The length and breadth of Bob Hope's career is rather staggering. He got his start in vaudeville and then transitioned to radio and the movies. He was one of the first big stars to embrace television, appearing in his first special in 1950, and his final one in 1996, as the reign of the broadcast networks dominating the industry was drawing to a close. He died in 2003, just as broadband Internet began to move into the mainstream, and a rapidly growing DVD-rental-by-mail company was beginning to explore how to bypass the "mail" part of delivering content to customers.
Hope also was, arguably, one of the first modern stand-up comics. While some variation of stand-up had existed all the way back to before the Civil War, he was one of the pioneers of how comics generally perform today, with a comic telling jokes by themselves, as "themselves", without the use of props. Some sources even credit him with pioneering topical humor in comedy acts, as he would offer his wry take on current events, a form that still survives in the late night talk show monologue.
The problem with relying heavily on topical humor is that the jokes don't age well. What audiences in, say, December 1985, might find hysterical would be met with confusion and silence 36 years later. That might be an issue if the episode was expected to endure. But, like many variety Christmas specials, The Bob Hope Christmas Show was designed to be viewed once, on the night it aired, and then never seen again.
Of course, even audiences in 1985 might not have been too amused by Hope's style of comedy, which seemed greatly out-of-date even then. His opening monologue consisted of rather gentle jabs at President Reagan, Bruce Springsteen, Dynasty, and Charlton Heston, who was starring in the then-new Dynasty spin-off (and eventually notorious flop) The Colbys. That was followed by a song-and-dance number with pint-sized Webster star Emmanuel Lewis (who was actually 14 at the time) and banter with 20-year-old Brooke Shields. He also did two comedy sketches with the two of them, one a parody of Miami Vice, and the other a proto-Toy Story in which the trio play unsold dolls in a store on Christmas Eve.
The second half featured I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden, who proved to have a nice singing voice when she dueted with Hope on "Silver Bells", Chicago Bear rookie William "The Refrigerator" Perry, and the teenage Rose Queen, who, like everyone else, made jokes about Hope's age. The show also featured Hope's annual introduction of the AP's All-American College Football Team, 8 solid minutes of players running onto stage, introducing themselves, and Hope cracking a joke before the next player ran on and repeated the process.
Hope's 1985 special was his 32nd with the word "Christmas" in the title, though in an unusual quirk, many of them originally aired in January, mainly because they were travelogues of him visiting overseas military bases during the holiday season. This show, however, originated entirely from soundstages in the United States, and aired on December 15, leading into that year's Christmas in Washington (it was not my intention to essentially review NBC's lineup for that evening to start off the feature for this year, but that's how things ended up working out. I have no plans on covering the episodes of Amazing Stories and Alfred Hitchcock Presents that preceded Hope that night, even if Amazing Stories, at least, aired a Christmas episode).
Even though I found nearly all of the humor on the show creaky and antiquated, Hope could still bring audiences in, as the show finished fourth in the ratings for the week (indeed, people turned off their sets in droves as Christmas in Washington, which also briefly featured Lewis, came in 33rd). Indeed, Hope continued to churn out specials for NBC for another decade. I still think Hope was a supremely talented entertainer, though latter day specials like The Bob Hope Christmas Show, sadly, did not capture him in his prime.
Next time: The Dean of Christmas specials
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