January 22, 1968: "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" Premieres

Dan (left) and Dickie, holding

"The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate" award

January 22, 1968: Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In premieres on NBC. It was a rapid-fire sketch show, with some jokes going past so fast, it was "Blink and you'll miss it." It took the sketch work of shows like Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, The Ernie Kovacs Show, and That Was the Week That Was, and upped the ante considerably.

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin had been a comedy team since 1952. As the show's hosts, Dan was the "straight man," setting up most of the jokes, and "Dickie" played the guy with the punchlines. Many of these revolved around the fact that Dan was married and culturally conservative, with only the slightest of hipness; while Dick was the swinging bachelor and not very bright.

To paraphrase a later saying, Dick wasn't a dummy, he just played on one TV. He was very bright, as he later proved as a panelist on Match Game. He was a gourmet cook. And, about halfway through the show's run, he got married to British actress-model Dolly Read.

After their opening dialogue (there were 2 of them, so it was not a "monologue"), there would be "the party sketch," with the castmembers (sometimes in character) and the night's guest stars, dancing to mod music, kind of a combination of old-time Big Band stuff and up-to-date rock. When the music stopped, everybody stood still, no matter what position they were in, except for one person, who told a joke, usually about the changes in pop culture or politics going on. Once the joke finished, everybody would start dancing again.

There would frequently be words shown in graphics crawling across the bottom of the screen. After the 1968 New Hampshire Primary, one read, "LBJ CALL... ALLIED VAN LINES." In other words, President Johnson was going to have to move out of the White House. Which came true, but not in the way the writers expected.

Among the castmembers, and the classic characters they created:

* Gary Owens, already a star disc jockey in Los Angeles, who played the show's announcer, and made the town where NBC had its studios a household name: "Beautiful downtown Burbank." It was, of course, sarcastic.

* Arte Johnson, who played Wolfgang, a Nazi soldier who would sneak out of a bush, and say that the sketch the audience had just seen was, in a German accent, "Verrrry intereshting, but... " and add something. Frequently, it was, "but shtupid."

* Ruth Buzzi, who played Gladys Ormpby, a frumpy society matron. Johnson played Tyrone F. Horneigh (a play on "horny"), a dirty old man who would make a pass at her, and she would hit him with her purse.

* Judy Carne, a British actress who had already been married to and divorced from actor Burt Reynolds. She was the Sock It To Me Girl: She would say, "Sock it to me!" or, "And now, folks, it's sock-it-to-me time!" And she would get water thrown on her. Or something else embarrassing would happen.

* Henry Gibson, who would sometimes come out in a wildly colored suit, holding a bouquet of paper flowers, and recite a short poem. He also played a minister, who could be seen in the party sketch sipping coffee (never booze), and delivering a church-related joke, such as, "My church accepts all denominations, but my favorite is the five-dollar bill!"

* Jo Anne Worley, who wasn't slim and trim like the other women on the show. But she could sing. Her main shtick was that she would do takeoffs on popular standards. For example, "When you're down and out, lift up your head and shout, 'I'm down and out!!!!'" She had a wild, never-seen boyfriend named Boris.

* Goldie Hawn, and if you only know her as having long hair and being Kate Hudson's mom, you might be shocked to see her with very short hair and a very slim, Twiggy-like figure. She would dance in a bikini with jokes "tattooed" on her body. Example: Above her bra would be "TOP SECRET," and beneath her tush would be "BOTTOM SECRET."

In the run-up to the 2nd season, the writers invited both major-party nominees for President, Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon, to come onto the show. Humphrey refused, thinking it undignified. Nixon accepted, and, on September 16, 1968, for the season premiere, he looked into the camera, appearing stunned, and said, "Sock it to me?" Nobody threw water on him, or did anything else that would embarrass him.

Humphrey, Rowan and Martin all went to their graves -- Hubert in 1978, Dan in 1987, Dick in 2008 -- believing that Nixon going on Laugh-In, and Humphrey not, made Nixon just that little bit more relatable, and swung the election.

Among the newcomers for the 2nd season was black comedian Pigmeat Markham, who made the phrase "Here come da judge!" iconic. Also added were "The Fun Couple," the married-in-real-life Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall. Also added was Alan Sues, who, like game-show panelists Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly, did everything to confirm he was gay except actually say so. Which made it especially weird that he played a sportscaster on the show.

