‘The Good Place’ Creator Mike Schur Honors Father-In-Law Regis Philbin With Twitter Thread: “No One Will Ever Be What He Was”

Alexandra Del Rosario
·3 min read

Nearly a week after Regis Philbin’s death, son-in-law and The Good Place creator Mike Schur memorialized the legendary TV host in an emotional Twitter thread.

Schur, married to Philbin’s daughter writer-producer J.J. Philbin, shared on Friday that he has had difficulty expressing the impact the beloved Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host’s career has had on the entertainment world.

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“It’s too huge. You can’t wrap your arms around it. He literally holds the Guinness Book Record for most hours on TV,” the Emmy-winning TV producer and writer tweeted.

“For decades, Regis was always there, on TV, chatting and complaining and making people laugh. He needed no explanation,” Schur continued. He said that articulating the span and significance of Philbin’s career has been tough. But Memorabilia and old documents found in the late Hollywood star’s office do just the job, the producer said.

The Parks and Recreation co-creator tweeted photos of four typewriter-written documents, relics from Philbin’s first time covering sports for TV in 1956. The yellowed papers recalled an NFL game where the Cleveland Brown’s beat out the College All-Stars 26-0. The decades-old documents also included the late host’s snarky commentary and observations.

“You want to see a career no one will ever duplicate? Here it is. A guy who was on TV when Harvey Haddix struck out Duke Snider, and also handed million-dollar checks on a futuristic game show set,” Schur said of Philbin’s memorabilia. “A guy who reported on both Lou Groza and Eli Manning, Yogi Berra and Gary Sanchez.”

Schur topped off the thread saying that his father-in-law “hated ‘memory lane'” and hoped that the TV host would forgive him “for this one last trip,” noting that no one will come even close to the Philbin.

“No one will ever be what he was, in the medium he dedicated his life to. What a run,” Schur tweeted.

Philbin died of natural causes on July 25. He was 88 years old.

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