Kathie Lee Gifford
Encyclopedia
Kathie Lee Gifford is an American
television host, singer, songwriter
and actress, best known for her 15-year run (1985–2000) on the talk show
Live with Regis and Kathie Lee
, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin
. She has received 11 Daytime Emmy nominations and won her first Daytime Emmy in 2010 as part of The Today Show team.
Before her long stint in talk show
s, Gifford's first television exposure was that of Tom Kennedy's singer/sidekick on Name That Tune
, from 1974-78. On April 7, 2008, Gifford began co-hosting the fourth hour of NBC's
Today Show, alongside Hoda Kotb.
officer. Aaron Epstein was stationed with his family in France
at the time of Gifford's birth. Gifford grew up in Bowie, Maryland
, and attended Bowie High School
. During high school, Gifford was a singer in a folk
group, "Pennsylvania Next Right," which performed frequently at school assemblies. During her senior year at high school she dated and went to prom with Michael Bray
, who would later become an anti-abortion activist who was convicted for acts of terrorism. After high school graduation, Gifford attended Oral Roberts University
in Tulsa, Oklahoma
, studying drama and music.
Gifford's paternal grandfather was of Russian
Jewish descent and her paternal grandmother was of Native American
ancestry. Her mother, a relative of writer Rudyard Kipling
, was of French Canadian
and German
descent and was raised in a Methodist family. After seeing the Billy Graham-produced film, The Restless Ones at age 12, Gifford became a born-again Christian. She told interviewer Larry King
, "I was raised with many Jewish traditions and raised to be very grateful for my Jewish heritage." Her brother, Rev. David Paul Epstein, is an evangelical
Baptist
preacher and pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in New York City
.
Pageant.
During one summer in the early 1970s, she was a live-in secretary/babysitter for Anita Bryant
at her home in Miami. Gifford's career took off in the 1970s (during her first marriage to Christian composer
/arranger
/producer
/publisher Paul Johnson) as a vocalist on the game show Name That Tune
with Tom Kennedy (she performed the "sing a tune" segment as Kathie Lee Johnson). In 1978, she joined the cast of the short-lived Hee Haw
spinoff, Hee Haw Honeys.
She also appeared in television advertisements for Carnival Cruise Lines
beginning in 1984. The ads were the first cruise line ads to air on network television.
(born August 16, 1930) during an episode of ABC
's Good Morning America
; the couple married in 1986. By that time, she was several months into her most famous television role, as a full-time morning talk show personality. On June 24, 1985, she replaced Ann Abernathy as co-host of The Morning Show on WABC-TV
with Regis Philbin
. The program went into national broadcast in 1988 as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee
, and Gifford became well-known across the country. Throughout the 1990s, millions of morning-TV viewers watched her descriptions of life at home with her sportscaster husband and their two children: son Cody Newton Gifford (born in 1990) and Cassidy Erin Gifford (born in 1993). She appeared as a spokesperson for Slim Fast
diet shakes after Cody was born. She was also the face of Carnival Cruises in the late 1980s and early 1990s, singing "If my friends could see me now!"
, a human rights
group, reported that sweatshop
labor was used to make clothes for the Kathie Lee line, sold at Wal-Mart
. The group reported that a worker in Honduras
smuggled a piece of clothing out of the factory, which had a Kathie Lee label on it. One of the workers, Wendy Diaz, came to the United States to testify about the conditions under which she worked. She commented, "I wish I could talk to [Kathie Lee]. If she's good, she will help us."
Labor activist Charles Kernaghan
spoke to the media and accused Gifford of being responsible for the sweatshop management activity. Gifford addressed Kernaghan's allegations on the air during Live, explaining that she was not involved with hands-on project management in factories.
Gifford later contacted Federal authorities to investigate the issue and worked with U.S. Federal legislative and executive branch agencies to support and enact laws to protect children against sweat shop conditions. She appeared with President Bill Clinton
at the White House
in support of the government's initiatives to counter international sweatshop abuses.
, including 2000's The Heart of a Woman, featuring the single "Love Never Fails".
