Customer Reviews

My Life With Regis and Joey and Practically Everyone Else

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Wonderfully written by Trustin Howard (an accomplished television script writer and a close friend of celebrated game show host Regis Philbin), My Life With Regis And Joey And Practically Everyone Else is a insider's revelation offer the reader an informed and informative look inside the world of the backstage world of Hollywood stars. My Life With Regis And Joey is packed from cover to cover with memorable moments, tips for young writers and stand-up comics, unforgettable glimpses of celebrity life, and so much more. A lively, candid, involving tell-all, My Life With Regis And Joey is enthusiastically recommended for anyone who remembers those glory days of broadcast television before the onset of cable, satellite, VCRs, and TIVOs.

I just finished reading this book and I must say I was disappointed. The author, a writer for the old "The Joey Bishop Show" talk show, left so much hanging and so much more he COULD have said that it was really a disappointing read. The title is definitely meant to sell the book and is not fulfilled in the story. The author was at one time a stand up comic, but if his act is anything like how he writes I would imagine he would start to tell a joke and then say "Leave your name and address and I'll mail you the punch lines." So many references and so little foundation. The only reason I bought the book at all was to learn more about the Bishop show and Mr. Philbin. I've always wished that Regis would write a book about his life with Joey and you never know, maybe he will. He does touch some in his books now, but not enough. Oh, by the way, for the people that have read the book and don't know the man that brought down the bishop show because he wasn't named, it was Pat McCormick. The so called funny big guy with Paul Williams in "Smokey And The Bandit". He was "Big Enos" and about as unfunny as one person could be. This book, just not worth the time.

This mediocre mixture of stories from a television writer and producer has a few interesting moments but is not detailed enough to provide insight into Joey, Regis or other stars he brushed shoulders with.

The author wrote for the Joey Bishop late night show for three years--since so few people today will even remember that program, many of the references here aren't that interesting. He doesn't seem to have too many stories about the celebrities that appeared on the show and much of the book focuses on struggling to write jokes. The jokes he mentions in the book aren't very funny, so you have to wonder how successful he really was. The author claims the Joey Bishop show did well, but in the history of TV it's considered a pretty big fiasco.

When the author does get to something interesting, he either fails to give enough details or he refuses to name names. The biggest story in the book is how Joey fired this guy and brought in a well-known television personality to replace him. The author refuses to name the replacement but slams him constantly. Howard also won't give the names of his fellow writers on the show, which adds to the bland nature of the book.

There is only a little written about Regis even though Howard claims he was best buddies with Philbin. Not much about Regis and Joy even though this guy was right in the middle of their courting. About the only new thing I learned was that Regis took four weeks off Joey Bishop's show to be in the stage production of "Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum."

There are a couple of weird references to the occult and astrology. This guy says Regis was really into it. It kind of changed my impression of Regis as being a sensible good guy.

Then near the end of the book the writer talks about producing This is Your Life, where he has to set up the surprises for stars like Andy Griffith and Bette Davis. That at least starts to get interesting, but again the author pulls his punches and doesn't tell as much as he should. For instance, with the Bette Davis episode he builds it up claiming it was his "biggest challenge." But he talks about what he did over 8 days to assemble guests, then says it went off well and Bette loved it. No description of the episode or what happened on the show.

The last section is devoted to his revelations about Lenny Bruce, which are different from what others have written. But it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the book.

This book needs a good editor that could rearrange sections and pull more stories out of the author. There is also a lot of empty white space and a few grainy photos. Most odd is the photo of Johnny Carson on the back of the book--this book has nothing to do with Carson other than mentioning him as Joey's competitor. In the end it's for serious TV production buffs only, but don't expect much.

Reads like a funny novel but jam-packed with lots of useful advice for writers and today's generation of industry people. A great behind-the-scenes peek at the olden' days and lots of old characters. If you like Rege' then you'll love this book. I did.