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Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart

Dean Martin and Friends roast Jimmy Stewart

Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart (1978)

"You see how good it is when your hit man's an Italian?"

Just a couple of nights ago I happened to catch &quot;Bandolero&quot; on TV, featuring Dean Martin and Jimmy Stewart, so it was an odd coincidence that the Celebrity Roast sitting on top of my still unviewed collection happened to be Dino&#39;s &#39;Man of the Hour&#39; tribute to his co-star from that film. Perhaps even odder, one of the roasters, Senator Barry Goldwater, referenced the movie in his presentation. I find it very cool when a bit of cosmic serendipity makes it&#39;s way into my viewing pleasure like that. I caught a lot of these Celebrity Roasts back in the day, and marvel at the way all those top entertainers got together to honor one of their own without being vulgar or mean spirited. Sadly, many of the greats have already passed away, but their spirit and humor live on. Members of the dais for this installment included Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Henry Fonda, June Allyson, Lucille Ball, Janet Leigh, and Rich Little doing his Stewart imitation. The funniest bit though, in this and just about every roast in which she appears, was Ruth Buzzi in the guise of her &#39;Laugh-In&#39; character Gladys Ormphby. When she winds up with her pocketbook, nobody&#39;s safe, including Dino. She did however seem to take it easy on the guest of honor this time out. Throughout the laughs and digs at the expense of the Man of the Hour, you get a good sense of how well loved and revered Jimmy Stewart was for all his talented work for over a half century in film. It goes without saying that his was truly a wonderful life.

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I was honestly very impressed with this one. The actresses together on stage plus the actors are such an impressive group that I wish a movie could have been done with all of them. Jimmy Stewart is roasted properly and actually there is more respect shown to him than many roasted in this series. He deserved accolades and gets them. The speech Orson Welles makes near the end of this is one of the greatest speeches of respect that can be made of anyone, and Stewart when his turn comes up at the end, thanks Orson for the best moments of this series. This is a show that sometimes gets too trivial when they were doing folks who really were deserving of being roasted. Stewart was an amazing actor and his friends show it here. Greg Garrison and the staff that produced this got together some actresses Stewart worked with who rarely appeared on TV. Now that they are gone (most of them) this is a time capsule of Janet Leigh, June Allyson, Lucille Ball, &amp; Greer Garson and it might be the only time all 4 of these actresses appeared in the same program. Add Mickey Rooney, Eddie Albert, George Burns, Tony Randall, Milton Berle, and Henry Fonda and the star power is really over-powering. The regulars on the series are here too like Red Buttons, Foster Brooks, Ruth Buzzi, &amp; LaWanda Page and this show has a lot of talent from this era. The show also includes film clips of Stewart early on when he tries to sing in his movies and some other unusual scenes of films rarely ever shown anymore. This is worth a look by anyone who wants to see an A-List Salute to a great star.

Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart (1978) Lucille Ball, Greer Garson, Red Buttons, Henry Fonda, Milton Berle, Foster Brooks, George Burns, Tony Randall, Orson Welles, Mickey Rooney, Don Rickles, Rich Little, Janet Leigh, Eddie Albert, LaWanda Page and June Allyson are just a few of the people honoring James Stewart and by honoring we mean cracking jokes on. Next to the Frank Sinatra episode this one here is perhaps the best I&#39;ve seen from the series. You can tell how much respect people had for Stewart simply by all the famous faces who showed up to pay tribute to him. As you can guess, the majority of the jokes are aimed at his voice, his skinny body and his kind personality. There are some hilarious roasters here including Berle who really gets things off to a fast start. LaWanda Page, no real connection to Stewart, comes up with a hilarious and fiery performance. Then you&#39;ve got the likes of Rooney delivering some great jokes as well as Brooks who discusses his time in the airplane with Stewart. The greatest moment of the episode comes when Orson Welles gives a heartfelt tribute to Stewart who later returns the gesture. I&#39;m not going to ruin what either man said to the other but it was quite touching. Episode: A

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Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart

"You see how good it is when your hit man's an Italian?"

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