Regis Philbin with David Letterman re: Dave angiogram announcement [1/14/2000] www.vinniefavale.com

Regis Philbin was a TV legend in so many ways and if all he had ever done in his amazing career was host his ABC syndicated morning show, that would have been enough…but there was so much more to him.
In some ways he was the true “King Of Late Night.” Most people might not be aware that that Regis’s first break on national television was as Joey Bishop’s sidekick on ABC’s late night “Joey Bishop Show”. Regis took a lot of ribbing from the caustic Bishop in the two years that they were on the air, famously walking of the show one night. According to Philbin at the time, it was the culmination of drubbing from not only Bishop but the TV critics. Regis returned a few nights later with great fanfare. In later years Regis revealed that it was a stunt designed by Bishop to get higher ratings against the dominant Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson. Either way this wouldn’t be the first time that Regis would be at the center of a late-night storm. In fact, soon after Regis’ famous walk off, the Joey Bishop show ended on December 26, 1969 with some real late night fireworks. Bishop had just completed his monologue when he declared that it was his last show, walking off and leaving Philbin to finish the final show. Regis would have some more seminal late-night moments in later years.
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