David Letterman and Regis Philbin have been friends for years, so Letterman stopped by 'Live' (weekdays, syndicated on ABC) to bid his dear buddy farewell, and to tease him about his Newsweek cover-shoot with Jerry Seinfeld.

Holding up the cover, Letterman joked, "You've been on my show, what, about a million times? How many times has Jerry put you on his show? Oh I forgot, Jerry doesn't have a show."

Letterman then payed Regis a high compliment, putting his legacy in the same sentence with TV legend Johnny Carson, who was known as the King of Late Night. "When Johnny stepped down ... it was, who's gonna be the guy? Well lord knows it wasn't me ... and it's certainly not Leno ... so Regis, we realized, sitting right under our nose, here's the guy," Letterman said.

When Regis told him he had done 17,000 shows, Letterman took the Regis reverence a step further, and stood up out of his chair to give him a kiss on the lips. That's certainly one way to say goodbye.