In September 2005 she became a special correspondent on The Insider, a syndicated entertainment magazine television show, ending her relationship with that program upon her co-hosting role with Today.
She played the role of Miss Hannigan in a concert performance of Annie
at Madison Square Garden
in December 2006.
On March 31, 2008, NBC announced that Gifford was to join its morning show, Today, as co-host of the fourth hour, alongside Hoda Kotb. This marked her return to morning television; in many markets, she now airs directly after her old show, now called Live with Kelly. Because the 4th hour of Today airs live at 10:00am EST, and Live with Kelly airs live at 9:00am EST, Gifford's hour does not compete directly with her former show in most markets. Kotb and Gifford replaced Ann Curry
and Natalie Morales
. The show's ratings decreased after Gifford's arrival, having drawn 1.9 million viewers the weeks before her arrival and 1.7 million a few months after, although the network maintains that the drop in viewers was seasonal and unrelated to the on-air talent. More recently, the 4th hour of Today has averaged 2.148 million total viewers, an increase of 26 percent over those 2008 numbers.
She is a recipient of the Mousecar
Award (as in "Oscar"), a silver Mickey Mouse statue award that was personally designed by Walt Disney
himself. The award was presented personally by Disney
's CEO
, Michael Eisner
, who said that only five had been given out previously.
On March 27, 2010, she guest starred on The Suite Life on Deck
, along with her real-life daughter, Cassidy.
Gifford is a celebrity ambassador for the non-profit organization Childhelp
. She regularly makes appearances at fund raisers and events for the child abuse prevention and treatment organization and is an ardent supporter.
Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford raised the money to build and continue to financially support two shelters in New York City
for babies born with HIV
or a congenital crack cocaine
addiction. These shelters were named in honor of her children, Cody and Cassidy.
On July 1, 2008, Gifford appeared on NBC's Celebrity Family Feud
. She and her friends and family competed against the cast of Dog The Bounty Hunter
for their favorite charity. Gifford's family won the $50,000 for The Association to Benefit Children.
In 2007, she premiered Saving Aimee
, a stage musical about evangelist Aimee McPherson, at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. The premiere starred Tony
-nominated actress Carolee Carmello
in the lead role.
On April 16, 2007, Gifford was a guest presenter at the Washington, DC Helen Hayes Award
Ceremony, honoring contributions and professional accomplishments in theatre.
In 2008, Gifford and David Friedman
wrote a junior high school musical entitled Key Pin It Real. The play depicts a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Key Pin. The first production took place in December 2008 in Kendallville, Indiana
at East Noble High School
.
Gifford is currently working on a musical adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life
with John McDaniel
; McDaniel is composing music while Gifford is writing lyrics.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television host, singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and actress, best known for her 15-year run (1985–2000) on the talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
Live with Regis and Kathie Lee
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...
. She has received 11 Daytime Emmy nominations and won her first Daytime Emmy in 2010 as part of The Today Show team.
Before her long stint in talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
s, Gifford's first television exposure was that of Tom Kennedy's singer/sidekick on Name That Tune
Name That Tune
Name That Tune is a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife Roberta....
, from 1974-78. On April 7, 2008, Gifford began co-hosting the fourth hour of NBC's
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Today Show, alongside Hoda Kotb.
Early life
Kathie Lee Gifford, born Kathryn Lee Epstein in Paris, France, is the daughter of Joan (née Cuttell; born January 20, 1930), a singer, and Aaron Epstein (March 19, 1924 – November 19, 2002), a musician and former U.S. NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
officer. Aaron Epstein was stationed with his family in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
at the time of Gifford's birth. Gifford grew up in Bowie, Maryland
Bowie, Maryland
Bowie is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 54,727 at the 2010 census. Bowie has grown from a small railroad stop to the largest municipality in Prince George's County, and the fifth most populous city and third largest city by area in the state of...
, and attended Bowie High School
Bowie High School (Maryland)
Bowie High School is a public high school in Bowie, Maryland. It is part of Prince George's County Public Schools.-Academics:Bowie High School has the second highest student SAT average in Prince George's County, and is rated second on The Washington Post's Advanced Placement Challenge Index....
