Obit: Joey Bishop @ 89...Talk show host and "Rat Pack" member

[CrankyYankee]

Joey Bishop, the deadpan comedian who was ABC's answer to NBC's late-night talk show king Johnny Carson in the late 1960s and was the last surviving member of Frank Sinatra's legendary Rat Pack, has died. He was 89.

Jack Benny called him "one of the funniest men I've ever seen"...And Danny Thomas was so impressed with Bishop, he had a weekly situation comedy built around him, which Thomas' production company sold to NBC.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bishop19oct19,0,3459792.story?coll=la-home-obituaries
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/arts/18cnd-bishop.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

 

[Ultimajock]

...there's a lengthy audio section of a "Joey Bishop Show" (the ABC talk show) that can be heard on the soundtrack of the 1967 movie TARGETS (out on DVD from Paramount). It's heard over the family's TV set the night before the son starts his shooting spree...

 

[Stanislav]

Joey, along with Peter Lawford, was one of the "lesser lights" of the Rat Pack. If you took their exploits and made it a TV sitcom, Frank, Dean, and Sammy would be billed as "Starring," Lawford as "Also Starring," and Joey as "With." His presence was largely because Frank liked having him around, and that was the deciding vote in any situation.

He was not a great comedian, but a good one, and very pleasant to watch. I liked his stint as a talk show host, both on his own and as a substitute for Johnny. He had a charming, witty, avuncular presence that went down well in that format. I also liked his 60's sitcom, especially the last season when they went to color, revamped the format, and added Joe Besser to the cast (one of the only roles in which I have ever been able to stomach Besser). You never had any big belly laughs watching Joey, but rather an overall warm feeling that always left you smiling.

 

[CrankyYankee]

Somthing I didn't know...from the blog of Mark Evanier:

"One of the things that I thought harmed the Bishop show was that it was aired on a one-day tape delay. They taped on Monday the show that would air Tuesday night and so on. This killed any chance at topical humor — not that that was ever a mainstay of Joey's repertoire but guests sometimes said things that reminded you of the time lapse."

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2007_10_19.html#014209

Sonofagun!

 

[pqgeorge]

One of Joey's finest programs, 6/5/1968 (was Re: Obit: Joey Bishop @ 89...)

Somthing I didn't know...from the blog of Mark Evanier:

"One of the things that I thought harmed the Bishop show was that it was aired on a one-day tape delay. They taped on Monday the show that would air Tuesday night and so on. This killed any chance at topical humor — not that that was ever a mainstay of Joey's repertoire but guests sometimes said things that reminded you of the time lapse."

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2007_10_19.html#014209

Sonofagun!

Joey really showed his out-of-character best on June 5th, 1968 when he broke away from his comedy based format to have a live panel discussion on the attempted assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (who died less than 5 hours later at 4:45 AM/Eastern). He had as his first guest Andrew West, the KRKD news reporter who recorded the assassination attempt on Senator Kennedy some 20 hours earlier. I was 8 years old at the time but I watched the entire Joey Bishop Show that night (I couldn't sleep). Later Joey had a panel of guests from various walks of life, including the then Governor of California, Ronald Reagan (live from Sacramento). It was probably one of Joey's best moments in television. I wrote to Joey last year to let him know how much I appreciated that show back in 1968. He wrote back to me and sent me an autographed of photo of himself and told me how much he appreciated the letter. Class act. "Son of a gun!". RIP.


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts

 

[Ultimajock]

Re: One of Joey's finest programs, 6/5/1968 (was Re: Obit: Joey Bishop @ 89...)

Somthing I didn't know...from the blog of Mark Evanier:

"One of the things that I thought harmed the Bishop show was that it was aired on a one-day tape delay. They taped on Monday the show that would air Tuesday night and so on. This killed any chance at topical humor — not that that was ever a mainstay of Joey's repertoire but guests sometimes said things that reminded you of the time lapse."

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2007_10_19.html#014209

Sonofagun!

...the delay was necessary because ABC fed its East Coast and Midwestern affiliates from New York, and it didn't usually have the lines set up for daily feeds directly from Hollywood, so the tape would be cut in Hollywood one night, flown east and screened from the New York end the next...

