The Giff is Back.
Excuse me if I'm wrong on this, but when Kathie Lee Gifford - referred henceforth as KLG - left "Live!" back in 2000, wasn't it kind of under a cloud? Not a huge fat Rosie O-kinda cloud, with guns drawn, bullets flying, producers' bodies falling...
But a little bit of a cloud - Gelman fed up with the fights, the back office execs - like the infinitely patient Art Moore - tired of her demands, and tantrums, and misbehavior? Only Regis, class act that he is, pretended everything was peachy keen.
In any event, there she was this morning again, on "Live with Regis and Kelly and KLG." It was nice reunion: Lots of laughs, and really, you almost forgot there were ever any problems at all. (Which was the whole idea.) The 20th anniversary edition was "previously recorded." Didn't KLG want to get in the studio at 9 for a live show? Just kidding! I'm sure she would have turned up at 3 a.m....
There was a generous clip segment before she walked on, and it was smartly packaged because it really did remind us all exactly what she did best over those years - physical comedy - and it also reminded me just how tacky she was too (endless jokes and jibs about butts and boobs and various sexual bodily functions.)
"People say, how do you really feel about your co-hosts," Reeg said in a pre-taped intro. Interestingly, he didn't answer the question. It just kinda drifted off....
I actually spoke with Gelman a couple weeks ago about the reunion and how he and Reeg REALLY felt about KLG. He insisted reports of friction were vastly overblown, while Reeg and KLG continue to be close friends: "You saw what goes on the air, and it wasn't much deeper than that...You know, we got along most of the time. We had disagreements. I thought I was producing the show in the right way and sometimes she disagreed."
With KLG, he added, "it was kind of like with any family - you have a lot in common, we shared that over so many years...So I can say we saw eye to eye on 99 percent of things that went on, but sure..."
She left on July 28, 2000, and guess what happened? Ratings soared! If memory serves, Reeg’s ratings grew by nearly a quarter.
OK, the past is the past. How was KLG? She looked great, though joked, "I was so young and skinny. That's what I'm crying about [right now.]" She said, "I've been doing work that's really really fulfilling to me; that's what makes me happy." No clue, by the way, what that "work" is. She then did a pretty good imitation of Reeg, then talked about hot flashes, and how she was getting hot around Kelly.
No kidding! A lesbian joke on "Live with Regis and Kelly and KLG!" Some things, sigh, just never change, do they?
Actually, the funniest bits were the taped greetings from the cast of “American Idol” (Simon suggested hiring Paula; she shot the camera a murderous look), and from Conan O’Brien, who offered a canned congratulations message suffused with all the sincerity of a 1-800 commercial on HSN.
Final assessment on KLG: She was a game, lively, often amusing co-host who had the bad misfortune of becoming a tabloid queen (thanks, in part, to some of the exploits of her husband, those AMAZING Christmas specials, and that sweatshop clothes line – remember?) and made one big mistake: She forgot who the REAL star was…who was the ONLY reason this show had staying power over two decades…Who was the GENUINE talk show legend and a TV classic.
We know what HIS name is, don’t we?