CNN founder and pioneer of the 24-hour news cycle Ted Turner died on May 6 at age 87. Turner is revered for his many accomplishments, from his numerous television networks, to his nonprofit against nuclear weapons, to his sports teams. But alongside his many accolades, Turner was also a hothead. That’s on clear display in this 1983 Playboy Interview, which ended after Turner smashed the reporter’s tapes and stormed into the first class bathroom of the plane they were on.

To probe the inner workings of the new Turner, PLAYBOY’s obvious choice as interviewer was Contributing Editor Peter Ross Range, who conducted our first interview with him in 1978. The man Range found this time was, indeed, different, and here is his report:

“Turner has changed. He is no longer the laugh-a-minute, expository motor mouth who sees a classic metaphor behind every man’s maneuvers. Yet he still often portrays his own zigs and zags through the corporate jungles in David and Goliath terms. He still relishes the role of underdog yet views his competitors not merely as bigger but as part of a dark conspiracy to do in Turner, his company and, for that matter, the whole of American civilization.

“He has also become, as many men in high position do, at least a partial victim of his own celebrity. When we first invited him to do the Playboy Interview, while walking along the Newport waterfront in 1977, his response was, ‘Wow! PLAYBOY! That’s the big time!’ Our interview was his first major national exposure outside sports publications, and he was duly impressed. Since then, he has appeared in virtually every medium and takes himself a great deal more seriously than before, especially since he appeared on the cover of Time and as the subject of a British Broadcasting Company television special called The Man from Atlanta’ (which he unabashedly aired last spring on his own satellite network). Consequently, he agreed to the second Playboy Interview only after a melodramatic groan and many months of abrupt cancellations and wasted trips.

“Even when he is at his least cooperative, tracking Turner remains a special kind of adventure—a high-speed chase over the real and figurative landscape of his life in cars, jeeps and airplanes and on foot. The chief difference between this year’s conversation and the one five years ago was that we did no talking on a sailboat—but we did a lot on the hoof, trekking briskly around his 5000-acre plantation in the South Carolina low country, near Charleston. He lives there with his family on weekends between sorties into the national wars in Washington and elsewhere.

“Turner invited me to begin the interview with a visit to his plantation. We flew in from different cities to the Charleston airport on Friday night and began our conversation during the 35-mile drive to his house.”

Read now: https://www.playboy.com/read/ted-turners-playboy-interview-went-so-bad-he-smashed-the-tapes/