October 10, 2023 • 52 mins
On this week’s episode, Craig talks to his friend of many years - Kathie Lee Gifford - an American legend who needs no introduction. Kathie highlights her views on Jesus, faith, and shares several Regis Philbin stories. This is part 2 of a two-part interview. enJOY!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, This is Craig Ferguson, letting y'all know that I
am still out on the road with my Fancy Rascal
tour this week in the following beautiful places. October tenth
at the Magoffin Auditorium in El Paso, Texas. October the
eleventh at the Wagner Noelle Performing Arts Center in Midland, Texas.
And October thirteenth to the fifteenth at the Houston Improv
(00:23):
Comedy Club in Houston, Texas. I promise I will not
mess with Texas, or I might. I can't make a
commitment at this point. For a fullest of dates, please
go to my website, the Craig Fergusons Show dot com
slash tour. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of
this podcast is Joy. I talk to interest in people
(00:48):
about what brings them happiness. Welcome to Kathy Lee Gifford
Part two. Kathy Lee Gifford is so bonkers and so
interesting that we had to give her a two parts.
The second bit, yeah, are you up and running?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Okay? Noise with this, so that's all right. Look, if
people know that you.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Sometimes have a beverage, yes that has ice in it.
And a little straw, which I think is that it's
not the most European way of drinking wine.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But I think that you're not European. It's okay, I am.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I was born in France. That's born in Paris, France.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
You're a French Messianic Jew. Yes, I think you're it.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I think I'm maybe the only one. Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yes, And so I now have been up since I
literally got up this morning at twelve forty five, and
I said, even for me, that's early that it is
now one o'clock in the afternoon here, and so I'm
having a little glass of white wine.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I'm not judging. You can't.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
No, you never have, but so people know, with a
little bit of ice in it. I usually have episoda
with it too, you know, so that I can spritzer.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Spritzer a spritzer.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
It's just fine.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
When we talked before, yes, we talked a lot about religion.
And I know you can talk a lot about that
and look to be honest, I love you, but you
can talk a lot about pretty much anathing. So we
talked a lot about religion. I want to talk to
you a little bit about when I first met you
and where you were. I remember the first meeting I
ever had with you, and I don't know if you remember.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
That was it the Drew Carey Show.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Was at the Drew Carey Show. And I was eighth
banana on that show. My first child had just been born.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So that was twenty two years ago. Twenty two years ago,
and you I was just doing a guest starring. You
were guest starring. It was right, you were still doing.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Regious Is it regu It would still be reading it
was mid nineties, No.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
It was I left Regis in two thousand.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Right, so we hadn't just been born.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
He was about to be born, okay, because it was
mid nineties or late nineties or two thousand, even he
was born in two thousand.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Okay, that's the year I did leave Regis, all right,
not personally, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It remained my dear, dear, dear friend thirty more years. Yes,
I love you. Yeah, I just left the show, right,
But you were so kind to me.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
You were a big, big, this big star coming in
and do a spot on the on the show, and
I was eighth banana on the show, and you gave
me some kids books for my.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Who was not born.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, for your like, here's so you get them, Marrily,
You're like coca cola.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You get Coca cola is not necessarily good for you.
What I got, what I've got good for you.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
You said that before, and I just I remember thinking
at the time, Wow, that.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Is a class act. That is a class act.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And I haven't changed my opinion one iota since then
about that.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
We've been in bed together for for for entertainment, for entertainment.
That's right, It's available on Netflix.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Then came you, everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I don't know why I'm plugging it. I don't get
resid juels. You get them, No, I don't. All right, Okay,
So here's the thing though. But you were at that
time with Regis, yes, professionally, and you were with Frank
matrimonially yes at the time. Yes, And I want to
talk to you a little bit about the man because.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Regis, Regis and Frank.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
But let's talk a little because you are and I
mean this in a very complimentary and in no way
the judgmental or anything, but you are a very heterosexual woman.
Oh yes, and you're a vibrant, funny, sexy woman.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Now, yeah, tell me, well, it's the truth.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So I think to myself, well, professionally, you're working with
Regis and you're with this.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
God of an athlete Frank.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yes, as well.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
How did you meet Frank?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
I met Frank early, early, early in nineteen eighty two
when I just signed for a year long that was
it stint on the Good Morning America and they were
grooming me to take over for John London. But I
would certainly not aournalists. But they said, we're not interested
in a journalist. We want somebody. Then it was under
the auspices of ABC Entertainment, not News, so they weren't
(05:08):
necessarily looking for a journalist. They were looking for somebody
that would be comfortable on camera and could talk to
a rock and make the rock laugh in some instances,
you know, And that's I don't know that you can
learn that. That's something that's sort of innate. Comes from
I'm sorry, Every good and perfect gift scripture says comes
from above, from the Father of the heavenly realms, who
(05:30):
does not change like shifting shadows.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Right, So.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Again, yes, everything goes back to him.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So where to come from?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I went to Bora Roberts University to be a drama
what is I don't it's been so many year. It
was a drama measure with a music minor and it
was just it was a it was a waste of time, yes,
but I was the only Jew there and the only
one who didn't speak in tongues, so it was it
was problematic for me. Yeah, and back then, back then, yeah,
(06:03):
I was the only one with the maiden name of Epstein.
Let's put it that way. And it was what they
call a charismatic Pentecostal university. No, it wasn't that kind.
It wasn't that extreme, but it was you know, gifts
of the Holy Spirit, which I do believe in, is
just not one that I have. I've prayed for the
gifts of the spirit to speak in tongues, and God
(06:25):
said that the tongue I've given you is enough.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
It's doing fine. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I don't think the world can take many more languages
that I see. Anyway, I learned to to sort of
just accept things like that along the way. I didn't
want to feel less then because I didn't have that gift.
God said, concentrate on the ones I've given you. You know,
so many people in our world are miserable because well,
why didn't I don't have what they have?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
How come you didn't give me that? Lord?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
How come I don't My thighs don't look like whatever?
It is? The pault In Philippi, all of his books
in the New Testament, talks so much about the fact
that we The whole idea of walking with Jesus is
learning to be content in the moment.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I totally agree with that. Gratitude is a silver bullet.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Gratitude is the way every time, and you can militate,
you can find some That gratitude is wait.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Exactly, instead of bitching and moaning about what you don't
have and missing out on all the blessing that's.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Sitting right there. I tricked, you're going to talk to
me about how you met Frank. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So anyway, back then I was doing commercials too, like
they used to do on the Today Show with the
David Garrison was that his name, early early days where
they stopped the show and then they do a dog
commercial or really I don't remember that. Yeah, the early
days of the Today Show were like that. So they
were still doing that. So I had to do a
basset hound a commercial with a basset hound at four
in the morning, right, And it was for Alpo. So
(07:48):
I came in, got my hair and makeup. Yes, it's
a very glamorous business.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You're a tireless per.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
It was four o'clock and I already had full hair
and makeup and I'm ready to shoot with a Mellie
Bassett hound and do an Apple commercial. So I'm walking
down along very lonely stairwell, not a stairwell, but at
hall because nobody's there hardly, right, And I look over
to the left of me, and there's the greatest set
of buns I have ever seen in my life, leaning
(08:17):
over a sink, obviously putting in contact lenses. I have
no idea who the buns belonged to, but they got
my attention.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So you're saying to me that it was Frank Gifford's
ass was the first thing that you went this is
very interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
To It was beautiful. I am a beauty lover, you know,
I mean, I can appreciate. Can I tell you the
last day of his life? The man said the same ass.
It's unbelievable. Wow, that's why he was one of the
great tight ends of all time.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Okay, So frankly contact lenses in with his great ass,
and what happens?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You're like, hey, sailor, got a cigarette for a girl?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
No, No, I just immediately said what comes to my mind,
usually without any filter at all, and I said, have
I got an operation for you? Because I had just
had an operation called radial caratotomy, which was a precursor
to lasik.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, that's when they cut the surface of your cornea
with a razor blade.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah. I got that done, yes, before it was lasik.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
No, only a thousand people in all of America had
it done at that time, right, But I knew six
of them, and they had perfect eyesight, and went, I'm
doing that. So I just had that operation and I
went from twenty four hundred in each eye. I was
I was legally blind, So I got it, and I
went to twenty twenty in both eyes. It was just
and so I said, have I got an operation for you?
(09:36):
And from the face that's in the sink, I hear yeah,
with a fool on either end, an operation with a
fool on either end. And I went, well, well, well
aren't we see this earlier?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I didn't recognize the voice at first, and he had
such an iconic.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Voice as well, from the wide white world.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yes, and from well wide white world sports at that
time and Monday night football.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It was very big. Oh yeah, still pretty I think
he's still pretty big. He was. He was on it
for third twenty eight years.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, he had two unbelievable careers in football and then
in broadcasting.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
He was.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He blazed a trail for everything. He's got an amazing
book called The Glory Game, and he wrote quite a
few books about his start in the you know when
he used dog food and his father was an itinerant oil,
and how grateful he was for everything in.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Football, basically football at the time.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
My family was I had a father and a brother
who were big Baltimore, Baltimore Colts fans because I grew
up in Annapolis, Maryland, and we hated the Giants, so
they did. I didn't hate them, but they were then
that game, that Glory Game, that the nineteen fifty eight
I think championship game was between the Baltimore Colts and
the New York Giants. Right, So I was aware of football,
(10:48):
of course, but I was I've never been a maniac
about it, right, And I like sports, but I don't
live for them, all right, so you know who Frank
has because everybody in the whole world knew who Frank
Gifford was. And I'd heard scuttle butt around the studio
that he was, you know, in a very unhappy marriage
and everybody adored him. But she was, you know, not
a very nice lady. And why in the world did
(11:10):
he marry her a kind of thing. And it was
his second wife, and you know, there's who's already had
children and everything. He's twenty three years older than me, right,
so and so there was there was Later I started
working as host whenever John London wasn't there, and he
would be there whenever David Hartman wasn't there. So we
started to work actually together a little bit on the
(11:32):
days when nobody else wanted to be there. Nobody was
watching at home, so we were the b team and
we just became friends. And he you know, you were
friends first, oh, for four years, really four years we
were friends. His marriage eventually was on the rocks, and
he was in the process of divorce to his second wife,
and and and he just he was like my champion.
(11:54):
He would call the producers and say I'm watching the show.
Why is Kathy's seat down so low? Why change?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I know? Joan?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Joan was taller than I was, and so her seat
was set at a perfect at a certain and I'd
sit down next to David Hartman, I'd look like a muppet,
you know. And so he cared about things like that.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Right, it sounds patty, but actually matters in that world.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh it does. It's it's it's perception. What is that
little person? It takes your your mind off what you
should You should be listening to what somebody's saying, you know.
And so we just started having lunch together, started having
dinner together. Every time there was something that happened in
his life that was really traumatic, he would call me
(12:37):
and he'd said, Kath, can I take you to lunch?
Can I will you go to dinner with me? My
brother's dying of you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
This just happened.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I just saved a guy's life on a private plane
and was going down and the pilot had had a
heart attack. Tell me, yeah, well he back then he
was private planes all the time. He was working for
an Abisco and NBC ABC, and so they flew privately
lots of places to games and things like that. One
day he was on the Nabisco plane I believe it was.
