And now a word form their sponsor: Frankie Avalon Jr. for Oldsmobile

This is an odd commercial, a 1988 automobile ad featuring Frankie Avalon Junior as well as his dad:

This was part of a series of spots with the offspring of celebrities telling us it's COOL to drive this car now. I tell you, Frankie Avalon Jr.? Seems a little bizarre 30 years later. He was in The Karate Kid and has had a solid career as a drummer (including in his dad's band), and Avalon Prime was having a bit of a renaissance at this time following the success of 1987's Back to the Beach. Still, though, it seems odd.

Top Ten #180: Summer IS here now edition

1) Bob Hope: We tried to give the legendary performer and longtime TV mainstay his due on the podcast, but I wonder if a lot of people don't even know who he was anymore. It sounds like the handiwork of Bing Crosby. Wait, people don't remember Bing Crosby anymore? 

2) Mac Davis: Mac was a standout on the special we discussed this week, and he was an engaging performer with a fine career in his own right!

3) Fran Tarkenton: One of the other standouts of that special. What, you were expecting Sammy Davis Jr.?

4) Norm Abram: The longtime star of This Old House announced his retirement recently. Good for him for getting out of the biz with 10 fingers and 10 toes.

5) The Golden Girls: This Tuesday and June 14, you can watch selected episodes (but not "Ladies of the Evening") on the big screen at a Fathom Events screening. Cheesecake had better be served in the lobby.

6) Monty Hall's Smokin'-Stokin' Fire Brigade: Boy, I wish I had a clip of whatever this is. It aired on ABC at 8 50 years ago tonight, and was built around a tour of California with co-stars like Dom Deluise, Rosey Grier, and Jim Backus.

7) Hardcastle and McCormick: The series debuted on Crackle this week, and it remains a great 'Ernie Anderson" show:

8) America in Search of Itself: In this NBC program from 40 years ago tonight, newsman John Chancellor and historian Theodore White conduct a search despite the utter and appalling absence of Leonard Nimoy.

9) Howard Johnson's: The last standalone HoJo's restaurant closed last week.

10) R.I.P. Charles Siebert: The Trapper John M.D. star was 84.

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...