This week marked Larry King’s last week on Larry King Live (but watch out for his next career in standup comedy!), and this week is also a barren wasteland when it comes to new TV.
Luckily, there’s a fun way to pass the time, honor Larry King’s passing (…out of the cable world) and say hi to some of your favorite TV stars: “The Larry King Game”!
A little context: Kevin Pollak (host of Million Dollar Money Drop) is also the host of “The Kevin Pollak Chat Show,” and he has a tradition with his celebrity guests called “The Larry King Game,” in which they do an impression of Larry King. That usually means at least three things: Leaning over and doing the husky Larry King voice, making up a gross or weird anecdote (usually about being really old), and then “taking a call” from a weird-sounding town.
It’s really funny. It’s also an ART. And so many of our favorite TV stars have done it! Check out some of my favorites, and let them bring out the King in you:
Joel McHale (Community): Good voice, good lean, and even better use of “Pangea.”
Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother): He gets a little out of character, but the anecdote is stellar.
Matthew Perry (Friends, Mr. Sunshine): Simple. Elegant. Gross. Perfect?
Jon Hamm (Mad Men): YOU GUYS! I AM FROM WALLA WALLA! No, for real. I feel like he’s talking TO ME. Jon Hamm is simply hilarious. And all of that makes this one my absolute favorite.
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad): Fire up the defibrillator! Bryan Cranston does the whole grizzled thing so well.
I wish I could say there are a bunch of hilarious lady actors who have played the Larry King Game. There aren’t. This is one weird and specific glass ceiling we have yet to break, I guess. But! We’ve got to include at least one of the few and the proud ladies who have played and succeeded.
Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds): If you don’t know what an episiotomy is, it’s not that funny. But if you do … then it is. (Google at own risk, if you’re in the former group.)
Love “The Larry King Game” as much as I do? Check out many, many more on the Kevin Pollak Chat Show Youtube Channel.
(Image: KPCS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Meghan hails from Walla Walla, WA, the proud home of the world’s best sweet onions and Adam West, the original Batman. An avid grammarian and over-analyzer, you can usually find her thinking too hard about plot devices in favorites like The Office, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and How I Met Your Mother. In her spare time, Meghan enjoys drawing, shopping, trying to be funny (and often failing), and not understanding the whole Twilight thing. She’s got a BA in English and Studio Art from Whitman College, which makes her a professional arguer, daydreamer, and doodler.