(13:07):
And it was just a you know, a small jet
with maybe seat six people and had a pilot and
a co pilot right and all of a sudden it
was going along and all of a sudden co pilot
comes back. They felt a jerk co pilot because Frank, Frank, hurry,
come up, come in front, helped me out, helped me out.
Frank just got out of his seat. It's a coach,
put me in. He goes up there and the very
(13:27):
very overweight captain had had a massive heart attack and
his girth was on all the all the He's leaning
on the leaning on everything, leaning on everything. And so
Frank frantically tries to get the man back off the
controls and save his life if he can. Right back then,
back then we thought that that could help with you
(13:48):
do the mouth's mouth and no, then it's really just
the compression. Apparently they don't do that anymore. I don't
know why. That's if you're choking, But I don't know.
I'm not a doctor. Don't believe anything I say.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I'm not expecting you to the people. I'm talking to
the listeners at all. I know you don't believe anything.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I believe a lot of things you said, but I
don't take medical advice from you. It's okay you drink
waning with ice cubes and a straw.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It's not there, believe you.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
So that straw, by the way, So I don't leave
lip marks like I did before on the on the beautiful.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I've told you before. You do not need to get
defensive about it. It's I think it's totally fine.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So listen.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So it happened the plane and his mouth was bloodied
from trying to save this man's life. That's the man
that comes home traumatized and calls me and goes, Kathy,
can we can?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
But I need to know that the pilot he died.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
He died, he died, And so the co pilot lands
a plane with this dead guy next to him.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
And then and the two days later, Frank speaks at
his funeral and he called you.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
When he landed.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, So I guess that's there's your answer.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I was his best friend, Yeah, his best female friend.
He had a lot of real good you know.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I can imagine Frank get her that good mail buddies.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Oh he had great good mailk brud, but he had
everybody loved Frank. Frank didn't love everybody else. He could
not tolerate assholes. Pardon my French, but that was his
word for it. Yeah, he knew that his days were
coming to an end at a certain point. And he goes, Kath,
I don't want a funeral. I don't want to be
in a box. I want to be cremated. I said,
they're still in a box. He goes, I don't know.
(15:23):
I just don't like him kind of rotting in a
box me either. I want to be cremated too, because
I'm not going to be there.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I'm not going to I want to be in a
Viking loan ship. Yeah, sand out to sea and then
say it on fire.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
That's a lot sexier than just so you do eventually
want to be cremated.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah, but in a Viking long ship with arrows fired
by my sons.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Is that what they used to do?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That was so my sons are on the shore and
they've got flaming arrows, and I get pushed out to
the sea and then the fire, the fire. I'm on
this thing on the Viking long ship, and the flaming
arrows hit the hit the boat and then I, you know,
I burn up and go into the ether and the
boat goes there.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Not probably good for the environment, but the sexiest hell
bye bye.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You know, sometimes you just gotta carbon footprint your way
out of here.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
So can I give your eulogy? Yeah? Yeah, he was
the greatest of us.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I would talk about the time my thood dropped.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Say that word. That is such a naughty word to me.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
We're not in Scotland to play in Scotland, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I don't think they love me very much over there.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
But then they're foolish. Oh god, I'll go over and
I'll I'll I tell them what to say and what
to think.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
This is an official invitation to the Fancy Vascal stand
up Show. I Craig Ferguson will be performing this fall
in your region. You can buy tickets and check out
the full list of dates at the Craig Ferguson show
dot com slash sure see you.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There or not.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We're talking about you and Frank. So you and Frank
are friends for four years. So when did you realize
you're falling in love with him?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Then you know what it was around June. It was
before the US Open maybe end of May, and I
had broken up with this guy I'd been going with
for a couple of years. Frank couldn't stand him because
Frank said, Kathy, that guy's not.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
In love with you.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
He's in love with him, so he's working the room.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
He's not he's not in love with you.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And he said, please tell me you're not going to
marry this guy, Like, well, I might, you know, I mean,
come on, you don't.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I don't tell you who to marry. And he was.
He was by then. His divorce was like almost final.
I love that. This is all the makings of like
Nora Efron comedy. And it was amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
And the life we had together was because our worlds
collided and yet meshed perfectly. He was sports, he was politics.
His daughter was married to Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
He knew all of them.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
He knew that am G and Conna, he knew everybody.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Okay, that's not really politics, Kathy, that's no what I'm saying.
The other world.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
It was a mafia. It was politics, it was it
was everything.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Because that's scary.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
No, his daughter was married to Bobby and Ethel's son
Michael who died tragically in that aspens Ski accident. So
I mean, that's a whole other discussion for it. Is
there more wine?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, we're going to talk about the Kennedy's. We're going
to need a couple of bottles.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
So, right, the joy of your marriage to Frank, because
that's really what I'm going to zero and then on
because I.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Wanted to know when I knew.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
What happened is that I broke up with this guy
and he says, you know what, you I'm sick of this.
So this is the eleventh time or ninth time or something.
He said, You're going to hang out with me until
you're over this guy, Kathy, because you keep going back
to him and it's bad news and it's just a
bad habit. I'm going to help you break a bad habit.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
It supposed to be like Frank you then.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Well, Frank was had been in love with me, home
me for a long time. Yeah, but he because literally
we're twenty three years apart by the same birthday.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, that's right, August sixteenth, right, Yes, because my wife's
birthday too.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
A Madonna Yep. And Hitler too is Hitler? No, Okay,
I just threw that in.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Mangola.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, okay. So so anyway he did.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
He started taking We were just we were already friends,
and we were every time there was a party or
there was something that we were invited to as in
the company, and he'd take me. One day, they were
having a big, big party for the guy out in
Los Angeles I forget his last name, big, big, big billionaire,
and it was a party we were all invited to.
And we were on the phone and I.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Said, are we going to go? Can? Are you going
to take me?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
He says, no, I'm gonna I'm going to be out.
I've got got to be in Florida, got to be
in Santa Fe. Well that's where he was seeing two
different women at the time. Yeah, not that he was.
It was just that's was his world. Don Meredith lived
in Santa Fe and he was went out to see him,
and then there was and that It doesn't matter. The
point is I said, okay, well then I'm going to
go with somebody, somebody tall, dark and handsome. Then okay,
(20:08):
call me when you get home.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
About fifteen minutes later, the phone rings, he goes, I'm
going to take it to the party, and I said,
oh great, because there was literally I'd never let myself
my mind go there, because first of all, I didn't
know that he loved me, and he was always such
a gentleman. It was never oh that's not true. One time, okay,
(20:33):
one time after we had a he called me because
something horrendous had happened to his life. We went to
a place called Santa Fe in New York. It was
not near where we lived. It's a Mexican restaurant, and
we had a lot of Margarita's and chips, and it
was just, you know, he just was telling me everything
and was just in a dry He walks me back
to my brownstone, now I remember, and at my door,
(20:53):
like a gentleman, he gives me a kiss. Well, I swooned.
I had that it was that great of a kiss,
and I later threw up. So I don't really know.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
This is Margharita's. You're kissing the love of your life,
the love.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Of my life. But that was a year later that
we started to see each other. That was just one
of those things that happened, and we laughed about it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Oh, really so like you made a kind of a
little bit that kiss, a good night, friendly smooch that
went away, a rogue kiss. Listen, God, I love you,
but I don't think this will stand up in core.
I think you made with no I swear.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Are you sure I made up for this?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Trust me? But no.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
It was one kiss, one kiss at the door and
I and I literally it took my breath away and
I got in my door, and maybe an hour or
so later I did because I didn't eat. I just
was drinking Margarita's. And I've only thrown up three times
in my life that I can remember. That was one
of them. That's why I'm remember this now.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I feel like I have to ask what the other two?
I don't know. Why do you want to talk about it?
I can't even remember the other two.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
But it's not I'm not one of those people that
has a bad stomach, right, you know. And I don't
get migrains or stuff like that. I just don't any who,
it's not me, Thank you Jesus. Anyway, stop it. You're
throwing me off.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Sorry, I'm so frank.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
That night at the party, right he shows up at
my sing alleged Brownstone, aforementioned Dstone. And he gives me
this box and I go, what's that? And I open
it up and it's this watch.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Oh wow, that's fancy.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's a rolexe for people who can't see it is
And as you can see, it's a very a unique
one because that has a brown face, right, you know,
usually they're they're not that color right. And I looked
at him.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
I don't know much about your fancy watches.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
No me either, And I said, why here are you
giving me this is I think it was seven thousand
dollars at the time. And the man who's been my
friend for four years and there's nothing between us except
we're going to a party. I said why and he goes,
because it's the color of your eyes.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Wow. Okay, so that's it. Then from there on.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
You know what. That night I was just I couldn't
wear it because it was so big on me. I've
got the I've got the scrawniest.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Little you know I got to be to take a
look at mine. I have the you have small. I
have girlish wrists too. It's the curse of the Ferguson man.
That's why we were never I heard further south. No, no, no, no,
that you're getting all wrong. It's made up for further suck.
That's why all all the grizzle and blood is out
of the the veins around the wrist and it goes elsewhere.
(23:38):
This is very rude and it's not at all what
I was looking for, is what I was hoping for.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So so that night we we we slow danced at
this party and it was like a real real slow dance, right,
you know, And I was I've never been that so
close to him, like really in his arms and looking
into his eyes and I but still it wasn't I
was an love. I was just thinking, what is this,
what's going on? And he's still kept coming taking me out,
(24:05):
and so I wouldn't go back to the other guy
and all of that. And then one night I had
just bought a little place in the Hamptons and he
used to come out every weekend to visit his his
attorney had a home out there, and he'd just stay
there and just go to all the parties. It was
during the US Open, I remember that, and he said,
let's let me you drop me off. He used to
pick to drive up to the studio a West sixty
(24:27):
seventh Street, ABC, where I'd finish the show with Regis
and he'd have this burgundy Jaguar and he'd be waiting
for me. I'd get in the burgundy Jaguar and he'd
drive me to the Hampton's. We'd have lunch at my
little house in the woods, and he'd go to the
attorney's house and then whatever parties, whatever was going on,
he would come and pick me up when we go,
(24:49):
and it was just lovely because I wasn't going to
go all these places, and he knows everybody. You can
imagine the whole golf world, it's right, right, I mean,
it's hard for anybody to understand.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
What he was.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
He would be huge the rad pit today, or he
would be Kevin Coustner today, or who's Tom Brady?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Okay, because yeah, right, right right. So you were as Joselle.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Then hardly no, but I was. I was starting to
become very by that time.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Was pretty no.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
I was just started with Regis in ninety five.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, no, eighty.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Five, you've been doing for eighty five, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
So anyway, long story short.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Just ten years off.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I get now, I get, I just I can remember
everything with my children what year it was and what
you know. But with my own life, I just have
to go Now where was I?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Who was I with?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
So that night there's a big party in Southampton and
he picks me up and and as usual, and we
get to the door and it's full of people, and
he goes, listen, there's a few people I need to
say hello to and I'll.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Be right back.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I said, okay, we're not dating, we're not going, you know.
And five minutes later he's back and he stands there.
