User Reviews

I actually first saw this version of "Laugh-In" when it first aired on 9/5/77 when I was 9-years-old. I was not familiar with the previous version with Dan Rowan & Dick Martin as the hosts so this was quite mind-blowing to my pre-teen self watching all those quick-cut sketches lasting from 30 seconds to maybe a minute or two. Watching this again on YouTube right now, I remember some of the skits and forgot some others. Like the original series, many punchlines were funny and others not so though one admires the effort that was being taken. Then-unknown Robin Williams has some funny bits but there's no way one would have guessed he'd be such a big star looking at him here as there's someone else as crazy as him on this show called Lenny Schultz. Also appearing is Wayland Flowers with his puppet Madame and a dark skinned one named Jiffy. The latter is very much politically incorrect but she's still funny here. A cartoonist named Sergio Aragones does some amusing animation to link some scenes and appears as part of the cast with a goofy charisma. Most of the rest of the cast remained unknown after this show-which lasted only 6 eps-ended. Oh, and I have to mention there's an amusing in-joke concerning producer/creator George Schlatter when "Rona Barrett" mentions in the "news of the future" segment that 20 years later, he at 97, brings back this show for the 12th time before getting sued by this ep's guest stars Bette Davis and Barry Goldwater. It's like one of the writers correctly predicted that actual original stars Dan Rowan & Dick Martin would do just that! Davis and Goldwater are game for the material they get on the show and there's a funny turn by Rich Little in portraying former pres. Richard Nixon when he mentions that famous catchphrase of this show "Sock it to me!" In summary, this ep of the revival of "Laugh-In" is worth a look for any fan of the original.