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Highlights From Barbara Walters' Final Episode of 'The View'

Barbara Walters says farewell to live daily television with her final co-host appearance on "The View," the daytime program she created for ABC (May 16, 2014).
Lou Rocco/ABC
ByLESLEY MESSER
May 15, 2014, 8:21 PM

May 15, 2014 -- "The View" has celebrated Barbara Walters's decades-long career in journalism for the past year, but nothing topped her last show.

The show aired Friday and a slew of famous guests popped by to bid the talk show host a happy retirement.

Hillary Clinton, Michael Douglas and Oprah Winfrey stopped by to tell personal stories about their friend and wish her a happy retirement.

Deja Vu on 'The View': Former Co-Hosts Reunite for Barbara Walters' Farewell

But even Walters became a bit emotional when Winfrey introduced 25 female broadcast journalists from every major news network, all of whom she influenced. These women, including Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts and Joan Lunden, were to be her legacy, she said.

"I was teary," Walters told ABC News after their appearance on the show she founded 17 years ago. "But I wasn't going to cry because I was really very happy."

How 'The View' Plans to Mark Barbara Walters' Retirement

In all, the entire program was as close to perfect as she could have imagined.

"There's no such thing as perfect but I can't think of anything that was lacking," she said. "It was unexpected! I did not expect Hillary Clinton to show up. I did not expect all of these women in broadcasting to be there. They all had to take time out of their day. I did not expect Oprah Winfrey to leave Chicago, with everything she has to do and come here. So, it was not just unexpected.

"It was, really, for me, very moving."

Hillary Clinton appears on The View on May 16, 2014, as Barbara Walters says farewell to live daily television with her final co-host appearance on the daytime program she created for ABC.
A surprise appearance from Oprah Winfrey as she does a landmark roll call of introducing 25 female journalists who were influenced by Barbara Walters on the May 16, 2014 episode of The View.
Michael Douglas appears on The View on May 16, 2014 as Barbara Walters says farewell to live daily television with her final co-host appearance on the daytime program she created for ABC.

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