He goes, Okay, now I've done I've done my duty
and now.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I've come home.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Oh, and I went what So a little bit later,
they had something that was a precursor This is how
long ago. This was a precursor to karaoke, with something
called the music box.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Okay, and so a guy comes around with an orchestra.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
No, it's a little machine that is like a cassette
player and it'll play a song for you and you
get to sing to the song.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
It's an orchestration. I can begin to see where you
fit in here.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
This is a funny this I have actually in my
safe at home in Connecticut. Still the moment I knew,
and it was yes, And because it would record you
singing the song together, so you would have it for infamy,
right right, Yeah. So we sang a couple of songs,
and the song that we kept doing over and over
and over again was you don't bring me flowers, you
(26:52):
don't sing me love songs. And I've been a singer
all my life, so I sang it better even that.
But Frank, I'd never met it anybody in my life
who could sing in tune but not in rhythm. So
I'd sing you don't fine love songs. He'd goes you
hard to talk to me and louren to come to
the door at the end of the day. And I
(27:14):
thought it was a joke. I said, what what is that?
He goes that's I said, can we try this again?
And I go, you don't.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
You hard to talk to me? And Moore, you come
to the door at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
If you could hear this, Craig, I will play it
for you one time when you come to my house
in Connecticut. I fell off the sofa, laughing my ass off.
That's the best he could do. They really could not
do it.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
He can't do him. I remember laughing so.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Hard and falling off and laughing and looking up at
him and he's pulling me up, and I remember thinking,
I never want to have one day of my life
when that man's not in it with me.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
That's great. And that was it.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
We were together from that moment on until I found him,
you know, with a smile on his face, like we
talked about the first time we were talking on your podcast.
You know, I found him gone to a better.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Place, and you truly and you you believe that. I
don't believe it, I know it. That's great.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, let me talk to about another man in your
life that I did know. I didn't know Frank sadly,
but I did know Regius very well.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Uh huh. And he was to me, well how.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
He was to me, we'll talk about it in a bit,
but how he was to you because he was a
remarkable talent.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Regis, wasn't he.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I've never known you come closest, You come closest to
every man that that except you. I love him dearly,
But he was he was not this. It wasn't my type, Regis. No,
well no, it was definitely chemistry there, but it.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Was, Yes, it was. We laughed about it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Yeah, it wasn't like somebody I lust it after, like
you you know, let's be honest, me and the rest
of the world. But I know my place, Magan. But anyway,
I don't know what you're doing with that. He knows
it's playtime. So anyway, I was a huge fan of
his before I met.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Him, right, So yeah, it's an interesting thing, readers, because
he was different to the way he was on TV.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
That's what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Oh see, I knew him from being living out in
Los Angeles and watching him on AM Los Angeles, right,
And I used to I use every time I turn as,
I love that guy. He's he's a goofball, but he's
really sharp and anything he could tell, and he he
was willing to be a fool to get the laugh.
And so when I went to Good Morning America a
(29:39):
few years later, Regis had left the LA and was
living in New York by this time doing something called
The Morning Show. And I was not happy at Good
Morning America. It was way too scripted, it was way
too corporate. It was not a place for someone like myself.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Who I'm familiar with that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yes, you know, I just couldn't play the corporate game.
I couldn't be told what to say and and how
to say it.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I mean I was.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I was already an a polished entertainer from fifteen years
as a singer and an actress before I went to
New York. And so you know, to tell me now, yeah,
maybe tell me help me.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Read a que card.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
No, not a cute card, but yeah, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, there was the car I remember when I started
in Late Night. He used to give him the rot
me to.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Commercials and all that inner stuff. You got it, you
got to. But you learn that if you're smart in
five minutes. I'm sorry, you just do. But it's the
essence of who you are when you're on the air
and what you bring to it. And it's such a
such an interesting medium because it's there'd never been anything
like it before there was television, the movies were bigger
in life, and and all of a sudden, there's an
(30:42):
intimacy about television and everything else. Nobody talked to the
camera and talk to the people at home and connected
with them as well as Regis did, and tell a story.
And he could go back and forth from the person
he's supposedly telling the story, but then he'd make it
a fourth wall thing and he'd break the fourth wall
and say, you know, I'm you could believe this story.
And I he was brilliant, brilliant at it. And I
(31:04):
remember thinking, oh my gosh, that guy has so much fun.
I wasn't having any fun in Good Morning America.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I was. I dreaded it? Were you? Was that in
La Good Morning in America?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
No, that was New York. That's where I met Frank.
When I moved to New York to do Good Morning America,
That's when I met the Buns. Yes, yes, the famous buns.
So anyway, yeah, so his her name was Anne Abernathy,
I'm remembering now. She was his co host and she
was leaving to get married, and she was leaving the show,
and I called up my agent and I said, I
want to try out for that show with Regis.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
And he goes, but.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's it's a it's a why He said, it's it's
a local show, And I said, because it has fun
every time, and I respect. I think if I could
just be with him, I would love my life again.
I don't care about being an international show I'd already
done name that tune, I'd already done a sitcom. You know,
I just wanted my personal life was always very important
(31:56):
to me.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I feel it was more important than my career. Yeah, life,
right then, Your career is just it's final.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Take care of it, exactly, exactly. So I my everybody
said no, no, no, no, no, one day you'll love
this story. I was sitting at La Cirque, Remember that
restaurant in New York. Yeah, fancy, fancy schmancy. And so
there's Barbara Walters and it's in the newspapers now because
I did a couple of tryouts on it, and there
was a lot of a lot of inner inner business
(32:22):
biz buzz about me maybe becoming the new.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Coast of that.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Well with Barbara no view, it would be me and
me just on the on the on the morning show.
I was going to leave the national show for the
local one, which is not the way most people, you know,
think is a step up. So I was sitting in
La Cirque and I get this, this is the finger
the finger, well it's not the middle one, but it's
(32:46):
the index fingers gum hither more than a come hither.
It was a get over by one and only Barbara Walters.
So I we all obeyed the queen at that time,
and so I walk over to her, and she's been
very nice to me, very very respectful. It's just Kathy,
what is this I'm hearing about you joining Regis on
(33:07):
the Morning Show? And I said, I don't know, Barbara,
everybody's telling me I shouldn't because it's a local show.
And she looked at me, and this truly made a
difference in my life. She looked at me and she said, sweetheart,
Toledo is local.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
This is New York.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Ye. She said, you join Regis and the magic of
the two of you together, if it works, you will
not be a local show long.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
That's amazingly. Yeah, she's a woman, a great vision. She
was even then. I mean, like, right at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Of her career, is she or are there mentors for you?
Speaker 3 (33:44):
That?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Was she one of them?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Or not?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Really?
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I didn't have a mentor. I had examples of what
I wanted to be.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, I was going to say, because you're not someone who,
with the exception of Jesus, I don't see you following
people that much.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
It's not kind of in you.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
No, it isn't.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I've had people that have impressed me so much with
the where they live their life and and there and
other people their artistry. That's the kind of stuff that's
always impacted me. I mean, I heard Barbara Streisand saying
the first time, and I was gone. I said, that's
what I want to do. I want I'll never have
a voice like hers, but I want to I want
to impact people the way she just did.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
So Regius.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
When I started in Late Night, there were three guys
that I.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Wanted to study. One was light, one was Howard Stern.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
We talk about because Howard can talk to anyone, it's
just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
And the other one was Regis. Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Now, Regis was friends with Peter Lesally, who was the
man who gave me the.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Job from the Today Show, from the Tonight Show.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Tonight Show like Johnny Carson's producer and Regis Uh. I said,
do you think I could have lunch with Regis? And
peterre said yeah, but you'll have to pay.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Through the nose. Did he add through the news?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
I had no idea.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Did he say for all time? Because that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yeah, just because regis as generous as a human being
as he was, and he was, Yes, he had give
you everything.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
By he really hated to pack up the check.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
You know why.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
I'll tell you why. He had an Italian mother, yeah,
and an Irish father. And his mother used to say
to him, Listen, mister spotting like a nine candidate to
do Italian. Listen, mister spar smart pants, that poor house
is right around the corner. Now, don't write into me
about my lousy Italian. Yeah, but she had a very
thick Italian. Listen, mister smarty pants, that the poor house
(35:46):
is right around the corner. And Richard, not Richard, that's
another person in my life. And Regius Richard doesn't like
it when I call him Regis.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
I don't think any man in your life would like
to be called He just laughs.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
I said, old habits hard, right, and anyway, so he, uh,
Regis was if somebody else was going to pick it up,
he'd be happy to have you do it. I think
he picked up the check maybe three times in the
thirty years we were friends.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I you know what, Frank wouldn't let anybody pick up them, right, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yeah, I mean I kind of gah a bit like
that as well. I mean, I'll put myself in the
poor house picking up the check exactly. Yeah, I know,
I think that. You know, it's the funny thing about
when you mentioned it. But the private plane thing. Yeah, right.
The first time I went on a private plane was
coming back I had just done Letterman and his lawyer
(36:37):
Fred and I grew up, was going, uh Los Angeles,
and he said, we're taking a company plane. You didn't
come with us because I was working for how many
So I get on this private plane.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
There's nothing like it. I'm sorry, fantastic. I mean, I
know it's bad for the environment, but boy.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Tell that to Leonardo DiCaprio and John Kerry. Yeah, but
bump drop the mic. Go ahead, so I said to Regis.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
A couple of months later, Regis was in in Los
Angeles and he was doing my late night show and
I said to him during the commercial.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Break, he was like, I'm so tired. I got to
get on the plane. I got to go to lax
and get on the plane. I was like, reageous. You
got money. I didn't know at the time.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Regis like, just you got money, where are we gonna wait?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
You rent a plane? Just ren a god. Then it
really was expensive and not like it is now.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Yeah, I mean it's always been expensive, but it was like,
but we just said money. I said, we just you
could get a plane. You could probably do that. And
he said, first of all, the colored dreamed from his boy,
the idea I was spending amount of money. And then
and then he said, he said, but how is everyone going.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
To get to see Regis christ?
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Right? He loved people and he would walk through the
airport and everyone would say Hi, Regious.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
He loved it. He lived for it.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
And I really do think he died from a broken heart.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Oh really was this show? Yes?
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Because I saw him two weeks before he died. He
came to my house for lunch. By that time, he
enjoyed had moved to California. I still had my home.
We'd we'd been neighbors in Greenwich for quite a few years,
so we'd played tennis all the time together. We'd play,
have lunch, you know, and go out to all our
favorite restaurants here and Regius, even if you thought you
were going to have a quiet little lunch with him
(38:15):
or dinner or something like that, he'd walk in and
he go, that's right, Regius is here. I'd say, look
and look who I want. The woman can't live without me,
And then he dragged me to every table with him too.
