Trivia
Tribute to Vaudeville with Lucille Ball, Bernadette Peters, Ben Vereen, Jimmie Walker, The Captain & Tenille, Jack Albertson
The Bob Hope Show
The 90-minute special was sponsored by Texaco. It was taped over a period of three days at NBC's Burbank Studios.
On I Love Lucy (1951) Fred and Ethel Mertz were ex-vaudevillians. In Mertz and Kurtz (1954) red gets a visit from his former partner, Barney Kurtz. Over dinner, they rattle off a list of (likely fictional) past vaudevillians: Sliding Jim Crane, Kravitz and Lane, The Shardi Sisters, The Flying Harrisons, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Guppy, The Costellos, Frank Parise, Adolph Gonzalez, and John Fugle the fire-eater.
One name conspicuously missing from Bob Hope's lengthy list of vaudevillians is George Burns. Ironically, the theme song to his television and radio show ("Love Nest") is used as a musical introduction to the first sketch. Although friendly rivals, they often appeared on the same shows together.
Bob Hope jokes at length about President Jimmy Carter and the national political situation. Later in 1977, Lucille Ball will also do a comedy special with the same themes, Lucy Calls the President (1977), featuring a cameo by Lillian Carter, the President's mother.
The backdrop (oil cloth) that Bob Hope stands in front of to do his monologue was also used in "Bob Hope's All-Star Tribute to Palace Theatre" in January 1978.