12 Days of Watching (2024) #2: Bob Hope Christmas Special: "A Snow Job in Florida"

Well, I said I would do it. I said I would watch this, most likely on my own, when I mentioned the recent upload on our Facebook group. This is the December 1987 Bob Hope Christmas Special, A Snow Job in Florida, complete with original commercials:

So there are several ways to approach this. You may love Bob Hope and watch the show that way. You may also think that title is funny in and of itself. You may just love Christmas and tradition and enjoy seeing familiar faces. You may enjoy reliving the Eighties!

I am a mixture of all of that, but I have to admit that A) I watched this alone as Wife of the Show Laurie does not share my admiration for the Bob Hope persona and B) this special is not great without the nostalgia/showbiz love aspect. The 84-year-old Hope is showing his age in this hour, and the format is showing its age, too--maybe more so.

I won't apologize for liking the whole thing, though it's not nearly as good as, say, the special we covered on the podcast. The time capsule experience is too good to pass up. It begins with a long monologue that features topical references galore: E.F. Hutton, Imelda Marcos, Jesse Helms, Again, if you like the "Snow Job in Florida" title, you will appreciate much of this without irony, but Bob seems off for much of the segment, like he needed a bit to warm up.

The rest of the program is a typical mix of music and comedy sketches. I think the musical highlight is the duet Reba McEntire and Bob perform of "Silver Bells," which works despite (or maybe because?) they call attention to the artificial environment and simulated snow. There's a certain charm to this that just works.

Most of the comedy is uneven at best, with familiar faces like Brooke Shields, Morgan Fairchild, and always-game Tony Randall showing up. The All-American college football stars appear for the traditional sequence, and that's pretty much what you expect, too. The Rose Queen does a bit with Bob, and we see Bob at the event know as the Beach Ball in Florida.

It's all a bit scattershot, but there is enough holiday cheer in that traditional showbiz way to keep things moving, if just barely. There's something to be said for tradition, but at this point it's clear we're at the end of the line of Hope's remarkable career in entertainment.  The only problem is, there were 5 more years of official Hope specials, Christmas and otherwise, after this! 

Right now, let's not think about that, but let's kick back and enjoy some Hope and even some vintage commercials. Yes, Texaco is featured, though not with Bob as spokesman. Would you accept an appearance by short-lived Energizer pitchman Jacko?

For Your Batty Consideration: Bob Hope

As we neared the midway point of our tenth season, we dove into the world of Bob Hope specials, inspired by our friend Geno (though he may not want to take responsibility for the Tahoe special since he suggested a different program that we may get to in the future!).  Bob Hope's All-Star Comedy Spectacular Live from Tahoe debuted January 1977 and featured stars like Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Charo, Mac Davis, and many more! Yet with all that entertainment going on, one of the biggest things we talked about was the messaging spread throughout the program by sponsor Texaco.

Links:

Our podcast episode
Show notes and YT playlist

Anonymous Batty Insider says: "It might be tempting to snub Bob just to envision the jokes he would make, but I see this being a bit of a Batty sleeper. For one thing, it has plenty of songs that are eligible in a category for which many episodes will not have nominees. Also, a variety show has a lot of variety. Look for a surprising number of nominees but perhaps a relatively low number of winners."

Video Playlist Spotlight: Solving a Mystery...Maybe

In this week's episode on Bob Hope, I told a story about my dad from his Air Force days. While, stationed overseas during the Vietnam War, he and another pilot "buzzed" a Bob Hope USO show and got a wisecrack from Bob. I couldn't remember all the details, and, alas, I can't ask my dad. 

He'd always wanted to find the footage and never did. After editing the episode, I decided to do some digging. I started with a list of Bob Hope TV specials on everyone's friend Wikipedia. I then zeroed in on the Southeast Asia Christmas specials and a couple years. Since they aired in January, I could assume the performances took place the year before.

Next, I went to everyone's other friend YouTube and started scanning through 1966 special (it seemed like the best bet). I had a couple possible locations in mind, and it didn't take long to not only find one in Thailand but to find--I think--the footage.

While my dad flew the featured jet during his time in the Air Force, I wasn't sure if he had flown it overseas or only back in the States. I associate a different jet with his Vietnam time because he focused most of his looking back on that one. My uncle said he flew both jets overseas. After seeing the footage, he also confirmed this jet as a reconnaissance model of an F-4 Phantom (an RF-4). My dad flew reconnaissance (and he and both his brothers prided themselves in their airplane identification skills, so I accept this confirmation).

The timeline matches, the location matches, and the plane probably matches. Not to get all Leonard Nimoy here, but could I have found the footage? Could my dad be flying the jet seen (or the second one heard but not seen)? It's very possible, and if so, one, I wish I could have made this discovery during my dad's lifetime, but also, it means he encountered at least two of the people in the special we covered. He also once held the door for Sammy.

The video below should start at the beginning of the segment. A prop plane first flies over and calls out to Bob over a loudspeaker. Not long after, the jets buzz him. If the bookmark doesn't work, go to around the 7:30 mark. You can also find this video in our marvelous YouTube play list curated by Rick.

Power Rankings: Bob Hope specials I want to see

I watched a lot of Bob Hope over the past few months, partly to prep for this week's episode and partly because, hey, I just like watching Bob Hope specials. A lot of them are available online, but much to my dismay, some of the ones I most want to see or revisit are (to my knowledge) not. Here are the ones I really want, in chronological order, with special thanks to Wesley Hyatt's Bob Hope on TV: Thanks for the Video Memories.