I always ate something before I went to lunch or
dinner with Regis because I knew that I would by
the time we'd sit down and I could order something,
I would be, you know, starved.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Right, because he's done twenty five minutes, half an hour
with every table, every table.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
And that's that's what was his magic. That's why he
was beloved. That there are people that that respect you,
that that he was beloved because that was truly truly him,
and some people, I guess found that obnoxious. Nobody I
ever met did. So anyway, he comes to my house
two weeks before he passes, and I knew when I
saw him I have a courtyard there. And when I
(39:00):
saw him get out of they're bringing a wedding present
to cast. So it's like two and a half years ago,
and the minute he got out of the car, I said, oh,
this is.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Gonna be the last time I see it.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Really, I knew I hadn't seen him since he'd given
me an award after something.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I remember that.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, his hair and white This was in August, and
he'd given me award in January at in Los Angeles,
and he had he was supposed to call me up
to get my award. I'll never this is when I
knew that things were not going well. We left about
it for the longest time, but he said, and so
let's just bring her up now. And I could tell
he was searching.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Here she is.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Kathy Lee Griffin, okay, And I stood up and just went,
it's Gifford And it was hysterically funny and it was
vintage US, you know. But that was the next time
I'd seen it was almost eight months later because we
lived part So he came in and we just picked
(39:58):
up right where like you and I, Yeah, we just
pick up right where we are.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Then it's still gone.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
And if you needed me, you know, I would get
on a plane to start it in a second.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Those are the greatest those You're not required to do anything.
Just love me, be there if I really need you.
That's it. So anyway, he's got to the point that
night everything was like right right, Joy, when was it?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
When was it?
Speaker 3 (40:25):
And we started laughing about some stuff and and then
Joy says Regis, Tell Kathy, Tell Kathy what you said
to me this morning? What I say, Joy? And he goes,
you know, you know about because I said to Regis,
you still got the greatest head of hair. I a
would say that to you too. I just admire men
with hair. You can be bald and I can still
like you, but I love a good head of hair.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I'll take it.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Yes, So I said, we just.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Still look at you. Your hair is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
He goes, it is. He just lit up, and she goes,
tell her what you just said this morning? He'd said
to her that morning, Joy, we're going over to South
this morning, right, we're gonna we're gonna see Kath. And
Joy said, yes, we're gonna have lunch, honey. And he goes, okay,
well I don't like my hair. You gotta wash my
hair for you. Gotta do my hair. I got to
look good for Kat.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
And so the first thing I say is look at
your hair, you know. So you know, it was just
that's the people that't you just know each other. You've
come to love and respect and just enjoy each other's
company so much. So we left our asses off. And
two two weeks later he's gone, and I went to
their house close by, and they were joy and the
(41:34):
daughters were going through a lot of his memorabilia and
stuff like that had.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Everything. It was a museum. You have that standee of
Dean Martin.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Everybody Dean Martin. And she said, Kathy, I just want
you to know, as I was leader, she said, the
last time I heard Regis laugh was with you.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
And I just thought, I'm gonna cherish. I'm going to
cherish that because we My goal every single morning for
fifteen years on the air with him, and I never
had a sick day once. I never missed a day vacation,
but I'm you know, I never in fifteen years. My
goal was to get him to laugh within five seconds. Yeah,
(42:18):
and I rarely didn't.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
He was very satisfying man to make laugh.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Oh my gosh, you would just enjoy any you know.
He I cherished the fifteen years we had together. They
were golden years. Television's not.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
They were amazing. I was so blessed.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
And then and I went on to do good television
again also a little bit. We had some fun. We
we created a whole different genre too. But nobody in
my entire career. Have I been more explosive with on
the air than with mister Craig Fergus.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Oh that's a heck of a thing, that is the truth.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
We had to have a little delay, as I recall
our in our broadcast, because we could be doing we
could be naughty.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
I think that's more to do with my unprofessionalism than no.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
We just were comfortable around each other and we would
forget that there were cameras rolling up.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Do you, Regis introduce me to Don Rerickles.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Oh, one of the great comic geniuses ever.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Yes, So I'm on this I Regis is in Peter
le Sally's office.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
I've just started.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Everybody was hanging out.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Oh yeah, Sally was let's whear it where show business
is central, That's where it all went. So I'm in
Peter le Sally's office. I can't believe I'm I'm with Sally.
He's you know, he's a legendary. Oh, he's just amazing person.
And everything I got in late night was from this guy.
And so I'm in Peter's office and Regis is here,
(43:41):
and he said, you know, I'm on the phone with Rickles.
You should talk to Wrickles. I'm like, Don Rickles is
going to talk to me on the phone. I'll talk
to you. Gotta you gotta show on TV. He'll talk
to you. So I get on the phone Wrecks and
I don't know what to say. So I say to
Don Reckles and mister Rickles, would you come on my show?
And he said, he went, well, let's wait to see
if you're head first.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
If you're a hit, I'll coming on the show. But
I'm not coming on some loser.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
I waste my time.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Like we became friends. My wife and I, Megan and
I became friends with him and Barbara. He can't he
comes to a party in my house, Rackles, I can't believe,
Like I'm having this Christmas party.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
You're in New York, so you're not at the party.
We weren't great friends.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
So he turns up at the party with Barbara everybody
that you know. There's this pack full of la people
that you are hit by. Then by then I'm a hit.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah. He comes over to me.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
He gives me a bunch of single dollars and he says, here,
get a better house. I was in the hills, but
it was he didn't like the fact that he had
to walk all through from this car and it was
too much, too many.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Stairs, there was too much effort.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Yeah, and he was not sure it was worth it,
but it was brilliant to me.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Is you know we're meant to be talking about joy,
the joy of not just joy, Philbin, but also the
joy of show business.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Essence of joy. You know.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
The joy of show business, I think is the idea
that you can go from watching someone like Recles when
you were a kid, or seeing Kathy and Regius or
Regis and Kathy as it.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Was I believe on TV, and then you meet these people.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
This happened to me with Robin Williams, and you know,
it's like you meet people and they become friends.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
And they're real.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
You pinch yourself at first, and then you just realize, no,
they're They're so human and I'm loving And the times
that are hard are not like what you and I
are discussing is when the person that you really admire
turns out to be not a very nice p Yeah,
that that happens, you know, that that happens once. I
look for the best in everybody, but that once in
a while, every now and again, so I've always thought
(45:50):
every time my guy go out and said, if this
is the first time only time anybody's going to meet me,
I want it to be a good experience for them.
I want to be kind, I want to ask their name.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
I want to are very good at I've seen you
do it. Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Really important that you that you see people and value
them as individuals, because.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
They I'm tried, but most of the time I'm certain
that's not true.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
You are not. And you know what, we wouldn't have
the lives we have without them. They bought my records,
all three of them. Oh no, I had thirty some records,
sixteen records, but thirty people they bought. They bought everything
I was putting out there. They watched the show. You know,
(46:30):
I don't like the word, but religiously, and that's they were.
They were glued to it. I have the same fans.
I must say, a lot of them have died, but
some of my critics. So anyway, everybody goes, everybody goes.
It's just a matter aware. Yeah, where do you think
we go at the end?
Speaker 2 (46:48):
You know, I don't think. I don't think there is
a nand I agree with you. I don't think there's
I mean, the end of this realm. Yeah, I don't
think there's a beginning, and I don't think there's a nan.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Are we real right now? Because some people think that
we're illusion it's almost like a matrix thing we are.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
That's a that's a little too hashish for me. Here's
to here's what I think. I think that everything is
everywhere all the time.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
That would be God.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
I'm beginning to get a smell of that. But I
feel like that whatever it is. Have you heard of
a guy called Shakespeare?
Speaker 2 (47:26):
M of course, Okay, I love Shakepeare. Yeah. So there's
this guy Shakespeare, right, and he writes this play about
a guy. If he really wrote it could have been Yeah,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
I think it was probably written by Yeah, Chris Christopher
Marlow died in a knife fight I didn't know, in South.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
London, fighting over his copyright. I think he's just like
he liked to get drunk and fight. And that's when
playwrights were play rights. They were never sitting around wearing glasses.
They were like out stabbing each other. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
It didn't look like Neil Simon.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
No no, no, no, no, they were they were out they
wore big puffy trousers, and they went out and they well.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
There's the story. Occasionally I wear poofy trousers.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
But Shakespeare wrote in that play Hamlet, he wrote, there
are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt
of in your philosophy's ratio. Yes, and I think that that.
I think that's the right quote. And if it's not.
Speaker 3 (48:21):
Herotia, I remember the quote is just like it's so true.
I mean, in your peon finite mind, who can box
up God?
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Saying Augustine of Hippo said, trying to understand the mind
of God is like trying to pour the ocean into
a cup.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
And a wee woman that I heard in a twelve
step meeting in Glasgow said something very similar about God.
She said, Son, if God was small enough for me
to understand, it wouldn't be big enough to do me
any good now.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
And that that's I think that's something in in that year. Yeah,
that's where I am. I think, yes.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
And and you know what, I also remember you saying
to me, and forgive me if it's not, I've already
written about it in the book. I sent you the book.
So again I got your permission. So yeah, I just
remind you can say on your life. You said that
time that we talked about you and why do you
love me and all of that. The other thing you said, Kath,
you know, you know I'm still We were closing, we
were rapping soon, and you said, you know, I'm still
not to your guy. I don't believe in your guy.
(49:26):
That's what it was, Kath. You know, I still don't
believe in your guy. And I said, I know, and
I said, no, I don't, But I said, I know
you don't. But you know what I do know about
you at this point, I know that you. I'm gonna
say this properly. The life that Jesus lived. You said
something about the life, but the life that Jesus lived.
(49:47):
If every single person on this earth lived the way
Jesus lived his life, the world would be a very
different place. And you said that I believe one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Yeah, and I do. Yeah, and I do believe that.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
And I also here's something else I'm going to say
about you before we funny show, because apparently you need two.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
Full episodes of this podcast.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
One I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Yeah, Well, okay, we'll see for season five. But you
I believe this. I've said this about you before. You
are a Joi and here's why. Because you would never
ever let anything you believe stand in the way of
you helping another human being.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
And I've seen you do it.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
And that is I know this is not a word
to use, but that, to me is what Christian should
look like.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Well, that's what Jesus looked like. Then well done, you're
doing funny money.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
Well you know, it's so interesting because the first people
who believed in Jesus were obviously Jews, and I didn't.
There was no word of Christian then, because that's a
that was a Greek word. Later that came far later.
They were called followers of the way. Jesus was a Jew,
and the Jews who were his disciples, and there were
(51:04):
thousands of them. Then that's why they had to crucify him.
He was getting way too much power and he was
too much of a too much of a threat to
the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious guys who controlled everything.
Jesus was getting them to understand that your tithes are
not what God wants. He wants your heart. Well, wait
a minute, the ties, the ties that that's how we
make our living around here, you know that kind of thing.
(51:26):
That's why he took a whip too. The only time
Jesus was sort of violent, people will say he wasn't
violent at all. He was righteously angered. He picked up
the whip, and he didn't take out on the money changers.
He upset the tables, all the tables where the money was,
and he said, you have made my father's house of
prayer into a den of thieves. And they had to
(51:48):
crucify him. Then you go after the money. Now we're now,
now we're in trouble.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Yeah, you know what, I think, that's still a bit
of a problem.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
If good, it doesn't happen anymore, Thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yeah, everybody's fine now, and money is not important.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
The man is stretching his arms like, thank God. I'm
done with other believe in God.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Thank whatever. I'm not sure about that.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
I'm done with this woman who is sure about it?
