{"id":26067,"date":"2017-08-11T08:16:33","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T12:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=26067"},"modified":"2017-08-11T08:36:16","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T12:36:16","slug":"the-bootleg-files-jack-bennys-first-farewell-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/11\/the-bootleg-files-jack-bennys-first-farewell-special\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Jack Benny’s First Farewell Special"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 601:<\/strong> \u201cJack Benny\u2019s First Farewell Special\u201d (1973 television production featuring Bob Hope, Johnny Carson and Dean Martin).<\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> It can be found on YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> No one wants to put it out on commercial DVD.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> There is no great push to get this released.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know who came up with the term \u201cspecial\u201d to define the one-shot variety productions that pockmarked television broadcasting from the 1950s through the mid-1980s. For the most part, these offerings were anything but special \u2013 most were forgettable, some were dreadful, but only a handful possessed the emotional or artistic quality that truly deserved to be called special.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The 1973 effort \u201cJack Benny\u2019s First Farewell Special\u201d was among the laziest creations of this sector of the TV world. But it is unfair to blame Jack Benny for the sloppy nature of this particular outing \u2013 it seemed as if NBC yanked a number of its big-name stars into a quickie effort that could fill time during a dull stretch on the schedule. The comedy here is too easy, with the all-star cast cashing in on their too-familiar personas to get too-easy laughs.<\/p>\n

The program starts with Johnny Carson paying a cockeyed tribute to Benny. Carson insists that Benny was his childhood idol and that his effort to imitate Benny\u2019s prancing walk was \u201cthe only time in my life I\u2019ve been arrested.\u201d When Benny comes out, he expresses irritation that Carson imagines he is retiring. Says Carson in response: \u201cIf you\u2019re not quitting, why am I working for free?\u201d And Benny answers: \u201cBecause I\u2019m your idol!\u201d<\/p>\n

Benny then visits the set of Dean Martin\u2019s show, where a girl wearing a tiger costume is playing a piano that the allegedly inebriated singer is sitting atop. Martin feigns surprise that he has been booked to appear on Benny\u2019s special. When informed that a rehearsal is approaching, Dino belches, \u201cRehearsal \u2013 what\u2019s that?\u201d (That, my friends, is an inside joke regarding Martin\u2019s notorious refusal to rehearse his show.)<\/p>\n

After this, Benny matches wits with singer\/dancer\/sometimes-actress Joey Heatherton\u2026and wins. Heatherton complains about being cast in a British-based film where she is expected to run naked while nude in a field of flowers. Benny sheepishly asks, \u201cAre the flowers high?\u201d Heatherton then does a Vegas-style mangling of the Melanie pop tune \u201cLook What They\u2019ve Done to My Song, Ma,\u201d and provides irrefutable proof that she was among the least deserving entertainers to become blessed with stardom.<\/p>\n

Just when things cannot get worse, they do: Bob Hope shows up, reading his wise-cracks off the cue cards with gusto. \u201cHere I am, another Jack Benny special \u2013 and you thought smoking was a miserable habit,\u201d declares Ol\u2019 Ski Nose, who then calls Benny a \u201cStone Age Woody Allen.\u201d Huh?<\/p>\n

Benny then has to share the stage with golfer Lee Trevino, who emerges on the stage allegedly looking for a golf ball belonging to Vice President Spiro Agnew. (It seems that Agnew was an aggressively bad golfer, and his lack of athletic skills was a running gag back in the day.)<\/p>\n

For sheer weirdness, Isaac Hayes arrives wearing no shirt, a huge gold necklace and large sunglasses while performing his Oscar-winning \u201cTheme from Shaft.\u201d Benny then shows up and tries to engage in humorous banter, but the old-school comedy and 70s funk styles never blend. In this case, ebony and ivory do not live together in harmony.<\/p>\n

But keeping in an urban vibe, Benny is then teamed with Flip Wilson for a labored spoof of the Raymond Burr show \u201cIronsides,\u201d only imagined as a radio play. Wilson is funny doing his jive-turkey act, but Benny never connects with his vibe and it feels like they are in parallel skits.<\/p>\n

The show ends (finally!) with then-California Governor Ronald Reagan congratulating Benny on his retirement. Benny protests that he is not retiring, but Reagan interrupts him by presenting a going away gift of a new Rolls-Royce. Benny hesitates in correcting the governor, mulling the happiness of a free luxury car as the closing credits roll.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack Benny\u2019s First Farewell Special\u201d was sponsored by RCA, which polluted the program with its commercials. A series of alleged RCA customers (including Willie Mays) trumpet the glory of the televisions from the company.<\/p>\n

NBC dropped \u201cJack Benny\u2019s First Farewell Special\u201d on January 18, 1973, where it made little ratings impact. But since Benny was under contract to the network, a second \u201cfarewell special\u201d was made for broadcast one year later. But that proved to be the genuine farewell to the beloved star \u2013 Benny died on December 26, 1974, after a courageous fight against pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack Benny\u2019s First Farewell Special,\u201d not unlike many TV specials of that era, was never released in any commercial home entertainment format. A decent copy of the show, complete with the RCA commercials, is on YouTube<\/a> and collector-to-collector video. But, seriously, there is no great reason to seek out this mediocre blip of a show.<\/p>\n

IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.
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\nListen to \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall<\/a>\u201d on SoundCloud, with new episodes beginning on September 11.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 601: \u201cJack Benny\u2019s First Farewell Special\u201d (1973 television production featuring Bob Hope, Johnny Carson and Dean Martin). LAST SEEN: It can be found on YouTube. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No one wants to put it out on commercial DVD. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: There is no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":26068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[1352,270,1777,1776,1774,1775,1728],"class_list":["post-26067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-bob-hope","tag-dean-martin","tag-flip-wilson","tag-isaac-hayes","tag-jack-benny","tag-johnny-carson","tag-tv-special"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26071,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26067\/revisions\/26071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}