Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In coming to DVD - Blu-ray Forum

Vilya · 07-06-2017, 12:11 AM

I received this news article today:

"The jokes are flying again; George Schlatter and Lily Tomlin chortle as 'Laugh-In' nears 50. 'And that's the truth.'

by Grerg Braxton Los Angeles Times 7/5/2017

Once upon a time in TV Land, a sketch-comedy show from "beautiful downtown Burbank" swept through prime time like a comic cyclone.

The weekly mayhem was anchored by two relatively straitlaced comedians in tuxedos and included a bizarre array of characters: a cigarette-puffing German who found everything "veeerry interesting"; a hairnet-wearing spinster who was constantly harassed by a grumbling dirty old man; a snarky telephone operator who would harass customers; and a goofy blond named Goldie who danced with all sorts of weird markings scribbled on her bikini-clad body.

And then there was the flurry of catchphrases: "Here comes the judge," "You bet your sweet bippy," "Sock it to me!" and -- punctuated by a bratty raspberry -- "And that's the truth."

Nothing on TV resembled "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" when the hourlong series premiered in 1968 on NBC, and nothing has really looked like it since it left the air in 1973. Although "Saturday Night Live," "MADtv" and other sketch shows have captured some of the flavor of "Laugh-In," no other comedy show has matched it in terms of its hyper-speed outrageousness and offbeat sensibility.

"People had never seen anything like it," said creator and producer George Schlatter in a phone interview. "There were no rules. It was a moment of utopian TV. It was a collection of an enormous group of people who were very talented, dedicated and outrageous at a time when outrageousness was coming into vogue."

"We were beloved," added actress-comedian-playwright Lily Tomlin, a member of the large "Laugh-In" cast, which included Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Judy Carne, Alan Sues and Gary Owens. "It was such a phenomena, every star in Hollywood wanted to come on."

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the show, Time Life is releasing a new DVD box set, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series," that contains all 140 complete episodes broadcast during the show's six seasons. (More than 60% of the installments have never been available on home video.)

The timing of the release seems particularly relevant, said Schlatter, who produced several TV shows and specials throughout his extensive career, including lengthy associations with the Grammy Awards and Rat Packers like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

" 'Laugh-In' was always a feel-good show, and right now, I think there's an appetite for people to feel good again," he said. "All the things we were talking about in 1968 are things we're talking about today. We have an unpopular war, an unpopular president, the military. It's like those things have never really gone away."

The variety series originated as a one-time special in 1967. The show made such an impression that it was bought back as a series the following year, taking the place of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."

Mixing a psychedelic vibe with a torrent of silly one-liners, double-entendres and pointed social and political commentary, "Laugh-In" was so influential and had such a grip on pop culture that some industry observers have credited the show with giving presidential candidate Richard Nixon a major boost when he appeared in a brief cameo and awkwardly uttered "Sock it to me?"

The cast was huge and culturally diverse, and many, including Gibson, who offered little poems, loud-voiced Worley and "Sock it to me" girl Carne, became audience favorites.

The then-unknown Hawn went from playing a "really dumb blond" to winning an Oscar for supporting actress in 1970 for her first major movie role in "Cactus Flower." Her versatile and busy career includes her recent teaming with Amy Schumer for the mother-daughter comedy "Snatched."

Tomlin had a hugely successful career following "Laugh-In" in films like "Short Cuts," "9 to 5" and "Nashville," the last of which garnered her an Oscar nomination for supporting actress. Her acclaimed one-woman stage show, "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe," brought her a Tony Award. And she currently costars with her "9 to 5" pal Jane Fonda in the Netflix comedy "Grace and Frankie," for which she was nominated for Emmys in 2015 and '16.

Schlatter said the risque humor of "Laugh-In" often pushed the envelope: "We had six censors. They would be looking for something, and then we would do something else."

The series attracted top guest stars including John Wayne, Debbie Reynolds, Sonny & Cher, Kirk Douglas, Diana Ross and Jack Lemmon. Announcer Owens would introduce the proceedings with a hand cupped over his ear. A long-haired, high-voiced crooner named Tiny Tim strummed a ukulele and crooned "Tip-toe Thru' the Tulips With Me." "And when you had moments like John Wayne standing next to Tiny Tim, well, you can't get better than that," says Schlatter with a chuckle at the memory.

" 'Laugh-In' was such an important and pioneering show in so many ways," said Ken Feil, author of the 2014 book "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In." "The show had this strategy to insert or introduce controversial content into a mainstream TV show."

Its approach to comedic riffs on topical issues helped pave the way for acclaimed series like "All in the Family" and "Maude" and, thanks to its relentless pace, even Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons," cites it as an influence, said Feil in a phone interview. "The jokes were pelted at the audience so quickly."

