User reviews

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.

When I was 12, I saw this Bob Hope Special and thought it was one of the strangest shows I had seen. In addition, it must have been memorable as I've remembered it and wanted to see it once again. And, I was thrilled when I found it on YouTube today!

The show begins like other Bob Hope TV specials...with Hope doing a stand-up routine which was occasionally quite funny. However, the camera follows him from the stage and he keeps hearing from friends that they can't wait to see him at the big party at Hope's house tonight. However, Hope didn't organize any party nor did he invite anyone. Soon, his guests start getting killed and who and why this happening are to be seen.

The show essentially is like a long, extended Hope monologue...as his guests also spout the same sort of humor as they talk. What's odd is that many of them AREN'T comedians, such as David Jansen and Jack Albertson and Charro. However, most guest ARE comedians...ranging from A-list to D-list. One of the big guests is actually very sad to watch, as Groucho Marx looks half dead and had difficulty with his lines....and considering how quick-witted he HAD been, it was tough to watch.

So is the show worth seeing? Well, I think much of it depends on your age. Younger viewers won't recognize most of the actors (particularly the likes of Jerry Colonna)...so they might not enjoy it very much. For people my age and older, it's great to see all the old faces...even if they are often D-listers like Marty Allen and Jack Carter.

Overall, while the jokes are hit or miss, the overall effort is far more interesting that Hope's other 1970s-80s TV specials.

"Joys" was a 1976 Bob Hope TV special: its title is meant to be a parody of "Jaws", a hot film at the time ... but "Joys" doesn't follow the plot of "Jaws", and it isn't very funny. Even the title, "Joys", isn't funny.

This TV special features plenty of Borscht Belt comedians (of Jewish extraction), and American comedy has always drawn heavily on the great legacy of Yiddish humour, so it would have been funny if this parody of 'Jaws' was called "Jews" ... but that decision would have taken some guts, and this show is dead gutless.

In "Joys", Bob Hope invites several dozen famous comedians to his house for a party. A lot of big-name talents appear very briefly in "Joys" - including Groucho Marx, George Burns, Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers and Milton Berle - but most of them have nothing funny to do. One comedian disappears, and then he turns up dead, floating face-down in Hope's pool. Then another dies, then another ... then they start dying in bunches, and all the corpses end up face-down in Hope's pool. (All of these famous comedians are playing themselves, so it's unnerving to see them getting killed off and then shown as corpses ... even though the face-down "corpses" of the famous comedians are obviously stand-ins.) Eventually, we see that a mysterious man in a domino mask is killing all the comedians. IMDb's cast list has already given away the (unfunny) killer's identity, so I shan't reveal it here. (BIG HINT: Which American showbiz personality, circa 1976, held the power of life and death over most comedians' careers?) At the end, ALL of the comedians die, and Hope's pool is chock-full o' corpses.

The most notable scene in "Joys" is Groucho Marx's very last-ever performance, and it's painfully depressing. Groucho, frail and ill, sits stiffly on a couch while midget actor Billy Barty runs around in a Groucho disguise and delivers some of Groucho's famous lines in a bad Groucho imitation. Groucho looks at Barty wistfully, and asks: "Am I having fun?" No, Groucho, you're NOT having fun, and neither are we. (Trivia note: way back in 1931, as a child actor, Billy Barty appeared with Harpo Marx in "Monkey Business". Around that same time, Barty did an outright imitation of Harpo in a Mickey McGuire short ... making Barty the only actor to imitate two different Marx Brothers four decades apart.)

"Joys" also features the last-ever performance of Bob Hope's long-time sidekick Jerry Colonna. (Colonna's last movie role, filmed before "Joys", was released a few months afterwards.) Colonna isn't in the party scenes: he does a brief bit as a man who gets a wrong-number phone call. Colonna plays his whole scene propped up in bed, and it's obvious that he's too ill to stand up.

Desi Arnaz gets lumbered with a really bad Abbott and Costello routine here. Shortly before "Joys" was televised, Arnaz had published his autobiography, which he modestly titled "A Book". In "Joys", people keep asking Desi Arnaz what his book is called: he keeps telling them "It's 'A Book'" and nobody gets it. Ha ha ha. Arnaz's thick Cuban accent doesn't add to the hilarity. Into the pool, Desi!

By far, the best sequence in "Joys" is a song performed by Harry Ritz, the leader of the Ritz Brothers. Harry Ritz had a profound influence on many American comedians (most notably Sid Caesar and Mel Brooks), and this song is Ritz's chance to acknowledge the debt. Seated at Bob Hope's piano, Ritz sings: 'Any schtick you have done, I have done sooner. You do a schtick, I'll prove I did it first.' Then he pulls faces and makes funny noises. I wish that 'Joys' had more moments like this, instead of assembling so many of history's greatest comedians and then giving them nothing to do. Some of the comedians in 'Joys' were never funny in the first place, such as the detestably smug Freddie Prinze.

'Joys' is the only-ever occasion when a Marx Brother and a Ritz Brother were in the same cast list ... but Groucho's and Harry's scenes were filmed separately.

Bob Hope's TV specials tended to offer quantity rather than quality. In 'Joys', he tries (and fails) to sweeten the deal by bringing in several crime-show actors to reprise their roles as TV detectives, including Telly Savalas as Kojak. People like Glen Campbell and Vincent Price show up briefly, for no discernible reason beyond padding the cast list.

'Joys' is a tragic waste of some major comedy talents, many of them in the twilight of their careers. If you watch this show, fast-forward to Harry Ritz's comedy song, then hit Rewind. If you love Groucho Marx, you DON'T want to see how sad and ghastly he looks in this mess.

This was Groucho's final public appearance, and he hadn't been on television since his honorary Academy Award in 1974.

Marx was showing the signs of senility as early as January of 1973, and it's noticeable in his Tonight Show appearance in May of that year. By the time the 1974 Academy Awards show came around, he was very frail and had trouble making a short speech to accept the award. Groucho's son Arthur, who was embroiled in legal battles with his father's live-in companion Erin Fleming (for which litigation continued into the mid 1980's), was cognizant of this, and out of protection for his father, he made it known that Groucho was not accepting any further offers for public appearances.

When "Joys" was being cast, Bob Hope (out of courtesy) offered Marx a role in it. Arthur Marx was opposed to the idea but relented to persuasion by both Johnny Carson (who idolized Marx) and George Burns. Burns offered to do the scene with Groucho. It was said that the shooting of this short scene took quite a while, as Marx was somewhat disoriented and had trouble concentrating. The scene is a compilation of many takes (as is evident by the different sitting positions of Marx and the slightly different positions of his cap in seemingly contiguous time). The patient Burns worked with Groucho until they had enough decent footage to patch together the minute and a half scene, and the applause and laugh track were dubbed over it later.

But even in old age and senility, you can still see some of the old Groucho. When Burns notes that nobody is getting younger, Groucho asks George how hold he is. Burns (who was pushing 80 at the time) states that he's 76. Groucho retorts "You're getting younger." We even get to see a bit of the famous Groucho leer.

To correct another review, the final comment Groucho makes to Billy Barty (who played a miniature version of him in the scene) is "Don't just stand there, mingle; I want to have a good time."

It's a tribute to Marx that he even attempted this, and while it's obvious that this isn't Groucho in his prime (nor should that be expected), it's a darned good effort nonetheless.

You can find this clip on YouTube.

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.

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.

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

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....