User Reviews

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.

Please note that this is not a review of the overall seasons of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" but of a "best of" special that aired on PBS a few years ago that I DVRed and just now watched. The clips though came from the various years the show was on the air and many of them were very funny with some really lame ones scattered through. I liked all the park bench skits with Ruth Buzzi and Arte Johnson playing the elderly folks with Arte always going after her sexually. I was also fascinated by Dan Rowan's "News of the Future" segments when he mentioned both a President Reagan (in 1988) and the fall of the Berlin Wall in exactly 1989! My favorite parts were the ones with a young Goldie Hawn who seemed totally spaced-out (in a good way!) whenever she did her lines which might have been the intention! Producer George Schlatter really picked a fine cast for this iconic show, that's for sure! He, along with many of the surviving cast members, appeared in the pledge breaks with him providing many fascinating insights during them. So on that note, if this was what the show was like during all that time, I can't wait to see some more eps if they ever become available.

This show was to the 1960's what Your Show of Shows was to the 50's, Saturday Night Live was to the 70's and in Living Color was to the 90's. It was a breeding ground for some of the finest comic talent of the last nearly 40 years. The catchphrases, the schtick and, most of all, the joke wall were all vital parts of this show. And look at all the alumni. Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Lily Tomlin, Henry Gibson et. al have all gone on to bigger and better things. In fact, Goldie Hawn parlayed her Laugh-In stardom into an Oscar for the Cactus Flower. Unfortunately, the show couldn't hold onto its best talent and eventually it faded in its final couple of years. However, this show will still be remembered for being a wonderful breeding ground.

Sketch comedy 60's style.

This pre-dates most of the SNL and In Living Color style shows that dominated TV in the 70's, 80's & 90's.

Rowan and Martin made an excellent team. Rowan's straight delivery with a hint of exasperation mixed greatly with Martin's sarcastic, deadpan quips.

My personal favorite was Arte Johnson. Anything he did made me laugh like a banshee. And Henry Gibson's poetry was a close second. But there were no duds at all in this show.

Guest watching also made this a fun trip. The psychedelic decor dates it a little, but it doesn't hurt. A lot of the humor seemed off the cuff.

And when Goldie Hawn picked up her Oscar while on the show, the whole cast kept dropping asides about it during that week's filming. They all made several comments about it.

I saw this during it's brief Nickelodeon run in the late 80's. Bring it back.

One of the greatest shows of the sixties that still has yet to find a worthy opponent is Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Six seasons of political skewering, racy humor and tons of guest stars. Under the guise of a "variety show" our amiable hosts Dan Rowan and the beautiful Dick Martin (!) introduce a new show every week tackling all forms of current affairs from pollution, to higher education to the fourth estate, all turned inside-out and lampooned in a very stylized, hilarious way that continues to be fresh and funny to this day. The editing effects were way ahead of their time I (and a precursor to MTV). There were many, many guests because people would practically fight to get on this popular, funny show. Tony Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., Greer Garson, Sonny & Cher, The Monkees, Richard Nixon, Hugh Hefner, Bobby Darin, and so many more that I would run the limit of my review by mentioning them all here. Just got the complete 140 episode box set from Time Life and if you I'm having the time of my life watching these, you bet your sweet bippy I am! Live from Beautiful Downtown Burbank it's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In! No other show like it.

Nostalgia is the only thing explaining high ratings. I tried watching half a dozen episodes and gave up after finding 90% of the jokes unfunny. The only funny parts are the slapstick.

And I know my history. I get the political references. They just are mostly smug, not funny. I say this even though I agree with the politics.

It's only in the context of TV dominated by Green Acres and Hee Haw that anyone could have considered this daring or innovative. Judged any other way, it's dull.

