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Despite Bob Hope's more than 1,000 radio appearances and 50-plus feature films, he's remembered by those younger than 60 largely as a TV personality.
And, indeed, his 285 NBC comedy specials from 1950 to 1996 are what turned a genial light comedian into an American cultural institution. Their topical (but always gentle) jokes and skits reflected the current-events consciousness of middle America over the course of four tumultuous decades of change.
Hope eased social upheaval by poking fun at fresh trends that first made America uncomfortable, then came to be accepted parts of modern life: rock and roll, miniskirts, long hair, disco, women's liberation. He personified patriotism by supporting overseas soldiers in his longtime annual on-location Christmas performances. He welcomed guests as varied as cackling comedian Phyllis Diller (his most frequent co-star, with 31 appearances), teen model-actress Brooke Shields (runner-up, with 27), astronaut Neil Armstrong, comics Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, the Gipsy Kings world-music group, and "Sesame Street" Muppet character Big Bird.
He even furthered the corporate world's embrace of golf as its signature sport with his ceaseless reference to playing the game (and later, his sponsorship of an annual televised tournament that still bears his name).
Hope's career evolved in perfect synchronicity with television's growth as the world's most influential medium. He made his first appearance on an early experimental video signal in 1932, for the nascent CBS station W2XAB, and later signed his near-lifetime NBC contract on Easter Sunday 1950, just as the tube started to take over America's living rooms.
He would star in two NBC series in the next two decades: a monthly variety hour (1953-56), rotating with TV stars such as Milton Berle and Dinah Shore, and the catch-all "Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre" (1963-67), encompassing comedy/variety hours, anthology dramas and original musicals, which Hope introduced and occasionally appeared in. He also hosted installments of NBC variety series such as "All-Star Revue" (1950-53) and "The Colgate Comedy Hour" (1952-53).
Bridging the movie world from which he'd emerged and the TV landscape he would come to dominate, Hope emceed more Academy Awards broadcasts than anyone, including the first nationwide transmission in 1953. And he was a "special guest star" on many series through the decades: "I Love Lucy," "Get Smart," "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," "The Muppet Show," "Highway to Heaven," "The Golden Girls" and "The Simpsons."
But his legend would take shape in those 285 NBC specials over 46 years - a remarkable run that would conclude with his Nov. 23, 1996 hour, "Laughing With the Presidents," at the age of 93.
By then, Hope could not even deliver his trademark opening monologue, much less participate in skits. He offered only the occasional one- liner as Tony Danza hosted the collection of clips.
Television's true send-off to perhaps its biggest star would remain the Emmy-winning 1993 special "Bob Hope: The First 90 Years," a three-hour NBC retrospective of the radio shows, movies and especially TV programs that made this British-born man America's quintessential mid-century jester.
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