The Daily Star - Stay Tuned
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/47416
The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, November 11, 2011 2 coverstory End of an era Philbin bids farewell to morning mainstay By Christina Davies TV Media A more than 30-year morning talk show reign comes to an end on Friday, Nov. 18, as Regis Philbin says goodbye to co- star Kelly Ripa and audiences across North America on his last episode of "Live! With Re- gis and Kelly." In preparation for his de- parture, "Live" has been bringing back favorite guests and showing highlights and fan-favorite moments from the show's run, as well as hav- ing guest hosts fill Philbin's shoes from time to time, pre- sumably as low-pressure au- ditions for Ripa's next co-host. But what comes next for the 80-year-old Philbin after he leaves the show? "I don't know what exactly I'll be do- ing after "Live," Philbin told the Detroit Free Press, "but I'm not planning to call this a retirement and just hang it up." He certainly has built up a resume that should make it easy for him to find his next gig, whatever it may be. After serving as a supply of- ficer in the US Navy, he began working in the background of television and radio, including working as a page at "The To- night Show" in the '50s. The first on-camera stint to give Philbin national exposure was Kelly Ripa, seen here on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," will continue as a solo host of "Live" until a co-host is found "The Joey Bishop Show," on which he served as a sidekick - the Ed McMahon to Bishop's Carson, if you will. He's since gone on to host talk shows, game shows, release albums and pen autobiographies. "Live" began on a small scale, with Regis hosting "The Morning Show" for Manhat- tan's WABC. After quickly ris- ing up the ratings to become the No. 1 show in its market, Philbin was joined by Kathie Lee Gifford in 1985 -- a part- nership that would last 15 years -- and the show was in national syndication by 1988. When Gifford departed, Ripa was chosen to take her place in 2001. He brought his morning- time popularity to prime time in 1999, hosting the wildly- popular -- even if it was short- lived -- ABC game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" The show continues to air weekdays in syndication with host Meredith Vieira, but the primetime version was can- celed in 2002 after ratings proved unsustainable. The fleeting success of "Who Wants to be a Million- aire?" is merely a small blip on the radar of successes that make up Philbin's broadcast- ing career. He has earned him- self five Daytime Emmy awards, including a Lifetime Achievement award in 2008, has been inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and has held the Guinness World Record for Most Hours on Camera since 2004. When he was first named the re- cord-holder, he had accumu- lated 15,188 hours of screen- time, and that figure has since surpassed 16,500 hours. After Regis's goodbye, the network plans to sharpen its focus on testing out an array of co-hosts for Ripa, much as they did for Regis 10 years ago when Gifford left. Also mirroring the change of a de- cade earlier, they will tempo- rarily re-name the show "Live! With Kelly." On air, Re- gis joked that Ripa wanted to try out some "new young hot" studs. During the same exchange, producer Michael Gelman piped up to say that there was no short list of potential fu- ture co-hosts, despite rumors that had been flying around suggesting the options had been pared down to three candidates: "American Idol" and "American Weekly Top A/Auto Boutique B/The Green Giraffe 2 x 2 40" host Ryan Seacrest; Bravo exec Andy Cohen, who also hosts the network's late-night talk show "Watch What Hap- pens: Live;" and Ripa's hus- band, Mark Consuelos, who has frequently filled in for Philbin in the past. Ripa has her own list of ac- complishments to fall back on as she carries on her role of morning talk show host. She has been part of the ABC fam- ily for more than 20 years, starting with her 12-year stint as Hayley Vaughan on the network's daytime soap "All My Children." For that role, she earned three Soap Opera Digest awards, including one for "hottest romance," which she shared with her co-star and husband Consuelos. They married off-screen in 1996, one year before their "All My Children" characters tied the knot on-screen. After departing from "All My Children," Ripa began her prime-time career in 2003 on the ABC sitcom "Hope & Faith," alongside Faith Ford, which aired for three seasons. Ripa and Consuelos also head up their own production company, Milojo Productions, through which they first pro- duced "The Streak," a docu- mentary about a Florida high school wrestling team with a 34-year winning streak. The company's first effort pre- miered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and was nomi- nated for a Sports Emmy in the category of Outstanding Sports Documentary. Chirstopher's Coins 2 x 2 hollywoodQ&A By Adam Thomlison TV Media Q: What happened to the new Tom Clancy movie they were supposed to be making? I feel like I heard a lot about it a while ago and not a word since. A: That's how it feels because that's exactly how it's hap- pened. The talk of adapting another of Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, previously more of a murmur, got quite loud indeed in the fall of 2009 when it was announced that Chris Pine, a golden boy after the success of the "Star Trek" reboot earlier that year, would be playing Ryan. This was a big question, since the role had been played by three different superstars in the past -- Alec Baldwin in the first film, "The Hunt for Red October" (1990); Harrison Ford in the next two installments, "Patriot Games" (1992) and "Clear and Present Danger" (1994), and then by Ben Affleck in 2002's "The Sum of All Fears." But things quieted down a little as the film ran into writer trouble. The most recent buzz came in April, when it was an- nounced that Paramount was handing the script to David Koepp for a substantial rewrite. It must have been substan- tial indeed, since he's apparently still at it. Koepp, a sort of Hollywood ringer whose pen previously launched such blockbusters as 2002's "Spider-Man" and 1996's "Mission: Impossible," is reportedly the fifth writer to work on this now. Previous scribes include Anthony Peck- ham, Steve Zaillian, Hossein Amini and Adam Cozad. A/Crazy Tom's B/Allstar Auto Wash 2 x 3 Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com.