NAB showcases a Laugh-In’ love-in

Tuesday, April 9, 2002 | 8:33 a.m.

The National Association of Broadcasters socked it to "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" Monday, inducting the classic comedy-variety series from the '60s and '70s into the NAB Hall of Fame.

On hand to accept the honor were the show's producer, George Schlatter, and six of "Laugh-In's" numerous cast members, including Lily Tomlin, Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley, Gary Owens and Alan Sues.

Dick Martin, the surviving member of the Rowan & Martin comedy team, was ill and did not attend the event at the Las Vegas Hilton. Dan Rowan died of cancer in 1987 at age 65.

"I don't think ("Laugh-In") could happen today," Schlatter said as the honorees sat onstage and reminisced about the show. "There are too many committees."

NAB, the trade association for the radio and television industry, conducted the induction ceremony at a luncheon held in the Hilton's Barron Room. The event was hosted by television personality Leeza Gibbons.

The Hall of Fame honor came two months after the show received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Between Jan. 22, 1968 and May 14, 1973, NBC aired 124 episodes of the weekly program, which included guest appearances with such diverse personalities as Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon.

Nixon was among those who uttered the immortal words, "Sock it to me."

"Laugh-In" was a breeding ground for catch phrases. Others included "You bet your sweet bippy," "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls," "Here come de judge!" and "Beautiful Downtown Burbank."

The variety show was a hodgepodge of brief sketches, blackouts, sight gags and one-liners. It is credited with blazing a trail for such sketch-driven shows as "Saturday Night Live," "In Living Color" and "SCTV."

The program made stars out of such unknown entertainers as Goldie Hawn (a go-go dancer covered with decals), Tomlin (a snickering, snorting telephone operator), Gibson (a hippie poet) and Arte Johnson, who played a German soldier who looked into the camera and uttered "Verrrry interesting!"

NAP President Edward Fritts noted that when "Laugh-In" first aired as a special in September 1967, "Few network experts gave it much chance of success."

He said the show went on to break new ground in many areas, including diversity in casting and new twists on old vaudeville shows.

"It brought an array of odd characters into our homes, from dirty old men to hippie poets to snooty telephone operators, plus guest performers ranging from movie stars to presidential candidates," Fritts said.

"Laugh-In" stars said they were constantly at odds with television censors.

Worley said the censors were offended when she held two melons or two jugs up to her chest. Tomlin said she used to say, during her skits as Ernestine the telephone operator, "Do not abuse your instruments."

"After six or eight weeks they said, 'You've got to say 'telephone instruments,' " Tomlin said.

One gag censors never caught on to was the way Tomlin dialed her telephone -- using her middle finger, which she then would wave around nonchalantly.

Schlatter was impressed by Tomlin's subtle gesture.

"She was giving the finger to the world," he said. "I was as proud of that as anything she did."

But everyone had their moments.

Sues, the one with the banjo eyes that spun in their sockets, once fell and slid under the dress of guest Kate Smith, famous for singing "God Bless America."

"I looked up right up her dress," Sues said. "And Henry said, 'What did you see?' and I said, 'I saw Irving Berlin.' "

Gibbons noted that none of the stars were hired in the traditional way.

"Some of us consider it traditional," Worley interjected and the room filled with laughter.

"I came on three years after the show started," Tomlin quipped. "I didn't pass the audition."

Owens, who played the role of the announcer on the show, said he was hired in a men's room.

"I was, too," Worley piped up.

Owens said he was in a men's room at a restaurant, standing at a urinal next to Schlatter.

Cupping his ear with his hand and using his deep, resonant voice, Owens said to the tile "My, the acoustics are good in here." Schlatter hired him.

Henry Gibbons observed that "Laugh-In" was on the air when the nation was involved in the Vietnam War, there was civil unrest and the country was agitated.

"We helped agitate it," Gibbons said. "We allowed people to laugh at something that was very serious and very sad, and at the same time made people aware of what was going on.

"Some of the things we talked about focused some attention on it. I was pretty proud of that, the fact that we made the nation aware of injustice and racial discrimination -- in those jokes there was always a little message.