He has held sway at 9 p.m every night for the last 17 years. Once upon a time he was a late-night phone-in radio star. He was no pinup, so only Ted Turner thought he could make it on TV. Early on, ABC tried to steal him for more money. He agreed to defect. But then Turner woke him up on a conference call with his agent at 6 a.m. the morning he was supposed to sign with ABC. "Larry, your agent here tells me you're leaving," said Ted. "I want to hear you say goodbye." King could hear his agent spluttering in the background, but found himself for once tongue-tied. "Say it, Larry," said Turner. "Say, 'GOODBYE, TED.'"

"I couldn't do it," Larry told me. "Loyalty. That's my thing. Plus, no one asked me if I was happy -- and I was."

Politicians like to announce their presidential candidacies on "Larry King" because they aren't going to be ambushed. Ross Perot practically lived on the show when he was running. Instead, Larry peppers guests with everyman questions that defy the danger of Deep Thoughts. His big mantra is "The guest always counts."

"Know why?" he asked me. "I'll be back tomorrow night. The guest won't. At the beginning they wanted me to call my show 'Nightwatch,' 'Nightcap' or some other damn 'Night.' I told 'em I had to be in the title. 'Larry King Live!' They have to say it even when I'm not there."

This is apt because Larry is always on even when he's off. A veteran Hollywood agent stopped by our table and launched into a description of his heart attack. Larry asked him 192 rapid-fire questions and appeared riveted by the answers. This must be a terrible social hazard if you are married to him. He is on a one-man crusade to make every bore interesting. At the time of the Gulf War he was on air every night for 48 straight nights and, he told me, he always asked the same question at the top of the show. "Generals, politicians, experts. Always the same question. It was this," he leaned forward as he does on the show in his signature shirtsleeves and fixed me intently, "Today -- WHAT HAPPENED?"

"That's it?" I asked.

"That's it," he said. "What happened? They know. You don't. You just think you know. A lot of people in television forget that." Larry King and his suspenders are ready for the war. Nobody else is. But that could change in the instant it takes CNN to put its BREAKING NEWS super across the bottom of the screen.

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