Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was a United States comedy television show broadcast from January 22, 1968 through 1973 over the NBC Network. The title "Laugh-In" was a play on a popular 1960s concept called a "love-in," where people would get together to protest war by singing songs and holding hands. Hosted by the comedy team of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin (Rowan played the exasperated straight man, Martin the horny/dumb guy), the show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which had a sexual innuendo. It featured several running gags, including:

• Shortly after the beginning of the show was a scene called The Cocktail Party, with all cast members dancing in a swinging 1960s party atmosphere, in between delivering one and two line jokes.
• Arte Johnson portrayed a number of recurring characters, including:
  • Wolfgang, the Nazi soldier, commenting on the previous gag by saying Verrry Interesting sometimes with additional comments. He would close each show by talking to Lucille Ball and the cast of Gunsmoke - both airing opposite "Laugh-In" on CBS.
  • Tyrone, the Dirty Old Man, coming on to Ruth Buzzi (as Gladys, an extremely drab old lady who also frequented the Cocktail Party) seated on a park bench, who inevitably hit him with her purse.
  • Rosmenko, the Eastern European Man, who stood stiffly and nervously in an ill fitting suit while commenting on differences between America and "The Old Country", such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television. In Old Country, television watches you!". This predated a similar schtick by Yakov Smirnoff.
  • Rabbi Shankar, an Indian Guru dressed in a Nehru jacket dispensing pseudo-Mystical Eastern Wisdom laden with bad puns.
• A man in a yellow raincoat riding a tricycle and crashing.
• The Farkle Family, a couple with a LOT of kids - all of whom had flaming red hair and freckles - just like the next door neighbor (Ferd Berfle). Father Frank never questioned this fact. Flicker Farkle, the youngest (played by Buzzi), had no lines except screaming "Hiiii!!!"
• The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award, noting dubious achievements by the government or famous people.
• Judy Carne was often tricked into saying "sock it to me", which then led to her being doused with water or otherwise assaulted. "Sock it to me" became a catch-phrase for the show. On one occasion, Richard Nixon, who was running for President in 1968, appeared for a few seconds and asked the question, "Sock it to me?". Some people even credit that brief appearance for handing the very close election to Nixon that year.
• Los Angeles disc jockey Gary Owens standing with his hand cupped over his ear, giving an announcement.
• Henry Gibson holding a flower and reading a poem.
• Henny Youngman telling one-liner jokes for no apparent reason.
• Scenes of people dancing at a party, including bikini-clad women (notably Goldie Hawn and Carne) with jokes written on their bodies.
• Lily Tomlin as the obnoxious telephone operator "Ernestine" ("We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company") and as a child named "Edith Ann" ("And that's the truth. Pbbbt!"). (Tomlin also famously performed Ernestine for Saturday Night Live, and Edith Ann on children's shows such as The Electric Company.)
• Alan Sues as a clueless and fey sports anchor.
• Jo Anne Worley would sometimes sing songs showing how loud her operatic voice was.
• Flip Wilson, whose frequent character, the cross-dressing "Geraldine," originated the phrase "What you see is what you get".
• "Laugh-In Looks at the News", a parody of a network newscast commenting on current events, "News of the Past" which lampooned historical events, and a segment on "News of the Future", predicting bizarre unlikely future news stories (Rowan nailed one, mentioning a "President Ronald Reagan" in a story from 1988, "20 years from now") . This was years before Saturday Night Live offered its own parody news.

At the end of the show, Dan Rowan turned to his co-host and said, "It's time to say good-night, Dick", to which Martin replied, "Good-night, Dick" (reprising a bit from the old George Burns and Gracie Allen radio show). The show then featured various cast members opening panels in a psychedelically painted wall and telling short jokes to one another. As the show drew to a close and the general applause died down, the sound of one person clapping continued even as the screen turned blank.

The show gave considerable publicity to singer Tiny Tim, an unusual looking man with long hair who sang in a falsetto voice while accompanying himself on ukulele, who (thanks to his appearances on the show) achieved a hit single with "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". Tiny Tim was later married on the Tonight Show to a woman known as Miss Vicky.

Other musical moments came in the first season with some of the first music videos ever seen on TV, with cast members appearing in film clips set to the music of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Bee Gees, the Temptations and the First Edition.

Cast members Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn later became noted film stars. Henry Gibson later starred in the Robert Altman film "Nashville" (which also featured Tomlin). Dave Madden, whose trademark on the show was to throw a handful of confetti while keeping a deadpan expression at the punch line of a joke, later played the role of Reuben Kincaid in the television sitcom The Partridge Family. Richard Dawson, who previously had a regular part in the sitcom Hogan's Heroes, went on to his defining role as host of the US television game show Family Feud. Teresa Graves parlayed her one season on the show into the title role of the police drama "Bronx cheer)

• "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnall's"
• "You bet your Sweet Bippy"
• "Here Come The Judge!" (reprising a bit first made famous by comedian Pigmeat Markham)
• "We're the phone company. We don't care. We don't have to."
• "Was that a chicken joke?" (JoAnne Worley's outraged cry)

There was also a Laugh-In Magazine published for about 2 years; it was similar to MAD Magazine. A comic strip was also seen in newspapers and published in paperback form.

It was the #1 show on television for the '68'69 and '69-'70 seasons, then dropped in popularity when some of the more popular regulars - notably Hawn and Carne - left to do other projects. New faces in the 1970-71 season included tap-dancing Barbara Sharma, who would later appear on "Rhoda", and Johnny Brown, who later gained fame as "Bookman" on "Good Times". Johnson and Gibson would depart after the 1970-71 season, replaced by Dawson and Larry Hovis, who had also been a regular during the first season.

The show celebrated episode #100 in the '71-'72 season; Carne, Worley, Johnson, Gibson, Graves and Tiny Tim returned for the festivities. John Wayne was also on-hand for his first cameo appearance since 1968.

For the show's final season (1972-73), Rowan and Martin assumed the Executive Producer role from George Schlatter and Ed Friendly; a mostly new supporting cast (save holdovers Tomlin, Dawson, Owens and Buzzi) couldn't keep the show from expiring at season's end. This final season, which included future "Match Game" panelist Patti Deutsch and ventriloquist Willie Tyler, never aired in the edited rerun package that was syndicated to local stations in 1983 and later aired on Nick at Nite.

Of the over three dozen folks to grace the cast, only Rowan, Martin, Owens and Buzzi were there from beginning to end (although Owens wasn't in the 1967 pilot and Buzzi missed two first-season episodes.)

In 1977 Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the show, less Rowan and Martin and anyone else from the first show. The revival is chiefly notable as Robin Williams' first network show.

See also: Farkle, Alan Sues, Jo Anne Worley.