Remembering Regis Philbin who was made for TV, maybe the last of his kind....
WEB DESK- By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri:-
It
may be overstating it to say that Regis Philbin was the last of his kind, but
not by much.
Philbin,88,
died Friday most of them seemingly in front of a camera. Obituaries refer to
him as a morning-show host, mention “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and throw
in something about what a good late-night talk show guest he was.
That’s
all true, and you don’t become the record holder for logging the most hours in
the history of television (beating out Hugh Downs, who died earlier this year)
by not having a talent for it.
But
what Philbin really was is a made-for-TV creation. And you don’t see those much
anymore.
Remembering Regis Philbin
There
were a lot of stops on his TV career path. Among many other things, he was Joey
Bishop’s sidekick on a late-night show, but that didn’t last (because the show
didn’t). He appeared in movies ("Shrek") and on TV shows ("Fresh
Off the Boat"), but he wasn’t really an actor (he often played himself
later in his career).
“Millionaire”
was briefly the most popular show on television, and he was good on it, but you
never really thought of him as a proper game-show host like Alex Trebek or Pat
Sajak. “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee,” which made him nationally famous as
he chatted the morning away with Kathie Lee Gifford (and later Kelly Ripa) and
their guests, was entertaining, but the appeal was him talking about himself or
his take on the world. He combined a feisty personality with a nice little
streak of self-deprecation — something David Letterman recognized. Letterman
had Philbin as a guest frequently, and he did not disappoint.
Certainly,
Philbin was rich and well known. But he was mostly just Regis Philbin, famous
for being Regis Philbin (or at least a TV version). He was sort of like a
utility infielder in baseball, never the best at any one position but able to
play them all pretty well.
It’s
obvious that TV has changed since Philbin started — his career lasted more than
60 years. Though audiences knew who he was, when “Millionaire” exploded
unexpectedly when it debuted in 1999 he truly became a household name. It’s
difficult to overstate how famous he became. He even had a clothing line, based
on his monochromatic getups on the show.
A
greedy ABC ran the show into the ground, but some nights it attracted 30
million viewers for a single episode. And they all heard Philbin say, “Is that
your final answer?”
Why
it's hard to reach the level of fame Philbin achieved
Audiences
are too fragmented for anywhere near that kind of audience now, because media
are too fragmented. There are too many streaming options, cable offerings —
people don’t watch network television the way they used to.
You
can get semi-famous in a lot more places now — Twitter famous, TikTok famous —
but the concentration of attention just isn’t the same.
There
are superstars, still. Everyone, it seemed like, was talking about Taylor Swift
when she released “Folklore” on Friday. She and Beyonce may be the only artists
who can so dominate pop culture with a new release right now. Most people would
recognize LeBron James or Tom Brady if they saw them walking down the street.
If Oprah Winfrey has something to say, people want to hear it.
But
these are people who excel at what they do — they’re famous for a reason.
Philbin was different. He excelled at being pretty good at a lot of things.
That’s a lost art, perhaps because there’s not much call for it anymore.
Philbin occupied the dwindling middle shelf of fame — it’s up there a little,
but it doesn’t seem unreachable.
In
reality it’s a lot harder to reach than it looks. But for a long time Philbin
had it within his grasp.
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