INSIDE EDITION takes a look back at Regis Philbin's six-decade career on television.
Regis Philbin has been hosting his morning show for 28 years, but his TV career goes back a lot further than that. It spans an incredible six decades.
Philbin, 79, even landed in the Guinness Book of Records for the most hours on TV, and that was seven years ago!
He got his start on camera in Los Angeles in the late 1950s as a fill-in sports host.
By 1964, he had his own talk show. In the late 1960s, Philbin was a sidekick on the old Joey Bishop late night show.
Then in 1983, after a stint hosting a morning show in Los Angeles, he returned to his hometown, New York, to work on a similar program.
On Tuesday's show, he spoke about that triumphant homecoming.
"It was the biggest thrill of my life, to come back to New York, where I grew up as a kid, watching TV in the early days," he said.
But the real watershed year for Philbin was 1985, when he was teamed with a young woman named Kathie Lee Johnson on the show what would become Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.
During one of his many interviews with INSIDE EDITION, he told Deborah Norville he knew instantly that he and Gifford clicked.
"There was a certain electricity, a certain tension, a certain fun," Philbin said.
The show has been a consistent hit ever since, successfully weathering the changeover when Gifford left 10 years ago, and Kelly Ripa stepped in.
In 1999, Philbin found a whole new career on primetime, as the original host of the blockbuster quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
During his career Philbin has won three Emmy awards, and in 2008 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys.
Philbin is hanging up his hat, but don't bet that will be the last act for this TV legend.
