Posted on 05/24/2008 9:02:59 PM PDT by lunarbicep
Dick Martin, the zany half of the comedy team whose "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" took television by storm in the 1960s, making stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and creating such national catch-phrases as "Sock it to me!" has died. He was 86.
Martin, who went on to become one of television's busiest directors after splitting with Rowan in the late 1970s, died Saturday night of respiratory complications at a hospital in Santa Monica, family spokesman Barry Greenberg said.
"He had had some pretty severe respiratory problems for many years, and he had pretty much stopped breathing a week ago," Greenberg said.
Martin was surrounded by family and friends when he died just after 6 p.m., Greenberg said.
"Laugh-in," which debuted in January 1968, was unlike any comedy-variety show before it. Rather than relying on a series of tightly scripted song-and-dance segments, it offered up a steady, almost stream-of-consciousness run of non-sequitur jokes, political satire and madhouse antics from a cast of talented young actors and comedians that also included Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley and announcer Gary Owens.
Presiding over it all were Rowan and Martin, the veteran nightclub comics whose standup banter put their own distinct spin on the show.
Like all straight men, Rowan provided the voice of reason, striving to correct his partner's absurdities. Martin, meanwhile, was full of bogus, often risque theories about life, which he appeared to hold with unwavering certainty.
“Funk & Wagnall’s”.
‘Laugh-In’ made that encyclopedia famous.
I was stationed on an Army post stateside when Laugh-In was at its peak. I remember that a crowd would form in the day room to watch the program. The howls were loudest when Rowan would appear as General Bull Right.
The Judy Carne/Lily Tomlin error was originally mine. Don’t know why I got the names mixed up, old age I guess. I didn’t ever watch the re-runs, just my memory from the original shows...
Anyway, I thought Judy Carne was a lot prettier than Lily Tomlin, but Lily was funny, especially with Edith Ann (”And that’s the TRUTH!”) and her other characters.
I remember reading something at the time that pointed out that the “dumb blonde” Goldie Hawn, was actually a really bright person.
Correction. Sheesh.
“I didn’t ever watch the re-runs, just my memory from the original shows...” and looking it up on Wiki tonight, as well.
Rowan: "Oh really. How did that happen?"
Martin: "Slowly."
I remember that when they aired them on Nick-at-Night in the late ‘80s (Laugh-In was cancelled in ‘73, a year before I was born). Not only got the year right of the Berlin Wall falling (except for the moat part) and Reagan being President 20 years later, but I rather wish Reagan had come back to run for Governor after he was President and stopped that RINO bozo Pete Wilson. ;-)
Laugh-In was the last TV show to do extensive physical editing of videotape. The sequences were built in the editing process. Most of the studio sessions involved a performer doing a series of lines that would ultimately end up in several shows. They’d get cut apart, put on different reels, then spliced together to build the weekly sequences. Most of that ‘timing’ referred to in the article occurred in the editing process.
Those were the days when it was possible to sneak into NBC Burbank if you knew the trick. I spend several nights sitting in the empty audience seats, watching George shoot those insert reels. Sigh! Those were the days...
Thanks for posting that clip. Dick Martin is priceless in that!
That segment is my favorite Laugh-In reel just because of that.
There used to be a bar in Barnegat, NJ, “Down the Hatch” that featured “dancers.” Danny the owner mentioned a couple of times that Goldie danced at another bar he had before she made it in Hollywood.
To which islands are you referring?
Why, the “far flung Isles of Langerhans”, of course.
I'll miss you Dick. R.I.P.
Thanks for the great links to the videos. What funny and mind stretching stuff. Thank you Dick Martin and Dan Rowan and Goldie and Ruth and Archie and all the rest.
I was in college when the show was running and it was a fixture each week.
"Melons"
God, he looked TERRIBLE!! I hadn’t seen Martin since the 70s show. Pleshette also looks terrible, but at least I recognized her!
Laugh In was never funny to me, but it helped a lot of young stars-to-be like Goldie Hawn.
I knew Dick Martin’s ex-wife in Santa Barbara circa 1983. She was no looker. Must have been his wife before the Playmate!
Verrrrrrry interesting.....but sad.
Wanna walnetto?
RIP
You are fortunate to have known him........
Damn! He nailed the falling of the Berlin Wall and RR in the WH to the YEAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ8Vrvy0VeE
Adult language warning for this blooper and outtake reel. But it's hilarious. Also it's 9 minutes long.
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