Speaker 2 (52:14):
For no, who loves you, I love you right back.
Get out of here. I'm going
Hello, This is Craig Ferguson, letting y'all know that I
am still out on the road with my Fancy Rascal
tour this week in the following beautiful places. October tenth
at the Magoffin Auditorium in El Paso, Texas. October the
eleventh at the Wagner Noelle Performing Arts Center in Midland, Texas.
And October thirteenth to the fifteenth at the Houston Improv
(00:23):
Comedy Club in Houston, Texas. I promise I will not
mess with Texas, or I might. I can't make a
commitment at this point. For a fullest of dates, please
go to my website, the Craig Fergusons Show dot com
slash tour. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of
this podcast is Joy. I talk to interest in people
(00:48):
about what brings them happiness. Welcome to Kathy Lee Gifford
Part two. Kathy Lee Gifford is so bonkers and so
interesting that we had to give her a two parts.
The second bit, yeah, are you up and running?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Okay? Noise with this, so that's all right. Look, if
people know that you.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Sometimes have a beverage, yes that has ice in it.
And a little straw, which I think is that it's
not the most European way of drinking wine.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But I think that you're not European. It's okay, I am.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I was born in France. That's born in Paris, France.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
You're a French Messianic Jew. Yes, I think you're it.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I think I'm maybe the only one. Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yes, And so I now have been up since I
literally got up this morning at twelve forty five, and
I said, even for me, that's early that it is
now one o'clock in the afternoon here, and so I'm
having a little glass of white wine.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I'm not judging. You can't.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
No, you never have, but so people know, with a
little bit of ice in it. I usually have episoda
with it too, you know, so that I can spritzer.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Spritzer a spritzer.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
It's just fine.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
When we talked before, yes, we talked a lot about religion.
And I know you can talk a lot about that
and look to be honest, I love you, but you
can talk a lot about pretty much anathing. So we
talked a lot about religion. I want to talk to
you a little bit about when I first met you
and where you were. I remember the first meeting I
ever had with you, and I don't know if you remember.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
That was it the Drew Carey Show.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Was at the Drew Carey Show. And I was eighth
banana on that show. My first child had just been born.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So that was twenty two years ago. Twenty two years ago,
and you I was just doing a guest starring. You
were guest starring. It was right, you were still doing.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Regious Is it regu It would still be reading it
was mid nineties, No.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
It was I left Regis in two thousand.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Right, so we hadn't just been born.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
He was about to be born, okay, because it was
mid nineties or late nineties or two thousand, even he
was born in two thousand.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Okay, that's the year I did leave Regis, all right,
not personally, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It remained my dear, dear, dear friend thirty more years. Yes,
I love you. Yeah, I just left the show, right,
But you were so kind to me.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
You were a big, big, this big star coming in
and do a spot on the on the show, and
I was eighth banana on the show, and you gave
me some kids books for my.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Who was not born.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, for your like, here's so you get them, Marrily,
You're like coca cola.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You get Coca cola is not necessarily good for you.
What I got, what I've got good for you.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
You said that before, and I just I remember thinking
at the time, Wow, that.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Is a class act. That is a class act.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And I haven't changed my opinion one iota since then
about that.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
We've been in bed together for for for entertainment, for entertainment.
That's right, It's available on Netflix.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Then came you, everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I don't know why I'm plugging it. I don't get
resid juels. You get them, No, I don't. All right, Okay,
So here's the thing though. But you were at that
time with Regis, yes, professionally, and you were with Frank
matrimonially yes at the time. Yes, And I want to
talk to you a little bit about the man because.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Regis, Regis and Frank.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
But let's talk a little because you are and I
mean this in a very complimentary and in no way
the judgmental or anything, but you are a very heterosexual woman.
Oh yes, and you're a vibrant, funny, sexy woman.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Now, yeah, tell me, well, it's the truth.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So I think to myself, well, professionally, you're working with
Regis and you're with this.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
God of an athlete Frank.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yes, as well.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
How did you meet Frank?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
I met Frank early, early, early in nineteen eighty two
when I just signed for a year long that was
it stint on the Good Morning America and they were
grooming me to take over for John London. But I
would certainly not aournalists. But they said, we're not interested
in a journalist. We want somebody. Then it was under
the auspices of ABC Entertainment, not News, so they weren't
(05:08):
necessarily looking for a journalist. They were looking for somebody
that would be comfortable on camera and could talk to
a rock and make the rock laugh in some instances,
you know, And that's I don't know that you can
learn that. That's something that's sort of innate. Comes from
I'm sorry, Every good and perfect gift scripture says comes
from above, from the Father of the heavenly realms, who
(05:30):
does not change like shifting shadows.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Right, So.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Again, yes, everything goes back to him.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So where to come from?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I went to Bora Roberts University to be a drama
what is I don't it's been so many year. It
was a drama measure with a music minor and it
was just it was a it was a waste of time, yes,
but I was the only Jew there and the only
one who didn't speak in tongues, so it was it
was problematic for me. Yeah, and back then, back then, yeah,
(06:03):
I was the only one with the maiden name of Epstein.
Let's put it that way. And it was what they
call a charismatic Pentecostal university. No, it wasn't that kind.
It wasn't that extreme, but it was you know, gifts
of the Holy Spirit, which I do believe in, is
just not one that I have. I've prayed for the
gifts of the spirit to speak in tongues, and God
(06:25):
said that the tongue I've given you is enough.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
It's doing fine. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I don't think the world can take many more languages
that I see. Anyway, I learned to to sort of
just accept things like that along the way. I didn't
want to feel less then because I didn't have that gift.
God said, concentrate on the ones I've given you. You know,
so many people in our world are miserable because well,
why didn't I don't have what they have?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
How come you didn't give me that? Lord?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
How come I don't My thighs don't look like whatever?
It is? The pault In Philippi, all of his books
in the New Testament, talks so much about the fact
that we The whole idea of walking with Jesus is
learning to be content in the moment.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I totally agree with that. Gratitude is a silver bullet.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Gratitude is the way every time, and you can militate,
you can find some That gratitude is wait.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Exactly, instead of bitching and moaning about what you don't
have and missing out on all the blessing that's.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Sitting right there. I tricked, you're going to talk to
me about how you met Frank. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So anyway, back then I was doing commercials too, like
they used to do on the Today Show with the
David Garrison was that his name, early early days where
they stopped the show and then they do a dog
commercial or really I don't remember that. Yeah, the early
days of the Today Show were like that. So they
were still doing that. So I had to do a
basset hound a commercial with a basset hound at four
in the morning, right, And it was for Alpo. So
(07:48):
I came in, got my hair and makeup. Yes, it's
a very glamorous business.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You're a tireless per.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
It was four o'clock and I already had full hair
and makeup and I'm ready to shoot with a Mellie
Bassett hound and do an Apple commercial. So I'm walking
down along very lonely stairwell, not a stairwell, but at
hall because nobody's there hardly, right, And I look over
to the left of me, and there's the greatest set
of buns I have ever seen in my life, leaning
(08:17):
over a sink, obviously putting in contact lenses. I have
no idea who the buns belonged to, but they got
my attention.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So you're saying to me that it was Frank Gifford's
ass was the first thing that you went this is
very interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
To It was beautiful. I am a beauty lover, you know,
I mean, I can appreciate. Can I tell you the
last day of his life? The man said the same ass.
It's unbelievable. Wow, that's why he was one of the
great tight ends of all time.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Okay, So frankly contact lenses in with his great ass,
and what happens?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You're like, hey, sailor, got a cigarette for a girl?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
No, No, I just immediately said what comes to my mind,
usually without any filter at all, and I said, have
I got an operation for you? Because I had just
had an operation called radial caratotomy, which was a precursor
to lasik.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, that's when they cut the surface of your cornea
with a razor blade.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah. I got that done, yes, before it was lasik.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
No, only a thousand people in all of America had
it done at that time, right, But I knew six
of them, and they had perfect eyesight, and went, I'm
doing that. So I just had that operation and I
went from twenty four hundred in each eye. I was
I was legally blind, So I got it, and I
went to twenty twenty in both eyes. It was just
and so I said, have I got an operation for you?
(09:36):
And from the face that's in the sink, I hear yeah,
with a fool on either end, an operation with a
fool on either end. And I went, well, well, well
aren't we see this earlier?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I didn't recognize the voice at first, and he had
such an iconic.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Voice as well, from the wide white world.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yes, and from well wide white world sports at that
time and Monday night football.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It was very big. Oh yeah, still pretty I think
he's still pretty big. He was. He was on it
for third twenty eight years.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, he had two unbelievable careers in football and then
in broadcasting.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
He was.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He blazed a trail for everything. He's got an amazing
book called The Glory Game, and he wrote quite a
few books about his start in the you know when
he used dog food and his father was an itinerant oil,
and how grateful he was for everything in.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Football, basically football at the time.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
My family was I had a father and a brother
who were big Baltimore, Baltimore Colts fans because I grew
up in Annapolis, Maryland, and we hated the Giants, so
they did. I didn't hate them, but they were then
that game, that Glory Game, that the nineteen fifty eight
I think championship game was between the Baltimore Colts and
the New York Giants. Right, So I was aware of football,
(10:48):
of course, but I was I've never been a maniac
about it, right, And I like sports, but I don't
live for them, all right, so you know who Frank
has because everybody in the whole world knew who Frank
Gifford was. And I'd heard scuttle butt around the studio
that he was, you know, in a very unhappy marriage
and everybody adored him. But she was, you know, not
a very nice lady. And why in the world did
(11:10):
he marry her a kind of thing. And it was
his second wife, and you know, there's who's already had
children and everything. He's twenty three years older than me, right,
so and so there was there was Later I started
working as host whenever John London wasn't there, and he
would be there whenever David Hartman wasn't there. So we
started to work actually together a little bit on the
(11:32):
days when nobody else wanted to be there. Nobody was
watching at home, so we were the b team and
we just became friends. And he you know, you were
friends first, oh, for four years, really four years we
were friends. His marriage eventually was on the rocks, and
he was in the process of divorce to his second wife,
and and and he just he was like my champion.
(11:54):
He would call the producers and say I'm watching the show.
Why is Kathy's seat down so low? Why change?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I know? Joan?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Joan was taller than I was, and so her seat
was set at a perfect at a certain and I'd
sit down next to David Hartman, I'd look like a muppet,
you know. And so he cared about things like that.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Right, it sounds patty, but actually matters in that world.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh it does. It's it's it's perception. What is that
little person? It takes your your mind off what you
should You should be listening to what somebody's saying, you know.
And so we just started having lunch together, started having
dinner together. Every time there was something that happened in
his life that was really traumatic, he would call me
(12:37):
and he'd said, Kath, can I take you to lunch?
Can I will you go to dinner with me? My
brother's dying of you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
This just happened.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I just saved a guy's life on a private plane
and was going down and the pilot had had a
heart attack. Tell me, yeah, well he back then he
was private planes all the time. He was working for
an Abisco and NBC ABC, and so they flew privately
lots of places to games and things like that. One
day he was on the Nabisco plane I believe it was.