Feil also likened Nixon's appearance on the show to the current trend of politicians appearing on talk shows and poking fun at themselves. "That's probably the most famous example, and you can see a direct relevance to President Donald Trump."

Of the Nixon cameo, Schlatter says, "People tell me his appearance on 'Laugh-In' is probably what got him elected again. I have to live with that. He was definitely not a comedian, but he was a lot funnier than folks might think."

Tomlin said doing the show was often chaotic: "There was no audience. They would be setting up a set for a joke, filming another joke and breaking down another set all at the same time."

Tomlin joined the show in the third season and introduced two of its most memorable characters -- Ernestine, the gossipy switchboard operator with the snort who would say, "One ringy dingy, two ringy dingy" and "Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?," and Edith Ann, the bratty little girl who sat in an oversize chair and offered her own humorous takes on life.

"Ernestine was an overnight success. I was just stunned," said Tomlin. "I would be in the market in Malibu, and people would stop me, wanting me to do her."

Fans have approached Schlatter for years about reviving "Laugh-In."

"It would be so much simpler to do it now than it was then," he said. "We need it now more than ever."

Vilya · 07-08-2017, 12:25 AM

Here is a link to Time Life with ordering info. You have to scroll down a bit to find the "140 episodes on 38 DVDs" option, or use the drop down menu. The whole show is expensive: $249.95!

http://timelife.com/products/best-of-laughin

barbarianfan82 · 07-08-2017, 10:04 PM

I just saw this set last night.not bad

Marsh · 07-09-2017, 09:17 PM

I just reviewed the Rowan and Martin's Laugh In:The Complete Series DVD box set. Here's a link to the review:
https://hubpages.com/entertainment/R...Set-DVD-Review

Marshall

Vilya · 07-09-2017, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marsh

I just reviewed the Rowan and Martin's Laugh In:The Complete Series DVD box set. Here's a link to the review:
https://hubpages.com/entertainment/R...Set-DVD-Review

Marshall

Thank you for the detailed review. I just can't decide about that steep price.

Marsh · 07-09-2017, 10:24 PM

Vilya,

You're welcome. Thanks for the kind words about the review.

Marshall

JMK · 08-20-2017, 04:26 AM

Time Life's new Laugh-In collection has sparked the interest of several Blu-ray.com readers.

A number of members have contacted me over the past few weeks asking about Time Life’s immense new Laugh-In set (https://www.blu-ray.com/dvd/Rowan-an...es-DVD/138826/), and I’m happy to report that the venerable organization was able to send me a review copy, which has been a wonderful trip down memory lane, albeit with some rose colored glasses maybe seeming a little less rosy in hindsight. If you were a kid growing up in the late sixties or early seventies, as I was, there was one place and one place only you needed to be planted on Monday nights, namely in front of the family television, probably arguing with your Dad that he really didn’t need to watch Gunsmoke, since (as certain kids may have argued at the time) “if you’ve seen one episode of that show, you’ve seen them all.” While Laugh-In certainly had a certain uniformity of structure, offering regular bits like the party scenes and recurring vignettes with everything from the “verrry interrressting” German soldier to Ruth Buzzi’s Gladys getting harassed by a lecherous old man, in other ways Laugh-In virtually deconstructed everything television audiences had come to expect from that era’s variety shows.

Revisiting the show courtesy of this 50th Anniversary collection (the special which spawned the series aired in 1967, while the broadcast run of the actual series began in 1968), there’s still an enjoyably anarchic quality about a lot of the episodes, though it has to be admitted that many jokes fall flat and even some of the sight gags get tired after a while. It’s kind of fun to revisit the shows, though, and realize that the immortal “sock it to me” actually began as “sock it to ’em” (at least as evidenced by the premiere episode), and that now infamous moments like Presidential candidate Richard Nixon reciting that line last for all of a second or two. The show is still a whirlwind of energy, with wonderful characters created by its inimitable cast, which, over the several season run of the show, included a number of iconic performers, including Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Alan Sues, Joanne Worley and Lily Tomlin. (Only true television geeks like yours truly may recall that Tomlin emigrated from another Monday night show, ABC’s short lived The Music Scene, which in fact got served a quick cancellation notice because it couldn’t compete with Laugh-In.)

Time Life typically does a very nice job with these niche releases, and they’ve done so again with this release. Each of the six seasons of the show is housed in its own separate DVD multi-disc case, and there’s a bonus DVD with a 25th Anniversary Reunion Special and interview with George Schlatter and Alan Sues. Individual DVD season discs boast a number of other supplements, including some archival blooper reels. Everything comes packaged in an oversized box plastered with the Day-Glo imagery that came to define the production design of the show. Each of the seasons comes with an insert booklet offering trivia about the episodes, and the entire collection also has another booklet with more information.