"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" was one of the greatest comedy-musical-variety shows in the history of television. It was one of those rare programs which was not only an overnight sensation when it premiered in 1968,but was highly innovative,created a raft a new stars,and started trends in comedy which other programs would follow. In some ways,it was not original at all,begin a cross between Olsen & Johnson's "Helzapoppin"(which in turn traced its lineage to the frantic,knockabout comedy of the Keystone Cops,not to mention the slapstick of "The Marx Brothers",not to mention "The Three Stooges")and the highly topical satire of "That Was the Week That Was". But "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" crystallized a kind of comptemporary,fast-paced,unstructured comedy "happening" that was exactly what an agitated America wanted in 1968. "Laugh-In" was first seen as a one-time special in September of 1967 on NBC. It was such an enormous hit that inevitably led to a series premiering the following January.

"Laugh-In",premiered its first telecast on NBC on January 22,1968 and from the first episode was an immediate hit. The show would run for five seasons on the network ending its astounding run and it final association with NBC on May 14,1973. An astounding 124 episodes was produced for this series under it's creator Digby Wolfe and executive producer of the series George Schlatter along with associate executive producer Ed Friendly and producer Carolyn Raskin. During the first three seasons of the show,"Laugh-In" went straight to the top of the TV ratings,and from there it was the number-one program on the air during 1968-1971 seasons. From that success,the show garnered two Golden Globes and three Emmys for outstanding performances and achievements as well. Between it's last two seasons(1971-1973)the ratings began to drop due to the fact that George Schlatter left the series for other things and others who were behind the success of the show as well as well as some of the best talent as well which finally ended its run in the spring of 1973.

This was series that was innovative for its time and would become the forerunner of other great shows to follow it. The reason? The lightning fast-paced took full advantage of the technical capabilities of television and videotape. Blackouts,sketches,one-liners,and cameo appearances by famous show-business celebrities and even national politicians were edited into a frenetic whole. The regular cast was large and the turnover high,and the 40 regulars who appeared in the series only four were with it from the beginning to the end--the two hosts(Dan Rowan and Dick Martin),announcer(Gary Owens),and cast regular Ruth Buzzi. This show was a springboard for some of the greatest cast regular who would go on to bigger and better things after their stint on "Laugh-In". Stars like Goldie Hawn,Artie Johnson,Henry Gibson,Ruth Buzzi,along with Joanne Worley,Judy Carne,Larry Hovis,Teresa Graves, Alan Sues,Dave Madden,Richard Dawson,Lily Tomlin,and even Willie Tyler and Lester were some of the stars who made their mark on this show just to name a few and so much more. The essence of "Laugh-In" was basically shtick,a comic routine or trademark repeated over and over until it was closely associated with a performer. People love it come to expect it,and it was the talk around the water cooler the next morning after the show.All of the great comedians had at least one,but what was remarkable about "Laugh-In" was that it developed a whole repertoire of sight gags and catchphrases that became famous and to this day they are still being used which are considered these days..comedy classics. Phrases like "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls","Very Interesting","You Bet Your Sweet Bibby","Sock It To Me?",not to mention "Beautiful Downtown Burbank",and "Here Comes The Judge!" are nowadays considered useful in terms,but in all aspects this is what made that show brilliant in every aspect and detail. Some of the devices of the show were the fast-paced Cocktail Party,Letters To Laugh-In, The Flying Fickle Finger Of Fate,It's A Mod-Mod World,Laugh-In Looks At The News(of the past,present and future),Hollywood News With Ruth Buzzi,the gags written on the undulating body of a girl in a bikini (which consists of either Goldie Hawn,Judy Carne,Joanne Worley,or Teresa Graves-in a bikini),and not to mention the joke wall at the end of each show.

Among the favorites:Artie Johnson as the German soldier; Ruth Buzzi as the little old lady with an umbrella,forever whacking the equally decrepit old man who get close to her sitting on a park bench; Lily Tomlin as the saracastic,nasal telephone operator; Gary Owens as the outrageously overmodeled announcer; Alan Sues as the grinning moron of a sports announcer; Goldie Hawn as the giggling dumb blonde not to mention Teresa Graves as the soulful go-go mod dancer. The pace was funny but it never let up and it kept going until the end.

Thank God for the Trio cable network! They air classic "Laugh-In" episodes weekday afternoons and that's how I first came upon this hilarious gem from the golden age of television.