. During high school, Gifford was a singer in a folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
group, "Pennsylvania Next Right," which performed frequently at school assemblies. During her senior year at high school she dated and went to prom with Michael Bray
Michael Bray
Michael Bray is an American anti-abortion activist convicted in 1985 of two counts of conspiracy and one count of possessing unregistered explosive devices in relation to 10 bombings of women's health clinics and offices of liberal advocacy groups in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia...
, who would later become an anti-abortion activist who was convicted for acts of terrorism. After high school graduation, Gifford attended Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University , based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States, is an interdenominational, Charismatic Christian, comprehensive university with an enrollment of about 3,790 students from 49 U.S. states along with a significant number of international students from 70 countries...
in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, studying drama and music.
Gifford's paternal grandfather was of Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
Jewish descent and her paternal grandmother was of Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
ancestry. Her mother, a relative of writer Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, was of French Canadian
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
and German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
descent and was raised in a Methodist family. After seeing the Billy Graham-produced film, The Restless Ones at age 12, Gifford became a born-again Christian. She told interviewer Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
, "I was raised with many Jewish traditions and raised to be very grateful for my Jewish heritage." Her brother, Rev. David Paul Epstein, is an evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
preacher and pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
1970s
In 1970, Gifford represented Maryland in America's Junior MissAmerica's Junior Miss
Distinguished Young Women, formerly known as America's Junior Miss, is a national non-profit organization that provides scholarship opportunities to high school senior girls. Depending on the schedule of the various state and local programs, young women are eligible during the summer preceding...
Pageant.
During one summer in the early 1970s, she was a live-in secretary/babysitter for Anita Bryant
Anita Bryant
Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...
at her home in Miami. Gifford's career took off in the 1970s (during her first marriage to Christian composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
/arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
/producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
/publisher Paul Johnson) as a vocalist on the game show Name That Tune
Name That Tune
Name That Tune is a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife Roberta....
with Tom Kennedy (she performed the "sing a tune" segment as Kathie Lee Johnson). In 1978, she joined the cast of the short-lived Hee Haw
Hee Haw
Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being...
spinoff, Hee Haw Honeys.
She also appeared in television advertisements for Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Cruise Lines is a British-American owned cruise line, based in Doral, Florida, a suburb of Miami in the United States. Originally an independent company founded in 1972 by Ted Arison, the company is now one of eleven cruise ship brands owned and operated by Carnival Corporation & plc...
beginning in 1984. The ads were the first cruise line ads to air on network television.
Live with Regis and Kathie Lee
Following her divorce from Johnson in 1983, Gifford met sports commentator Frank GiffordFrank Gifford
Francis Newton "Frank" Gifford is a Hall of Fame former American football player and American sportscaster.-Early life:Gifford was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Lola Mae and Weldon Gifford, an oil driller....
(born August 16, 1930) during an episode of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
; the couple married in 1986. By that time, she was several months into her most famous television role, as a full-time morning talk show personality. On June 24, 1985, she replaced Ann Abernathy as co-host of The Morning Show on WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
with Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...
. The program went into national broadcast in 1988 as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
, and Gifford became well-known across the country. Throughout the 1990s, millions of morning-TV viewers watched her descriptions of life at home with her sportscaster husband and their two children: son Cody Newton Gifford (born in 1990) and Cassidy Erin Gifford (born in 1993). She appeared as a spokesperson for Slim Fast
Slim Fast
Slim•Fast is a brand of shakes, bars, snacks, packaged meals, and other dietary supplement foods sold in the U.S., UK, Ireland, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland and Latin America by Unilever. Slim Fast promotes diets and weight loss plans featuring its food products. Its U.S...
diet shakes after Cody was born. She was also the face of Carnival Cruises in the late 1980s and early 1990s, singing "If my friends could see me now!"
1996 sweatshop scandal
In 1996, the National Labor CommitteeNational Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights
The National Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights, commonly known as the NLC, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that investigates human and labor rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in the developing world...
