Regis Philbin managed to stay in character throughout the festivities surrounding his final appearance on “Live With Regis and Kelly” on Friday. Even as his producer, Michael Gelman, and his co-host, Kelly Ripa, fought back tears, Mr. Philbin looked for laughs.  During each commercial break, he cited someone in the audience; to Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, he said: “I’m doing everything I can for you! After this you’re on your own!” After a video montage showing moments from his family life he blurted out: “this is torture!” When he thought a musical number went on too long he theatrically gestured to Mr. Gelman off camera, drawing his hand across his own throat. After Mr. Iger announced that ABC was installing a plaque in Mr. Philbin’s honor on the facade of the studio building, Mr. Philbin said with mock complaint: “I got a plaque.” And then: “How about a star in front of the place too.”  While tears flowed in the audience – members of the show’s staff handed out tissues to several women, including Diana Williams of WABC News and the actress Jane Krakowski of “30 Rock,” Mr. Philbin, as he had promised, stayed dry eyed. Later he said “Katie Couric owes me 10 bucks;” Ms. Couric, in a prime-time interview about the end of his run, probably the longest-running act in television, had tried to push Mr. Philbin to admit to her that he would cry. They had made a bet. (“Oh, you’re going to cry,” Mr. Philbin had told her and, turning to a familiar phrase when relating the exchange on Thursday, said: “She was driving me crazy!”)  After he wrapped up his personal goodbye to the television audience, Mr. Philbin also had some words for the studio audience once he was off the air: “I forgot something I wanted to say – I want to stay!”  But the V.I.P.s who were up unusually early Friday morning to walk the red carpet at the crack of dawn in front of the ABC studios on West 66th Street and Columbus Avenue were on hand to say goodbye to Mr. Philbin, at least on TV.  “Friends are being flown in from Hollywood,” Mr. Philbin said, with some degree of amazement, the day before his final day on the job.That group of celebrities – identities were unconfirmed by the show’s staff before the big day – included Ms. Couric; the woman who replaced her on the “The Today Show,” who herself has since left that NBC morning program, Meredith Viera; another “Today” veteran, Bryant Gumbel; Diane Sawyer and Joan Lundon, who were both on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show, were also there; Kathie Lee Gifford, Mr. Philbin’s former on-air partner, and her husband, Frank Gifford, were of course in the audience; the actors Alan Alda and Tony Danza; and friends like Donald Trump rounded out the studio audience. They were among other invited guests in the audience for the last edition of the show and they were to take part in a cake and champagne party for the outgoing host in the studio afterward.  The on-air guests had been an even more closely held secret; so they were to be ushered into the studio without a red-carpet appearance. Neither the paparazzi nor Mr. Philbin were aware of their identities before the broadcast. First up was Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who handed Mr. Philbin a key to the city. During a commercial break, a jovial Mr. Philbin worked the crowd. “Did you hear me Bob Iger?” he called out to the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company.  One thing Mr. Philbin had been sure of before the show: “I’m not going to cry!” He punctuated that vow with a signature open-palmed slam on his desk during one last news conference for him and his co-host, Kelly Ripa, on the set of their show Thursday afternoon.  Will he approach the final show the same way he has all the others in his more than 28-year run? “Absolutely,” Mr. Philbin said. No extra long looks in the mirror at home before leaving for the studio? “I’m not going through all of that,” he said.  Instead, he said, “I feel pretty good” about the impending finale. “I’m not saying I’m going to feel this good on Monday.” But he said at the time of the first “Live” show without him he will already be far away, in Miami, where he will be on a tour promoting his book. “I’ll probably watch the show from my hotel room,” he said. “Maybe it will be better that I watch it down there.”  His book tour will be useful, he said “to take my mind off however I’m going to feel Monday morning when I’m going to miss my walk down the hall with Kelly.”  Ms. Ripa, for her part, was already welling up talking about the farewell show. “I’ve really been trying to put it out of my mind,” she said. “I think maybe, God willing, I’ll go into some kind of trance.”  She said the final show will not be about her reactions, but instead about Mr. Philbin and his legacy, which she said will remain with the show no matter who the host is.  Mr. Philbin didn’t call it a legacy but he did admit to being “proud of what we’ve done here.” That could be summed up, he said, in reactions he was getting from people during his book signings. “I get the feeling we have made people happy and frankly, that’s what makes me happy.”  Ms. Ripa conceded it might be hard for her to be happy Friday morning.(She tweeted a bitter-sweet emoticon to her followers.)  “Just knowing we’ll have to do it without him staying, this is just very emotional,” Ms. Ripa said. “So I don’t know what I’ll do tomorrow morning. I’ll probably have a belt of whiskey. Maybe two.”
In his final appearance on "Live With Regis and Kelly," Regis Philbin was greeted by celebrity friends in the audience and held firm to his pledge not to cry on the show.