Joey really showed his out-of-character best on June 5th, 1968 when he broke away from his comedy based format to have a live panel discussion on the attempted assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (who died less than 5 hours later at 4:45 AM/Eastern). He had as his first guest Andrew West, the KRKD news reporter who recorded the assassination attempt on Senator Kennedy some 20 hours earlier. I was 8 years old at the time but I watched the entire Joey Bishop Show that night (I couldn't sleep). Later Joey had a panel of guests from various walks of life, including the then Governor of California, Ronald Reagan (live from Sacramento).

...well, I guess that finally puts the lie to KHJ P.D. Ron Jacobs' claims that West was nowhere near the Ambassador Hotel that night and faked the tape to collect the money from the Mutual radio network (Jacobs had fired West from three previous jobs, including one at KHJ, so it appears he still had an axe to grind these years later)...

 

[kirkiefan]

..what else can I say but:

"sonofagun!"

 

[Mark Giardina]

Philbin Quitting Bishop's Show

Perhaps one of you astute individuals could answer me a question with regards to Joey Bishop.

Didn't Regis Philbin, his sidekick, publicly walk off the show? At least that's what I remember.

Please correct me if I'm wrong (I was a teenager when Bishop's late night show was on the air) but if memory serves me correct Philbin made some comments about the ratings or network executives not pleased with him being on the late-night talk show, so Regis decided to quit in order to help Bishop out.

Now if that's true, and again I'm not saying this is what happened, why would Philbin make such a public announcement to Bishop, who I do remember looked shocked and pleaded with Philbin to stay on? Why didn't Philbin just go to Bishop in private and resign for whatever reasons?

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Re: Philbin Quitting Bishop's Show

Perhaps one of you astute individuals could answer me a question with regards to Joey Bishop.

Didn't Regis Philbin, his sidekick, publicly walk off the show? At least that's what I remember.

Please correct me if I'm wrong (I was a teenager when Bishop's late night show was on the air) but if memory serves me correct Philbin made some comments about the ratings or network executives not pleased with him being on the late-night talk show, so Regis decided to quit in order to help Bishop out.

Now if that's true, and again I'm not saying this is what happened, why would Philbin make such a public announcement to Bishop, who I do remember looked shocked and pleaded with Philbin to stay on? Why didn't Philbin just go to Bishop in private and resign for whatever reasons?

Regis announced his resignation on air, apparently not informing Bishop ahead of time considering the look on Bishop's face, that he (Philbin) was leaving because he felt that his presence was dragging the show down. (Remember Carson was burying Bishop in the ratings.) Either it was a sincere gesture on Philbin's part to help his friend, or a publicity stunt.
While I offer my condolences to the family, friends and fans of Joey Bishop, I have to be honest in saying I never thought the guy was that funny. His sit-coms were not funny and his late-night talk show was doomed from the start because, even with big-names like Dean Martin appearing on the program, Bishop was going up against Johnny Carson who ruled late-night TV for 30 years.
Bishop’s claim to fame was his association with the “Rat Pack” and then he was, like someone else mentioned on here, a ‘minor player’, along with Peter Lawford. Lawford was on board only because he was JFK’s brother-in-law at the time and Sinatra liked Kennedy until JFK, under the advise of Bobby Kennedy, refused to stay at Sinatra’s house during a trip to California, because of Sinatra's alledged ties to the underworld. After that happened, Lawford was tossed out of the “Rat Pack” by Sinatra.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Re: One of Joey's finest programs, 6/5/1968 (was Re: Obit: Joey Bishop @ 89...)

...the delay was necessary because ABC fed its East Coast and Midwestern affiliates from New York, and it didn't usually have the lines set up for daily feeds directly from Hollywood, so the tape would be cut in Hollywood one night, flown east and screened from the New York end the next...

I believe they could feed a show, whether live or taped, from Prospect,
to the ET/CT/MT zones.

All three nets could reverse the lines to originate the "normal" New York
feed from El Lay if needed (east coast power blackout for example).

At that time, the left coast feed centers had two copies of each tape
show and one 35mm primary/one 16mm backup copy of each film show
for which they fed the Pacific time zone. They would need to record
the incoming east coast feed--for airing three hours later--only if it was
a live show originating from, or controlled by, New York.

Go back a few years earlier to when Lawrence Welk was done live at
6:00 PT in El Lay for the east coast at 9:00 ET. Before ABC got real
comfortable with tape delays at Prospect they even ran it live at 6
to the left coast--later going to an "in pattern" tape delay at 9 PT.