I have written before about my theory that it was the sixties that was truly the golden age of television. Many of the programs that we consider classics LITERALLY changed the face of television. And I don’t mean the way Norman Lear comedies did it in the seventies. There are a handful of shows that were designed to sell the next big thing … television in COLOR!
“Bonanza” was broadcasting in color from its start in 1957. But it was the mid-to-late sixties before mainstream shows began USING color to sell color televisions. One of the most psychedelic programs out there wasn’t expected to be a hit. In 1967, producer George Schlatter gathered together an odd assortment of comedians that he’d seen in various nightclubs, placed them on a psychedelic set, and snagged comedy team Dan Rowan and Dick Martin to direct traffic, and “Rowan and Martin’s ‘Laugh-In’” was born!
NBC didn’t understand the program, and dropped it into a suicide time slot opposite “Gunsmoke” and “Lucy,” and against all odds, the show found an audience and became a breakout hit. Along the way, it made household names out of Ruth Buzzi (who won a Golden Globe for her role as old lady Gladys Ormphby), Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Gary Owens, and a pre-Partridge Dave Madden. For a time, former “Hogan’s Heroes” Richard Dawson and Larry Hovis lent hands as well.
The episodes consisted of close to two HUNDRED sketches per week, averaging a mere ninety to one hundred twenty seconds in length each, with split screens, garish costuming, and a set that was reminiscent of the Joker’s Ha Hacienda from “Batman.” Regular set pieces included “The Party,” where the cast danced frenetically, pausing to intone jokes laden with non-sequitur, puns, and often eliciting groans as frequently as laughter. Henry Gibson would morosely intone a poem. Arte Johnson, dressed as a German soldier, would rise from behind a bush and say “verrrrrry interesting!” Tomlin created a handful of recurring characters … little Edith Ann, forever perched on an oversized rocking chair, and Ernestine, the telephone operator (“Is this the party to whom I’m speaking?”). And if Hawn never seemed to know what her lines meant, that was probably because George Schlatter and his directors never allowed her to rehearse.
I was three when “Laugh-In” began, but I remember fondly the Joke Wall, where, as the credits rolled, the cast would open windows and doors doing knock-knock jokes, vaudeville reject lines, and double and triple takes. The program was viewed differently, like “Batman,” by different generations. The parents loved the shots taken at Presidents Johnson and Nixon (who memorably made an extremely awkward cameo, and managed to butcher his only line) and the unpopular war.
The other night, I had the extreme pleasure to talk with Schlatter. A portion of the interview aired on our station the other afternoon, and I’m excited to bring you an extended version here. The occasion? Time-Life, fresh on the heels of their breathtaking Johnny Carson, Dean Martin and Carol Burnett collections, is bringing all six seasons of this bizarre program to DVD.
It’s time to revisit this format, frankly. Schlatter and his cast of idiots practically INVENTED the ADD from which we all seem to suffer these days, we again have a controversial administration and unpopular global conflicts in place, and it’s time to “sock it to them” once again. George is clearly still more than capable of rounding up some talent. Now THAT’S a wall we can ALL agree should be built!