The show seems positively quaint at times now, with a kind of leering, salacious quality in some of the humor which may not play as "innocently" as it probably did back in its broadcast era. But the series is so stuffed with ingenuity, including in its presentational aspects, that it's easy to overlook some of its shortcomings. The one thing that many kids thought back in the day maybe turns out to be the case: Rowan and Martin are often the least appealing part of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. But when you have a supporting cast of characters like this series did, even that hardly matters.

As is hinted at in a disclaimer on the discs, video quality is a little spotty, showing issues like chroma anomalies and fuzziness, but generally speaking and with expectations set accordingly, things look bright, colorful (several episodes come complete with the NBC "living color" peacock intro) and engaging.

For any Baby Boomer who grew up with this show, Laugh-In most definitely comes Highly recommended.

This set is available exclusively from Time Life http://timelife.com/products/laughin. (Some resellers are offering it on sites like eBay.)

majestyx-mj · 09-25-2019, 01:48 AM

Can anyone who owns this set verify that these are dual-layer discs? I would guess so due to the running times of each episode, but one can never tell, especially with some complaints I'm seeing regarding video quality.

Thanks~!

8traxrule · 09-25-2019, 04:57 AM

All discs are dual-layer, but be warned that there is a SERIOUS screw-up with the frame rate on these discs. Most episodes have a jerky, film-like appearance as opposed to the 30fps videotape look that they should have (I noticed ONE episode on the Season 4 set that looked the way it should). It's amazing how many reviewers didn't notice this, or just chalked it up to the age of the material. It's clearly a digital mastering error, the wrong setting being clicked somewhere. Whoever was behind this release should never work in the industry again. The older Rhino and Guthy-Renker Laugh-In DVDs are shown correctly, although they suffer from a few rights-related cuts.

07-06-2017, 12:11 AM	#1
Vilya Blu-ray Count Top contributor Member since:Sep 2011 Location:In the gloaming 4K collection:774 Blu-ray collection:5294 DVD collection:3918 Digital collection:1697 Blu-ray reviews:3 Trading Score:17	Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In coming to DVD I received this news article today: "The jokes are flying again; George Schlatter and Lily Tomlin chortle as 'Laugh-In' nears 50. 'And that's the truth.' by Grerg Braxton Los Angeles Times 7/5/2017 Once upon a time in TV Land, a sketch-comedy show from "beautiful downtown Burbank" swept through prime time like a comic cyclone. The weekly mayhem was anchored by two relatively straitlaced comedians in tuxedos and included a bizarre array of characters: a cigarette-puffing German who found everything "veeerry interesting"; a hairnet-wearing spinster who was constantly harassed by a grumbling dirty old man; a snarky telephone operator who would harass customers; and a goofy blond named Goldie who danced with all sorts of weird markings scribbled on her bikini-clad body. And then there was the flurry of catchphrases: "Here comes the judge," "You bet your sweet bippy," "Sock it to me!" and -- punctuated by a bratty raspberry -- "And that's the truth." Nothing on TV resembled "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" when the hourlong series premiered in 1968 on NBC, and nothing has really looked like it since it left the air in 1973. Although "Saturday Night Live," "MADtv" and other sketch shows have captured some of the flavor of "Laugh-In," no other comedy show has matched it in terms of its hyper-speed outrageousness and offbeat sensibility. "People had never seen anything like it," said creator and producer George Schlatter in a phone interview. "There were no rules. It was a moment of utopian TV. It was a collection of an enormous group of people who were very talented, dedicated and outrageous at a time when outrageousness was coming into vogue." "We were beloved," added actress-comedian-playwright Lily Tomlin, a member of the large "Laugh-In" cast, which included Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Judy Carne, Alan Sues and Gary Owens. "It was such a phenomena, every star in Hollywood wanted to come on." To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the show, Time Life is releasing a new DVD box set, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In: The Complete Series," that contains all 140 complete episodes broadcast during the show's six seasons. (More than 60% of the installments have never been available on home video.) The timing of the release seems particularly relevant, said Schlatter, who produced several TV shows and specials throughout his extensive career, including lengthy associations with the Grammy Awards and Rat Packers like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. " 'Laugh-In' was always a feel-good show, and right now, I think there's an appetite for people to feel good again," he said. "All the things we were talking about in 1968 are things we're talking about today. We have an unpopular war, an unpopular president, the military. It's like those things have never really gone away." The variety series originated as a one-time special in 1967. The show made such an impression that it was bought back as a series the following year, taking the place of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Mixing a psychedelic vibe with a torrent of silly one-liners, double-entendres and pointed social and political commentary, "Laugh-In" was so influential and had such a grip on pop culture that some industry observers have credited the show with giving presidential candidate Richard Nixon a major boost when he appeared in a brief cameo and awkwardly uttered "Sock it to me?" The cast was huge and culturally diverse, and many, including Gibson, who offered little poems, loud-voiced Worley and "Sock it to me" girl Carne, became audience favorites. The then-unknown Hawn went from playing a "really dumb blond" to winning an Oscar for supporting actress in 1970 for her first major movie role in "Cactus Flower." Her versatile and busy career includes her recent teaming with Amy Schumer for the mother-daughter comedy "Snatched." Tomlin had a hugely successful career following "Laugh-In" in films like "Short Cuts," "9 to 5" and "Nashville," the last of which garnered her an Oscar nomination for supporting actress. Her acclaimed one-woman stage show, "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe," brought her a Tony Award. And she currently costars with her "9 to 5" pal Jane Fonda in the Netflix comedy "Grace and Frankie," for which she was nominated for Emmys in 2015 and '16. Schlatter said the risque humor of "Laugh-In" often pushed the envelope: "We had six censors. They would be looking for something, and then we would do something else." The series attracted top guest stars including John Wayne, Debbie Reynolds, Sonny & Cher, Kirk Douglas, Diana Ross and Jack Lemmon. Announcer Owens would introduce the proceedings with a hand cupped over his ear. A long-haired, high-voiced crooner named Tiny Tim strummed a ukulele and crooned "Tip-toe Thru' the Tulips With Me." "And when you had moments like John Wayne standing next to Tiny Tim, well, you can't get better than that," says Schlatter with a chuckle at the memory. " 'Laugh-In' was such an important and pioneering show in so many ways," said Ken Feil, author of the 2014 book "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In." "The show had this strategy to insert or introduce controversial content into a mainstream TV show." Its approach to comedic riffs on topical issues helped pave the way for acclaimed series like "All in the Family" and "Maude" and, thanks to its relentless pace, even Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons," cites it as an influence, said Feil in a phone interview. "The jokes were pelted at the audience so quickly." Feil also likened Nixon's appearance on the show to the current trend of politicians appearing on talk shows and poking fun at themselves. "That's probably the most famous example, and you can see a direct relevance to President Donald Trump." Of the Nixon cameo, Schlatter says, "People tell me his appearance on 'Laugh-In' is probably what got him elected again. I have to live with that. He was definitely not a comedian, but he was a lot funnier than folks might think." Tomlin said doing the show was often chaotic: "There was no audience. They would be setting up a set for a joke, filming another joke and breaking down another set all at the same time." Tomlin joined the show in the third season and introduced two of its most memorable characters -- Ernestine, the gossipy switchboard operator with the snort who would say, "One ringy dingy, two ringy dingy" and "Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?," and Edith Ann, the bratty little girl who sat in an oversize chair and offered her own humorous takes on life. "Ernestine was an overnight success. I was just stunned," said Tomlin. "I would be in the market in Malibu, and people would stop me, wanting me to do her." Fans have approached Schlatter for years about reviving "Laugh-In." "It would be so much simpler to do it now than it was then," he said. "We need it now more than ever." Last edited by Vilya; 07-06-2017 at 12:58 AM.

