THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 5, 1994 TAG: 9409050145
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
To the millions of TV viewers who don't know a football from an overripe melon, he's just the guy who married Kathie Lee.
He's the other man in her life.
There's Regis or Reeege, as she refers to her on-camera partner, Regis Philbin. And there's Frank Whozit.
Sure, Frank Gifford is famous. He's the Golden Boy All-American from the University of Southern California.
He's the former star running back of the New York Giants who was flattened by Philadelphia middle linebacker Chuck Bendarik in the blind-side hit heard around the pro football world in 1960.
He's one of the guys in the broadcast booth on ``Monday Night Football,'' which begins its 25th season on ABC tonight at 9. He's in the pro football Hall of Fame.
He's famous. But his wife, Kathie Lee Gifford, is really famous.
As co-star of ``Live With Regis and Kathie Lee,'' seen daily by 10 million people, author, a queen of fitness video, cabaret entertainer, recording artist, star of a zillion Carnival cruise line commercials and co-host of the Miss America pageant, Kathie Lee Gifford is hot.
And she'll get hotter, Frank Gifford said when our paths crossed in Los Angeles not long ago during the semi-annual TV critics tour.
``She has talent she hasn't used yet. It's strange to hear people call Kathie Lee over-ambitious. How can you be over-ambitious? She's a talented person who believes that God intended her to maximize her talents.''
When Frank Gifford was the toast of football, who could have imagined that one day he would be the second banana in a marriage?
It has happened, and Frank Gifford lives happily with the development.
``I'm not the least bit sensitive about it,'' he said.
Kathie Lee is the darling of early-morning TV, but tonight on ABC, Frank Gifford is the one who will hold the attention of the country as he begins his eighth year in the booth with Al Michaels and Dan Dierdorf.
``Monday Night Football'' was one year old in 1971 when Gifford replaced Keith Jackson and became part of the most talked about ``MNF'' broadcast team ever - Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Gifford or the ``Giffer,'' as Cosell called him.
Others behind the microphone at one time or another included Alex Karras, Fran Tarkenton, O.J. Simpson, Joe Namath and, for one game, Fred Williamson.
``We changed the nature of primetime television,'' said Gifford.
When NBC and ABC passed on the idea of broadcasting professional football in primetime, ABC leaped at the chance to do ``Monday Night Football,'' and later put games on Thursday and Sunday night, too.
The Church of Monday Night Football has 50 million worshippers, an audience large enough to push ``Monday Night Football'' into the company of TV's 10 most watched programs last year with a 16.8 rating.
``There's a whole generation of players in the National Football League today who grew up watching `Monday Night Football,''' said Michaels. ``I believe that when these players play football on Monday nights, they play a little bit better than on Sunday afternoons. It's an electric atmosphere.''
For a time, it appeared that ABC would sign John Madden as the No. 1 color man on ``Monday Night Football,'' which would have sent Dierdorf to who knows where. Was talk of Madden joining ABC making Dan sweat? Well, didn't happen. Madden now is reunited with his old CBS partner, Pat Summerall, on the Fox NFL telecasts.
Hank Williams Jr. will be seen all season long on ``Monday Night Football,'' from where he's been missing since 1993. He'll open the show with a question sports fans have been asking ever since the baseball strike deprived them of a summer in front of the TV: Are you ready for some football? by CNB