Headed by longtime comedy partners Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, "Laugh-In" was an hour-long barage of madcap tomfoolery. Short sketches, one-shot gags, "Quickies," as they were called, and guest appearances by everyone from Sammy Davis, Jr., to Johnny Carson to soon-to-be President Richard M. Nixon. It was the springboard for the careers of such stars as Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin, Henry Gibson and Ruth Buzzi.

If you have a taste for the weird and the wacky, with an undertone of political commentary (the remarkable thing was how they always presented both sides of any issue they were mocking) or just want to see classics like "The Cocktail Party" or "The Joke Wall," do yourself a favor and check out "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" for hilariosin-entartaina-wonderfulations! (Boy! Look THAT up in your Funk and Wagnall's!)

The first three seasons of this show encapsulated the sheer energy of social and sexual revolution of the late 1960's.On the surface it was patchy,often very funny,satirical and not afraid to poke fun at the US involvement in the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration.It launched the careers of many of todays Film and Tv stars and inspired many a generation with it's trademark "Sock it to me", "Fickle Finger of Fate" and those epilepsy-instigating Party Sequences each episode. True, as with all shows of their time, a lot of the references and humour may have dated badly, but for a Pre-PC generation, it was naughty and not what your parents would want you to watch.Perfect. Many contemporary reviewers dismiss the show as vulgar and irrelevant, but for people who actually watched it at the time, it was breaking the formula of the TV variety show.It was the epitome of groovy and psychadelia for Network TV-very fast, energetic, colorful and loud which really hadn't been seen before. By 1970,most of the original cast had gone and the show started to look back on itself and died. It lasted another 3 years, but it could never recapture the excitement of the first three years.I think this holds true for society in general.Maybe today's politically correct generation really cannot appreciate the enjoyment gained by watching Laugh In for the first time.

I stumbled across this on YouTube. Someone had posted a six hour broadcast block of retro sitcoms that came on Nick@nite in 1989. I love old school TV. However, most of them were shows I just could never get into: Mister Ed, Car 54 Where Are You, My Three Sons. But I continued watching anyway, knowing I was wasting my time, as with a lot of things I manage to get sucked into on the internet. One of the shows was Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. It was my first time seeing it, and I wasn't impressed. It's similar to Carol Burnett - only difference is the material was written for a younger audience. At least that was my impression. The jokes are overtly sexual.... A few of them were funny, but many were in poor taste. The sketches are really strange. It's not the type of humor that requires you to think, and it gets boring quickly. People back then seemed like deadheads. Makes me even more annoyed when I think about how boomers criticize my generation. Acting weird and stupid isn't something that just started. Millennials didn't invent the it's-cool-to-be-a-freak mentality. Judging from this show, it's evident that attitude originated WAY before I came along. And the nonstop barrage of political propaganda became tiresome. I'm a pacifist, and it got on my nerves. It reminded me of the current SNL. A skit can't even go a minute without them pushing an agenda. I watch comedy to laugh. If I want to catch up on politics, that's what the news is for. I used to think the 60s seemed like a cool time, but after watching this, my opinion has changed. I bet folks were just as screwed up as they are nowadays.

In the evolution of television humor Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was probably the forerunner of Saturday Night Live. It's relevant social commentary combined with incredibly adroit acerbic wit allowed this show to cover social, personal, political, and moral territory no show had ever dared attempt on prime time television.

For those who watched regularly the catch phrases were priceless and introduced them into our mainstream lexicon. Sayings such as "sock it to me" were not only uttered by business execs, secretary's, hosuewives, and everyday working people wishing to emulate the awakening of social moree's but also spoken freely by media and political types wishing to be thought of as in touch with the younger hip generation.

Laugh-In spared no one in it's sarcasm and very often stepped dangerously close to the edge with network execs. Once the show caught fire with TV viewers it became sheik for actors, actresses, and politicians to lobby for a position on next week's show.

