Posted on 05/24/2008 9:02:59 PM PDT by lunarbicep
i remember it... but let me say, i was not supposed to be watching it... i was far too young... i was not even 3-y.o. when it debuted! wasn't Charles Nelson Reilly also on it?
You won't believe this!
I just looked up Dan Rowan in Wikipedia to see if he was still alive.
He died in 1987, but check out this quote:
“Rowan retired to Florida. He was a type II diabetic and heavy smoker, who died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 65 in Manasota Key, Florida.
“In 1986, a book of letters written between himself and author John D. MacDonald was published entitled A Friendship: The Letters of Dan Rowan and John D. MacDonald, 1967-1974.”
One of my favorite Laugh In moments had to the running gag where Dick would bring out a “guest” almost every show. It was usually a real star ( Raquel Welch for one ) playing a messed up character. So one show Dan brought out the guest, everyone expected a straight forward act being Dan was the credible one. Enter Tiny Tim singing “Tiptoe Through The Tulips.” The look of Dick's reaction to that performance is priceless.
Here it is;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skU-jBFzXl0
I watched the show as a young adult. Ruth Buzze and tne guy who played the old man—they were terrific. The guy in the yellow raincoat and hat riding the tricycle was funny. JoAnne Worley, Flip Wilson (”Here come de judge!”) Judy Carne, the woman who played the phone operator (”Is this Mr. Jedger Hoover?”} Goldie Hawn, one finger in her dimple, saying “Ummmmmm...”
And Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, the hosts. “What’s a Green Urn?” “Oh, about a buck and a quarter an hour.”
I loved it. It was hilarious.
Oh well, I was 18 in 1968 when it first came went on the air. I remember seeing Rowan and Martin playing at a motel lounge in Modesto a couple of years before that.
I not only remember him, I interviewed him and costar Lucille Ball long before Laugh-In premiered. He was still playing neighbor Harry Connors on The Lucy Show. He was a great guy and I had a lot of fun on the set with the two of them. I guess that would make me older than you.
I bow to you.
How fun that would have been!
The FLYING Fickle Finger of Fate, you mean.
The phone operator character, Ernestine was played by Lily Tomlin.
The joke was “What’s a Grecian Urn?”
I think he would’ve appreciated that.
That was Sammy Davis, Jr., not Flip Wilson, playing the judge, and Lily Tomlin played the operator.
Okay, thanks.
Okay.
Thanks.
Damn I’’m old! Good night Dick.
I never missed Laugh-In.
Pure ‘60s.
"Here come de' judge!" (reprising comedian Pigmeat Markham and further popularized by guest star Sammy Davis Jr. and Flip Wilson.
So it appears they both played the part.
That was Sammy Davis, Jr., not Flip Wilson, playing the judge, and Lily Tomlin played the operator.
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Yep, Flip was usually in drag and Judy Carne was the British girl who Burt Reynolds used to beat-up every so often.
The Black bikini dancer (Theresa Graves?) went on to her own series, Get Christie Love then quit Hollywood to become a minister.
I remember seeing this on a "Best of Laugh-In" retrospective in the mid-'90s, and it blew me away then.
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Both Rowan and MacDonald served in the Far East in WW2, different jobs and different theaters but it was a connection.
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