Skip to main content

Regis Philbin—Help In A Time of Need

Have I said how much I dislike daytime television? I really do. I'm even to the point of shrugging to CNN in the morning because the programming and the chatter doesn't inform or excite or entertain. Usually.

There was a time when I was in college, and the ABC soap lineup had me hooked, I confess. I would go home to visit my parents and would hope to sit down to some stupid story line on One Life to Live or General Hospital only discover my father had become attached to As the World Turns on another network. The burly man retired from his heavy construction carpenter work and soon began spending his time watching soap operas. I was stunned and a little saddened. Odd, I think, that my watching them didn't make me sad, but I hated that my father watched them, as if he was too good and purposeful for soaps, but I had nothing better to do and was more suited to them. I wasn't, but I didn't know that just yet.

Now, if I turn on the TV during the day, it's for background noise, and I go straight to Turner Classic Movies. If the movie is a dud, I'll switch to some other movie channel or National Geographic or a History Channel show about ancient Egyptian mysteries or Mayan prophecies. But then there is Regis Philbin.

I know. His morning show can be a drag, but his personality can make up for it. I have no opinion on Kelly Ripa; and Kathy Lee Gifford, for whatever reason, makes my skin crawl, but Regis and I go way back. Here's what I have to say about his recent retirement from his morning show, as it appears in today's issue of Small Town Newspaper.

Comments

dive said…
He sounds a hoot, Robyn. I wish we'd had people like him over here when I was younger.
Speedway said…
Hi, Robyn! I have trouble watching daytime TV, abhor the soaps, and will always watch Turner Classic Movies, particularly if they're showing a b/w detective movie from the fifties. Or Fred Astaire. Or Basil Rathbone.

If there isn't a movie I can stand, I'll turn to the Discovery Channel for Mythbusters or to NatGeo for Rocket City Rednecks - if I can't find an old Julia Child re-run. There's also been something about Vincent Dinofrio on Law & Order: Criminal Intent I've found fascinating.

Never watched Regis because I couldn't stand Kathy Lee. I found her creepy, too.

WV = angsting: Don't like daytime TV. Am I angsting over it? No.

Popular posts from this blog

Right Brain Dominant

I am reading A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future , by Daniel H. Pink. I wouldn't have chosen this book had I been book hunting because I lean toward fiction—it was a gift from someone who, like me, is right-brain dominate. I haven't gotten very far, just far enough to learn that in Hippocrates' day, the left side of the brain was considered the true source of thought, the thing that separated us from the animals and made us human. It was the source of reason and logic. The right side was considered a useless left over, a parasite. Now we know that both sides of our brains are equally important and equally involved in our daily thoughts and functions. But some of us do seem to be governed by one side more strongly than the other. Me, sometimes I think the left side of my brain has completely atrophied, that the right side governs everything. But I am learning that I don't give that other side enough credit, that logical mathy side. As I read on ab...

Happy Birthday To...

Pope Leo IX (the Pope) JCF Bach (German composer) Jane Russell (of Gentlemen Prefer Blonds fame) Daniel Carter Beard (founder of the Boy Scouts of America) Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher) Maureen Stapleton (Academy Award winning actress) Mariette Hartley (who?) Prince William of Wales (the prince) but most importantly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 45 years ago today, I was born in Alabama in a small town on the banks of the Tennessee River. Yesterday, someone asked me if my family has any birthday traditions. The answer is no. My family never cared very much, but I do remember a few birthday highlights. I was given a birthday party in the back yard when I was ten years old. Two years later, my sister got married on my birthday, so I was just a bit overlooked, although I did get a stuffed animal--it was a white Yorkshire terrier with an AM radio in its stomach. When I turned 20, a different sister took me to an outdoor performance of Dvorak's New World Sympho...

Ish People

Tell an Ish person to show up around 9 a.m., and you'll see them somewhere around 9 a.m. Tell them to show up at 9ish, and you'll see them anywhere from 9:05 to 9:20. You have given them license to dilly dally, and who wouldn't take advantage of that? The other night at the big shindig dinner party, one of the drummers said the rehearsal the next morning would begin at 9ish. "I am an ish person," he says. Immediately the clanker goes off in my head--oh, good, I thought. I can deliver my daughter a little late. No Ish person is early, so if you say 9ish, that does not mean give or take 5, 10, 15 minutes. It's exclusively a taking phrase. Take an extra 10 minutes to drink your cup of coffee. We won't mind. We're Ish people. Sunday's rehearsal started at 2:00. Because it was conducted by the same people who conducted the Saturday rehearsal, my understanding was 2-ISH. My daughter is worse than I am about taking liberties with Ish time frames, so she d...