Road to...

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Road to... refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as "Road pictures." The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music. The minimal plot often took a back seat to gags, many of them ad-libbed by Crosby and Hope during filming.

The movies contain many in-joke references to other Hollywood actors and jabs at Paramount Pictures, the studio that released all the films except for The Road to Hong Kong. There are also frequent instances where Bob Hope breaks the "fourth wall" to make side comments to the audience such as, in the Road to Bali, "[Crosby]'s gonna sing, folks. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn."

Contents 1 Films in the series 2 ...The Fountain of Youth 3 Spoofs 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Films in the series

The films have a complex ownership history.

• Singapore through Utopia were originally released by Paramount but these films (which were part of Paramount's pre-1950 "classic" library) ended up with EMKA, Ltd. (today part of NBC Universal Television Distribution).
• Rio and Bali were made jointly by Hope and Crosby and released through Paramount (their ownership today stands with Sony Pictures Television and FremantleMedia, although the copyright to Bali has lapsed).
• The final "Road" film, Road to Hong Kong was released through United Artists, who still owns this film today (via sister company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) SPT co-distributed the film on television for a short time after a Sony-led partnership bought MGM.

Aside from Bali, the copyrights on the entire series are held by their respective successor-owners.

• Road to Singapore (1940)
• Road to Zanzibar (1941)
• Road to Morocco (1942)
• Road to Utopia (1946)
• Road to Rio (1947)
• Road to Bali (1952)
• The Road to Hong Kong (1962)

Each film is not simply a comedic film, but a satire of some of the popular film genres of the day, including jungle, Arabian nights, Alaskan adventure, and high seas. The final film not only comes much later, but involves a newer genre; Hong Kong spoofs the spy films of the sixties.

[edit] ...The Fountain of Youth

In 1977, an eighth Road to... movie was planned titled Road to the Fountain of Youth; however, Crosby died that year of a heart attack.^[1] Two years later, Hope announced the possibility of doing the film with George Burns, but the film was never made.^[2]

[edit] Spoofs

The Fox animated TV series, Family Guy, has had five "Road to..." episodes that spoof the original Road pictures. They star Brian and Stewie Griffin, and the episodes are "Road to Rhode Island", "Road to Europe", "Road to Rupert", "Road to Germany", and "Road to the Multiverse."

Spies Like Us is a homage to the films; Hope makes a cameo as himself in one scene.

The 2000 animated Dreamworks film, The Road to El Dorado starring Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh and Rosie Perez, is a homage to the films.^{[citation needed]}

Three episodes of Taz-Mania spoofed the Road To.. movies, starring Hugh Tasmanian Devil (Taz's father, who was a Crosby parody in any case) and his brother Drew Tasmanian Devil (parodying Hope). The episodes were "Road To Tasmania", "Return Of The Road To Tasmania Strikes Back" and "Yet Another Road To Tasmania".

The Duckman episode "Road to Dendron" spoofs the series.

The Talespin episode "Road to Macadamia" is a tribute to the classic Road series, including a spoof on the songs, but the song from Baloo is quickly ceased by Louie the Ape.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Road to Bali (film)

[edit] References