It is rare that an episode of Live with Kelly and Mark to be somber, but on tonight’s morning show, Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos and the rest of the talk show crew spent most of the episode saying an emotional goodbye to longtime ABC executive Art Moore, who retired today after more than five decades at the network.

Moore was vice president of programming at WABC-TV and Livewas the executive director responsible for production and had been with the show since 1989 (when it Live with Regis and Kathie Lee). After more than 53 years at ABC, where he often appeared in segments Live He poked fun at himself and announced that he would retire in May; today would be his last day.

The episode featured several long montages of Moore’s funniest moments on the show (one of them featuring a very slow version of the Golden Girls The theme song, “Thank You For Being A Friend,” was sung by Ripa (who performed it in the closing minutes of the show), but brought tears to the eyes of those of us watching at home.

Raising a glass of sparkling apple cider (it wasn’t even 10 a.m. yet), Ripa said to Moore, “I don’t know where to begin, but I’m telling you, we’re not saying goodbye to you. We’ll never say goodbye to you, as you know.”

“You have been the most important person to every single person here. It is evident by the number of people you work with every day who love, honor and appreciate you and all you have given us,” she continued. “You are a giver and we honor you and shower you with our gratitude and love, forever.”

Ripa then hugged Moore and whispered “I love you” to him as Consuelos, producer Michael Gelman and announcer Deja Vu raised their glasses to him.

In an interview with DECIDER, Ripa admitted that she and Consuelos were “both in denial about the reality” of Moore retiring.

“Have a wonderful weekend and tune in on Monday when Art returns!” Ripa joked as she ended the episode.

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