This Is Bob Hope...

As someone who discovered Bob Hope on his TV specials during the '70s when I was a kid and thought he was amusing enough especially during his monologue, then watched some of his old movies when our family got cable during the '80s, then listened to many of his old radio shows on cassette when there was a set on sale at Barns & Noble in 2003, not long after he died at 100, this was quite a fascinating special on his career and his early life. He was perhaps the most popular entertainer doing everything: vaudeville, Broadway, radio, movies, TV, and going overseas during the various wars of his lifetime. He was popular during all that time-until Vietnam when so many Americans were as opposed to it as many Republicans were for it, and also some Democrats like Lyndon Johnson. But Hope always thought how important it was to entertain the troops and he never wavered in his support of them for which he forever deserved their accolades. I personally always found him funny, at least when he didn't seem so dated and out-of-touch in his later years. Much of his materiel was of his time but if you replace some of today's politicians in some of the jokes he told of yesterday's, they would still be relevant today as was then! So on that note, that's a high recommendation of "American Masters: This is Bob Hope...