, a human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
group, reported that sweatshop
Sweatshop
Sweatshop is a negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labour laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have...
labor was used to make clothes for the Kathie Lee line, sold at Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
. The group reported that a worker in Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
smuggled a piece of clothing out of the factory, which had a Kathie Lee label on it. One of the workers, Wendy Diaz, came to the United States to testify about the conditions under which she worked. She commented, "I wish I could talk to [Kathie Lee]. If she's good, she will help us."
Labor activist Charles Kernaghan
Charles Kernaghan
Charles Kernaghan is the executive director of the National Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights , currently headquartered in Pittsburgh...
spoke to the media and accused Gifford of being responsible for the sweatshop management activity. Gifford addressed Kernaghan's allegations on the air during Live, explaining that she was not involved with hands-on project management in factories.
Gifford later contacted Federal authorities to investigate the issue and worked with U.S. Federal legislative and executive branch agencies to support and enact laws to protect children against sweat shop conditions. She appeared with President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in support of the government's initiatives to counter international sweatshop abuses.
Current career
Since Live, Gifford has made guest appearances in films and television series, and has several independently released albums on CDCompact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, including 2000's The Heart of a Woman, featuring the single "Love Never Fails".
In September 2005 she became a special correspondent on The Insider, a syndicated entertainment magazine television show, ending her relationship with that program upon her co-hosting role with Today.
She played the role of Miss Hannigan in a concert performance of Annie
Annie (musical)
Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years with a blonde Annie as the poster...
at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
in December 2006.
On March 31, 2008, NBC announced that Gifford was to join its morning show, Today, as co-host of the fourth hour, alongside Hoda Kotb. This marked her return to morning television; in many markets, she now airs directly after her old show, now called Live with Kelly. Because the 4th hour of Today airs live at 10:00am EST, and Live with Kelly airs live at 9:00am EST, Gifford's hour does not compete directly with her former show in most markets. Kotb and Gifford replaced Ann Curry
Ann Curry
Ann Curry is an American television news journalist and co-anchor on NBC's morning television program Today. She is the former news anchor on Today, a role she began in March 1997, and was the host of Dateline NBC from 2005-2011.Curry is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Biography:Curry was born in...
and Natalie Morales
Natalie Morales
Natalie Leticia Morales is the news anchor for NBC's Today.-Career:Morales was an anchor and correspondent for MSNBC from 2002 to 2006...
. The show's ratings decreased after Gifford's arrival, having drawn 1.9 million viewers the weeks before her arrival and 1.7 million a few months after, although the network maintains that the drop in viewers was seasonal and unrelated to the on-air talent. More recently, the 4th hour of Today has averaged 2.148 million total viewers, an increase of 26 percent over those 2008 numbers.
She is a recipient of the Mousecar
Mousecar
The Mousecar is a prestigious in-house award given by The Walt Disney Company for a variety of reasons, including service to the company as well as to the community as a whole...
Award (as in "Oscar"), a silver Mickey Mouse statue award that was personally designed by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
himself. The award was presented personally by Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
's CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
, Michael Eisner
Michael Eisner
Michael Dammann Eisner is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until 2005.-Early life:...
, who said that only five had been given out previously.
On March 27, 2010, she guest starred on The Suite Life on Deck
The Suite Life on Deck
The Suite Life on Deck is an American sitcom that aired on Disney Channel from September 26, 2008 to May 6, 2011. It is a sequel/spin-off of the Disney Channel Original Series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody...
, along with her real-life daughter, Cassidy.
Gifford is a celebrity ambassador for the non-profit organization Childhelp
Childhelp
Childhelp is a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect and at-risk children through advocacy, prevention, treatment and community outreach. Founded in 1959 by Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, Childhelp is one of the largest non-profit child abuse...
. She regularly makes appearances at fund raisers and events for the child abuse prevention and treatment organization and is an ardent supporter.
Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford raised the money to build and continue to financially support two shelters in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
for babies born with HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
or a congenital crack cocaine
Crack cocaine
Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
addiction. These shelters were named in honor of her children, Cody and Cassidy.
On July 1, 2008, Gifford appeared on NBC's Celebrity Family Feud
Celebrity Family Feud
Celebrity Family Feud is a spin-off game show created by NBC, and hosted by television weather anchor Al Roker. The announcer was Burton Richardson. Celebrity Family Feud pitted two families against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey-type question posed to 100...
