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Marty Allen, Steve Allen, Shelley Berman, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, Johnny Carson, Jack Carter, Jerry Colonna, Wally Cox, Bill Dana, George Gobel, Shecky Greene, Buddy Hackett, Jack E. Leonard, Pat Paulsen, Nipsey Russell, Soupy Sales, Phil Silvers, Danny Thomas, Flip Wilson

A window into how the classic became lame

This episode is now available as an overpriced 2-episode delivery from Amazon on demand for $10.99! I&#39;m a sucker for anything 60s, so bought. Once it gets down to $1.99 definitely worth looking at for all the &quot;what the?&quot; moments. The old guard is clearly dead and they are dutifully paraded out in their death throes (do a Danny Thomas double-take), but at the same time the show laments the Smothers Brothers censorship woes and worships at the heels of Johnny Carson and Rowan &amp; Martin, who were still hot - which of course, Ol&#39; Ski Nose, Sid Caesar, Soupy Sales, George Gobel, et al, were not in 1969. (and who can forget Shecky Greene? Who? Oh yeah, forgot him.) Yet, both episodes have Jimmy Durante, and like Groucho, he&#39;s timeless. The guy is always funny no matter how old or what the circumstance! Classic surrealist comedy that still worked in the psychedelic 60s. The first episode of the download, which is earlier than this one, actually has Hope &amp; Durante having nose sex! (yes, worth the ticket...) And from a time capsule perspective - this download will throw you *way* back. It is topical and gives a warped insight to what 1969 was like and more so, what a lot of peeps probably watched back in the day... The moon landing was on everyone&#39;s mind and as tragic as Vietnam was, Hope still went for the jokes about it (My Lai - what a crack up!)... Actually, some of the political jokes still resonate. It shows there&#39;s nothing new about Republican &amp; Democrat divides and how both parties have dis-serviced the country through their partisanship and self-serving interests (Oops, sorry - forgot to put in the political commentary disclaimer in). Both episodes clearly depict the strangest thing about watching Bob Hope on TV in the 60s &amp; 70s. He always started with a monologue by coming out behind a curtain and acting like there was a live audience there. He never looked into the camera, always looked at the cue cards to the side so his eyes never made contact with the viewer. When he said his punchline the canned laughter would cascade as though he just said the funniest joke of all-time but as the viewer you would think: uh.... And then Bob would do his patented pause to wait out the laughter and act like he was looking at audience members who weren&#39;t there, and again - never look into the camera for a human eyeball connection! He was probably looking away at the NBC janitor... And, oh yes - every babe wears minis &amp; boots in both 1969 episodes! (except Cyd Charisse in the 1st episode, who doesn&#39;t even need them to be sexy in her 40s...) Summation: not great, but you ain&#39;t seen nothing like it! (unless you were tuned into NBC in 1969 like I was and 50 million other people, some of which might even be alive today.)

User reviews

Marty Allen, Steve Allen, Shelley Berman, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, Johnny Carson, Jack Carter, Jerry Colonna, Wally Cox, Bill Dana, George Gobel, Shecky Greene, Buddy Hackett, Jack E. Leonard, Pat Paulsen, Nipsey Russell, Soupy Sales, Phil Silvers, Danny Thomas, Flip Wilson

The Bob Hope Show

A window into how the classic became lame

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