Who was television variety's biggest comedy giant? My answer may throw you for a loop, but I have a sound rationale. Other names may spring automatically to mind through force of habit, and we won't neglect them, but I am going to go ahead and declare unilaterally that TV variety's biggest comedy giant was Bob Hope (1903-2003). Yes, it's true that Hope never hosted a weekly variety show, and if that were a necessary criterion, he would be disqualified. But when television began, this major star of every entertainment medium known to man had his reasons for inventing his own approach. He had just come off of hosting one of the most popular variety programs of the radio era, The Pepsodent Show, which ran from 1938 to 1948. He was both tired of the weekly grind and possessed of enough clout (through his radio and movie stardom) to dictate his own terms.
The format that suited Hope's busy career best was that of the television "special". These were stand-alone variety extravaganzas which he hosted, produced and presented every couple of months or so. Rather than crash and burn, as almost every other performer who attempted the variety grind, Hope paced himself, and it worked. Between 1950 and 1996, Hope hosted 272 variety specials. I was around (and conscious) for the last quarter century of them, and I can tell you they were events: advertised well in advance, and one always tried to tune in. They ranged from comical to corny to cockamamie, like show biz smorgasbords, with guests ranging from his old vaudeville and movie friends, to pop singers, to teenage beauty queens. There were monologues, comedy sketches, and musical numbers.
On top of this, Hope became the host of the weekly series Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963-67), which had an anthology format that varied, ranging from dramatic plays to, again, variety shows. So that adds to his tally. And then there were the 19 occasions upon which he hosted the Academy Awards telecasts. The long and the short of it, is that he hosted over 300 TV variety shows, more than many a performer who emceed hit weekly shows, and certainly over a longer stretch of time.
For more on show biz history, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety (from which this post was excerpted).
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