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King Kong (1933), and he loved alcohol, so I interviewed him as he was standing at the bar with a
bottle of bourbon. He drank that bourbon, and that was on the air at about 7 o'clock in the
morning. And that ended up being a great interview, because he was comfortable. Of course, we
had folks from the Bible Belt complain about that, but my motto was always, "Just do it. Take a
risk."
I remember Charlie Rose once came to Dallas and asked us how we got so many wonderful
interviews that early in the morning. He was mostly talking about Don Harris, because Don could
extract any information from anyone, and they would never be mad at him. They just trusted him.
And I told [Charlie] that it was because of the table we used. That table was like the kind of table
you would sit around at your grandmother's old farmhouse. It was an old, round, oak table, and
when people sat down there they would prop up their elbows and just get comfortable. Now, if
you watch Charlie Rose on PBS today, look at the table he's at - it's exactly like the kind of table
we used. I think getting good interviews means you have to get people comfortable.
Randle: It seems like you had many incredible experiences working at the station. Why did you
end up moving on?
Humphreys: We were cruising along on the show having the greatest time you can imagine, but
then Don Harris left to take an anchor position. Then, Gene Thomas took over Don's co-host
position, and that was great, but two months after he took over the position Gene was killed at
Lewisville Speedway, trying to break a land record with a sports car driver named Art Arfons.
After that, I just kind of lost it. They ran a series of co-hosts after that, but they never asked me
who I wanted to work with. Management picks who you work with, but what do they know about
chemistry between co-hosts? By then, I had just lost my zest [for the show], and I stayed on for
another two years, but I was unhappy.
During my fifth year on the show, a wonderful man named Marty Hay came to town and took over
the news department at Channel 8. He didn't like me in the news department, because he didn't
think that show should be a personality show; he thought it should be a news show. So, they
ended up firing me, but that was fine. I was at a low point in my life then. I had hit the wall. I was
living hard, staying up too late, and I had bags under my eyes.
The funny thing was, that show ended up going off the air maybe seven months after I left. People
just stopped watching. They had been getting up with us in the morning and really grew to love
us, and after I was gone I just don't think the show was the same. They saw me come on and talk
about my divorce and getting re-married. The show wasn't like that after I left.
Funny enough, I saw Marty Haag several years later when I was speaking at the Texas Association
of Broadcasters, and during my presentation I mentioned being fired by Channel 8, and he
slumped down really low in his chair. I went up to him and took his hands and said, "Marty, you
did the right thing. I deserved to be fired. I had lost all my pizzazz."