World lost one of the great talkers with death of Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin was good company. On camera and off.
The man could talk, engagingly and excitedly, about anything. Most mornings, his syndicated “Live!” program began with an everyman’s discussion of news headline with either Kathie Lee Gifford or Kelly Ripa. Regis would also relate his evening’s activity – the places he went, the meals he ate, the shows he show, the people with whom he dined, the people he met – with a joie de vivre that made all interesting and amusing.
He came across as a man who lived and enjoyed living.
Philbin, who died Friday at age 88, a month shy of his 89th birthday, didn’t have a dabble in anything particular. He kept his chat and observations general. Regis, or “Reege,” this man who doesn’t need a last name and is more suited to the familiar than the formal, had the native New Yorker’s gift for carrying on a conversation.
He carried on many and he conducted them beautifully.
He could comment. He could react. He could be strong about a subject without ever making someone else, particularly Kathie Lee or Kelly, feel as if he or she had to agree. Regis invited others to express their opinion.
Besides being a champion raconteur, he could conduct an interview in a way in which no one was grilled, and no one had to be anything but entertaining and keep pace with Regis’s exuberance.
He did a great job as an emcee, no matter the occasion, and was a congenial host on game shows, moving his most famous program, “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” to a top spot in the ratings night after night during its initial 1999 season.
From 1988 on, when “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee” graduated from being a local show on New York’s WABC-TV to a nationally syndicated hit, Regis was a constant, and welcome, presence on TV. His ebullience and charm, brought instant life to various shows on which he was a regular guest, such as David
Letterman’s “Late Show” and Rachael Ray’s afternoon cookfest.
The year 1988 was a milestone, but it only exposed the bulk of an iceberg that had been on the radar since the early 1960s.
It was then, and in Los Angeles, that Regis Philbin began to make his mark. On local radio and TV, Regis made a name for himself in Southern California, sort on in the vein his “Live!” successor, Ryan Seacrest, has.
Regis was heard and seen all over L.A. He had a popular radio talk show. He was host of some local programs.
This led to a national spot and first important recognition as Joey Bishop’s sidekick, Joey’s Ed McMahon if you will, when the Philadelphia-born comedian launched ABC’s first attempt at a major late night talk show, something that network didn’t get right until Dick Cavett followed Bishop, and didn’t make an ongoing success until Jimmy Kimmel came along in this century.
Regis didn’t quite achieve the cachet of McMahon or even second bananas on other shows, such as Arthur Treacher on Merv Griffin’s programs, but he and his name became memorable.
Regis was someone you expected to see again.
Unless you were in L.A., it took a while. When the Bishop gig ended with the show’s cancellation – Johnny Carson on NBC was too dominant for any rival to touch – Regis went back to the formula that led to the Bishop show.
He never left the radio, so nothing had to be rebuilt there. L.A. is the world’s media capital, and while Regis did not do much that was national beyond some game show assignments, he had several station in Los Angeles to move around in as a host and personality.
Local led to national again when Regis became host of a local L.A. morning program that took off exponentially when Reege was paired with Cyndy Garvey. Theirs was the most popular show in L.A.
New York needed such a show. ABC was doing poorly against “Phil Donahue” in its NBC rival and nationally aired game shows on CBS. (No other networks or station had to be worried about at the time.) It need something to compete, and station execs, including WABC program manager and Channel 6 transplant, Art Moore, found it at their L.A. sister station.
Regis and Cyndy’s show was rerouted to and re-rooted in New York. Garvey did not stay the course and was replaced with Rehoboth Beach native Kathie Lee Johnson, who would become Kathie Lee Gifford. Whoever was sitting next to him, the WABC morning show took off. It performed as WABC needed it to do, and things were set into motion to make the show national.
Everyone knows how that move worked. “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee,” produced at WABC, started syndication in 1988. Though originating from ABC, its first two seasons appeared locally on Channel 10, then a CBS-owned station. It did well there but skyrocketed when it replaced “Donahue” in the 9 a.m. slot at Channel 6 in the ‘90s.
I worked at Channel 10 at the time and had the pleasure to meet Regis and accompany him to a round of interviews and events.
From the moment I entered his presence, you’d think we’d known each other for decades.
Naturally, I knew who he was. I made life miserable for my parents when teachers wanted to know why I was awake until 1 a.m. watching talk shows, so I was aware of Regis from his Joey Bishop days.
He didn’t know anything about me, but that didn’t stop him from chattering away as if we were familiar, from him asking a lot of questions, more than I asked him, to comparing notes on all kinds of things from Broadway shows and New York restaurants to sports.
The conversation was unending. I mean, you had two people who never shut up, even when we’re asked. I saw the warmth, the friendliness, and immediate kismet that was the hallmark of Regis Philbin.
I was lucky to see it several times. The fall “Live!” debuted on Channel 10, Regis and Kathie Lee performed in one of their regular Atlantic City nightclub shows, and I was among the planners and hosts of the event, the best part being a main liaison between Regis, Kathie Lee, and guests from the press and the advertising/marketing side of the station.
Regis, again, when I met him to brief him on who was attending and with whom he would have appointed face time, was a buddybuddy whirlwind of give-and-take conversation. It was the first of many times I would meet Kathie Lee, and I asked how she copes with this verbal avalanche daily. She smiled and rolled her eyes as if to say (but not saying in words) “with admiring patience.” (Pam Dawber had the same reaction when I asked her what is was like to work with Robin Williams once he launched into an ad lib riff.)
Regis just gave and gave. He had no “off” button.
And you wouldn’t want him to. I worked with him a couple more times at Channel 10, then interviewed him on occasion for this column once he went to Channel 6.
All occasions are happy and memorable.
Not to mention instructive. Because Regis could dominate, I always arranged to have separate time with Kathie Lee.
You see, Regis was a co-host, but “Live!” never played that way with Kathie Lee or Kelly. Though neither is exactly a shy flower, Regis had way of making them into sidekicks on his show. Kelly took time to blossom on her own after Regis left ‘Live” in 2011. It was hard to think of television without Regis, but that never totally happened. The first renditions of “Live!” and “Millionaire” may be in past tense, but they linger in memory, in a large part because of Regis. Once those regular shows disappeared, Regis found ways to be a guest on myriad shows, even being host of one of this century’s versions of “Password.” Earlier this year, he participated in a special with Jimmy Kimmel when Kimmel became to the host of “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” This week, Regis will be seen on a bygone celebrity edition of “Jeopardy!.”
Regis’s death is said to be of natural causes. He had several heart procedures including a multiple bypass earlier in the season. His wife, Joy, a frequent guest host on “Live!” survives him as do three children. (A fourth died in 2014.)