ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 21, 1996 TAG: 9611210013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Tom Shales
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
It has to rank as one of the strangest TV specials in years. The star of it barely moves, barely speaks, and seems at best semiconscious. And the guest stars include the president and first lady of the United States and two former chief executives.
``Bob Hope: Laughing with the Presidents'' marks the last of Hope's specials for NBC and the end of a relationship with the network that goes back 60 years, to the heyday of radio. Not to be unkind about it, but Hope's own heydays are far behind him. He's 93 now and suffers from various ailments that include hearing and sight impairment.
He's a character of American folklore, legendary for his fame and longevity, but enough is enough. The special, airing Saturday night at 8 on WSLS (Channel 10), is more than mildly mortifying, and the fact that Bill and Hillary Clinton, George and Barbara Bush, and Gerald and Betty Ford were dragged into it seems unfortunate.
They all appear in recently taped sound bites attesting to the hilariousness and charm of Hope, and of course there are scads of clips from days gone by of Hope golfing with presidents, jesting with presidents, and joking about presidents on his TV show.
Where the show gets bizarre is in the segments that bridge all these clips, which are hosted by Tony Danza with Hope sort of looming nearby like a ski-nosed Buddha. As the show opens, Danza wanders onto a set that's supposed to look like the Oval Office and finds Hope sitting there as immobile as the Queen Mary, which is permanently moored in Long Beach, Calif.
There is, of course, honor in living to a ripe old age and, despite America's fixation with youth, it is anything but a disgrace. But Hope's abilities as a performer have dimmed now almost to the point of invisibility. The few lines he does have on the special are recited blankly, as if by a machine. Hope is mortal and therefore cannot spring eternal. It really is time for him to bow out.
The idea of pasting together lots of Hope quips about presidents from FDR to Clinton turns out to be not so hot, either. The jokes all sound the same, and tend to be glibly innocuous. Hope kids Jimmy Carter about peanuts and Harry Truman about his piano playing and Gerald Ford about his golfing, and so on. This kind of humor is commendable for its civility and good nature, but it seems namby-pamby when compared to the savvy political satire of today's younger comics.
It's the presidents and first ladies themselves who have the funniest lines on the special, although admittedly sometimes they are quoting Hope and his army of writers. ``He says I'm the hit man for the PGA,'' jokes Ford, with wife Betty at his side. Clinton says, ``Playing golf with Bob Hope is one of the perks that comes with being president of the United States.''
By far the funniest moments on the show come from Barbara and George Bush. Mrs. Bush tries to recall some Hope jokes about Millie, the White House dog. Trouble is, Mrs. Bush can't quite get the lines out correctly, and the more she goofs up, the more she and the former president break up. Bush himself has never seemed quite so human on TV. They're both delightful.
Danza is obnoxious, and some of the lines he was given to read are simply not true. ``He wasn't political,'' Danza says of Hope, but Hope temporarily gave up his nonpartisanship during the Vietnam War and openly supported Richard Nixon. ``Every American president from FDR on has loved him,'' Danza says, but Washington insiders know that President Kennedy couldn't stand him and didn't want him around.
For some time, Hope's specials on NBC have been tributes to Hope, mounted by Hope's own production company. He's earned millions and is one of the richest entertainers in American history. When the inevitable strains of ``Thanks for the Memory'' sneak in near the end of this show, one can't help thinking that perhaps, after all these years, Hope has now been thanked enough.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB