Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In

[Kitty]

I just watched a Laugh-In episode with guest Sid Caesar.

This was a 1969 episode, apparently right smack in the middle of their run. I see this show was on for an astounding 6 seasons.

This show is nonstop from beginning to end. They barely take a breath, and there is barely a moment of quiet. I'd have to do a bit of research on this show, but is that canned laughter? The constant noise makes you wonder if each member of the audience was given drugs as a souvenir or something. Some of the jokes earned a light chuckle from me, and some kind of shocked me, as the one black woman on the show proudly tells racist jokes and lets them tell them to her.

I think the show is all zip zip zip because there are subliminal messages in there! Probably not, but it would have been pretty easy to insert them!!!

My favorite part was the part of the episode where they were opening doors one by one saying their answers to the jokes.

The most memorable part for me would probably be the part where Rowan and Martin presented a Fickle Finger Award, saying that United Airlines fired a black stewardess for having her hair only one inch longer than UA wanted it. I looked this piece of info up, and it was true. In 1969, a stewardess was fired for having her hair one inch longer than code, but it wasn't even longer than the white stewardess's hair style code.

Anyway, what do you think? Have you seen this show, did you like it in its time, and what say you about Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In?

[Mrs. Danvers]

Oh Crikey! If I just think back about Laugh-In, we watched it faithfully when it was on, in my memories it was the hippest, coolest, funniest and most outrageous show on TV at the time. Like I said, it was hip and cool.
Now when I watch it, it's pure corn and racist and didn't shine a very good light on women, Goldie Hawn's ditzy dumb-Dora character is now cringe worthy.

We watch it occasionally in recent years, a few skits at a time. Man oh man how times have changed.
For Laugh-In being so current and hip, it's is just mostly an embarrassment now.

We watch quite a few old shows from the 50's and 60's. When women's weren't expected or qualified to do anything other than be a good housewife/mom or secretary or an unmarried school teacher. And you never saw a black person unless they were opening a door for you at a fancy hotel or doing some other menial task. You never see any people of color in any of those old shows. Unless there is a non white gardener or house-boy around.

The major saving grace and the Crown Jewel of Laugh-In was Lilly Tomlin. Ernestine and Edith Ann where such great characters. Maybe I'm being too hard on Laugh-in and generalizing the content.

https://youtu.be/ffxVap-1L1Y

[donnie]

Laugh-In. Man, what a trip that show is. Love or hate it, you have to admit there's nothing else quite like it. It is indeed sexist at times, not to mention frequently highly irritating. (Goldie Hawn and JoAnne Worley get on my nerves pretty quickly).

I would guess the laughter was canned. Although I imagine it with a live audience, I'd think it would almost have to be canned. Almost everything on there was a recurring gag, and what they probably did was: let's say Artie Johnson and Ruth Buzzi were together in a sketch, they'd bring them in and do a bunch of those on one day and then edit them into several subsequent shows. So I doubt the whole cast was ever together in the studio at one time.

Times have indeed changed. Sometimes it can be pretty funny. I do like Henry Gibson's poetry.

[Kitty]

It's a weird thing. I knew it was wacky, but I didn't know it was an hour long. It was so corny, yet some of it made me laugh, and it was so noisy and obnoxious at times, yet I wouldn't mind watching another one!

[donnie]

It's a weird thing. I knew it was wacky, but I didn't know it was an hour long. It was so corny, yet some of it made me laugh, and it was so noisy and obnoxious at times, yet I wouldn't mind watching another one!

Yeah, it's addictive. Kind of like eating junk food out of the bag and you can't stop.

[Mrs. Danvers]

I have to admit we do stop and watch a bit on whatever channel it's on, it's on every day.

One thing they sure did have a whos who of movie stars and other famous people. Who can forget Nixon's "Sock it to me."

I had to refresh my memory with wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_%26 ... s_Laugh-In

I forgot about the Farkel Family, a couple with numerous children, all of whom had bright red hair and large freckles similar to their "good friend and trusty neighbor" Ferd Berfel.

[Kitty]

I'll definitely be watching more, since it was so iconic. It almost makes me wish that I was a teen in those times; life seemed so different then. (But was it really?)
By this time, I think you all know me well enough to know that a big draw for me will be the cultural references and the personalities that guest starred. It's cool that they had cameos as well as the main guest. For example, this one episode I watched cameoed (a word? it is now!) Zsa Zsa Gabor and Peter Sellers as well as Diana Ross.

[Mrs. Danvers]

I was a teenager then and yeah it was pretty spot on at the time. It was hip and cool and for then outrageous. Nobody's grandparents were watching it.
I watched a clip yesterday with Frank Sinatra poking his head out of some shrubs speaking of cameos.

[Kitty]

I was a teenager then and yeah it was pretty spot on at the time. It was hip and cool and for then outrageous. Nobody's grandparents were watching it.
I watched a clip yesterday with Frank Sinatra poking his head out of some shrubs speaking of cameos.

i was speaking with a coworker about Laugh-In the other day, and she shared with me that the day it was on was her day to do the dishes, and she loved it because she could watch the show while doing them.

[Mrs. Danvers]

I was a teenager then and yeah it was pretty spot on at the time. It was hip and cool and for then outrageous. Nobody's grandparents were watching it.
I watched a clip yesterday with Frank Sinatra poking his head out of some shrubs speaking of cameos.

i was speaking with a coworker about Laugh-In the other day, and she shared with me that the day it was on was her day to do the dishes, and she loved it because she could watch the show while doing them.

That's a good memory, she liked doing the dishes just for that very reason.
It's really something how TV has becomes such a fixture in our lives. We didn't even have a TV when I was a little kid, we'd pack up in the car and head to my grandparents house to watch TV until we got one of our own. Not much on then either. Don't ask me what we went to watch, I was too young, I just remember hearing the story.