Unlike SNL Laugh-In could not sustain and reinvent itself and by 1973 the nations TV watchers were ready to move on. Most of the regulars on the show fell into guest shots on other shows and eventually drifted out of site of the public. A couple of the alumni went on to great success in movies and tv. Goldie Hawn was a "graduate" of the show and went on to win an Academy Award for Cactus Flower in 1969 and has become a certifiable star in Hollywood. Lily Tomlin, and who can forget her priceless portrayal of Ernestine the telephone operator at the switchboard, went on to become one of America's most beloved and cherished comedic performers who also showed her acting agility in dramatic roles as well.

All in all Laugh-In is a part of television history and deserves its place as a cherished memory and deserving of re-run time on TV Land.

If ever there was a 1960's TV show that totally jumped on the "Now Generation" bandwagon - That one show would, undoubtedly, have to be "Laugh-In".

To me - The major trouble with "Laugh-In" (which was neither hip nor cool) was that it was geared to please (and produce chuckles from) the most conservative and mealy-mouthed squares imaginable. This show didn't come anywhere near to offering its audience groundbreaking humour, at all. No. It didn't.

"Laugh-In" was a "roll-your-eyes-to-the-ceiling-and-groan"-type of comedy program where its stale jokes were repeatedly delivered with total smugness from the unfunny members of its second-rate cast.

Not only were women frequently depicted as being flaky bimbos on "Laugh-In" - But I lost track of how many times it became plainly obvious that the actors were, indeed, reading their lines straight from cue-cards that were placed before them just out of camera-range.

The only thing that makes any sense to me as to why so many people are giving "Laugh-In" such high ratings all boils down to them choosing to view this decidedly dimwitted show through the murky haze of rose-coloured glasses.

"Laugh-In" was a solid mix of one liners, sight gags, and other forms of sketch comedy. Designed to be a satire of its times, "Laugh-In" is probably better remembered for its catch phrases, including "Sock it to me," "Very interesting," and "Here come da judge, here come da judge." And let's not forget The Groaning Wall. The variety series was hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, and launched the careers of Goldie Hawn, Richard Dawson, and Steve Martin. After six years on the air, "Laugh-In" bowed out of the prime time spotlight. Now if only Some Newer Latenight variety show had the same common sense to quit while it was ahead.

In the day, "Laugh-In" was one of the hottest shows on television and even the likes of Richard Nixon appeared on the show as a guest. Not only that, but it had a huge cultural impact and many of the phrases and bits on the show became ubiquitous. Additionally, several "Laugh-In" regulars went on to have huge careers...such as Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin and Richard Dawson. Given this and the huge impact the show had on television, it's amazing when you watch the program today. While the show elicited belly laughs galore, today it's amazingly bad...tedious and awful to watch. I've tried watching several episodes lately and kept expecting it to get better. But time and again, bad acting and bad writing prevailed. I don't blame the show so much as changing times and attitudes.

For starters - I cannot believe that this irksome, and utterly dreadful "So-Funny-I-Forgot-To-Laugh" TV comedy show actually lasted for 6 seasons (1967-1973).

Even in its very first season "Laugh-In" was already coming across as being as stale as week-old bread where its infantile mentality and completely forgettable jokes only served to make me cringe and roll my eyes to the ceiling, over, and, over again.

You know, I honestly swear that more than half of the time the cast of "Laugh-In" were actually making up this totally unfunny rubbish as they went along. Yep. It's true!

Look it up in your Funk & Wagnalls. You'll find it under the word "funny."

Laugh-In was quite a novelty when it first aired, presenting audiences with a fast-paced, unstructured variety show featuring lots of sight gags, punch lines, and other wacky stuff, all pieced together into a frenetic mesh of comedy. This format has, of course, been done many times (Saturday Night Live, Monty Python, and even The Muppet Show and Sesame Street) but Laugh-In was definitely a forerunner.

The hosts, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, were as great a pair as Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello, and the show featured many unknown comedians who have since become famous, such as Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, and Arte Johnson.

Although parts of the show have a definite 60's/70's taste to them, the humor remains timeless for those who enjoy wacky, off-the-wall comedy.

All in all, it is verrrry interesting! And verrrry funny!