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... I couldn't help but recall Monday nights from my youth when Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In would come on.
In those 1968 pre-cable TV days: you could come in to school the next day, ask a classmate "Hey, what did you think of "Laugh-In" last night?" - and get a response 4-out-of-5 times, or "Dang, I had school band practice!" as an excuse. Some thirty-seven years after it left the air in May 1973: it's worth a quick look back (after the jump).
With a classic comedy duo - Dan Rowan as the exasperated straight man, Dick Martin the inane comic - it was part of the last wave of TV variety shows, which pretty much died by the end of the 1970's. But especially in its first two seasons: the show was white-hot, and many of its cast members all took-off for job offers elsewhere. Only four performers remained with the show all five seasons: the co-hosts Dan and Dick, announcer Gary Owens and one other cast member (who will be noted later on).
With all of the chatter about whether President Obama should have appeared on The View - it's interesting to note that a) Richard Nixon has credited his November 1968 victory (in a tiny way) to his cameo appearance which at this link you can watch - and that (b) Hubert Humphrey always regretted not accepting the show's offer himself.
The show's legacy includes its "Laugh-In Looks at the News" - as a young Lorne Michaels was an early staff writer on the show, who adapted that concept into Weekend Update when Saturday Night Live premiered later that decade.
And while primarily a comedy show: viewing re-runs today reminds you about their musical guests which included the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Kenny Rogers, Harry Belafonte, Rosemary Clooney, the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Holy Modal Rounders.
Looking back on it: perhaps the best thing about the show is that (a) it seemed fresh and cool and (b) both my parents liked it. Not truly a surprise in the case of my mother, but my dad was a reserved man who normally didn't like 'edgy' programming - yet he did like this one. Something that surprised me then about Dad: that a WW-II vet, Vietnam War supporter got a kick out of Dan Rowan's character General Bull-Right (below left), a war-is-always-the-answer guy, always hawking his new book and bellowing "Poppycock!". But my aunts tell me that during WW-II, my father much preferred General Omar Bradley to someone like George Patton (whom he considered crude) so in hindsight it doesn't seem all that strange.
And I was also surprised back then when my dad informed me that Tiny Tim (below right with Dick) sang songs like Tiptoe Through the Tulips that weren't new - some dated back to the turn of the 20th Century.
In 1993, there was a 25th Anniversary reunion on NBC - something of a misnomer, as there was a private reunion of the cast members (with only snippets of film from it) plus some new interviews and a series of clips from the original series. Dan Rowan was unable to host, as he had died in July of 1987. But easily the eeriest clips from the original show were "News of the Future", predicting unlikely or bizarre future stories to comic effect.
Dan Rowan .... mentioned "President Ronald Reagan" in a story from "1988, twenty years from now", eliciting laughter. Another prediction: the Berlin Wall would be destroyed in .....1989.
With the death of Dick Martin in 2008 (at the age of 86) it did seem the end of an era. Certainly not for Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin who were the show's two genuine break-out superstars. But I'd like to wrap-up with a "where-are-they-now?" of four of its performers in particular.
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As mentioned, just last year we lost the Philadelphia native James Bateman - but whom we came to know as the flower-wielding poet Henry Gibson (which was a take-off on the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen). He may not have had a typical actor's background (a graduate of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and an intelligence officer in the US Air Force). But his career took off appearing on the Jack Paar Show, the Dick Van Dyke Show and appearing in the Jerry Lewis film "The Nutty Professor".
After his memorable stint on Laugh-In, he forged an acting career that included his Golden Globe nominated role in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville plus his memorable role as the Illinois Nazi Party leader in the 1980 Blues Brothers film.
While not an A-list celebrity: he continued to appear to have many film and TV roles, more recently as a judge in the Boston Legal TV show. Henry Gibson died last September, just one week shy of his 74th birthday.
Besides Dan, Dick and Gary Owens: the only other cast member to remain the entire length of the show was Ruth Buzzi - who as a native was inducted into the Rhode Island Hall of Fame (although she came-of-age later in Connecticut). She began studies in 1963 at the Pasadena Playhouse, where her classmates included Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. She parlayed that into a rapid career rise: on Broadway (in Bob Fosse's "Sweet Charity"), on TV (The Garry Moore Show and a recurring role on "That Girl").
After Laugh-In she was a regular on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts and many other TV shows: Flip Wilson, Glen Campbell, the daytime soap Passions and "The Smurfs" to name a few) as well as over twenty movies.
Having turned age 74 last week, she is largely retired today - but has a Golden Globe Award as the Best Female Performer in a Comedy Series (in 1973 for Laugh-In), Five Emmy Award nominations, a Cleo Award for best commercial spokesperson, and an NAACP Image Award for her treatment of people of color in the industry (one of comparably few white performers with one). She has donated her paintings to charity auctions where they have sold for thousands of dollars.
One probably can't mention Ruth Buzzi without mentioning her frequent foil Arte Johnson - one look at the "Verrrry interesting" German soldier and you were hooked. The Michigan native began working for Viking Press in New York - and one day many years later he got in an audition line and was cast in a Gentlemen Prefer Blondes revival.
He had small roles in sitcoms and films, and thus - considering himself washed up by 1967 - Johnson accepted a salary cut to appear in Laugh-In and achieved lasting fame. While he's never had a major role since: at age 81, he's constantly acted in TV, films, narrating audio books and voice-over roles.
And perhaps my favorite recurring Laugh-In skit featured Arte as Tyrone F. Horneigh (pronounced "hor-NIGH," presumably to satisfy the censors) - a dirty old man coming on to Ruth Buzzi's Gladys Ormphby seated on a park bench, who almost invariably clobbered him with her purse:
Tyrone: Do you believe in the hereafter?
Gladys: Of course I do! Tyrone: Then you know what I'm here after!
And while my mother loved Goldie Hawn, she absolutely adored JoAnne Worley - whose loud operatic voice outcry of "Bo-ring!" was a staple of the show. The Indiana native made her mark before-and-after Laugh-In in theater: appearing in Hello Dolly and then after developing a Greenwich Village nightclub act was a regular on the Merv Griffin Show, which led to her stint on Laugh-In.
Like the others mentioned here: while rarely in the limelight, her name has kept her with a job for the rest of her life, appearing on TV (Hollywood Squares and various guest roles), theater (several roles on stage in Los Angeles and on Broadway, right through this past decade) and numerous voice roles (Beauty and the Beast and Belle's Magical World).
And for some time she has served as president of Actors & Others for Animals which Betty White has been active in. She turns age 73 this coming September 6th which - being my birthday - always made her special to me.
Feel free to post your own memories of the show, or of the people who had a role in its legacy. Not many shows can bring people of-a-certain-age back in time instantly ... but this is one of them.
