by Marcus Brooks

Created on: July 10, 2008

This question is best asked with our baby-boomer generation. Yes, America. Regis Philbin had a co-host who wasn't a slender blonde that previously starred on an "All My Children" soap opera. People don't remember the put-together, auburn-haired, Kathy Lee Gifford. Unfortunately, a public scandal involving a hall of fame husband would do that. However, she emerged from Frank Gifford's affairs and looked a stronger woman emotionally and mentally.

When Regis and Kathy Lee appeared on daytime television, it proved to be a welcome escape from NBC's Today show and ABC's Good Morning America. A trend that had four or five, revolving co-hosts on one show got old real quick. On either show, you couldn't tell who were the lead personalities, unless you picked up a tabloid magazine. Also, several of these daytime celebs, one being Katie Couric, jumped network for lucrative contracts. Couric left NBC Today to become lead correspondent on CBS Primetime for a whopping $15 million a year. Since her arrival, CBS Primetime ratings fell dramatically. Kudos to you, network television!

Ms. Gifford was before all of that "free agency arbitration" on talk television. She sat there on Philbin's left in her elevated chair and did her job. She dressed conversative, but elegant. She wore eye-catching dresses to display her statuesque legs. I believed she was between 5'8" and 5'9". She had excellent makeup. And above all, she looked every person, celebrity or not, in the eye.

Regis and Kathie got their share of fame. They were so popular that a 1990s Seinfeld (comedy show) episode featured a wanna-bee inventor, Kramer (Michael "I'm sorry I went nuts during a stand up." Richards) pitching his "coffee table book" design. At the show's climax, he gave Ms. Gifford a kiss on her lips. She didn't turn away from it. She received it; much to the surprise on Philbin's face! Gifford presented herself as classy, well-educated and mysteriously sexy, such as a post-JFK, Jacqueline Onassis. She wasn't a comedian, but that kiss with Kramer produced a comedic moment remembered in television history!

Kelly Ripa played Philbin's sidekick going on a decade. I never bought into her presence there. She appeared as the proverbial "eye candy" switch in our male-dominated arena. Would the male audience have preferred an intelligent and elegant forty-something age brunette? Or, would they have preferred a more slender brunette turned blonde who smiled big and was a generation younger than Philbin?

As I wrote before, Hollywood and our society was built on "trophy wives", but included are younger bimbos who continue catering to older men.

Learn more about this author, Marcus Brooks.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.