(13:07):
And it was just a you know, a small jet
with maybe seat six people and had a pilot and
a co pilot right and all of a sudden it
was going along and all of a sudden co pilot
comes back. They felt a jerk co pilot because Frank, Frank, hurry,
come up, come in front, helped me out, helped me out.
Frank just got out of his seat. It's a coach,
put me in. He goes up there and the very
(13:27):
very overweight captain had had a massive heart attack and
his girth was on all the all the He's leaning
on the leaning on everything, leaning on everything. And so
Frank frantically tries to get the man back off the
controls and save his life if he can. Right back then,
back then we thought that that could help with you
(13:48):
do the mouth's mouth and no, then it's really just
the compression. Apparently they don't do that anymore. I don't
know why. That's if you're choking, But I don't know.
I'm not a doctor. Don't believe anything I say.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I'm not expecting you to the people. I'm talking to
the listeners at all. I know you don't believe anything.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I believe a lot of things you said, but I
don't take medical advice from you. It's okay you drink
waning with ice cubes and a straw.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It's not there, believe you.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
So that straw, by the way, So I don't leave
lip marks like I did before on the on the beautiful.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I've told you before. You do not need to get
defensive about it. It's I think it's totally fine.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So listen.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So it happened the plane and his mouth was bloodied
from trying to save this man's life. That's the man
that comes home traumatized and calls me and goes, Kathy,
can we can?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
But I need to know that the pilot he died.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
He died, he died, And so the co pilot lands
a plane with this dead guy next to him.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
And then and the two days later, Frank speaks at
his funeral and he called you.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
When he landed.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, So I guess that's there's your answer.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I was his best friend, Yeah, his best female friend.
He had a lot of real good you know.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I can imagine Frank get her that good mail buddies.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Oh he had great good mailk brud, but he had
everybody loved Frank. Frank didn't love everybody else. He could
not tolerate assholes. Pardon my French, but that was his
word for it. Yeah, he knew that his days were
coming to an end at a certain point. And he goes, Kath,
I don't want a funeral. I don't want to be
in a box. I want to be cremated. I said,
they're still in a box. He goes, I don't know.
(15:23):
I just don't like him kind of rotting in a
box me either. I want to be cremated too, because
I'm not going to be there.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I'm not going to I want to be in a
Viking loan ship. Yeah, sand out to sea and then
say it on fire.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
That's a lot sexier than just so you do eventually
want to be cremated.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah, but in a Viking long ship with arrows fired
by my sons.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Is that what they used to do?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That was so my sons are on the shore and
they've got flaming arrows, and I get pushed out to
the sea and then the fire, the fire. I'm on
this thing on the Viking long ship, and the flaming
arrows hit the hit the boat and then I, you know,
I burn up and go into the ether and the
boat goes there.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Not probably good for the environment, but the sexiest hell
bye bye.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You know, sometimes you just gotta carbon footprint your way
out of here.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
So can I give your eulogy? Yeah? Yeah, he was
the greatest of us.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I would talk about the time my thood dropped.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Say that word. That is such a naughty word to me.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
We're not in Scotland to play in Scotland, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I don't think they love me very much over there.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
But then they're foolish. Oh god, I'll go over and
I'll I'll I tell them what to say and what
to think.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
This is an official invitation to the Fancy Vascal stand
up Show. I Craig Ferguson will be performing this fall
in your region. You can buy tickets and check out
the full list of dates at the Craig Ferguson show
dot com slash sure see you.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There or not.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We're talking about you and Frank. So you and Frank
are friends for four years. So when did you realize
you're falling in love with him?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Then you know what it was around June. It was
before the US Open maybe end of May, and I
had broken up with this guy I'd been going with
for a couple of years. Frank couldn't stand him because
Frank said, Kathy, that guy's not.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
In love with you.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
He's in love with him, so he's working the room.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
He's not he's not in love with you.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And he said, please tell me you're not going to
marry this guy, Like, well, I might, you know, I mean,
come on, you don't.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I don't tell you who to marry. And he was.
He was by then. His divorce was like almost final.
I love that. This is all the makings of like
Nora Efron comedy. And it was amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
And the life we had together was because our worlds
collided and yet meshed perfectly. He was sports, he was politics.
His daughter was married to Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
He knew all of them.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
He knew that am G and Conna, he knew everybody.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Okay, that's not really politics, Kathy, that's no what I'm saying.
The other world.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
It was a mafia. It was politics, it was it
was everything.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Because that's scary.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
No, his daughter was married to Bobby and Ethel's son
Michael who died tragically in that aspens Ski accident. So
I mean, that's a whole other discussion for it. Is
there more wine?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, we're going to talk about the Kennedy's. We're going
to need a couple of bottles.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
So, right, the joy of your marriage to Frank, because
that's really what I'm going to zero and then on
because I.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Wanted to know when I knew.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
What happened is that I broke up with this guy
and he says, you know what, you I'm sick of this.
So this is the eleventh time or ninth time or something.
He said, You're going to hang out with me until
you're over this guy, Kathy, because you keep going back
to him and it's bad news and it's just a
bad habit. I'm going to help you break a bad habit.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
It supposed to be like Frank you then.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Well, Frank was had been in love with me, home
me for a long time. Yeah, but he because literally
we're twenty three years apart by the same birthday.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, that's right, August sixteenth, right, Yes, because my wife's
birthday too.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
A Madonna Yep. And Hitler too is Hitler? No, Okay,
I just threw that in.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Mangola.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, okay. So so anyway he did.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
He started taking We were just we were already friends,
and we were every time there was a party or
there was something that we were invited to as in
the company, and he'd take me. One day, they were
having a big, big party for the guy out in
Los Angeles I forget his last name, big, big, big billionaire,
and it was a party we were all invited to.
And we were on the phone and I.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Said, are we going to go? Can? Are you going
to take me?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
He says, no, I'm gonna I'm going to be out.
I've got got to be in Florida, got to be
in Santa Fe. Well that's where he was seeing two
different women at the time. Yeah, not that he was.
It was just that's was his world. Don Meredith lived
in Santa Fe and he was went out to see him,
and then there was and that It doesn't matter. The
point is I said, okay, well then I'm going to
go with somebody, somebody tall, dark and handsome. Then okay,
(20:08):
call me when you get home.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
About fifteen minutes later, the phone rings, he goes, I'm
going to take it to the party, and I said,
oh great, because there was literally I'd never let myself
my mind go there, because first of all, I didn't
know that he loved me, and he was always such
a gentleman. It was never oh that's not true. One time, okay,
(20:33):
one time after we had a he called me because
something horrendous had happened to his life. We went to
a place called Santa Fe in New York. It was
not near where we lived. It's a Mexican restaurant, and
we had a lot of Margarita's and chips, and it
was just, you know, he just was telling me everything
and was just in a dry He walks me back
to my brownstone, now I remember, and at my door,
(20:53):
like a gentleman, he gives me a kiss. Well, I swooned.
I had that it was that great of a kiss,
and I later threw up. So I don't really know.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
This is Margharita's. You're kissing the love of your life,
the love.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Of my life. But that was a year later that
we started to see each other. That was just one
of those things that happened, and we laughed about it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Oh, really so like you made a kind of a
little bit that kiss, a good night, friendly smooch that
went away, a rogue kiss. Listen, God, I love you,
but I don't think this will stand up in core.
I think you made with no I swear.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Are you sure I made up for this?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Trust me? But no.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
It was one kiss, one kiss at the door and
I and I literally it took my breath away and
I got in my door, and maybe an hour or
so later I did because I didn't eat. I just
was drinking Margarita's. And I've only thrown up three times
in my life that I can remember. That was one
of them. That's why I'm remember this now.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I feel like I have to ask what the other two?
I don't know. Why do you want to talk about it?
I can't even remember the other two.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
But it's not I'm not one of those people that
has a bad stomach, right, you know. And I don't
get migrains or stuff like that. I just don't any who,
it's not me, Thank you Jesus. Anyway, stop it. You're
throwing me off.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Sorry, I'm so frank.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
That night at the party, right he shows up at
my sing alleged Brownstone, aforementioned Dstone. And he gives me
this box and I go, what's that? And I open
it up and it's this watch.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Oh wow, that's fancy.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's a rolexe for people who can't see it is
And as you can see, it's a very a unique
one because that has a brown face, right, you know,
usually they're they're not that color right. And I looked
at him.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
I don't know much about your fancy watches.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
No me either, And I said, why here are you
giving me this is I think it was seven thousand
dollars at the time. And the man who's been my
friend for four years and there's nothing between us except
we're going to a party. I said why and he goes,
because it's the color of your eyes.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Wow. Okay, so that's it. Then from there on.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
You know what. That night I was just I couldn't
wear it because it was so big on me. I've
got the I've got the scrawniest.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Little you know I got to be to take a
look at mine. I have the you have small. I
have girlish wrists too. It's the curse of the Ferguson man.
That's why we were never I heard further south. No, no, no, no,
that you're getting all wrong. It's made up for further suck.
That's why all all the grizzle and blood is out
of the the veins around the wrist and it goes elsewhere.
(23:38):
This is very rude and it's not at all what
I was looking for, is what I was hoping for.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So so that night we we we slow danced at
this party and it was like a real real slow dance, right,
you know, And I was I've never been that so
close to him, like really in his arms and looking
into his eyes and I but still it wasn't I
was an love. I was just thinking, what is this,
what's going on? And he's still kept coming taking me out,
(24:05):
and so I wouldn't go back to the other guy
and all of that. And then one night I had
just bought a little place in the Hamptons and he
used to come out every weekend to visit his his
attorney had a home out there, and he'd just stay
there and just go to all the parties. It was
during the US Open, I remember that, and he said,
let's let me you drop me off. He used to
pick to drive up to the studio a West sixty
(24:27):
seventh Street, ABC, where I'd finish the show with Regis
and he'd have this burgundy Jaguar and he'd be waiting
for me. I'd get in the burgundy Jaguar and he'd
drive me to the Hampton's. We'd have lunch at my
little house in the woods, and he'd go to the
attorney's house and then whatever parties, whatever was going on,
he would come and pick me up when we go,
(24:49):
and it was just lovely because I wasn't going to
go all these places, and he knows everybody. You can
imagine the whole golf world, it's right, right, I mean,
it's hard for anybody to understand.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
What he was.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
He would be huge the rad pit today, or he
would be Kevin Coustner today, or who's Tom Brady?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Okay, because yeah, right, right right. So you were as Joselle.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Then hardly no, but I was. I was starting to
become very by that time.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Was pretty no.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
I was just started with Regis in ninety five.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, no, eighty.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Five, you've been doing for eighty five, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
So anyway, long story short.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Just ten years off.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I get now, I get, I just I can remember
everything with my children what year it was and what
you know. But with my own life, I just have
to go Now where was I?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Who was I with?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
So that night there's a big party in Southampton and
he picks me up and and as usual, and we
get to the door and it's full of people, and
he goes, listen, there's a few people I need to
say hello to and I'll.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Be right back.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I said, okay, we're not dating, we're not going, you know.
And five minutes later he's back and he stands there.
