TV's "Laugh-in" comic Dick Martin dies in Calif

npr.org ^ | May 24, 2008

[zeestephen]

wtc911 - thanks - just an hour before my post, I discovered that poster “Travis McGee” and I lived and worked at the same time just a few blocks away from the Bahia Mar Yacht Basin in Ft. Lauderdale, which is where John MacDonald based the “Travis McGee” books - “Travis” the poster was the first to get the Dick Martin story up, and I couldn't believe the “small world” irony

[Awestruck]

R.I.P. Dick.. thanks for many laughs over the years...

[PapaBear3625]

If you're old enough to remember Laugh-In......you're as old as me.

I have fond memories of Laugh-in, particularly Goldie Hawn's segments. You remember when President Richard Nixon did a cameo and went "sock it to me" ?

[oh8eleven]

They also gave us the Farkel Family. From Wikipedia ...

"The Farkel parents, Freddy and Fanny Farkle, played by Dan Rowan and Jo Anne Worley (later by Barbara Sharma), both had dark-colored hair and good eyesight.
Curiously, all the children had red hair and wore glasses, just like their "good friend and trusty neighbor" Ferd Berfel, played by Dick Martin. One daughter, Flicker Farkel, played by Ruth Buzzi, had no lines, she always yelled, 'Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!' "

"The youngest was Sparkle Farkel, played by Goldie Hawn. They also had the twins, Simon and Gar Farkel (a pun on Simon and Garfunkel). Despite being identical twins, they were played by actresses of different races, Pamela Rodgers and Teresa Graves."

LOL ... Laugh In was the best! RIP Dick & Dan.

[wtc911]

There was a film series waiting to happen. For years we argued who would make the best Mcgee (and Meyer). The Rod Taylor - Theodore Bickel effort was pretty good but there should have been a franchise.

[lowbridge]

No, it was Dan Rowan:

Some anecdotes reveal just how far outside the law some C.I.A. agents strayed. One technician was arrested in 1960 after trying to bug a Las Vegas hotel room. The operation had been requested by Sam Giancana, the Chicago mobster, who was then helping the C.I.A. in a plot to assassinate Mr. Castro. Mr. Giancana had been concerned that his girlfriend, the singer Phyllis McGuire, was having an affair with the comedian Dan Rowan, and surveillance was ordered to “determine the extent of his intimacy” with her.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/washington/27cia.html?pagewanted=print

There is no mention as to whether or not Rowan did have an affair with Phylllis, but Rowan did outlive Giancana. :-)

[zeestephen]

wtc - I had completely forgotten about the Rod Taylor movie - I know who Theo Bickel is from a zillion TV character roles, but I can't place him in the film - and, while hunting around “IMDB” for movie trivia, I just discovered that Frank Sinatra NEVER played Travis McGee - I would have bet my life on that fact - actually, Sinatra played Tony Rome, a Miami Beach private investigator who skippers his own big fishing boat

[Tony in Hawaii]

Good night, Dick.

“Laugh-In” was arguably Vaudeville’s last hurrah.

I watched it as a kid, and when I see an episode nowadays, it brings back fond memories.

[wtc911]

Bickel played Meyer, McGee’s brainiac buddy. Nick Nolte at 35 would have been ideal as the skipper of the Busted Flush.

[cartoonistx]

[Lancey Howard]

If you have about three uninterrupted minutes to kill, here is pure bliss.
Turn up your speakers a little and sit back. It doesn’t get any better than this.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nt4HZ7AKp1s

[MistrX]

To which islands are you referring? Why, the “far flung Isles of Langerhans”, of course.

When you get there, would you please tell my electrician that I am still waiting for him? Thanks

[kstewskis]

WOW.

We watched the Andy Williams Show every week as a kid, I don't remember that clip. Goosebumps.

This is one of the best threads I've read here in a long time. Very good memories of being able to stay up past 8:00pm when I was 5. Thanks Travis.

RIP, and goodnight, Dick.

[Leisler]

Good, um....Dick

[T Lady]

I second that.

RIP, Dick.