Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Also known as	Laugh-In
Genre	Variety show
Created by	George Schlatter
Directed by	Gordon Wiles Mark Warren
Starring	Dan Rowan Dick Martin
Theme music composer	Ian Bernard
Opening theme	"Inquisitive Tango"
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	140 (+ one-time special and special episode) (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	45–48 minutes
Production companies	George Schlatter-Ed Friendly Productions Romart Inc.
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	January 22, 1968 (1968-01-22) – July 23, 1973 (1973-07-23)
Related
Turn-On Super Laff-In (Philippines version) Letters to Laugh-In Baggy Pants and the Nitwits The Maltese Bippy

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.^{[page needed]}

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

Cast tenures

*Indicates an extended guest performer and not a regular cast member

• All Seasons: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi
• Special (1967): Pamela Austin, Ken Berry, Judy Carne, Barbara Feldon, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Monte Landis, Jo Anne Worley, and Paul Weston and His Orchestra
• Season 1 (1968): Eileen Brennan, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn (episode 3 on), Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Jo Anne Worley
• Season 2 (1968–69): Chelsea Brown, Judy Carne, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Jo Anne Worley, Dave Madden, Alan Sues, "Sweet Brother" Dick Whittington* (through episode 14), Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall – "The Fun Couple"* (through episode 11), Pigmeat Markham* (through episode 14), Jack Riley* (episodes 4, 7, 12, 13, 16), J. J. Barry (episodes 15–19)*^{[citation needed]}, Byron Gilliam* (dancer), Barbi Benton* (dancer)
• Season 3 (1969–70): Johnny Brown (episodes 22 and 24, originally introduced as "John Brown"), Judy Carne (through episode 12), Henry Gibson, Byron Gilliam (through episode 13, but continued as a dancer and in occasional cameos), Stu Gilliam* (episodes 14, 16, 19, 20, 26), Goldie Hawn, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Arte Johnson, Pamela Rodgers, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin (from episode 15), Jo Anne Worley
• Season 4 (1970–71): Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Ann Elder, Henry Gibson (through episode 10), Arte Johnson, Nancie Phillips (through episode 17), Alan Sues, Barbara Sharma, Lily Tomlin, Byron Gilliam* (dancer). In possible support of "AIM" – The American Indian Movement that began in 1968 – the producers hired Betty Ann Carr, of Cherokee heritage, Sandra Ego, of Mescalero Apache heritage, and Linda Redfearn, of Cherokee and Anglo ancestry, as dancers in the weekly Cocktail Party scene.
• Season 5 (1971–72): Dennis Allen, Johnny Brown, Richard Dawson, Ann Elder, Larry Hovis, Barbara Sharma, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Moosie Drier* (child), Mona Tera* (child, 6 episodes), Byron Gilliam* (dancer). Apparently, as an economic measure, producers Rowan and Martin gave performers the occasional week off, so not all cast members appear in every episode this season or the next. Apart from Dan and Dick, only Ruth Buzzi, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, and Gary Owens appeared in every episode.
• Season 6 (1972–73): Dennis Allen, Moosie Drier (teamed with child actor Tod Bass through episode 10), Brian Bressler, Richard Dawson, Patti Deutsch, Lisa Farringer (episodes 13–24), Sarah Kennedy, Jud Strunk, Lily Tomlin, Willie Tyler and Lester, Donna Jean Young. Like the previous season, not all cast members appear in every episode. Only Ruth Buzzi and Gary Owens were considered essential to the program and thus appeared in every episode.
• Dancers – All 6 Seasons (this list is incomplete): Terri Alexander, Jeanine Barrat, Barbi Benton, Sandahl Bergman, Betty Ann Carr, Pat Doty, Sandra Ego, Byron Gilliam, Jayne Kennedy, Millie Knight, Connie Kreski, Lisa Moore, Janice Pennington, Dolly Read (Dolly Martin), Linda Redfearn, Beverly Reed, Mary Rowan, Carol Richards, Adele Yoshioko.

Recurring sketches and characters

go-go dancers with bodypaint

Goldie Hawn Being Painted for Role

Goldie Hawn as Painted Dancer

Goldie Hawn as Painted Dancer

Judy Carne, Hawn, Chelsea Brown

Frequently recurring Laugh-In sketches included:

• "Cocktail Party" – a live to tape segment consisting 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.)
• "Mod, Mod World" – 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 (Judy Carne, Ruth Buzzi, Goldie Hawn, Chelsea Brown, and others) performing go-go dancing in bikinis to the segment's burlesque-inspired theme, with the camera periodically zooming into puns, jokes and 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.

