Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (often simply referred to as Laugh-In) is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for six seasons from January 22, 1968, to July 23, 1973, on the NBC television network. The show, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
The title of the show was a play on 1960s Hippie culture "love-ins" or counterculture "be-ins", terms derived from the "sit-ins" common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. In the pilot episode, Dan Rowan explained the show's approach: "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to television's first Laugh-In. Now for the past few years, we have all been hearing an awful lot about the various 'ins'. There have been be-ins, love-ins, and sleep-ins. This is a laugh-in and a laugh-in is a frame of mind. For the next hour, we would just like you to sit back and laugh and forget about the other ins."
Laugh-In had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedies (such as the free-form Broadway revue Hellzapoppin'), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs (George Schlatter's wife Jolene Brand appeared in Kovacs' shows), and the topical TV satire That Was the Week That Was. The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which were politically charged or contained sexual innuendo. The co-hosts continued the exasperated straight-man (Rowan) and dumb-guy (Martin) double act that they had established as nightclub comics.Hal Erickson, From Beautiful Downtown Burbank / A Critical History of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, 1968-1973 North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000 .
The show featured Gary Owens as the on-screen radio continuity announcer and an ensemble cast. Ruth Buzzi appeared throughout the show's six-year run, while others appeared in at least three seasons, including Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen, and Richard Dawson.
In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked number 42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Episodes
Laugh-In was designed to be lightly structured and consisted mainly of short comedic sketches. Some of these would reappear multiple times throughout an episode with variations on a theme, while others involved recurring characters created by the cast. In others, cast members and guest stars would simply appear as themselves, delivering jokes or reacting to a previous sketch. In addition to the announced guest star or stars of the evening, some recurring guest stars would appear unannounced multiple times through a season (which was easy to accomplish given the show's non-linear taping sessions). A trademark of the series was its (even shorter) blackout sketches, often involving rapid-fire cuts between two or more scenes or camera angles, set to a six-note musical sting (or at times, an elongated 16-note version). These were used as transitions into and out of commercials, among other uses.
Each show started with a batch of sketches leading into Gary Owens' introduction, in which the cast and announced guest star(s) would appear behind open doors of the show's iconic, psychedelically-painted "Joke Wall". Owens would also insert offbeat lines in his monotone, deadpan style, in the introductions and occasionally throughout the episode, generally facing a microphone to his side with one hand cupped to his ear. (Owens' character loosened up and became hipper in later seasons.)
After more short sketches leading into and out of the first commercial break, Rowan and Martin would walk in front of the show's homebase set to introduce the show and have a dialogue that generally consisted of Martin frustrating Rowan by derailing his attempt to do a proper introduction via misunderstandings or digressions.
Eventually, Rowan would end the introduction and invite the audience to the "Cocktail Party". This live to tape segment consisted of all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing before a 1960s "mod" party backdrop, delivering one- and two-line jokes interspersed with a few bars of dance music. (This was similar in format to the "Word Dance" segments of A Thurber Carnival, and would later be imitated on The Muppet Show.)
Another weekly segment was "Laugh-In Looks at the News", which began with the female cast members singing the segment's opening theme in a differently costumed set piece each week, often with the help of the guest star. The news varied in presentation over the years, but in the earlier seasons started with Martin reading the "News of the Present", with Rowan providing "News of the Future" and sketches depicting the "News of the Past". Alan Sues, in his "Big Al" character, would provide a typically clueless sports report.
"Mod, Mod World" was a group of sketches introduced by Rowan and Martin that fit into an announced theme. This segment is notable for being interspersed with film clips of some of the female cast members (most frequently Carne and Hawn) performing go-go dancing in bikinis to the segment's burlesque-inspired theme, with the camera periodically zooming into jokes or images that had been painted onto their bodies. The segment also usually included an additional musical number based on the topic, performed by cast members at the beginning and end of the segment, as well as in short bridges between sketches.
At the end of every show, after a final dialogue, Rowan would turn to his co-host and say, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin replied, "Good night, Dick!", leading into the final Joke Wall segment. The cast would pop out of their doors and either tell jokes to the camera, to each other, or to Rowan and Martin, who stood in front, or just yell out, "Good night, Dick!" This would lead into and continue under the closing credits. There would be one final batch of skits, including a closing appearance from Owens. Up until the finale of Season 4, the last gag would be Arte Johnson's character, Wolfgang, the German soldier. He would slowly rise up from among some plants, look into the camera and say with a thick German accent, "Veeeeery eeenterestingk!" This would bring the episode to a conclusion - almost. The very last thing the television audience would hear is brief applause from several people, then one person continuing to clap several seconds after all the credits had rolled. This was the conclusion to almost every show up to the Season 5 finale. For Season 6, the television audience would hear a woman laughing (Ruth Buzzi) very strangely long after the credits had rolled.