08-20-2017, 04:26 AM	#7
JMK Blu-ray reviewer Top contributor Member since:Aug 2009 Blu-ray collection:- Trading Score:3	Time Life's new Laugh-In collection has sparked the interest of several Blu-ray.com readers. A number of members have contacted me over the past few weeks asking about Time Life’s immense new Laugh-In set (https://www.blu-ray.com/dvd/Rowan-an...es-DVD/138826/), and I’m happy to report that the venerable organization was able to send me a review copy, which has been a wonderful trip down memory lane, albeit with some rose colored glasses maybe seeming a little less rosy in hindsight. If you were a kid growing up in the late sixties or early seventies, as I was, there was one place and one place only you needed to be planted on Monday nights, namely in front of the family television, probably arguing with your Dad that he really didn’t need to watch Gunsmoke, since (as certain kids may have argued at the time) “if you’ve seen one episode of that show, you’ve seen them all.” While Laugh-In certainly had a certain uniformity of structure, offering regular bits like the party scenes and recurring vignettes with everything from the “verrry interrressting” German soldier to Ruth Buzzi’s Gladys getting harassed by a lecherous old man, in other ways Laugh-In virtually deconstructed everything television audiences had come to expect from that era’s variety shows. Revisiting the show courtesy of this 50th Anniversary collection (the special which spawned the series aired in 1967, while the broadcast run of the actual series began in 1968), there’s still an enjoyably anarchic quality about a lot of the episodes, though it has to be admitted that many jokes fall flat and even some of the sight gags get tired after a while. It’s kind of fun to revisit the shows, though, and realize that the immortal “sock it to me” actually began as “sock it to ’em” (at least as evidenced by the premiere episode), and that now infamous moments like Presidential candidate Richard Nixon reciting that line last for all of a second or two. The show is still a whirlwind of energy, with wonderful characters created by its inimitable cast, which, over the several season run of the show, included a number of iconic performers, including Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Alan Sues, Joanne Worley and Lily Tomlin. (Only true television geeks like yours truly may recall that Tomlin emigrated from another Monday night show, ABC’s short lived The Music Scene, which in fact got served a quick cancellation notice because it couldn’t compete with Laugh-In.) Time Life typically does a very nice job with these niche releases, and they’ve done so again with this release. Each of the six seasons of the show is housed in its own separate DVD multi-disc case, and there’s a bonus DVD with a 25th Anniversary Reunion Special and interview with George Schlatter and Alan Sues. Individual DVD season discs boast a number of other supplements, including some archival blooper reels. Everything comes packaged in an oversized box plastered with the Day-Glo imagery that came to define the production design of the show. Each of the seasons comes with an insert booklet offering trivia about the episodes, and the entire collection also has another booklet with more information. The show seems positively quaint at times now, with a kind of leering, salacious quality in some of the humor which may not play as "innocently" as it probably did back in its broadcast era. But the series is so stuffed with ingenuity, including in its presentational aspects, that it's easy to overlook some of its shortcomings. The one thing that many kids thought back in the day maybe turns out to be the case: Rowan and Martin are often the least appealing part of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. But when you have a supporting cast of characters like this series did, even that hardly matters. As is hinted at in a disclaimer on the discs, video quality is a little spotty, showing issues like chroma anomalies and fuzziness, but generally speaking and with expectations set accordingly, things look bright, colorful (several episodes come complete with the NBC "living color" peacock intro) and engaging. For any Baby Boomer who grew up with this show, Laugh-In most definitely comes Highly recommended. This set is available exclusively from Time Life http://timelife.com/products/laughin. (Some resellers are offering it on sites like eBay.) Last edited by JMK; 08-23-2017 at 02:37 AM.

07-08-2017, 12:25 AM	#2
Vilya Blu-ray Count Top contributor Member since:Sep 2011 Location:In the gloaming 4K collection:774 Blu-ray collection:5294 DVD collection:3918 Digital collection:1697 Blu-ray reviews:3 Trading Score:17	Here is a link to Time Life with ordering info. You have to scroll down a bit to find the "140 episodes on 38 DVDs" option, or use the drop down menu. The whole show is expensive: $249.95! http://timelife.com/products/best-of-laughin

07-08-2017, 10:04 PM	#3
barbarianfan82 Active Member Member since:Mar 2017	I just saw this set last night.not bad

07-09-2017, 09:17 PM	#4
Marsh Member Member since:Dec 2012	I just reviewed the Rowan and Martin's Laugh In:The Complete Series DVD box set. Here's a link to the review: https://hubpages.com/entertainment/R...Set-DVD-Review Marshall

07-09-2017, 10:24 PM	#6
Marsh Member Member since:Dec 2012	Vilya, You're welcome. Thanks for the kind words about the review. Marshall

09-25-2019, 01:48 AM	#8
majestyx-mj Junior Member Member since:May 2017 Location:PA, USA Blu-ray collection:987 DVD collection:256	Can anyone who owns this set verify that these are dual-layer discs? I would guess so due to the running times of each episode, but one can never tell, especially with some complaints I'm seeing regarding video quality. Thanks~!

09-25-2019, 04:57 AM	#9
8traxrule Power Member Member since:Jul 2009 Blu-ray collection:1	All discs are dual-layer, but be warned that there is a SERIOUS screw-up with the frame rate on these discs. Most episodes have a jerky, film-like appearance as opposed to the 30fps videotape look that they should have (I noticed ONE episode on the Season 4 set that looked the way it should). It's amazing how many reviewers didn't notice this, or just chalked it up to the age of the material. It's clearly a digital mastering error, the wrong setting being clicked somewhere. Whoever was behind this release should never work in the industry again. The older Rhino and Guthy-Renker Laugh-In DVDs are shown correctly, although they suffer from a few rights-related cuts.

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