He goes, Okay, now I've done I've done my duty
and now.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I've come home.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Oh, and I went what So a little bit later,
they had something that was a precursor This is how
long ago. This was a precursor to karaoke, with something
called the music box.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Okay, and so a guy comes around with an orchestra.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
No, it's a little machine that is like a cassette
player and it'll play a song for you and you
get to sing to the song.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
It's an orchestration. I can begin to see where you
fit in here.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
This is a funny this I have actually in my
safe at home in Connecticut. Still the moment I knew,
and it was yes, And because it would record you
singing the song together, so you would have it for infamy,
right right, Yeah. So we sang a couple of songs,
and the song that we kept doing over and over
and over again was you don't bring me flowers, you
(26:52):
don't sing me love songs. And I've been a singer
all my life, so I sang it better even that.
But Frank, I'd never met it anybody in my life
who could sing in tune but not in rhythm. So
I'd sing you don't fine love songs. He'd goes you
hard to talk to me and louren to come to
the door at the end of the day. And I
(27:14):
thought it was a joke. I said, what what is that?
He goes that's I said, can we try this again?
And I go, you don't.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
You hard to talk to me? And Moore, you come
to the door at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
If you could hear this, Craig, I will play it
for you one time when you come to my house
in Connecticut. I fell off the sofa, laughing my ass off.
That's the best he could do. They really could not
do it.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
He can't do him. I remember laughing so.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Hard and falling off and laughing and looking up at
him and he's pulling me up, and I remember thinking,
I never want to have one day of my life
when that man's not in it with me.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
That's great. And that was it.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
We were together from that moment on until I found him,
you know, with a smile on his face, like we
talked about the first time we were talking on your podcast.
You know, I found him gone to a better.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Place, and you truly and you you believe that. I
don't believe it, I know it. That's great.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, let me talk to about another man in your
life that I did know. I didn't know Frank sadly,
but I did know Regius very well.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Uh huh. And he was to me, well how.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
He was to me, we'll talk about it in a bit,
but how he was to you because he was a
remarkable talent.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Regis, wasn't he.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I've never known you come closest, You come closest to
every man that that except you. I love him dearly,
But he was he was not this. It wasn't my type, Regis. No,
well no, it was definitely chemistry there, but it.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Was, Yes, it was. We laughed about it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Yeah, it wasn't like somebody I lust it after, like
you you know, let's be honest, me and the rest
of the world. But I know my place, Magan. But anyway,
I don't know what you're doing with that. He knows
it's playtime. So anyway, I was a huge fan of
his before I met.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Him, right, So yeah, it's an interesting thing, readers, because
he was different to the way he was on TV.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
That's what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Oh see, I knew him from being living out in
Los Angeles and watching him on AM Los Angeles, right,
And I used to I use every time I turn as,
I love that guy. He's he's a goofball, but he's
really sharp and anything he could tell, and he he
was willing to be a fool to get the laugh.
And so when I went to Good Morning America a
(29:39):
few years later, Regis had left the LA and was
living in New York by this time doing something called
The Morning Show. And I was not happy at Good
Morning America. It was way too scripted, it was way
too corporate. It was not a place for someone like myself.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Who I'm familiar with that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yes, you know, I just couldn't play the corporate game.
I couldn't be told what to say and and how
to say it.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I mean I was.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I was already an a polished entertainer from fifteen years
as a singer and an actress before I went to
New York. And so you know, to tell me now, yeah,
maybe tell me help me.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Read a que card.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
No, not a cute card, but yeah, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, there was the car I remember when I started
in Late Night. He used to give him the rot
me to.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Commercials and all that inner stuff. You got it, you
got to. But you learn that if you're smart in
five minutes. I'm sorry, you just do. But it's the
essence of who you are when you're on the air
and what you bring to it. And it's such a
such an interesting medium because it's there'd never been anything
like it before there was television, the movies were bigger
in life, and and all of a sudden, there's an
(30:42):
intimacy about television and everything else. Nobody talked to the
camera and talk to the people at home and connected
with them as well as Regis did, and tell a story.
And he could go back and forth from the person
he's supposedly telling the story, but then he'd make it
a fourth wall thing and he'd break the fourth wall
and say, you know, I'm you could believe this story.
And I he was brilliant, brilliant at it. And I
(31:04):
remember thinking, oh my gosh, that guy has so much fun.
I wasn't having any fun in Good Morning America.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I was. I dreaded it? Were you? Was that in
La Good Morning in America?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
No, that was New York. That's where I met Frank.
When I moved to New York to do Good Morning America,
That's when I met the Buns. Yes, yes, the famous buns.
So anyway, yeah, so his her name was Anne Abernathy,
I'm remembering now. She was his co host and she
was leaving to get married, and she was leaving the show,
and I called up my agent and I said, I
want to try out for that show with Regis.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
And he goes, but.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's it's a it's a why He said, it's it's
a local show, And I said, because it has fun
every time, and I respect. I think if I could
just be with him, I would love my life again.
I don't care about being an international show I'd already
done name that tune, I'd already done a sitcom. You know,
I just wanted my personal life was always very important
(31:56):
to me.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I feel it was more important than my career. Yeah, life,
right then, Your career is just it's final.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Take care of it, exactly, exactly. So I my everybody
said no, no, no, no, no, one day you'll love
this story. I was sitting at La Cirque, Remember that
restaurant in New York. Yeah, fancy, fancy schmancy. And so
there's Barbara Walters and it's in the newspapers now because
I did a couple of tryouts on it, and there
was a lot of a lot of inner inner business
(32:22):
biz buzz about me maybe becoming the new.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Coast of that.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Well with Barbara no view, it would be me and
me just on the on the on the morning show.
I was going to leave the national show for the
local one, which is not the way most people, you know,
think is a step up. So I was sitting in
La Cirque and I get this, this is the finger
the finger, well it's not the middle one, but it's
(32:46):
the index fingers gum hither more than a come hither.
It was a get over by one and only Barbara Walters.
So I we all obeyed the queen at that time,
and so I walk over to her, and she's been
very nice to me, very very respectful. It's just Kathy,
what is this I'm hearing about you joining Regis on
(33:07):
the Morning Show? And I said, I don't know, Barbara,
everybody's telling me I shouldn't because it's a local show.
And she looked at me, and this truly made a
difference in my life. She looked at me and she said, sweetheart,
Toledo is local.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
This is New York.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Ye. She said, you join Regis and the magic of
the two of you together, if it works, you will
not be a local show long.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
That's amazingly. Yeah, she's a woman, a great vision. She
was even then. I mean, like, right at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Of her career, is she or are there mentors for you?
Speaker 3 (33:44):
That?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Was she one of them?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Or not?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Really?
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I didn't have a mentor. I had examples of what
I wanted to be.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, I was going to say, because you're not someone who,
with the exception of Jesus, I don't see you following
people that much.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
It's not kind of in you.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
No, it isn't.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I've had people that have impressed me so much with
the where they live their life and and there and
other people their artistry. That's the kind of stuff that's
always impacted me. I mean, I heard Barbara Streisand saying
the first time, and I was gone. I said, that's
what I want to do. I want I'll never have
a voice like hers, but I want to I want
to impact people the way she just did.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
So Regius.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
When I started in Late Night, there were three guys
that I.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Wanted to study. One was light, one was Howard Stern.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
We talk about because Howard can talk to anyone, it's
just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
And the other one was Regis. Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Now, Regis was friends with Peter Lesally, who was the
man who gave me the.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Job from the Today Show, from the Tonight Show.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Tonight Show like Johnny Carson's producer and Regis Uh. I said,
do you think I could have lunch with Regis? And
peterre said yeah, but you'll have to pay.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Through the nose. Did he add through the news?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
I had no idea.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Did he say for all time? Because that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yeah, just because regis as generous as a human being
as he was, and he was, Yes, he had give
you everything.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
By he really hated to pack up the check.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
You know why.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
I'll tell you why. He had an Italian mother, yeah,
and an Irish father. And his mother used to say
to him, Listen, mister spotting like a nine candidate to
do Italian. Listen, mister spar smart pants, that poor house
is right around the corner. Now, don't write into me
about my lousy Italian. Yeah, but she had a very
thick Italian. Listen, mister smarty pants, that the poor house
(35:46):
is right around the corner. And Richard, not Richard, that's
another person in my life. And Regius Richard doesn't like
it when I call him Regis.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
I don't think any man in your life would like
to be called He just laughs.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
I said, old habits hard, right, and anyway, so he, uh,
Regis was if somebody else was going to pick it up,
he'd be happy to have you do it. I think
he picked up the check maybe three times in the
thirty years we were friends.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I you know what, Frank wouldn't let anybody pick up them, right, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yeah, I mean I kind of gah a bit like
that as well. I mean, I'll put myself in the
poor house picking up the check exactly. Yeah, I know,
I think that. You know, it's the funny thing about
when you mentioned it. But the private plane thing. Yeah, right.
The first time I went on a private plane was
coming back I had just done Letterman and his lawyer
(36:37):
Fred and I grew up, was going, uh Los Angeles,
and he said, we're taking a company plane. You didn't
come with us because I was working for how many
So I get on this private plane.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
There's nothing like it. I'm sorry, fantastic. I mean, I
know it's bad for the environment, but boy.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Tell that to Leonardo DiCaprio and John Kerry. Yeah, but
bump drop the mic. Go ahead, so I said to Regis.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
A couple of months later, Regis was in in Los
Angeles and he was doing my late night show and
I said to him during the commercial.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Break, he was like, I'm so tired. I got to
get on the plane. I got to go to lax
and get on the plane. I was like, reageous. You
got money. I didn't know at the time.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Regis like, just you got money, where are we gonna wait?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
You rent a plane? Just ren a god. Then it
really was expensive and not like it is now.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Yeah, I mean it's always been expensive, but it was like,
but we just said money. I said, we just you
could get a plane. You could probably do that. And
he said, first of all, the colored dreamed from his boy,
the idea I was spending amount of money. And then
and then he said, he said, but how is everyone going.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
To get to see Regis christ?
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Right? He loved people and he would walk through the
airport and everyone would say Hi, Regious.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
He loved it. He lived for it.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
And I really do think he died from a broken heart.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Oh really was this show? Yes?
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Because I saw him two weeks before he died. He
came to my house for lunch. By that time, he
enjoyed had moved to California. I still had my home.
We'd we'd been neighbors in Greenwich for quite a few years,
so we'd played tennis all the time together. We'd play,
have lunch, you know, and go out to all our
favorite restaurants here and Regius, even if you thought you
were going to have a quiet little lunch with him
(38:15):
or dinner or something like that, he'd walk in and
he go, that's right, Regius is here. I'd say, look
and look who I want. The woman can't live without me,
And then he dragged me to every table with him too.