Production seasons
1967 special
September 9, 1967 was a one shot special, sponsored by Timex, with guest stars: Pamela Austin, Ken Berry, Judy Carne, Barbara Feldon, and featuring Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Monte Landis, Jo Anne Worley, and Paul Weston and His Orchestra.
Seasons 1–3
Season 1 ran from January to April 1968 with 14 episodes. Gary Owens joined the cast in the first episode along with series regulars Pamela Austin, Eileen Brennan, Judy Carne, Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, and Jo Anne Worley. Goldie Hawn joined the cast in the third episode. She had been under contract to Good Morning World at the time of the pilot. Eileen Brennan, Barbara Feldon, and Jack Riley made frequent appearances in both season 1 and 2. Riley usually did skits as President Lyndon Johnson.
Ian Bernard (1930–2020) was the musical director for all 6 seasons. He composed the show's theme song along with numerous other pieces.
Billy Barnes composed special comic and topical songs for the show's cast and guest stars. He was regularly seen playing a golden grand piano to accompany solos by cast members such as Ruth Buzzi, Alan Sues, and Jo Anne Worley and guest stars such as Dinah Shore and Lena Horne.
Cast departures: all but Hovis continued on into Season 2.
Season 2 (1968–1969): New regulars included Chelsea Brown, Dave Madden, and Alan Sues.
Arte Johnson now insisted on star billing, apart from the rest of the cast. The producer mollified him by having on-screen radio continuity announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin! Arte Johnson! With Ruth Buzzi..." This maneuver gave Johnson the star billing he wanted, but it also implied that he was still part of the ensemble cast.
Cast departures: Chelsea Brown and Dave Madden left at the end of season 2. Judy Carne officially left the show after episode 11 but did return for a few appearances in season 3.
Season 3 (1969–1970): New regulars included Johnny Brown, Byron Gilliam, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, and Lily Tomlin. Gilliam was a dancer in seasons 1 to 2 and promoted to cast member this season. Both Brown and Tomlin joined late in this season.
Cast departures and changes: After the season finale, Gilliam returned to being a regular dancer in The Cocktail Party scene and in occasional skits. He remained until the end of the series. Graves, Hawn, Lloyd, and Worley left after the season 3 finale. Tomlin remained until the series ended in 1973.
Seasons 4–6 Season 4 (1970–1971): There were major changes to the set and new additions to the cast. The overall psychedelic look was replaced with a more avant-garde ambience. The Cocktail Party set now consisted of oversized cutouts of celebrity and historical figures. The show began to depart from both its hippie-esque "vibe" and humor and its leanings toward the counterculture of the 1960s. There were now significantly fewer jokes, less commentary about race relations, and less anti-Vietnam War sentiment.
New cast members: Nancie Phillips, Dennis Allen, writer-actress Ann Elder, and tap dancer Barbara Sharma.
Cast departures: Gibson left after episode 10, and Johnson left after the season 4 finale.
Notable visits for season 4: Goldie Hawn made a guest appearance in episode 3. After she left Laugh-In she made two movies, There's a Girl In My Soup and Cactus Flower, for which she won an Academy Award. Teresa Graves made two consecutive appearances toward the end of season 4.
Season 5 (1971–1972): Another new set design was introduced; it combined abstract art with avant-garde sensibilities. The Cocktail Party set now consisted of a main wall covered in mirrored tiles. The jokes, commentary, and overall humor became even more mainstream in Season 5, and there were more schtick and vaudeville-styled musical numbers. The few political jokes were mostly aimed at the Nixon administration. Around mid-season, the show began to air brief anti-drug messages at the end of each episode. In keeping with Laugh-Ins groundbreaking nature, these messages strongly resembled 21st century GIFs.
New cast members: Hogan's Heroes alumni Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis; both had been part of season 1. Child actor Moosie Drier was also added, doing solo cameo jokes.
Cast departures after the season 5 finale: Brown, Elder, Hovis, Sharma, and Sues. Dawson remained until the series ended.
During season 5 the show also celebrated its 100th episode. Former cast regulars Carne, Gibson, Graves, Johnson, and Worley returned for the festivities. Frequent guest stars Tiny Tim and John Wayne were also on hand to celebrate. This was Wayne's first guest appearance since 1968.