Bob Hope's America: Red, White and Beautiful-- The Swimsuit Edition

 ((Sat. ( 16), 9:30-11 p.m., NBC-TV))

By MARGOT COMSTOCK

Videotaped in Columbus, Ohio, by Hope Enterprises Inc. Exec producer, Bob Hope; producer, Linda Hope; director, Timothy Kiley; writing supervisor, Gene Perret; writers, Robert L. Mills, Seaman Jacobs, Martha Bolton, Jeffrey Barron; art director, Bob Keene.
 
Cast: Bob Hope, Dolly Parton, Boyz II Men, Dolores Hope, Rita Rudner, Michael Feinstein, Barbara Bush, Loretta Swit, Elle Macpherson.
 

Announcer: John Harlan.

Set in the lovely botanical gardens of Ohio's AmeriFlora '92, "Bob Hope's America" meanders through multifarious bits and styles with widely diverse guests and ends up a homogeneous, if laid back, whole of good feeling.

Quips Hope from his rarefied vantage point, "Johnny Carson goes off the air next week--another flash in the pan bites the dust." Hope was pushing 60 when Carson took over the "Tonight Show." Thirty years later, Hope brings out agelessness in all around him.

Dolores Hope sings with a voice that, in the sweet higher ranges, could be that of a young girl; Boyz II Men -- quartet whose combined age falls short of Hope's by nearly a decade -- rock and dance, harmonize and scat with mastery.

Dolly Parton, onstage and riding a merry-go-round, brings glamour and fun; she joins Hope in the show's only skit, a silly smiler with Hope playing three different people calling in problems to Parton's telephone doctor.

Rita Rudner saves the foolish swimsuit-edition subtheme from total disaster by expressing how millions of Hope's femme fans might feel competing with Elle Macpherson's fashion-show-like presentations of models sporting stylish swimwear , beginning, "It's every woman's hell that I'm living through now." Rudner's mischievousness lightens and brightens.

Airing on Armed Forces Day ("I had to turn down a call to entertain the troops in L.A."), show pays tribute to women in the service. Loretta Swit, veteran of the Korean War via TV's "MASH," ably introduces outstanding servicewomen from generals to sergeants and colorfully narrates a well-edited sequence of stills and clips.

Song stylist Michael Feinstein could stand to loosen up, but his voice and piano playing are strong.

Barbara Bush adds her own grace and agelessness chatting about literacy with Hope in the garden.

Production values are good. There's variation in presentation, introing each guest with a sepia-toned film clip, closing each seg with another swimsuit model in a lovely setting, and it works well. Writing is lowkey and tasteful.

A show highpoint features Hope and Dolores walking through the park singing "It's a Lovely Day Today." Even Bob's voice shows signs of his old familiar crooning in this charming moment.

Not for those expecting excitement, mellow and warm are what "Bob Hope's America: Red, White and Beautiful--The Swimsuit Edition" delivers.

Music, Les Brown and his Band of Renown.