• "Sock it to me" – Judy Carne was often tricked into saying the phrase ("It may be rice wine to you, but it's sake to me!"), which invariably results in her (or other cast members) falling through a trap door, being doused with water, or playfully assaulted in various other goofy ways. The phrase was also uttered by many of the cameo guest stars, most notably Richard Nixon, though they were almost never subjected to the same treatment as Carne. The phrase was "retired" after Carne left the series. In the last season where Alan Sues was a regular, he would be the one who got water thrown on him after a ticking alarm clock went off.
• "The Farkel Family" – a couple with numerous children, all of whom wore round glasses, had bright red hair and large freckles – strikingly similar to their "good friend and trusted neighbor" Ferd Berfel (Dick Martin). The sketch employed diversion humor, the writing paying more attention to the lines said by each player, using alliterative tongue-twisters ("That's a fine-looking Farkel flinger you found there, Frank"). Dan Rowan played father Frank Farkel the Third; Jo Anne Worley, Barbara Sharma, and Patti Deutsch played his wife Fanny Farkel; Goldie Hawn played Sparkle Farkel; and Arte Johnson played Frank Farkel the Fourth. Ruth Buzzi played Flicker Farkel, who wore a frilly dress and would contort herself and roll on the floor and loudly say "HIIIIII!" in a very high-pitched voice. Two of the children were twins named Simon and Gar Farkel, played by cast members of different races (Teresa Graves and Pamela Rodgers in the third season; Johnny Brown and Dennis Allen in the fourth). By the final season the Farkel offspring had dwindled to only two children, played by Ruth Buzzi and the puppet Lester. All of the Farkel skits were written or co-written by David Panich.
• "Here Comes the Judge" – The judge, originally portrayed by British comic Roddy Maude-Roxby, was a stuffy magistrate with a black robe and oversized judge's wig. Each sketch featured the judge trading barbs with a defendant brought before him. On delivery of the punchline, he would strike the defendant with an inflated bladder balloon tied to the sleeve of his robe. Guest stars Flip Wilson or Sammy Davis Jr. would introduce the sketch saying "Here come da judge!", which was a venerable catchphrase by nightclub comedian Pigmeat Markham. Surprised that his trademark had been appropriated, Markham asked producer George Schlatter to let him play the judge himself; Schlatter agreed and Markham presided for the first half of the second season. After Markham left, the sketch was briefly retired until Sammy Davis Jr. donned the judicial robe and wig during his guest appearances, making the role his own. The character was introduced as "The Right Honorable Samuel Davis, Junior" (or "Right Hon." for short). Davis introduced each sketch with a spoken verse like "If your lawyer's sleepin', better give him a nudge! Everybody look alive 'cause here come de judge!" Davis would then strut off stage chanting "Here come de judge! Here come de judge!"
• "Laugh-In Looks at the News" – a parody of network newscasts. It first appeared in the pilot episode in a slightly different format, meant to show how a news broadcast would run if presented as a weekly variety show. The segment was introduced by the female cast members singing the segment's opening theme in a different costumed set piece each week, often with the help of the guest star, in a highly un-journalistic manner – with clever production numbers that had intricate choreography and amazing costume design. The sketch was originally called the Rowan and Martin Report (a take-off on the Huntley-Brinkley Report, Hovis had mimicked Brinkley in the Pilot/Special). The sketch itself featured Martin reading the "News of the Present", humorously reporting on current events, which then segued into Dan reporting on "News of the Future" (20 years later), and sketches depicting the "News of the Past". "News of the Future" segments, on at least two occasions, correctly predicted future events, one being that Ronald Reagan would be president in 1988, and another that the Berlin Wall would finally come down in 1989 (S2 E23). This segment was influenced by the BBC's That Was the Week That Was, and in turn inspired Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segments (SNL creator Lorne Michaels was a Laugh-In writer early in his career). The News segments were followed by "Big Al" (Sues) and his sports report in seasons 2–5. After Sues left the show, Jud Strunk took over the sports segment ("reporting from the sports capital of Farmington, Maine") by featuring films of oddly-named events which were actual sports films played backwards. An example is the "Cannonball Catch", featuring a backwards film of a bowling tournament where the "cannonballs" (bowling balls) are caught one-handed by the catcher (the bowler) after rolling up the alley.
• "New Talent Time", also called "Discovery of the Week" in later seasons. It introduced oddball variety acts (sometimes characters played by regular cast members). Laugh-In writer Chris Beard (later known as Chris Bearde) took the "New Talent" concept and later developed it into The Gong Show.

• Outsider musician Tiny Tim – The most notable of these performances was in episode 1 and shot him to fame. He returned in the Season 1 finale, made several guest appearances after, and was there for the series finale.
• Several other episodes similarly featured the television debut of outsider musicians such as Wild Man Fischer and Legendary Stardust Cowboy. As with Tiny Tim's initial appearance, the act consisted of the eccentric and often off-key musicians performing while Dick Martin would stand next to them, looking dumfounded and silently reacting to the musician's obvious lack of talent.
• Actor Paul Gilbert (adoptive father of actress Melissa Gilbert) appeared in three episodes as an inept French juggler, introduced as "Paul Jill-bare".
• The Holy Modal Rounders, 14 October 1968
• 6'2" actress Inga Neilsen made appearances as a bugle/kazoo player who could only play one note of "Tiger Rag" and had to deal with Martin's advances. Martin, who showed mild interest in most New Talent acts, enthusiastically cheered her on despite the obvious lack of talent.
• Ventriloquist Paul Winchell appeared three times as "Lucky Pierre", whose puppets would fall apart or die on him.
• Arte Johnson would appear as his Pyotr Rosmenko character looking for his big American break, singing gibberish in a Russian accent.
• Murray Langston made an appearance. He would later achieve fame as the Gong Show's "Unknown Comic".

• "The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award" sardonically recognized actual dubious achievements by public individuals or institutions, the most frequent recipients being members or branches of the government. The trophy was a gilded left hand mounted on a trophy base with its extended index finger adorned with two small wings. The award was created by Paul Keyes and Jack Hanrahan, with the former credited with its name and the latter the trophy.
• "The Wonderful World of Whoopee Award" was a counterpart to the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award"; it was described by Rowan as a citation "for the little man who manages to outfight or outfox the bureaucracy"; the statue was similar to the Finger of Fate, only it was a right hand (without wings on the index finger) pointing straight up, and with a hidden mechanism that, when activated, waved the finger in a circular motion.
• "The C.F.G. Automat" – a vending machine whose title was an inside joke for cast members who referred to producer Schlatter as "Crazy Fucking George". The vending machine would distribute oddball items that were a play on the name. Examples: The 'pot pie' produced a cloud of smoke when the door was opened; then the pie floated away. The 'ladyfingers' was a woman's hand reaching out and tickling Arte's face while another 'ladyfingers' door opened and picked his pocket.
• Many episodes were interspersed with a recurring, short wordless gag in which an actor repeatedly tried to accomplish some simple task like entering an elevator, opening a window or door, watering a plant, etc., which would fail each time in a different, surprising way (the object would move unexpectedly, another part of the wall or room would move, water would squirt the actor in the face from the object, etc.)
• Another recurring wordless gag involved one or more actors walking around the street in a jerky fashion (using stop-motion or low shutter speed filming) holding and turning a bare steering wheel, as if they were driving a car or actually were a car, with various sound effects to simulate honking, back-ups, collisions with each other, etc.
• From season 4 on, a variety of sketches or jokes used the word "Foon", usually as part of the name of imaginary products or persons (e.g., Foon detergent, Mr. Foonman). The names "Nern" and "Wacker" had been used similarly from Seasons 1 through 3.
• "Questions from the Audience / Dick's Costumes" – In the sixth season, Dan Rowan would ask the audience if anybody had any questions about the show or otherwise. As he was doing so (in which nobody in the audience ever spoke up), Dick Martin would come out wearing a wacky costume which Rowan would ask about, leading to a humorous exchange on the costume's subject matter.
• Dan Rowan – in addition to hosting, provided the "News of the Future" and also appeared as General Bull Right, a far-right-wing representative of the military establishment and an outlet for political humor.
• Dick Martin – in addition to hosting would also play the drunken Leonard Swizzle, husband of an equally drunk Doris Swizzle (Ruth Buzzi); and as a character always buzzing for an elevator on which the doors never closed in a normal way
• Gary Owens as an on-screen radio continuity announcer, who regularly stands in an old-time radio studio (acoustic tiles, large microphone), with his hand cupped over his ear, making announcements, often with little relation to the rest of the show, such as (in an overly-dramatic voice), "Earlier that evening ..."

