Sir David Frost is generally acknowledged as one of the best interviewers on television, but even he can have a bad day or two. As he readily recalls.
One particularly bad day involved what was supposed to be the world's greatest talking bird and his "incredibly pushy" trainer."The trainer kept going on talking, saying, `There you are - the world's greatest talking bird. A hundred phrases in an instant. Go on, ask him any question, David. Go on, go on, ask him anything!' " Frost said in a recent interview with TV critics. "And I said, `Well, I will if you just shut up for a minute."
Eventually, Frost started asking the bird questions.
"And I asked the wretched bird questions for 4 1/2 minutes without getting a single (peep) out of the wretched bird," he said. "And in the end I had to say, `This is the world's greatest mime artist among talking birds. He's known as the Marcel Marceau of talking birds.' "
And Frost also admits to asking the occasional question that he wishes he hadn't, including one he tossed at prolific science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.
"He was saying he didn't believe in God and so on," Frost said. "And I said, `Yes, but is there a force that we don't know about?'
"And he said, `Well, there may be, but if there is we don't know about it.' Which was game, set and match to Isaac Asimov there."
Nobody does perfect interviews. But Frost's are better than most because of his intelligent questions, his ability to listen, his willingness to stick to a line of questions until he gets an answer and, of course, his ability to land the big newsmaker.
Frost has interviewed six presidents of the United States and six prime ministers of Great Britain. He's interviewed everyone from Indira Gandhi to John Lennon.
And he's pulled a number of those interviews out of the archives for "David Frost: Interviews I'll Never Forget," a new series on CBS Eye on People.
The premiere episode opens with a montage of Frost interviews with Johnny Carson, Nelson Mandela, Lennon and Yoko Ono, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Elton John, Sammy Davis Jr., Woody Allen and Margaret Thatcher. Then it goes into longer segments featuring Muhammad Ali, interviewed in 1968 just after he joined the Black Muslims; pieces of the 28-hour interview Frost did with Richard Nixon in 1977 - the former president's first extended interview after he resigned in disgrace in 1974; and Robert F. Kennedy, in his last extended interview before he was assassinated.
In the Ali interview, the boxer asserts that "all whites are devils." The Nixon interview includes the former president making an apology of sorts for the Watergate scandal.
But the session with RFK is even more memorable in Frost's mind.
"Over the years when asked to define charisma I've usually defined it in two words - Robert Kennedy," Frost said. "Now there are four words, because I would add Nelson Mandela to that."
He recalls RFK as having "mellowed" since he served as his brother's campaign manager in 1960.
"I said, `Now, a lot of people have said that you're reckless,' " Frost said. "And he said, `No, no, no - ruthless.' He was helping me out, because he knew I'd gotten the wrong insults. It was just so touching.
"I said at one point, `Of course, some people say your reputation for ruthlessness is because of what you had to do for your brother Jack in 1960.' And he said, `Oh, no, that's just my friends making excuses for me.' Now that sort of directness is appealing."
And Frost sees a direct parallel between RFK and South African President Mandela.
"I said to Nelson Mandela at one point, `How can you come out of 28 years of wrongful incarceration without feeling bitter?' . . . And Nelson Mandela said, `David, I would like to be bitter, but there is no time to be bitter. There is work to do.'
"Rather like Robert Kennedy in a way he didn't take the easy compliment and say, `Well, that's kind of you to say.' He took a different angle."
And it's moments like these that makes these interviews watchable even today.
GREAT MISTAKES: David Frost enjoys a good interview, but he's also a big fan of the mistakes that creep into the media.
He recalled a moment many years ago when he was hosting a morning TV show in England.
"We sent a young reporter on his first overseas trip to the Holy Land and he filed a report that began, `Welcome to Israel - a mecca for tourists,' " Frost said.
Then there was the time he was doing an interview with a labor leader in London.
"We had a trades union shop steward who suddenly said very angrily, `David, there have been certain allegations made against me and I intend to find out who the alligator is,' " Frost said.
And he took great delight in recounting how he was introduced to an audience he was about to address in London last year.
"They had a toastmaster in scarlet livery who was supposed to tap his gavel on the table and say, `Pray silence for Sir David Frost.' And I don't know whether he was nervous or what, but instead he tapped his gavel on the table and said, `Pray for the silence of David Frost.'
"He obviously knew what he was talking about."
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Additional Information
You'll need a dish
"David Frost: Interviews I'll Never Forget" will be seen only on CBS Eye on People, the cable channel that - unfortunately - is not carried on most Utah cable systems.
It is, however, available on some satellite systems. You'll have to check the listings for your programming provider.
For those of you with access to CBS Eye on People, "Interviews I'll Never Forget" debuts Saturday at 7 p.m. MST, with a second airing on Sunday at 7 p.m.
The rest of you can call your local cable companies and complain.