Yes, as a matter of fact, I DO remember this Bob Hope special. But I never remembered its name ("Joys"? Who would have remembered that?).
Let's see, I was about 11 years-old when I first saw "Joys" on TV, so how much do I remember? Well - I remember Bob Hope (who else?) inviting multitudes of comics and comic actors to his home for some sort of party and, suddenly, they all start turning up murdered by a masked killer who leaves white gloves at the scene of the crime. Soon, Bob's house is littered with white gloves, and his swimming pool is crammed full of face-down corpses.
Funny, huh? Well, there was a laugh-track, but I was more creeped out by the goings-on than anything else. What's funny about watching Marty Allen, Foster Brooks, Don Rickles and other top comics get laid out? Wellll.... Maybe, if you were a critic?
Anyway, so Bob does what any right-thinking man would do in his case - call some TV detectives! And that he does, calling in Pepper Anderson (Dickenson), Mannix (Connors), Elery Queen (Hutton - remember him?), Kojak (Savalas), Detective Fish (Vigoda!) even pops in, all to end up in the pool with the others.
Finally, poor old Bob is left by himself in a final showdown with the killer until....
Hmmm, should I spoil this or not? Ah well, it isn't out on video. So....
SPOILER...
Bob gets killed and ends up in heaven by himself (wonder where the others went?), still trying to figure out who killed them all. Then, in a shot of the studio audience, presumably watching the special, a pan reveals the killer there, peeling off his mask to reveal...JOHNNY CARSON!! He then rolls off his only (and this show's most memorable) line: "They're all gone; now, I can do it alone!" ...END OF SPOILER
And what can I say? If you can remember a TV special decades after the fact, it must have been pretty good.
Or pretty warped.
Five stars for "Joys". And NO, I don't have this on tape.
Let's see, I was about 11 years-old when I first saw "Joys" on TV, so how much do I remember? Well - I remember Bob Hope (who else?) inviting multitudes of comics and comic actors to his home for some sort of party and, suddenly, they all start turning up murdered by a masked killer who leaves white gloves at the scene of the crime. Soon, Bob's house is littered with white gloves, and his swimming pool is crammed full of face-down corpses.
Funny, huh? Well, there was a laugh-track, but I was more creeped out by the goings-on than anything else. What's funny about watching Marty Allen, Foster Brooks, Don Rickles and other top comics get laid out? Wellll.... Maybe, if you were a critic?
Anyway, so Bob does what any right-thinking man would do in his case - call some TV detectives! And that he does, calling in Pepper Anderson (Dickenson), Mannix (Connors), Elery Queen (Hutton - remember him?), Kojak (Savalas), Detective Fish (Vigoda!) even pops in, all to end up in the pool with the others.
Finally, poor old Bob is left by himself in a final showdown with the killer until....
Hmmm, should I spoil this or not? Ah well, it isn't out on video. So....
SPOILER...
Bob gets killed and ends up in heaven by himself (wonder where the others went?), still trying to figure out who killed them all. Then, in a shot of the studio audience, presumably watching the special, a pan reveals the killer there, peeling off his mask to reveal...JOHNNY CARSON!! He then rolls off his only (and this show's most memorable) line: "They're all gone; now, I can do it alone!" ...END OF SPOILER
And what can I say? If you can remember a TV special decades after the fact, it must have been pretty good.
Or pretty warped.
Five stars for "Joys". And NO, I don't have this on tape.