January 22
SAY GOOD NIGHT, DICK DAY
The NBC-TV show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, debuted “from beautiful downtown Burbank” on this night in 1968. (It received the official go-ahead after a successful pilot special that had aired in 1967.) The weekly show, produced by George Schlatter and Ed Friendly, then Paul Keyes, used 260 pages of jokes in each hour-long episode.
The first 14 shows earned Laugh-In (as it was commonly called) 4 Emmys. And “you bet your bippy,” Nielsen rated it #1 ... for two seasons.
Thanks to an ever-changing cast of regulars including the likes of Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Arte Johnson, Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi, JoAnne Worley, Gary Owens, Alan Sues, Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Richard Dawson, Judy Carne, President Richard Nixon (“Go ahead, sock it to me!”), the show became the highest-rated comedy series in TV history. Out of a list of 40, the only four to remain from the show’s inception to its finale were hosts, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin; announcer, Gary Owens; and comedienne, Ruth Buzzi (famous for her bit as an old lady using her umbrella to whack the little old man who sat down next to her).
You may remember some of the skits:
Lily Tomlin as the nasal, irritating telephone operator; The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award; the joke wall with cast members throwing one-liners as they popped out of windows with buckets of water being thrown back; and the final single pair of clapping hands taking the show to its very last second of its weekly close.
Phrases like the aforementioned ‘Burbank’, ‘bippy’ and ‘sock it’ lines plus “Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls” and “Here come da judge” became part of everyday conversation throughout the USA. The fast-paced, unstructured routines were a match for the climate of the country in the late 1960s. Laugh-In was innovative in its comedy style and has since been copied by many. Yet it wasn’t completely original (as if anything can be); being a mix of the slapstick of burlesque, the antics of the Keystone Cops and the topical satire of shows like That Was the Week That Was. In fact, the same shtick that worked for four decades for Burns and Allen, was working again; this time for Rowan and Martin:
“Say good night, Dick.” “Good night Dick.”
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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