The first clip is a three-minute, mid-70s clip of Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and John Wayne on the Tonight Show, with the sensational Don Rickles substituting for Johnny Carson. Note the Don Rickles comment to Crosby: “Bing, this is television.” It’s three minutes of sheer joy from four class acts. The thing I like most is the one-and-a-half minute standing ovation from the audience. When you see the audience you’ll note that it is made up of mostly young people, all dressed 70s-style, and they honor these classic and talented entertainers with vigorous applause.
The second clip is a skit called “musical phonetic punctuation” with Dean Martin and the masterful Victor Borge. Borge is especially outrageous here. The third one is Victor Borge doing a skit for the times on inflation. I’m not sure that Borge is sounding real Austrian when he defines inflation, but his skit on “language inflation” is hilarious. The fourth clip is a timeless appearance by Don Rickles on the Dean Martin Variety Show. The master insulter is at his best picking on Pat Boone, Danny Thomas, Ross Martin, and Ricardo Montalban. I think some of the greatest TV moments were on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. The Rich Little appearances were some of the best. And this video is Hitler (Casey Kasem) roasting Don Rickles. Something as “insensitive” as this could never be shown on television today in the age of Wimpus Americanus.