Oh yes, there was a sportscast, because there was a "Laugh-In Looks at the News" segment. Dick would deliver the News of the Present. And Dan would deliver the News of the Future. On 2 occasions, he came damn close to nailing it:

* "Item: Washington, D.C., 1988, 20 years from now: President Ronald Reagan announced today that he will not be a candidate for the office of Governor of California." (At that point, Reagan was the Governor, and the idea of him becoming President one day was a joke. It happened in 1980, and 1988 was his last full year in office, and the joke was on America.)

* "Berlin, 20 years from now, 1989. There was dancing in the streets as the Berlin Wall finally came down. However, the joy was short-lived, when the Wall was replaced with a moat full of alligators."

Some were off the mark, but still funny: "Los Angeles, 2 years from now: The problem of race relations has been solved, because the smog is so thick, no one can tell what anyone's color is."

No, they didn't shy away from the topic of race. Once, during the party sketch, black comedian Flip Wilson said, "You know, it's all in how you look at it: What you call 'riots,' my people call 'group therapy.'"

And they certainly didn't shy away from the subject of war. During another party sketch, Danny Kaye, Brooklyn-born Jewish master of accents, put on a Southern accent, and came up with a line that you wouldn't expect someone with that accent to deliver: "According to the Department of Internal Revenue, we can deduct $600 for everyone we support. Well, this year, I'm claiming the government of South Vietnam!"

Both Rowan and Martin had served in World War II. On what may have been show's most poignant sketch, Rowan struggled to fit into an old Army uniform, as Frank Sinatra's voice was heard singing, "When I was 17, it was a very good year." Putting aside his real age, Dan (who turned 17 in 1939) said, "When I was 17, we were smack dab in the middle of World War II.

Frank: "When I was 21, it was a very good year." The math doesn't add up, but that's not the point. Now, Dan was wearing Sergeant's stripes, and he said, "When I was 21, the reserve unit was called back to Korea.

Frank: "When I was 35, it was a very good year." Dan: "When I was 35, we were called up to Vietnam."

Frank: "But now, the days are short, I'm in the Autumn of the year," and the recording is replaced by the sounds of flying artillery, machine-gun fire, and an explosion. Dan: "Gotta go now: They're playing my song again."

And, as it turned out, except for Markham, Dan was the 1st member of the cast to die. Although that was due to smoking -- another subject they didn't shy away from. Ken Berry, briefly a castmember, delivered this one-liner: "Sure, I saved money by rolling my own. How do you think I could afford this swell iron lung?"

Season 3 (1969-70) saw some turnover. Lily Tomlin joined, playing The Tasteful Lady (a precursor to Dana Carvey's Church Lady on Saturday Night Live), 5-year-old Edith Ann in a huge chair ("And that's the truth," and delivering a raspberry), and Ernestine the telephone operator ("One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy... A gracious good afternoon, is this the party to whom I am speaking?")

Season 4 (1970-71) saw even more turnover. Almost all of the people we now think of as Laugh-In stars were gone, except Dan and Dickie. Among the new ones were former Hogan's Heroes star, and future Match Game panelist and Family Feud host, Richard Dawson. Patti Deutsch and Ann Elder were both promoted from writer to star.

(A lot of Laugh-In castmembers became Match Game panelists. In addition to Dawson, there was Johnson, Carne, Worley, Deutsch, Elder, Larry Hovis, Chelsea Brown, Johnny Brown and Sarah Kennedy. Brill and McCall both served as panelists, but never together.)

That was also the year that ABC began broadcasting Monday Night Football, which sucked up a lot of ratings. It didn't matter much, though: By this point, the show was still funny, but what was once edgy now seemed tame. All In the Family had premiered on CBS. At the start of the 1972-73 season, CBS had also premiered M*A*S*H. That would be Laugh-In's last season.

Many of the performers went on to other shows, and Hawn became a top-flight movie star. Lorne Michaels had written for Laugh-In, so it is difficult to imagine the creation and execution of Saturday Night Live without that experience.

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January 22, 1968 was a Monday. Celebrity chef Guy Fieri was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. There were no NBA games scheduled, and no NHL games scheduled, as this was during both leagues' All-Star Breaks. There were 2 games played in the American Basketball Association, then in its 1st season:

* The New Jersey Americans beat the Houston Mavericks, 111-104 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston. The Americans moved to Long Island the next season, becoming the New York Nets.

* And the Kentucky Colonels beat the Indiana Pacers, 100-91 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.