The public-TV host has talked with Prince and Sara Jane Olson. Now it's our turn.

By NEAL JUSTIN, Star Tribune

Last update: April 19, 2010 - 10:22 AM


Tavis Smiley has good reason these days to personify his last name. After more than a year in purgatory -- aka the 4:30 a.m. slot on TPT Life -- "Tavis Smiley" has returned to its 11:30 p.m. slot (repeats will continue to air at 12:30 p.m.).

That's hardly a high-profile channel or time period, but it's still a nice excuse to catch up with the 45-year-old host about his landmark interviews with famous Minnesotans, the reason he never wants to step into Brian Williams' shoes and why he resists filling a whole hour of TV.

Q If you were introducing yourself to someone who didn't know who you were, what two or three shows would you have them watch?

A That's a good question. No one has ever asked me that before. In terms of showing our range, I would pull the James Taylor interview out because he doesn't do many interviews and he really opened up -- the good, the bad and the ugly. I'd also pick Prince, just because he doesn't do interviews. I call him an iconic enigma. It was something to have him talk about his childhood for the first time ever, the illness that he had as a child. We're friends, so there was a comfort level there. Thirdly, I'd pick the prime-time special we recently did on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his thoughts on the Vietnam War. That show gave people a better understanding of what motivates me, what matters to me.

Q When you're not doing the talk show, you spend a lot of time pushing your agenda. Can you be both an advocate and a journalist? A It's all about the venue. When I'm on public TV or on the radio, I am the inquisitor. I want to learn, just like the listener and viewer. But at other times, like when I'm on "Meet the Press" or am invited to speaking engagements, I can expound on my own viewpoints. That's precisely why I could never do what Brian Williams does. I have too many opinions about what's wrong in the world, and being a news anchor wouldn't allow me to address those issues.
Q You mentioned Prince. Another Minnesotan who played a major role in your career was Sara Jane Olson, the former Symbionese Liberation Army member. Your exclusive interview with her in 2001 really put you in the spotlight. How did you get it?

A It was the easiest and yet the biggest get I've ever had. Turns out her daughters were viewers of BET and they got in the habit of watching my show. They literally said to their mom that when it came time to go to trial, and if you should decide to do interviews, that this Tavis guy was really very good. When I was contacted by her lawyer, the first thing I asked myself is: Who is Sara Jane Olson? After I started digging into it, I realized that everyone wanted that one -- Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric.

Q My major criticism of the show is that it's only a half-hour. Isn't that limiting, especially when you have two or three guests on?

A That was deliberate. I knew that we would mostly be paired with Charlie Rose and I wanted our program to be diametrically different from his. Charlie's white; I'm black. He's East Coast; I'm West Coast; Charlie's an hour; I'm going to be a half-hour. For these seven years, it's worked rather well. I've thought about bumping up to an hour, but I think that if you leave the audience wanting more, you've conducted a great interview. I see that too often conversations go on too long. If a guest doesn't live up to the promise, you're stuck with him for that hour.

njustin@startribune.com • 612-673-7431

http://www.startribune.co...3LGDiO7aiU

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luv4u said:

wtf?


Tavis Smiley is now an "Associated Artist"?

errant said: