's right.
                  MICHAEL EISNER:
        That-- that's me.
                  BARBARA WALTERS:
        And also, I either have great kidney control, or I don't drink enough water. I don't know what it is. But
so-- but if you were doing a long, long interview; or you're doing a program that you have to be on for hours,
and everybody has to leave, I stay.
                  MICHAEL EISNER:
        It-- it is ama-- you know, it is amazing, what you have accomplished, as a professional. The fact that
you're a woman is irrelevant; but it has meant a lot. Do you think Katie Couric has a shot that-- will make it,
now that you've laid the ground? Or-- it has nothing to do with whether Katie Couric's a woman or a man; it's
whether she's any good?
                  BARBARA WALTERS:
        Well-- let me talk, first of all, about Katie making the decision. Because if ever there was a decision I
understood, it was that one. I had done The Today Show for 13 years. I was in a very comfortable place.

       I was making a lot of money. I got paid a lot of money for ABC; but not that much more than I would
have done at NBC. And I took a terrible gamble; or a terrific gamble. And I was a failure, when I came to
ABC.

        Katie and I had talked about this. She could've stayed on The Today Show for another five years, ten
years. I think she had gotten to the point that I had gotten to. Which is, "I cannot do this another day." That--
once you know that there's another opportunity. "I want to have a life; and not-- and not have to get up at four
in the morning."

       And she took that gamble. And it's a difficult decision. It isn't as though she got more money. It's a
very tough decision. And-- and, yes, it made a difference that she was a woman. Of course it did.

       If it-- if it had been some young man that they had taken, as a-- whatever-- Katie's age, it would have
been, "Well, can he make it? Can he not make it?" But it wouldn't have been as it was the first day. "Why did
she wear that suit? Why did she wear a white suit? Why didn't she wear a blue suit? "

                MICHAEL EISNER:
       Well, I appreciate talking to you. I'm only disappointed that I wasn't able, when I touched on your father
and your sister, to get you to cry. I figured I could go home and say to my wife, "I got Barbara Walters to get
emotional, the way she gets (LAUGHTER) everybody else. I did see you-- a little--
                BARBARA WALTERS:
       I tell you. It's re--
                MICHAEL EISNER:
       --contemplative, during--




walters web transcript.doc
    SIDE A                                                                                                 PG.11


                 BARBARA WALTERS:
       --if-- if you talk to me enough, about my sister, who-- who has-- who has died, and if I talked enough
about my sister, and her affect on my life, and-- the relationship that I had with her, that's when I would cry.
When I did interviews with people, and I asked them about their childhood, or their parents, there were certain
times when I know, and I-- now I stay away from it.

      I don't want anyone to cry. Or I know that I have pushed a button. And if you and I had talked long
enough, about my sister, I would have cried.
              MICHAEL EISNER:
      Well, that wasn't my intent.
              BARBARA WALTERS:
      I know.
              MICHAEL EISNER:
      I was just having fun.
              BARBARA WALTERS:
      I know.
              MICHAEL EISNER:
      Barbara, thank you very much; for your friendship--
              BARBARA WALTERS:
      It was a pleasure.
              MICHAEL EISNER:
      --for a dinner you gave for me last night.
              BARBARA WALTERS:
      That was fun.
              MICHAEL EISNER:
      That was great. And for coming on the show.
              BARBARA WALTERS:
      Thank you so much.
              MICHAEL EISNER:
      Thank you very much. Goodbye.




walters web transcript.doc