• Arte Johnson:
  • Wolfgang, the World War II German soldier who was unaware the war was over – Wolfgang would often peer out from behind a potted palm and comment on the previous gag saying, with a thick German accent, "Verrry in-te-res-tink", sometimes with comments such as "... but shtupid!" He eventually closed each show by talking to Lucille Ball and her husband Gary Morton, as well as the cast of Gunsmoke — both airing opposite Laugh-In on CBS – as well as whatever was on ABC. Johnson later repeated the line while playing Nazi-themed supervillain Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited. Johnson also reprised his Wolfgang character in a series of skits for the second season of Sesame Street (1970–1971), and in 1980 for a series of small introductory skits with a plant on 3-2-1 Contact, during the "Growth/Decay" week.
  • Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced "hor-NIGH", presumably to satisfy the censors) was a "dirty old man" who was always after drab spinster Gladys Ormphby (Ruth Buzzi). As she sat on a park bench he would attempt to sit right next to her, eventually forcing her to the edge of the bench. Gladys always rebuked Tyrone's advances and would clobber him multiple times with her purse until he would make a final comment about his well-being and do a slow roll off the bench. Both Tyrone and Gladys later became animated characters (voiced by Johnson and Buzzi) in "The Nitwits" segments of the 1977 Saturday morning animated television show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.
  • Pyotr Rosmenko, a Russian man, stands stiffly and nervously in an ill-fitting out-of-fashion 1940s pin-striped suit while commenting on differences between America and "the old country", such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television. In old country, television watches you!" This type of joke has come to be known as the Russian reversal.
  • Rabbi Shankar (a pun on Ravi Shankar) was an Indian guru who dresses in a Nehru jacket dispensing pseudomystical Eastern wisdom laden with bad puns. He held up two fingers in a peace sign whenever he spoke.
  • An unnamed character in a yellow raincoat and hat, riding a tricycle and then falling over, was frequently used to link between sketches. The character was portrayed by many people besides Johnson, including his brother Coslough (a writer for the show), Alan Sues, and Johnny Brown.
  • The Scandinavian Storyteller – spoke gibberish, including nonsensical 'Knock Knock' jokes in the Joke Wall. No one could ever understand him. Possibly inspiration for the Muppets' Swedish Chef character.
  • The Psychiatrist – a black haired, black-clad doctor who often attends the Cocktail Party during season four and talks about his experiments and patients with a thick Freudian accent.

• Ruth Buzzi:
  • Gladys Ormphby – A drab, relatively young spinster, in the Close-up segments, including Cocktail Party segments, she is portrayed as desperate for men. In the Arte Johnson segments, she is the eternal target of Arte Johnson's Tyrone, whom she rebukes, then attacks. When Johnson left the series, Gladys retreated into recurring daydreams, often involving marriages to historical figures, including Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin (both played by Alan Sues). She typically hit people repeatedly with her purse. The character was recreated, along with Tyrone, in Baggy Pants and the Nitwits. Buzzi also performed as Gladys on Sesame Street and The Dean Martin Show, most notably in the Celebrity Roasts.
  • Doris Swizzle – A seedy barfly, she is paired with her husband, Leonard Swizzle, played by Dick Martin.
  • Kim Hither – An exceedingly friendly hooker, commonly seen in sketches or at the Cocktail Party propositioning people while leaning against a lamppost.
  • Busy Buzzi – A cold and heartless old-style Hedda Hopper-type Hollywood gossip columnist.
  • Kathleen Pullman – A wicked parody of televangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. This always helpful but overdramatic woman is always eager to help people.
  • Laverne Blossom - A former silent movie star (an homage to Alla Nazimova as Marguerite Gautier in Camille) with dark make-up around the eyes. She often attends the Cocktail Party in the later seasons.
  • Florence Lawrence - a meek wannabe secretary with giant teeth. Also attends the Cocktail Party during the second half of season four.
  • Alice Capone - tells jokes during the Syndicate news segment in Season 6. Wears cotton stuffed in her mouth to resemble Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

• Henry Gibson:
  • The Poet stood in front of, or held, an oversized flower and nervously read offbeat poems. (The actor's stage name was a play on the name of playwright Henrik Ibsen.)
  • The Parson – A character who makes ecclesiastical quips. In 1970, he officiated at a near-marriage for Tyrone and Gladys.
  • Would frequently just pop up and utter the phrase "Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?".
  • Also played a cub reporter for Busy Buzzi. While she was looking for a scoop, Gibson would come in with one (usually about Steve McQueen) that Buzzi would completely garble up to sound like something out of left field.

