Television journalist Mike Wallace, shown in this Oct. 29, 2002, file photoFor the past 44 years, CBS' news magazine 60 Minutes every Sunday night has been one of the most watched, and sometimes most controversial programs, on TV.
Mike Wallace helped make it that way.
The veteran CBS newsman, who died over the weekend at the age of 93, was the most famous of those on the top-rated news show.
He had a very personal, and sometimes obnoxious, way of questioning, or skewering his subjects.
Was he really just "seeking information"? Or did he really enjoy having TV provide him a public "torture chamber"?
Why did his subjects expose themselves to him?
Did they just enjoy the notoriety? Or did they believe they could outsmart him?
But time after time, he put his interview subjects on a fiery spit, with hot-coals questioning, and Mike made them squirm before millions of American viewers.
Sometimes you surely wondered why some of his subjects agreed to be subjected to Wallace. They didn't have to, but some loved the limelight. And some surely thought they could outmaneuver Mike, though few really did.
He obviously enjoyed it all. That was his trademark, his stock in trade.
Wallace conducted his last interview for 60 Minutes in 2008 and had heart surgery shortly thereafter at close to age 90. (It proved he had a heart.) He recovered, but never let up.
Some TV viewers thrilled to see Mike "turn up the heat." Others loathed his style. But millions watched him with intense interest. And now, on Sunday night TV, he'll surely be missed.
Wallace will be long remembered as one of the notable personalities in TV broadcasting.