The program included such events as an adaptation of
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, starring
Jason Robards (from the 1962 novel by
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn);
The Seven Little Foys, starring
Mickey Rooney,
Eddie Foy Jr. and the
Osmond Brothers;
Think Pretty, a musical starring
Fred Astaire and
Barrie Chase; and
Groucho Marx in "Time for Elizabeth", a televised adaptation of a play that Marx and Norman Krasna wrote in 1948. Generally, each episode ran for an hour, although for some 'special presentations', NBC expanded the broadcast time to 90 minutes. Hope was paid US$25,000 ($ in dollars ) per week for those episodes he merely introduced, and US$500,000 ($ in dollars ) for those in which he starred. Hope's performances consisted of his typical joke- and celebrity-filled
blackout sketches. These were usually called
Chrysler Presents a Bob Hope Special. Every season, Hope traveled to
Vietnam for
Christmas, to entertain the troops. Actors who appeared in episodes included
Phyllis Avery,
John Cassavetes,
Broderick Crawford,
Angie Dickinson,
Peter Falk,
Sean Garrison,
Sam Levene,
Jack Lord,
Carol Lynley,
Ida Lupino, George Maharis,
Darren McGavin,
Dina Merrill,
Hugh O'Brian,
Suzanne Pleshette,
Cliff Robertson,
William Shatner,
Robert Stack,
Robert Wagner,
Stuart Whitman,
Shelley Winters, and
Robert Young. Notable directors included
Sydney Pollack,
Stuart Rosenberg,
John Cassavetes,
Sam Peckinpah,
Ida Lupino, and
Daniel Petrie. Several episodes were rerun from 1968 through 1972 under several different titles:
NBC Adventure Theatre (1971–1972),
NBC Action Playhouse (1971–1972),
NBC Comedy Playhouse (1968–1970) and
NBC Comedy Theater (1971–1972). The Hope introductions were replaced by other hosts, such as
Peter Marshall (who hosted "Action"),
Art Fleming ("Adventure" in 1971),
Ed McMahon ("Adventure" in 1972),
Monty Hall ("Comedy Playhouse" in 1968) and
Jack Kelly ("Comedy Playhouse" in 1970, and "Comedy Theater"). In syndication, the series was presented as
Universal Star Time and
Theatre of the Stars, minus Hope's opening and closing segments. Several of the dramatic episodes of the series aired in Britain on
BBC2 as
Impact, which also included episodes of
Kraft Suspense Theatre. ==Episodes==