• Goldie Hawn is best known as the giggling "dumb blonde", stumbling over her lines, especially when she introduced Dan's "News of the Future". In the earliest episodes, she recited her dialogue sensibly and in her own voice, but as the series progressed, she adopted a Dumb Dora character with a higher-pitched giggle and a vacant expression, which endeared her to viewers. She frequently did a Donald Duck voice at inappropriate times, such as when she was expected to sing or do ballet.

• Lily Tomlin:
  • Ernestine/Miss Tomlin – An obnoxious telephone operator, she has no concern at all for her customers and constantly mispronounces their names. Her close friend is fellow telephone operator, Phenicia, and her boyfriend, Vito. She would boast of being a high school graduate. Tomlin later performed Ernestine on Saturday Night Live and Happy New Year, America. She also played the Ernestine character for a comedy album titled This Is a Recording and also made guest appearances as the character on shows and TV specials, such as Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Free to Be... a Family, and Sesame Street Stays Up Late!, in the last of which Oscar calls the operator and harangues her into hooking him up with five of his Grouch relatives. At the suggestion of CFG, Ernestine began dialing with her middle finger in Season 4, sometimes blatantly flipping "the bird" to the camera as a result. Censors never caught on – "we know she's doing something wrong, we just can't put our finger on it!"
  • Edith Ann – A 5+1⁄2-year-old child, she ends each of her short monologs with: "And that's the truth", followed by blowing a raspberry. Tomlin performs her skits in an oversized rocking chair that makes her appear small. Tomlin later performed Edith Ann on children's shows such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company.
  • Mrs. Earbore (the "Tasteful Lady") – A prim society matron, Mrs. Earbore expressed quiet disapproval about a tasteless joke or remark, and then rose from her chair with her legs spread, getting doused with a bucket of water, or with the sound of her skirt ripping.
  • Dotty – A crass and rude grocery checker who tended to annoy her customers at the store where she worked.
  • Lula – A loud and boisterous woman with a Marie Antoinette hair-do who always loved a party.
  • Suzie Sorority of the Silent Majority – clueless sorority college student who ended each bit with "Rah!"
  • The Babbler – A character who speaks exuberantly and at great length while digressing after every few words and never staying on one subject, producing an unbroken, incomprehensible monolog.

• Judy Carne had two characters known for their robotic speech and movement:
  • Mrs. Robot in "Robot Theater" – A female companion to Arte Johnson's "Mr. Robot".
  • The Talking Judy Doll – She is usually played with by Arte Johnson, who never heeds her warning: "Touch my little body, and I hit you!"
  • The Sock-It-To-Me Girl in which she would usually end up being splashed with water, or falling through a trap door, or getting conked on the head by a large club or mallet, or knocked out by a boxing glove on a spring.

• Jo Anne Worley sometimes sings off-the-wall songs using her loud operatic voice or displaying an advanced state of pregnancy, but is better remembered for her mock outrage at "chicken jokes" and her melodic outcry of "Bo-ring!". At the cocktail parties, she would talk about her never-seen married boyfriend/lover "Boris" (who, according to her in a Season 3 episode, was finally found out by his wife).

• Alan Sues:
  • Big Al – A clueless and fey sports anchor, he loves ringing his "Featurette" bell, which he calls his "tinkle".
  • He would dress in drag as his former co-star, Jo Anne Worley, including skits where he appeared as a "fairy godmother". imitating Worley's boisterous laugh and offering help or advice, to a Cinderella-type character, in a conversation full of double entendres.
  • Uncle Al, the Kiddies' Pal – A short-tempered host of a children's show, he usually goes on the air with a hangover: "Oh, kiddies, Uncle Al had a lot of medicine last night." Whenever he got really agitated, he would yell to "Get Miss Twinkle on the phone!"
  • Grabowski – a benchwarmer football player obviously not cut out for the sport. Example lines include "He pushed me! He pushed me!... they all pushed me!" and "No, you can't wear your ballet slippers on the field, Grabowski!"
  • Boomer – A self-absorbed "jock" bragging about his athletic exploits.
  • Ambiguously gay saloon patron – while Dan and Dick ordered whiskey, he would saunter up to the bar and ask for a fruit punch or frozen daiquiri.
  • In the last season, where he was a regular, he would be the one who got water thrown on him after a ticking alarm clock went off (replacing Judy Carne as the one who always got drenched).