I always ate something before I went to lunch or
dinner with Regis because I knew that I would by
the time we'd sit down and I could order something,
I would be, you know, starved.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Right, because he's done twenty five minutes, half an hour
with every table, every table.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
And that's that's what was his magic. That's why he
was beloved. That there are people that that respect you,
that that he was beloved because that was truly truly him,
and some people, I guess found that obnoxious. Nobody I
ever met did. So anyway, he comes to my house
two weeks before he passes, and I knew when I
saw him I have a courtyard there. And when I
(39:00):
saw him get out of they're bringing a wedding present
to cast. So it's like two and a half years ago,
and the minute he got out of the car, I said, oh,
this is.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Gonna be the last time I see it.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Really, I knew I hadn't seen him since he'd given
me an award after something.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I remember that.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, his hair and white This was in August, and
he'd given me award in January at in Los Angeles,
and he had he was supposed to call me up
to get my award. I'll never this is when I
knew that things were not going well. We left about
it for the longest time, but he said, and so
let's just bring her up now. And I could tell
he was searching.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Here she is.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Kathy Lee Griffin, okay, And I stood up and just went,
it's Gifford And it was hysterically funny and it was
vintage US, you know. But that was the next time
I'd seen it was almost eight months later because we
lived part So he came in and we just picked
(39:58):
up right where like you and I, Yeah, we just
pick up right where we are.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Then it's still gone.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
And if you needed me, you know, I would get
on a plane to start it in a second.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Those are the greatest those You're not required to do anything.
Just love me, be there if I really need you.
That's it. So anyway, he's got to the point that
night everything was like right right, Joy, when was it?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
When was it?
Speaker 3 (40:25):
And we started laughing about some stuff and and then
Joy says Regis, Tell Kathy, Tell Kathy what you said
to me this morning? What I say, Joy? And he goes,
you know, you know about because I said to Regis,
you still got the greatest head of hair. I a
would say that to you too. I just admire men
with hair. You can be bald and I can still
like you, but I love a good head of hair.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I'll take it.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Yes, So I said, we just.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Still look at you. Your hair is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
He goes, it is. He just lit up, and she goes,
tell her what you just said this morning? He'd said
to her that morning, Joy, we're going over to South
this morning, right, we're gonna we're gonna see Kath. And
Joy said, yes, we're gonna have lunch, honey. And he goes, okay,
well I don't like my hair. You gotta wash my
hair for you. Gotta do my hair. I got to
look good for Kat.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
And so the first thing I say is look at
your hair, you know. So you know, it was just
that's the people that't you just know each other. You've
come to love and respect and just enjoy each other's
company so much. So we left our asses off. And
two two weeks later he's gone, and I went to
their house close by, and they were joy and the
(41:34):
daughters were going through a lot of his memorabilia and
stuff like that had.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Everything. It was a museum. You have that standee of
Dean Martin.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Everybody Dean Martin. And she said, Kathy, I just want
you to know, as I was leader, she said, the
last time I heard Regis laugh was with you.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
And I just thought, I'm gonna cherish. I'm going to
cherish that because we My goal every single morning for
fifteen years on the air with him, and I never
had a sick day once. I never missed a day vacation,
but I'm you know, I never in fifteen years. My
goal was to get him to laugh within five seconds. Yeah,
(42:18):
and I rarely didn't.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
He was very satisfying man to make laugh.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Oh my gosh, you would just enjoy any you know.
He I cherished the fifteen years we had together. They
were golden years. Television's not.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
They were amazing. I was so blessed.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
And then and I went on to do good television
again also a little bit. We had some fun. We
we created a whole different genre too. But nobody in
my entire career. Have I been more explosive with on
the air than with mister Craig Fergus.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Oh that's a heck of a thing, that is the truth.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
We had to have a little delay, as I recall
our in our broadcast, because we could be doing we
could be naughty.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
I think that's more to do with my unprofessionalism than no.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
We just were comfortable around each other and we would
forget that there were cameras rolling up.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Do you, Regis introduce me to Don Rerickles.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Oh, one of the great comic geniuses ever.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Yes, So I'm on this I Regis is in Peter
le Sally's office.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
I've just started.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Everybody was hanging out.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Oh yeah, Sally was let's whear it where show business
is central, That's where it all went. So I'm in
Peter le Sally's office. I can't believe I'm I'm with Sally.
He's you know, he's a legendary. Oh, he's just amazing person.
And everything I got in late night was from this guy.
And so I'm in Peter's office and Regis is here,
(43:41):
and he said, you know, I'm on the phone with Rickles.
You should talk to Wrickles. I'm like, Don Rickles is
going to talk to me on the phone. I'll talk
to you. Gotta you gotta show on TV. He'll talk
to you. So I get on the phone Wrecks and
I don't know what to say. So I say to
Don Reckles and mister Rickles, would you come on my show?
And he said, he went, well, let's wait to see
if you're head first.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
If you're a hit, I'll coming on the show. But
I'm not coming on some loser.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
I waste my time.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Like we became friends. My wife and I, Megan and
I became friends with him and Barbara. He can't he
comes to a party in my house, Rackles, I can't believe,
Like I'm having this Christmas party.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
You're in New York, so you're not at the party.
We weren't great friends.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
So he turns up at the party with Barbara everybody
that you know. There's this pack full of la people
that you are hit by. Then by then I'm a hit.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah. He comes over to me.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
He gives me a bunch of single dollars and he says, here,
get a better house. I was in the hills, but
it was he didn't like the fact that he had
to walk all through from this car and it was
too much, too many.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Stairs, there was too much effort.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Yeah, and he was not sure it was worth it,
but it was brilliant to me.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Is you know we're meant to be talking about joy,
the joy of not just joy, Philbin, but also the
joy of show business.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Essence of joy. You know.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
The joy of show business, I think is the idea
that you can go from watching someone like Recles when
you were a kid, or seeing Kathy and Regius or
Regis and Kathy as it.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Was I believe on TV, and then you meet these people.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
This happened to me with Robin Williams, and you know,
it's like you meet people and they become friends.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
And they're real.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
You pinch yourself at first, and then you just realize, no,
they're They're so human and I'm loving And the times
that are hard are not like what you and I
are discussing is when the person that you really admire
turns out to be not a very nice p Yeah,
that that happens, you know, that that happens once. I
look for the best in everybody, but that once in
a while, every now and again, so I've always thought
(45:50):
every time my guy go out and said, if this
is the first time only time anybody's going to meet me,
I want it to be a good experience for them.
I want to be kind, I want to ask their name.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
I want to are very good at I've seen you
do it. Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Really important that you that you see people and value
them as individuals, because.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
They I'm tried, but most of the time I'm certain
that's not true.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
You are not. And you know what, we wouldn't have
the lives we have without them. They bought my records,
all three of them. Oh no, I had thirty some records,
sixteen records, but thirty people they bought. They bought everything
I was putting out there. They watched the show. You know,
(46:30):
I don't like the word, but religiously, and that's they were.
They were glued to it. I have the same fans.
I must say, a lot of them have died, but
some of my critics. So anyway, everybody goes, everybody goes.
It's just a matter aware. Yeah, where do you think
we go at the end?
Speaker 2 (46:48):
You know, I don't think. I don't think there is
a nand I agree with you. I don't think there's
I mean, the end of this realm. Yeah, I don't
think there's a beginning, and I don't think there's a nan.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Are we real right now? Because some people think that
we're illusion it's almost like a matrix thing we are.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
That's a that's a little too hashish for me. Here's
to here's what I think. I think that everything is
everywhere all the time.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
That would be God.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
I'm beginning to get a smell of that. But I
feel like that whatever it is. Have you heard of
a guy called Shakespeare?
Speaker 2 (47:26):
M of course, Okay, I love Shakepeare. Yeah. So there's
this guy Shakespeare, right, and he writes this play about
a guy. If he really wrote it could have been Yeah,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
I think it was probably written by Yeah, Chris Christopher
Marlow died in a knife fight I didn't know, in South.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
London, fighting over his copyright. I think he's just like
he liked to get drunk and fight. And that's when
playwrights were play rights. They were never sitting around wearing glasses.
They were like out stabbing each other. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
It didn't look like Neil Simon.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
No no, no, no, no, they were they were out they
wore big puffy trousers, and they went out and they well.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
There's the story. Occasionally I wear poofy trousers.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
But Shakespeare wrote in that play Hamlet, he wrote, there
are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt
of in your philosophy's ratio. Yes, and I think that that.
I think that's the right quote. And if it's not.
Speaker 3 (48:21):
Herotia, I remember the quote is just like it's so true.
I mean, in your peon finite mind, who can box
up God?
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Saying Augustine of Hippo said, trying to understand the mind
of God is like trying to pour the ocean into
a cup.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
And a wee woman that I heard in a twelve
step meeting in Glasgow said something very similar about God.
She said, Son, if God was small enough for me
to understand, it wouldn't be big enough to do me
any good now.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
And that that's I think that's something in in that year. Yeah,
that's where I am. I think, yes.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
And and you know what, I also remember you saying
to me, and forgive me if it's not, I've already
written about it in the book. I sent you the book.
So again I got your permission. So yeah, I just
remind you can say on your life. You said that
time that we talked about you and why do you
love me and all of that. The other thing you said, Kath,
you know, you know I'm still We were closing, we
were rapping soon, and you said, you know, I'm still
not to your guy. I don't believe in your guy.
(49:26):
That's what it was, Kath. You know, I still don't
believe in your guy. And I said, I know, and
I said, no, I don't, But I said, I know
you don't. But you know what I do know about
you at this point, I know that you. I'm gonna
say this properly. The life that Jesus lived. You said
something about the life, but the life that Jesus lived.
(49:47):
If every single person on this earth lived the way
Jesus lived his life, the world would be a very
different place. And you said that I believe one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Yeah, and I do. Yeah, and I do believe that.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
And I also here's something else I'm going to say
about you before we funny show, because apparently you need two.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
Full episodes of this podcast.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
One I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Yeah, Well, okay, we'll see for season five. But you
I believe this. I've said this about you before. You
are a Joi and here's why. Because you would never
ever let anything you believe stand in the way of
you helping another human being.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
And I've seen you do it.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
And that is I know this is not a word
to use, but that, to me is what Christian should
look like.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Well, that's what Jesus looked like. Then well done, you're
doing funny money.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
Well you know, it's so interesting because the first people
who believed in Jesus were obviously Jews, and I didn't.
There was no word of Christian then, because that's a
that was a Greek word. Later that came far later.
They were called followers of the way. Jesus was a Jew,
and the Jews who were his disciples, and there were
(51:04):
thousands of them. Then that's why they had to crucify him.
He was getting way too much power and he was
too much of a too much of a threat to
the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious guys who controlled everything.
Jesus was getting them to understand that your tithes are
not what God wants. He wants your heart. Well, wait
a minute, the ties, the ties that that's how we
make our living around here, you know that kind of thing.
(51:26):
That's why he took a whip too. The only time
Jesus was sort of violent, people will say he wasn't
violent at all. He was righteously angered. He picked up
the whip, and he didn't take out on the money changers.
He upset the tables, all the tables where the money was,
and he said, you have made my father's house of
prayer into a den of thieves. And they had to
(51:48):
crucify him. Then you go after the money. Now we're now,
now we're in trouble.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Yeah, you know what, I think, that's still a bit
of a problem.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
If good, it doesn't happen anymore, Thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yeah, everybody's fine now, and money is not important.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
The man is stretching his arms like, thank God. I'm
done with other believe in God.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Thank whatever. I'm not sure about that.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
I'm done with this woman who is sure about it?
Speaker 2 (52:14):
For no, who loves you, I love you right back.
Get out of here. I'm going
Host
Craig Ferguson
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.