Bing Crosby: The Television Specials, Vol. 1 [2 Discs]

"In addition to his early-1960s sitcom The Bing Crosby Show, iconic crooner Crosby hosted a series of 30 beloved television specials for well over 20 years, from 1954 until his death in 1977. The programs utilized a variety show format and brought in a plethora of Bing's celebrity friends for many evenings of all-star entertainment. This set features several of those specials, presented here as they originally aired, and restored from the original archival materials. The line-up includes: Bing's debut special from January 1954, with Jack Benny as a special guest; a September 1959 show, sponsored by @Oldsmobile, with guests including Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and Peggy Lee; the May 1962 special, with Edie Adams, Road films co-star Bob Hope, The Smothers Brothers and Bing's son, Gary Crosby; and the April 1970 show (entitled ""Cooling It,"" with Flip Wilson, Dean Martin and Bernadette Peters. The collection also offers a plethora of bonus featurettes including Bing's first color TV appearance (with Jimmy Demaret, in 1954); a 1962 televised interview with Bing, broadcast from Hawaii; a 1964 commercial for Thermo-Fax copiers, starring Bing; and the 1952 inspirational film Faith, Hope and Hogan, starring Crosby, Bob Hope and Phil Harris and originally aired as an episode of the television series The Christophers."