Regis breaks record

[geno57]

Philbin has now logged more TV hours than anyone.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PEO...EMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Matt Ottinger]

I'd be very curious as to how the Guinness "researcher" arrives at his figures, especially since I always though Hugh Downs' claim was an empty boast.  Downs probably counted the five years he spent as Jack Paar's sidekick, where his actual contribution was minimal.  

And frankly, Regis' resume isn't filled with the sort of long-running series that would make him the all-time champ.  Sure, he's been around a long time, but so have a lot of other veterans.  Unless he was doing several shows at the same time for long stretches of his career, how would his total be any different than, say, Bob Barker's?

Meanwhile, Katie Couric is still a kid by comparison, and is probably approaching those totals by virtue of up to fifteen hours of on-air time per week.  There just seem to be too many variables for anyone to make a meaningful claim to having the all-time greatest number of hours on TV.

[Jimmy Owen]

Dr. Gene Scott gets my vote.

[sshuffield70]

LOL!!!  I remember those days!  He was usually on here 6 hours a night.

In regards to Philbin, who knows what the hell they're using to figure all those damn hours.  For all we know, they could be figuring in "The Tonight Show" with Steve Allen.

[CaseyAbell]

Does Internet teevee count? Some girl - Jennie something, I think - netcast every hour in her apartment for six or seven years. Even assuming 10 hours a day of on-camera time for Jennie (a low estimate) she would have racked up a lot more than Regis' 15,000 or so hours.

Google to the rescue:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3360063.stm

Funny picture of Jennie. Funny caption, too. And I hope the comment from Marius is a joke.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'CaseyAbell\' date=\'Aug 20 2004, 10:41 AM\'] Funny picture of Jennie. Funny caption, too. And I hope the comment from Marius is a joke. [/quote]
 I doubt it was. There were a lot of sick people who were rather obsessed with JenniCam...

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'CaseyAbell\' date=\'Aug 20 2004, 01:41 PM\'] Funny picture of Jennie. Funny caption, too. ... [/quote]
 And very bad jokes.  I'd go so far as to say they're even worse than any bad GS joke ever posted here!  Especially "Jennicam, Jennigo".

[johnnya2k3]

Regis now in the Guinness record books poses me with this question:

Who has the record for the most hours spent on both television AND radio combined? My guess is Larry King, but don't count out Ryan Seacrest with many radio and TV credits (including three game shows and of course that "Idol" thing).

Jonathan Allen

[Jimmy Owen]

I'd say Dick Clark before Mr. Seacrest.

[Don Howard]

Where's Joe Franklin ranked on these lists?

[davemackey]

God, Joe "Memory Lane" Franklin should be up there.

He just retired, in fact, from a very long broadcasting career that had him doing several thousands of hours of radio and television each.

On radio, he had a regular slot on WOR 710 AM for years (as did Henry Morgan and Arlene Francis), but finished his career with WBBR (the Bloomberg station on WNEW's old 1130 freq.). His TV show aired for years on the station variously known as WOR-TV and WWOR-TV, and he'd usually have so many guests (mostly B and C listers) interviewed in "panels" two or three at a time!

Now, Matt Ottinger said,

I'd be very curious as to how the Guinness "researcher" arrives at his figures, especially since I always though Hugh Downs' claim was an empty boast. Downs probably counted the five years he spent as Jack Paar's sidekick, where his actual contribution was minimal.

Well, it's very easy to add up, but I never discounted Hugh Downs' claims, because he was almost constantly on TV in the 60's, between "Today" (which was on for two hours a day), "Concentration" (a mere half hour) and "Tonight" (which I think was 105 minutes at one point). What a workload!

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'johnnya2k3\' date=\'Aug 20 2004, 07:23 PM\'] Who has the record for the most hours spent on both television AND radio combined? My guess is Larry King, but don't count out Ryan Seacrest with many radio and TV credits (including three game shows and of course that "Idol" thing).
 [/quote]
 Actually, it is preposterously easy to dismiss a boy who's not yet thirty years old when you're comparing him to veterans who have careers that are older.  Furthermore, "that Idol thing" is only on a couple of times a week, hardly the sort of thing that's going to run up his total.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' date=\'Aug 20 2004, 09:21 PM\'] Well, it's very easy to add up, but I never discounted Hugh Downs' claims, because he was almost constantly on TV in the 60's, between "Today" (which was on for two hours a day), "Concentration" (a mere half hour) and "Tonight" (which I think was 105 minutes at one point). What a workload! [/quote]
 You would definitely think that those two-hour morning shows would help run up a high number, which makes Regis' current claim all the more surprising.  And Regis' total HAS to include local television, there's no way his nationally distributed shows could add up to Hugh Downs' total.  So who's to say the 30-year veteran of Good Morning, Idaho or some similar nonsense doesn't deserve the title?

[Fedya]

I'd be curious to know how many hours Don Francisco is up to:

This page claims that as of 2002 he was up to 14,400 hours (600 days).