Regis Philbin’s death last week at age 88 is still being felt in the entertainment industry, and those closest to him are still sharing memories from his life and legacy. One of those people is Michael Schur, who has been involved in The Office, Parks and Rec and The Good Place and certainly knows about TV himself.
His wife, J.J. Philbin, is also the late Regis Philbin’s daughter so he had some specific insights about his career and what he meant to both his family and millions of people who watched him on TV for decades. On Friday, nearly a week after Philbin’s death, Schur shared a thread on Twitter that included some notes from his belongings and memorialized the vast breadth of his time on TV.
I’ve never really been able to articulate what his life and career meant. It’s too huge. You can’t wrap your arms around it. He literally holds the Guinness Book Record for most hours on TV. (Like 17,000, or something equally absurd.)
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) July 31, 2020
Still, I’ve been trying for 20+ years to find a way to explain, in a pithy way, how monumental his career was in the medium that his daughter and I both work in. Over the past few days, I think I found it.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) July 31, 2020
Schur said that Philbin saved lots of documents, including books and some notes from his various jobs over the years.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) July 31, 2020
And though he called Philbin’s career “too huge” to properly commemorate, the former writer for Fire Joe Morgan made sure to include some context for the sports broadcasting section of his career, which is largely forgotten by those who know him from Live With Regis And Kelly and, of course, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He described it as a career impossible to duplicate, and rightfully so.
You want to see a career no one will ever duplicate? Here it is. A guy who was on TV when Harvey Haddix struck out Duke Snider, and also handed million-dollar checks on a futuristic game show set. A guy who reported on both Lou Groza and Eli Manning, Yogi Berra and Gary Sanchez.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) July 31, 2020
“No one will ever be what he was, in the medium he dedicated his life to,” Schur concluded. “What a run.” Schur also shared a link to a pair of charitably foundations in Philbin’s honor as a way to pay tribute to the late entertainer.
If you’d like to honor Regis, please donate to https://t.co/KOXYylvKkL, to help his beloved Bronx, or the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, a charity near and dear to his heart, at https://t.co/PCcSDwFBJb.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) July 31, 2020
It’s a touching bit of nostalgia for a man who apparently didn’t like trips down memory lane, but one that certainly gave people extra insight into his remarkable career.