The late, great Regis Philbin owns the Guinness World Record for most hours spent on television, which means he spent a lot of time on set around craft services. But rather than half-heartedly pick at a stale sandwich, the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host (and Wu-Tang Clan fan) preferred to get his food elsewhere: McDonald’s.
Parks and Recreation and The Good Place creator Michael Schur joined The Dan Le Batard Show on Wednesday and shared an amusing story about Philbin, his father-in-law. “He did an ad for McDonalds sometime in the early ‘90s,” he said. “And as part of the thanks for this, he was given a gold-colored credit card thing that said, ‘This card entitles Regis Philbin to free McDonald’s for life’ and he loved this.” As noted by Awful Announcing, the McDonald’s ad isn’t on YouTube, but his Hardee’s commercial from 1994 is out there (the video’s description: “I’m not sure why Hardee’s was going after the senior set with these commercials. Maybe they were trying to steal the breakfast senior circuit from McDonald’s. Fact: My grandfather died in a McDonald’s” — bleak!).
Schur said that whenever Philbin would present the card for a free burger or whatever, “the cashier would just stare at it confused, because it was like ‘what is this, why is Regis Philbin in this random McDonald’s demanding free $3 hamburgers?’ They would go ‘I’ve never seen this before, I need to call someone,’ and it’d be this confusing thing.” That’s the honest way to becoming a millionaire: by getting a Quarter Pounder for free.
You can watch a clip from The Dan Le Batard Show below.
“The cashier would stare at it, confused…Why is Regis Philbin in this random McDonalds demanding free $3 hamburgers?” – @KenTremendous told us a wonderful story about the legend Regis Philbin once trying to use a ‘Free McDonalds For Life’ card
https://t.co/dpO1DXoAAO pic.twitter.com/9VAQ2JB7GO
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) August 31, 2022
(Via Awful Announcing)