Television. One DVD at a Time.

"And me, I'm Gary Owens with an important message for tired housewives - sit down." - Announcer Gary Owens

The Best of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Volume 1 DVD Review

By Jonathan Boudreaux

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In premiered on NBC in January of 1968 and quickly shot to the top of the ratings chart. Its lightning fast pace and mix of old fashioned and topical humor influenced entertainment for years to come, from Saturday Night Live (SNL creator Lorne Michaels wrote for Laugh-In) to MTV and even Sesame Street. Not bad for a show that featured "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup." and chicken ("Why did the chicken cross the road?" "To lay it on the line") jokes.

Hosted by straight man Dan Rowan and goofball Dick Martin, the show is a mélange of skits, jokes, musical numbers, and other assorted bits of weirdness carried out by a talented cast of regulars and special guest stars. And what a talented cast the show had. Although the lineup changed from year to year, the show featured Eileen Brennan, "Sock it to me" girl Judy Carne, a delightfully dizzy Goldie Hawn, "ver-r-y interesting" Arte Johnson, loveable loudmouth Jo Anne Worley, campy Alan Sues, The Partridge Family's Dave Madden, Teresa Graves, Lily Tomlin, and Jeremy Lloyd (who went on to create Are You Being Served?).

The shows move at breakneck speed. Each hour long episode contains literally hundreds of gags. With so many jokes per minute, some are bound to fall flat (especially thirty five years later, long after some of the subjects of topical jokes have fallen into obscurity) but the hit to miss ratio is relatively high. After all, the sheer volume of jokes practically guarantees that if you do not think a particular sketch is funny, a new one is coming in a couple of seconds.

Some of the gags are presented during recurring segments that are featured on almost every episode. In "The Cocktail Party," the cast and guests gyrate to the show's theme song on a multi-level living room set. Periodically the music stops and the camera focuses on one of the party's guests who deliver a joke either directed to the camera or to their date at the party. "News of the Past, Present, and Future" presents an SNL-style look at current events, but with sketches about historical events and headlines from the future thrown in. Some of the headlines of the future are surprisingly prescient, including one about then California governor Ronald Regan's presidency. Alas, the headline of the future predicting Goldie Hawn's presidency has not come true yet. The "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate" award is presented to dubious newsmakers. "Mod Mod World" takes a humorous look at modern ideas and trends. Each show ends with the famous "Joke Wall." As Rowan and Martin look on, cast members and guests pop out of doors cut into a brightly colored wall and tell jokes. The jokes here are often so bad that the cast simply dissolves into chaotic laughter.

Many of the cast members play recurring characters that seem to take on a life of their own. Two of the most popular are Ruth Buzzi's Gladys Ormphby, the pathetic woman who wears a brown sack dress and a hairnet, and Arte Johnson's Tyrone Horneigh, the dirty old man who gets whacked by Glady's handbag. Lily Tomlin brought her Little Edith Ann and Ernestine the phone operator to later episodes of the show.

Episode guests include Cher, Tim Conway, Tiny Tim, Lorne Green, Sheldon Leonard, and Flip Wilson (episode 3), Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and Pamela Austin (episode 9), Barbara Feldon, Hugh Hefner, Jack Riley, Richard Nixon, John Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jack Lemmon, Bob Hope, and Sonny Tufts (episode 15), Don Rickles, J.J. Barry, Liberace, Rich Little, Cliff Robertson, and George Jessel (episode 32), Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Michael Caine, and George Lindsey (episode 60) and Carl Reiner, Greer Garson, Jim Backus, and Andy Williams (episode 61).

The six episodes in this collection are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in a digipak which slides into a cardboard sleeve. A booklet housed in one panel of the digipak lists the episode numbers, airdates, guest stars, and chapter titles. The booklet also includes an essay written by creator/producer George Schlatter. The psychedelic packaging is imaginatively designed. When the digipak is first opened, it reveals a reproduction of the Laugh-In joke wall, complete with foldout "doors" behind which cast members are hidden.

The disc menus are also fun. The menus begin with a specially created sequence featuring the theme song and clips from the show. The images look a little "digitized" but otherwise this is a great idea. The menu proper allows the viewer to choose from one of the two episodes on the disc or the featured interview (see "Extras.") Choosing an episode brings up a screen listing the chapter stops, where the viewer has the option of playing an individual chapter or playing the entire episode.

NOTE: For some reason, the six episodes are not placed in date order on the discs. For the benefit of those viewers who may be interested in renting particular episodes, disc one contains episodes 3 and 9, disc two contains episodes 15 and 60, and disc three contains episodes 32 and 61.

Video and Audio

The video generally looks great. Due to the quick nature of the bits and the different film techniques used (some of the show was shot in a studio, some on location), however, the quality can vary. The cuts leading in to commercials also seem rather abrupt. Overall, though, the series looks fine.

The sound during the show is noticeably less vibrant than the menu music, which was probably taken from a different source. Otherwise, the audio here is consistent with other shows of the period.

Extras

Each of the discs contains an extended interview with a different actor from the show. Disc one's interview is with stentorian voiced announcer Gary Owens. In this twenty-one minute interview, Owens talks about how he was hired, the origins of his Laugh-In announcer shtick, and how he got his start in showbiz. This interview is a little unfocused, but Owens seems to be enjoying himself.

Disc two features Ruth Buzzi in a twenty-five minute interview. She gives a detailed retelling of her audition process, including the inspiration behind sadsack Gladys Ormphby and other characters. Buzzi is one of the few cast members who actually stayed on the show for its entire run, and her behind-the-scenes tales prove her to be a natural storyteller. Her interview has a narrative arc that Owens' lacks. She is extremely personable, and this makes the interview both informative and fun.

Arte Johnson takes over for disc three. His twenty-five minute interview touches on how he learned his many accents, the improvisational nature of the show, how people confused him for Henry Gibson, and other tales. Of the three interviews, this one is the least interesting, partially because Johnson comes across as somewhat self-important.

The interviews are well shot - they look and sound great.

Summary

Some of the jokes have not withstood the test of time, but Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In still manages to be exuberant fun. It is well worth a rent. And you can look that up in your Funk & Wagnall's.

7/20/03