TORONTO – Regis Philbin still gets worked up about the 17-year-old “Seinfeld” episode in which he called Kramer “bonkos.”
“Oh my God, I lose my breath every time I think about it,” says the perennially exasperated TV host.
The anecdote is detailed in “How I Got This Way,” Philbin’s new memoir about his encounters with a seemingly endless parade of celebrities including Jerry Seinfeld, George Clooney, Howard Stern, Steven Spielberg, George Steinbrenner and Joe DiMaggio.
Last month, Philbin left “Live! With Regis and Kelly” after more than 28 years on morning television, many of them spent with co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Kelly Ripa. During the daily “host chat” segment on “Live!,” he mastered the art of turning an everyday incident into an engaging story.
It’s a talent that’s on display from the moment he shows up for a 9 a.m. interview.
“You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through!” says the excitable entertainer, launching into a colourful tale about a lost passport.
Asked to relate the story behind the 1994 “Seinfeld” episode – in which Jerry’s neighbour Kramer appears on “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee” to promote a coffee table book that actually converts into a miniature coffee table – Philbin is happy to oblige.
An avid “Seinfeld” fan, the 80-year-old TV legend was initially pleased to be approached for the episode.
Then he received the script.
“My line is: ‘This guy’s bonkos!'” recalls Philbin. “I said, ‘No, no!’ First of all, I’ve never heard of this! I’ve heard of bonkers, but never bonkos. Why does Regis have to say that?
“So I got so worked up about it that I called the writers at the show … I said: ‘It’s not funny.’ (They said): ‘Listen, this is what we do for a living, we write funny and this is going to get a lot of laughs!’
“I did it. SILENCE in the studio. Listen to me, SILENCE!”
The story is vintage Philbin, showcasing the perturbed persona TV viewers have come to love, while also reinforcing the host’s well-known penchant for referring to himself in the third person (“Is there a glass of water for Regis?” he asks a publicist during the interview).
As for the job he has just left, Philbin says he’s been so busy promoting his book that he’s had little time to miss “Live!”
Written in a highly readable format, each chapter of “How I Got This Way” is about someone who made an impact on Philbin and concludes with a summary of what the “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” personality took away from the encounter.
“I just kept writing about those incidents that moved me in some way,” says Philbin.
“I thought, this can happen from spending one night with someone, or a meeting with someone, or just brushing against them in some way – that they can, in another way, change you for the better.”
After spending an astounding 16,000 hours on television since the early 1950s, Philbin has, of course, crossed paths with some major stars.
In “How I Got This Way,” he relates those meetings with the same insidery dish that proved so irresistible to “Live!” viewers.
Philbin writes about a wild night he and wife Joy spent at Clooney’s Italian villa on Lake Como (Philbin had once subbed for the movie star’s father on his program, “The Nick Clooney Show”). He tells of his initial encounter with shock jock Stern (his neighbour in New York City) and his friendship with the late Yankees owner Steinbrenner. In one of the book’s most personal anecdotes, he details an encounter at Yankee Stadium with his childhood idol DiMaggio.
With a career as storied as Philbin’s, there have been some odd twists of fate along the way.
One of the TV host’s favourite stories in the book details a long-ago night on “The Joey Bishop Show,” when Philbin was sent into the studio audience to interview young people about their dreams.
He encountered one bespectacled young man who froze on camera, unable to articulate his future plans. Philbin, who writes in the book of being scared to tell his own parents about his show-biz aspirations, could relate.
The incident stuck with him and some 40 years later he was approached by Oscar-winning director Spielberg, who identified himself as the young man at the “Joey Bishop” taping.
“(He said,) ‘Every time I see you on TV, I get that feeling in my stomach, that I didn’t have enough confidence, that I should have told you then and I couldn’t and I feel badly about it,'” recalls Philbin. “I said: ‘You know why I remember that Steve, because I was the same way.’
“Confidence is really the key,” adds the host, who is already pondering a return to TV.
“You’ve got to have it, you’ve got express it. Tell everybody what you want and go get it.”
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