Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was a United States comedy television show broadcast for 140 episodes 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 them carried sexual innuendo, others were politically charged, and most were just silly.

Cast comings and goings

The show was #1 in the ratings for the 1968–69 and '69–70 seasons. At the end of '68–69, Judy Carne chose not to renew her contract as she wanted to pursue other projects, though she did make occasional appearances during '69–70; producer George Schlatter blamed her for breaking up the "family." The show also survived the departures of Goldie Hawn, and Jo Anne Worley to remain a top-20 show in '70–71. New faces in the 1970–71 season (joining Tomlin, who first appeared late in the previous season) included tap dancer Barbara Sharma, who would later appear on Rhoda, and Johnny Brown, who later gained fame as the superintendent 'Bookman' on Good Times. Arte Johnson and Henry Gibson would depart after the 1970–71 season, replaced by Dawson and Larry Hovis, both of whom had also appeared occasionally in the first season. However, the loss of Johnson's many characters caused ratings to drop farther.

Related Topics:
Tap dancer - Barbara Sharma - Rhoda - Johnny Brown - Good Times - Larry Hovis

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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.

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For the show's final season (1972-73), Rowan and Martin assumed the Executive Producer roles from George Schlatter (known on-air as "CFG", which stood for "Crazy F***ing George") and Ed Friendly; a mostly new supporting cast (save holdovers Dawson, Owens, Buzzi and only occasional appearances from Tomlin) was brought in, but the viewers didn't respond and the show was cancelled. This final season, which included future Match Game panelist Patti Deutsch and ventriloquist Willie Tyler of Willie Tyler and Lester fame, never aired in the edited half-hour rerun package that was syndicated to local stations in 1983 and later aired on Nick at Nite. The cable network Trio started airing the show in its original one-hour form in the early 2000s, but only the pilot and the first 69 episodes (extending to the fourth episode of the 1970–71 season) were included in Trio's package. Two "Best-of" DVD packages are also available; disappointingly, they only contain six episodes each.

Related Topics:
Match Game - Patti Deutsch - Willie Tyler - Nick at Nite - Trio - DVD

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Of the over three dozen entertainers 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.)

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In 1977 Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the property as a series of specials with an entirely new cast. Among the new folks was a then-unknown Robin Williams — whose starring role on ABC's Mork & Mindy one season later prompted NBC to rerun the specials as a summer series in 1979.

Related Topics:
Robin Williams - Mork & Mindy

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

Related Topics:
Farkle - Alan Sues - Jo Anne Worley

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