1) Bob Hope Show (September 25, 1974): This episode is taped in Central Park for a unique setting, and the guest list includes Jackie Gleason and Glen Campbell. You had me at Gleason, but this is the rare special that Hyatt gives a full five stars to in his book.

2) Bob Hope's Bicentennial Star-Spangled Spectacular (July 14, 1976): Bicentennial mania gripped the nation, and of course Hope was there to capitalize with a collection of historically themed sketches with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Don Knotts. The highlight has to be a Tonight Show parody set in the Revolutionary War era and co-starring Ed McMahon and Doc Severinsen!

3) Bob Hope's All-Star Comedy Salute to the 75th Anniversary of the World Series (October 15, 1978): I love baseball almost as much as I love that convoluted title. Baseball clips, the Muppets, Billy Martin, and more! There's a bit with Steve Martin, plus moments for stalwarts like Charo and Howard Cosell.

4) Bob Hope on Campus (November 19, 1979):  I like the idea of Bob appearing at some of the biggest universities in the country, like USC, Harvard, and Indiana State. Wait, Indiana State? Well, they did have Larry Bird at the time.

5) Bob Hope in the Starmakers (March 17, 1980): This storyline special (as opposed to the variety/stage format) with Hope as a talent agent is the only one on this list I want to see because it sounds bad. Hyatt gives it a lowly one star and calls it "one of his worst ever outings," writing, "Any special that includes among its guests the ape from B.J. and the Bear and dubs in applause for the creature's appearance is asking for trouble." Well, this sounds like something I need to see!

6) Bob Hope's All-Star Look at TV's Prime Time Wars (September 6, 1980): Any regular BOTNS listener should be able to recognize that title as something that would interest me. Add guest stars like Charlotte Rae and a Charlie's Angels sketch with Bob, Danny Thomas, and Larry Wilcox as the women (!), and you've got one for the list.

7) Bob Hope's Stand Up and Cheer NFL's 60th Year (November 22, 1981): You just know that in 90% of places that ran TV listings, these fancy titles were compressed to BOB HOPE (4). The sporting theme appeals to me again, and guests include Olivia Newton-John, Genius winner Michael Conrad, and, uh, O.J. Simpson. One sketch features Dick Butkus, Bob Lilly, and Rosey Grier singing a "Nine to Five" parody about football!

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 10-6: Bob Hope

*Thanks again to Geno Cuddy from our Facebook group, who inspired us to do a Bob Hope episode, though we didn't use his specific suggestion this time for various reasons, we may well do so in a future episode!

*How do you distill the decades-long career of Bob Hope, let alone the many guests he had on this special, into one video playlist? Well, we try with a selection of monologues, talk show clips, commercials, and more! Click below to see Bob with special guests, plus Tahoe in the Seventies, Mac Davis with Dolly Parton, and even the halftime show of Super Bowl XI! Plus the special we discuss is there (for now), so see it while you can!

And remember you can always visit our official YouTube channel for all past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one of them!

*Here's another mention of the two books I made extensive use of for research:

Bob Hope on TV: Thanks for the Video Memories by Wesley Hyatt
The Laugh Makers by Bob Mills

Hyatt's book is a critical look at all prominent TV appearances by the showbiz legend, while Mills offers an autobiographical look at what it was like to write for Hope as well as a lot of insight into the man himself.

*Hope was born May 29, 1903 and died July 27, 2003.

*Cancel My Reservation (1972) was the last of Hope's movie starring roles, and it was a critical and commercial disappointment.

*In the 1970s, Melvin Dummar claimed to have resucued Howard Hughes in the desert and earned a piece of his estate. His story inspired Melvin and Howard (1980).

*Bob Hope's All-Star Comedy Spectacular premiered January 21, 1977 at 8:30 on NBC. It was preceded by Sanford and Son (with Frank Nelson!) and followed buy The Rockford Files. To clarify what we talk about on the pod, the slide at the beginning of the special (you can see this in the playlist) explains that Chico and the Man, normally at 8:30, was pre-empted and that Rockford, normally at 9, would be on at 10.

*Bob's ratings were very high until the Eighties, and even then he got more specials from NBC. Ratings went up and down, but as the decade went on he was often in third place on the night.

*Texaco became Bob's primary sponsor in 1975.

*Super Bowl XI occurred January 9, 1977 at the Rose Bowl in California.

*The average price of a gallon of gas in real dollars in 1977 was 62 cents. Sounds cheap, of course, but consider that it was 39 cents in 1973, so there was a huge relative increase in between.

*Muhammad Ali had retired from boxing while still champ after a controversial win over Ken Norton in September 1976 but would return after this special aired, defeating Alfredo Evangelista and Ernie Shavers in 1977 while instigating concern for his well-being. He lost the heavyweight championship to Leon Spinks in 1978, then regained it later that year.

*Nancy Dickerson was CBS News' first female correspondent, then worked for NBC News before producing a syndicated daily news show, Inside Washington, in the 1970s. Her son John Dickerson has been a high-profile face at CBS News for years.

Ep. 10-6: Bob Hope

If you watched NBC in the seventies and eighties (and nineties), you saw Bob Hope smirking, mugging, singing, dancing, flirting, and reading cue cards. "Bob Hope's All-Star Comedy Spectacular" features all that and a who's who of variety TV from Ann-Margret and Charo to Sammy and Dino, not to mention Mac Davis! Join us as we discuss all this and Texaco! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #bobhope #macdavis #sammydavisjr #deanmartin #annmargret #variety #comedy #charo

 

Check out this episode!

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...