As I already tried to tell you, he mostly interviewed famous folk (writers, musicians, actors, directors, athletes) but nobody who has ever seen a Cavett interview would ever refer to it as "soft coverage or promotional". That was the exact opposite of what he produced. He had an intelligent uncombative style but he was a prober. It was well known that a subject would arrive expecting a 30 minute interview and leave three hours later, having spilled everything.

As I told you in that first comment, Dick Cavett just didn't run with the publicists script. He was not Larry King or David Letterman. That you think that he is even remotely close to the current crop of entertainment interviewers just proves you haven't bothered to watch him at all. Which is honestly astounding and you will be a little embarrassed about it if you ever get down to actually watching the interviews.

Did Nixon under estimate him? Absolutely. Just as he under estimated David Frost. Foolish mistakes by an administration too stupid to do basic research like you know, watch previous interviews