Joys!

Mr. MacIntyre's review is quite accurate. Groucho sits with his beret on, glassy-eyed and weak-voiced, along side George Burns, who still has a few good decades left in him. Billy Barty provides some movement, while Groucho can't even follow him with his eyes.

This is from memory. I saw the show when it was originally aired 26 years ago.

Oh, how I wish this was on DVD/VHS! A couple of other reviewers found this a pretty sad affair, but I have to disagree. In some instances, for those of us who saw it as kids, it was the first experience of some of the "elder statesmen" of comedy, and getting to see them interact with some of the then-new practitioners was a particular treat.

The show opens with Vincent Price looking very sinister and mysterious in a trench coat and fedora, relating to us the facts in one the most amazing cases he's ever encountered. Hope discovers that someone has sent out invitations to a party at his house, and goes home to get to the bottom of things. What follows alternates between comic and creepy, as necessarily brief (sometimes 1 or 2 lines) appearances are divided by shots of black-gloved hands pouncing on the guests, until Hope himself is dispatched. He then delivers his sign-off with wings and a harp, calling down to Price that he'd at least like to know who done it - but before Price can reveal the killer's identity, he too is strangled. The camera then cuts to the studio audience, as the black-clad killer removes his gloves, his hat and finally his mask, revealing Johnny Carson, who delivers the punchline, "Now I can be on EVERY night..." For those too young to remember, there was a period when Carson only hosted "The Tonight Show" 2 or 3 nights out of 5, the remainder of which had a guest host, not a few of whom were "bumped off" at Hope's party!

This special wasn't a brilliant piece of timeless television art, but it had some fun moments - Les Brown and His Band of Reknown, holed up in Bob's hall closet ("You never know when you're gonna need a good music cue..."), Phil Silvers and Jerry Colonna getting in a bit of their respective character bits, and (despite other reviewers' disgruntlement to the contrary), Groucho's exchange with "Groucho"-disguised Billy Barty, "I'm paying you a lot of dough for this - I'd better be having a good time!" George Kirby gets to do a few impressions (including an amazing Eddie "Rochester" Anderson), Harry Ritz gets in his licks, and a number of actors we don't typically associate with comedy get to play for a few laughs. If I had a complaint, it was not seeing more of my favorite performers in it - Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Jonathan Winters,... But there wasn't really enough time to do justice to all the guests as it was.

Maybe I'm just seeing it through the golden haze of my youth, but I remember enjoying "Joys" quite a lot and wishing everyone had had a bit more screen time.

Let's get something straight right off the bat: Harry Ritz BLOWS!! The ONLY thing he and his brothers EVER did was make fun of the mentally handicapped! Anybody that thinks THAT'S funny is mischugina!!! Their movies were awful...and NONE of them ever did anything funny, with the possible exception of when Al Ritz dropped dead near on-stage in Vegas.

Now that THAT'S over with, the rest of the review: Hackneyed humor that is older than Jack Albertson's hairpiece, rotten, OLD Jerry Colonna jokes that Hope had been using since the 1940s, and "schtick" with Wayne Newton, who I SWEAR was not even in the actual scenes with Bob Hope. Foster Brooks was hilarious in his two seconds on screen.

When David Jansen's the funniest thing on a show, you know you're in trouble...and yet....

Hope pulls it off. His monologue is actually FUNNY (at least in spots), and it's terrific to see Vincent Price.

Steve Allen is smooth, and funny. Angie Dickinson is Angie Dickinson, and Scatman Crothers looks like he's trying to get a date with Angie while barely being able to read his cue-cards.

The most Embarrassing MOMENT in the ENTIRE production is the sight of Harry Ritz, Marty Allen, Jan Murray, Jack Carter, and (may god forgive him, 'cause he's such a beautiful should, and such a GREAT songwriter) Sammy Cahn, all acting more than slightly retarded as they "goof off,'n fun" for the camera.

Finally they turn, sans Cahn, who at least had enough sense NOT to follow this foursome (A FOURSOME BTW WHO COULDN'T GET A LAUGH IF THEIR HAIRPIECES WERE ON FIRE), as they tightened their Borscht-belts, and walk off-stage, hopefully into a large oven to roast LIKE THE HAMS THEY ALL WERE!!! My God, did you EVER see four people try to "out-mug" each other, and fail miserably?? The four of them together looked like a corner of kids waiting for the "Lighthouse for the retarded" bus to pick them up...

Was Jan Murray EVER funny? Was Jack Carter EVER anything other than aggravating? Was Marty Allen anything other than PATHETIC? Jackie Vernon was funnier than ANY of those guys...but I digress.

If you want a great trip to nostalgia-land, get this. You'll LOVE the fact that, for two hours, you can be transported back to a time when a guy like Jack Albertson could pull up to Bob Hope, obviously read a cue-card filled with BAD humor...and still make you think you're having a good time....

I have a VHS copy. Pretty neat. Lots of guest appearances.

I only saw this once as a kid as well, but obviously it left an impression.

I found a copy of it on VHS....I believe the official title is Special Joys.

The cast included: Don Adams, Jack Albertson, Marty Allen, Steve Allen, Desi Arnaz, Billy Barty, Rona Barrett, Milton Berle, Foster Brooks, Les Brown, George Burns, Red Buttons, Pat Buttram, John Byner, Sid Caesar, Sammy Cahn, Glen Campbell, Jack Carter, Charo, Jerry Colonna, Mike Connors, Scatman Crothers, Bill Dana, Angie Dickinson, Phyllis Diller, Jamie Farr, George Gobel, Jim Hutton, David Janssen, Alan King, George Kirby, Don Knotts, Fred MacMurray, Dean Martin, Groucho Marx, Jan Murray, Wayne Newton, Vincent Price, Freddy Prinze, Don Rickles, Harry Ritz, Telly Savalas, Phil Silvers, Larry Storch, Abe Vigoda, and an uncredited villain! 90 minutes.