• Pamela Rodgers – "Your man in Washington"; she would give 'reports' from the Capitol that were usually double entendres to give the impression that the Congressmen were fooling around with her.
• Jeremy Lloyd – scrunched himself into an ultra-short character a la Toulouse-Lautrec.

• Dennis Allen:
  • Lt. Peaches of the Fuzz – a stumble-bum police officer.
  • Chaplain Bud Homily – a droll clergyman who often falls victim to his own sermons.
  • Eric Clarified (a play on news commentator Eric Sevareid) – a correspondent for Laugh-In Looks at the News who further muddles up obfuscatory government statements he has been asked to clarify. Rowan would often go to another correspondent (played by Sues) to analyze Eric Clarified's statements in turn.

• Barbara Sharma:
  • The Burbank Meter Maid – a dancing meter maid who tickets anything from trees to baby carriages.
  • An aspiring actress who often plays foil in cocktail-party segments to another "high-society" character (Tomlin).
  • In season four, a Ruby Keeler-esque dancer (and arch-nemesis of Johnson's Wolfgang) who often praises Vice President Spiro Agnew.

• Johnny Brown lent his impersonations of Ed Sullivan, Alfred Hitchcock, Ralph Kramden, and the Kingfish from Amos 'n' Andy.
• Ann Elder as Pauline Rhetoric (a play on NBC reporter Pauline Frederick), the chief interviewer for the Laugh-In News segments.
• Moosie Drier and Todd Bass – Drier did the "kids news for kids" segment of the Laugh-In news. Bass teamed with Drier in Season 6 to read letters from a treehouse.
• Larry Hovis – the Senator, the Texan, David Brinkley, Father Time
• Richard Dawson – W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Hawkins the Butler, who always started his piece by asking "Permission to ...?" and proceeded to fall over.
• Roddy Maude-Roxby, Pigmeat Markham – Here Come Da Judge (Roxby for Season 1, Markham for Season 2)
• Dave Madden – would always throw confetti after "a naughty thought", usually a punch line that was a double-entendre. Once while kissing Carne, confetti erupted around him.
• Jud Strunk – sports news segment ("reporting from the sports capital of Farmington, Maine"), Vidal Bassoon (play on Vidal Sassoon) with the Bald News (who tears off a wig to reveal a bald cap each time).
• Patti Deutsch – Sister Mary Youngman (a nun who tells jokes a la Henny Youngman); Heavy Helen who presents the Hippy news.

Merchandise tie-ins and spin-offs

A humor magazine tie-in, Laugh-In Magazine, was published for one year (12 issues: October 1968 through October 1969—no issue was published December 1968), and a 1968–1972 syndicated daily and Sunday newspaper comic strip was drawn, without the actors' likenesses, by Roy Doty, and eventually collected for a paperback reprint.

In 1969, a Laugh-In View-Master packet was issued by General Aniline and Film (GAF); the packet featured 21 3D images from the show.

In 1969, the 1969 Pontiac GTO 2 Door Hardtop "The Judge" was an options package: rear spoiler, striped body paint and "The Judge" decals, and engines: 366 hp Ram Air III, or 370 hp Ram Air IV.

In 1969, Sears, Roebuck and Company produced a 15-minute short, Freeze-In, which starred series regulars Judy Carne and Arte Johnson. Made to capitalize on the popularity of the series, the short was made for Sears salesmen to introduce the new Kenmore freezer campaign. A dancing, bikini-clad Carne provided the opening titles with tattoos on her body.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In - Television Academy Interviews
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Guide to broadcasts, books, and audio at laughterlog.com
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In at IMDb
• Rowan and Martins Laugh-In TV Show FBI files FOIA Library
• Rowan & Martins Laugh-In, season 1, including 1967 special, at YouTube Movies & TV