User Reviews

Jack Klugman and Tony Randall were roasted together back in 1973, at the height of their success on THE ODD COUPLE, while this 1978 broadcast has Klugman alone the subject, during the second season of his new hit QUINCY (which lasted 7 years). The usual cast of suspects include Milton Berle, Dick Martin, Red Buttons, Joey Bishop, La Wanda Page, Ruth Buzzi, Don Rickles, and Foster Brooks. Perennial Jewish mother Kay Medford comes on as Jack's neighbor from Philadelphia, who talks about how he would have been expelled from school as a 'rotten kid': "but if you're never in school, how can you get expelled?" Connie Stevens joins in the chorus when referring to Klugman's Oscar Madison character: "Jack could clean up a room just by leaving it!" From the popular SOAP come Katherine Helmond ('Jessica Tate'), who explains how Tom Jones wound up in Dean's room at 3AM, and Robert Guillaume ('Benson'), who talks about his futile days as Klugman's houseboy: "it could have been worse, at least I never had to do the windows. I looked for 'em!" Leave it to Tony Randall to stick up for his old co-star, proclaiming him "a whale of an actor."

The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jack Klugman (1978)

Jack Klugman is a comic legend and he finally got in the hot seat to take the insults and jokes. When it comes to this series, more often than not the bigger the legend the bigger the laughs but that actually wasn't the case here. The roasters include Connie Stevens, Dick Martin, LaWanda Page, Joey Bishop, Milton Berle, Phyllis Diller, Red Buttons, Foster Brooks, Joyce Brothers, Ruth Buzzi and Don Rickles. I must admit that I was a little surprised to see how light this was on actual laughs. That's not to say this is a bad episode or that it isn't worth watching because it is. It's just that I expected it to be a lot funnier. It almost seems as if some of the guests were taking it easy on the jokes and this is especially true for Rickles. He certainly wasn't what you typical saw from him as he took it rather easy on everyone.

Episode: B-