. She and her friends and family competed against the cast of Dog The Bounty Hunter
Dog the Bounty Hunter
Dog the Bounty Hunter is a reality television show on A&E which chronicles Duane "Dog" Chapman's adventures as a fugitive recovery agent, or bounty hunter...
for their favorite charity. Gifford's family won the $50,000 for The Association to Benefit Children.
Discography
| Title | Release | Record label |
|---|---|---|
| Sentimental (#108 Billboard Hot 200) | 1993 | Warner Bros. Records Warner Bros. Records Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies... |
| It’s Christmas Time | 1993 | Warner Bros. Records Warner Bros. Records Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies... |
| Dreamship: Lullabies for Little Ones (#24 Billboard Kids Albums chart) | 1996 | Warner Bros. Records Warner Bros. Records Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies... |
| Heart of a Woman | 2000 | Umvd Labels |
| Born For You | 2000 | Valley Entertainment Valley Entertainment Valley Entertainment is a United States music distributor and independent record label based in New York City. The company was founded in 1996 by Barney Cohen, president and CEO. In 2001, they acquired the prestigious back catalogue of space, ambient, and New Age music from Hearts of Space Records... |
| Goodnight, Angel | 2001 | On the Lamb |
| Party Animals | 2001 | On the Lamb |
| Gentle Grace | 2004 | Maranatha |
| My Way Home | 2009 | LML Music |
Musical theatre
In the late 1990s, Gifford began working in musical theatre. She contributed a number of musical numbers to Hats, and wrote and produced Under The Bridge, based upon the children's book The Family Under The Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson.In 2007, she premiered Saving Aimee
Saving Aimee (musical)
Saving Aimee is a musical with a book and lyrics by Kathie Lee Gifford and music by David Pomeranz and David Friedman.Based on early 20th century evangelist and pop culture icon Aimee Semple McPherson, it traces the trajectory of her life and career from her childhood to her controversial death in...
, a stage musical about evangelist Aimee McPherson, at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. The premiere starred Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-nominated actress Carolee Carmello
Carolee Carmello
Carolee Carmello is an American actress best known for her performances in Broadway musicals.She made her Broadway debut in a small role in City of Angels...
in the lead role.
On April 16, 2007, Gifford was a guest presenter at the Washington, DC Helen Hayes Award
Helen Hayes Award
A Helen Hayes Award is a theater award named for the famed actress Helen Hayes to recognize excellence in professional theater in the Washington, D.C. area since 1983. The awards are managed by Linda Levy Grossman. and presented by the Washington Theatre Awards Society.-Awards:The Helen Hayes...
Ceremony, honoring contributions and professional accomplishments in theatre.
In 2008, Gifford and David Friedman
David Friedman (composer)
David Alan Friedman is a film and theatre composer, songwriter, author, lyricist and conductor based in New York City.His songs include: Listen to My Heart, Help is on the Way, We Can Be Kind, We Live on Borrowed Time, I'll Be Here With You, Just in Time for Christmas and My Simple Christmas...
wrote a junior high school musical entitled Key Pin It Real. The play depicts a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Key Pin. The first production took place in December 2008 in Kendallville, Indiana
Kendallville, Indiana
Kendallville is a city in Wayne Township, Noble County, Indiana, United States. The population was 9,862 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Kendallville is located at ....
at East Noble High School
East Noble High School
East Noble High School is a grade 9-12 high school located in Kendallville, Indiana, and is the only high school that is part of the East Noble School Corporation. It serves to educate the approximately 1,200 students from the cities and towns of Rome City, Brimfield, Kendallville, Avilla and LaOtto...
.
Gifford is currently working on a musical adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
with John McDaniel
John McDaniel (musician)
John William McDaniel is an American theatre producer, composer, conductor, and pianist. He is known as the lead composer and producer of the 1996 television talk show The Rosie O'Donnell Show, for which he received six Daytime Emmy Award nominations, winning two.McDaniel is also known for his...
; McDaniel is composing music while Gifford is writing lyrics.