Word: diller
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...Thirteen first-ranking comedy stars bring back the routines that made them famous. Bob Newhart reverts to his hilarious role as "The Driving Instructor," Shelley Berman repeats "Is Your Mommy Home?" and Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks revive their "2,000-Year-Old Man." Phyllis Diller, to absolutely no one's surprise, just does what comes naturally...
...finds himself unjustly accused of rifling the tills and takes to the hills with his seven momless moppets and their inevitable mongrel. A fair enough premise for a one-man vehicle, but Hope is almost lost in a cast of characters that includes a slopstick baby sitter (Phyllis Diller) and her detective boy friend (Jonathan Winters), mouthing a script that contains relentless japes about little boys' bladders and big girls' figures...
Hope does his best to get something risible visible, but halfway through he drowns in second banana oil. Winters' country-cozen dialect is familiar, and Phyllis Diller attacks her customary fright-wig role with the comic appeal of a black-widow spider putting away a fly. The kids are selfconscious, lending the film the aura of a mass-produced TV situation comedy. All that is missing is the commercials-and the energetic plugs for name-brand cereals and soaps more than compensate...
...worth the rigors. If a commercial has a long run, a Homely can make $7,500 for one day's work; many make more than $40,000 a year. The competition is sharp, especially since such established Homelies as Wally Cox, Jane Withers, Bert Lahr and Phyllis Diller have mugged their way into the act. A casting call for a street worker, for example, will attract 100 candidates, some lugging along shovels and jackhammers for that authentic look. But in the end, as the Homely homily has it, it's the face that launches a thousand trips...
CHRYSLER PRESENTS THE BOB HOPE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (NBC, 9-10:30 p.m.). Highlights from Hope's holiday tour of military bases in Guam, Thailand, the Philippines and Viet Nam. Among Bob's troupers: Phyllis Diller, Vic Damone, Reita Faria (Miss World), and Les Brown and his Band of Renown...