Today, I look at an old Live With Regis and Kathie Lee interview where hosts Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford don’t know WHAT to do when their guest, Bronson Pinchot, starts talking about his co-star’s breasts.
This is a feature called “The Way We Talk,” about notable talk show appearances.
A few years back, I wrote about how Rebeca Arthur accused her old Perfect Strangers‘ co-star, Bronson Pinchot, of being, in her words, a “monster.”
Reader Henry D. mentioned an old episode of Live With Regis and Kathie Lee that he saw online from 1990 (when Perfect Strangers was just wrapping up its 5th season of its eight-season run) that was really unusual. Live With Regis and Kathie Lee had just gone national in 1988 after Gifford joined Philbin in 1985.
Pinchot is there promoting an appearance he was making in a Broadway play at the time, and Regis pulls out of a photo from Perfect Strangers showing Pinchot kissing Arthur, to help set up their surprise, which was that Arthur was there to surprise Pinchot.
However, when they show Pinchot the photo of him kissing Arthur, he takes the time to point out Melanie Wilson in the left of the photo (another one of his co-stars on the show. Her character dated the character played by Mark Linn-Baker on the show), and says, “Look at the breasts on Melanie, though.” The crowd’s all shocked, and he continues, “No, seriously, look at them!” as he points at her breasts in the photo (and the Live cameraman zooms in on the photo)…
and then says, “Look at that. Is that a basketball or what?” The crowd awkwardly laughs, and they cut away from the photo, as he turns to the audience and continues, “She’s always had…what, is there anything wrong with saying she has enormous breasts?” Kathie Lee chimes in, noting, “She’s got a beautiful figure.” Pinchot agrees, saying, “She has a WONDERFUL figure.” He then pantomimes a small circle and says, “She’s got a waist like this.” Regis then says, “So why are you kissing this one?” and Pinchot replies, “It’s in the script.”
Kathie Lee then quickly segues into saying, “Rebeca’s not bad, either,” and Regis agrees, noting that she is “crazy about you.” Pinchot agrees, then starts to joke about ARTHUR “also has extremely..” before stopping himself. The audience awkwardly laughs again, and Pinchot turns to Regis and Kathie Lee and says, “I’m sorry, is that in bad taste?” Regis tells him no, as it’s true. Pinchot picks up on that, reiterating, “It’s true!” and Kathie Lee chimes in with, “It’s facts.”
This segues into them talking about how Pinchot’s then-girlfriend didn’t love when he had to kiss other women in his performances, and then they bring out Arthur to surprise him, and it’s super-awkward, as well, but nowhere near Pinchot’s talking about Melanie Wilson’s breasts.
Obviously, Pinchot was trying to be intentionally “shocking” to stand out, but it’s still a fascinating exchange in terms, “Seriously, dude?”
Thanks to Henry for the suggestion! If anyone else has a good talk show appearance you’d like me to spotlight, drop me a line at brian@poprefs.com
