Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Trivia
It was Producer George Schlatter's wife Jolene Brand who, after listening to Aretha Franklin's "Respect", thought that "Sock It To Me" would be a good bit for the show.

Quotes
Dan Rowan: [as the News of the Future anchor] Item: Washington, DC, 1988. President Ronald Reagan today denied once again that he is a candidate for the office of Governor of California.

Crazy credits
The early episodes' closing credits happen while the cast tells jokes from the joke wall.

Alternate versions
Many of the original one-hour shows were re-edited into two half-hour programs in the early 1980s for syndication. Often, bloopers and outtakes were used to fill out a segment, especially during the joke wall sequence which occurred at the end of each show during the closing credits. New graphics were generated for credits on re-edited endings and run in the same sequence as the originals, but were in a different font. In a few instances, there was some overdubbing, specifically where Judy Carne's "NBC, beautiful downtown Burbank" was overdubbed with, "'ello, 'ello, beautiful downtown Burbank" when she played a switchboard operator on some of the earlier shows.

Connections
Edited into Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in: 25th Anniversary Reunion (1993)

Laugh in Socked it To Us So Well ***1/2

Fabulous television series running from 1967 to 1973.

What made the show so great was the lively supporting cast associated with it.

The sketches with Arte Johnson as the old man starting up with Ruth Buzzi on the park bench were constantly hilarious. Who had the idea to put that net on Buzzi's hair? It made her look so appropriately ugly. When she swung that pocketbook, we roared with laughter.

Then we had Judy Carne saying "Sock it to Me!" Remember when Richard Nixon said that famous line briefly on the show?

Dick Martin gave us that dead pan like humor and Dan Rowan portrayed the typical slick but constant smoking guy on the show.

Joanne Worley was loud but so well suited for this continuous mayhem.

I can't imagine how announcer Gary Owen was able to restrain himself from laughing.

This show and "That Was the Week That Was" gave new dimension to television.