Of the hundreds of hours of television I have been involved in as a producer, writer, director and network executive, "Laugh-In” was the most fulfilling, rewarding and fun.

The Sexy Sixties. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" all at the same time. Beginning January 22, 196B, every Monday night at 8:00O, over fifty million American television viewers began to hear things like "Sock it to me," "Here come the judge," "Well, ring my chimes," "lf it feels good, do it,” “l just want to swing," “Look that up in your Funk and Wagnall’s," "Make love not war,” "You bet your sweet bippy," "Very interesting," and "Here's Dicky".

Over half of the people watching television on Monday nights were waiting to visit The Cocktail Party and to watch funny young people pop out of a multi-colored "Joke Wall” with a "Chicken Joke" and then bring us the News of the Past Present and Future, or to see who would get the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award. They would visit with the Fabulous Farkel Family or share in the sometimes violent romance of Gladys Ormphby and her suitor, the Walnetto King, Tyrone ##lorneigh or keep up to date with "Laugh-ln's” Mod Mod World, and hear the latest in Sports News from Big Al and then get a good dose of the “Quickies”. All of that and much more was what made up "Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-ln.”

In the late sixties, skirts and tempers were getting shorter, hair was getting longer and that was lust the men. Young people were burning draft cards, brassieres and anything else they could put in a pipe. Newspapers, magazines and television were still accepting cigarette ads. We had the hula-hoop and the twist, go-go dancing and rock and roll with girls wearing fringed dresses dancing in cages. We had the Beatles, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory and a show called "That Was The Week That Was."

America was faced with an unpopular war, protest rallies, nuclear waste, chemical waste, gasoline shortages, student unrest, a tumbling stock market, questions about our leaders, election scandals, unrestrained military spending and a mistrust of anyone over SO. Not unlike now. Man was getting ready to journey to the moon, but kids were having trouble being bused to school. We were struggling to recover from the tragic losses of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. We were wrestling with civil rights, women's rights and equal rights.

During all of this turmoil, a unique group of people banded together to do a new all-comedy show. We took all of the problems and the issues of the sixties and put them into a hip, zany, fast, outrageous, irreverent, anarchistic barrage of comedy that changed the look, sound and pace of television. There were smoke-ins, sit-ins, love-ins and a new program called "Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.”

Rowan and Martin were one of the leading comedy acts who played all of the top nightclubs and they appeared regularly with great success on all of the top television shows such as Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball. They even hosted the "Dean Martin Summer Series” and the NBC "Summer Chevy Series.” They were sophisticated, attractive and very funny.

I had been an executive at NBC and then was under contract to NBC producing specials and "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show." I then went to CBS to produce the Judy Garland series and received my first Emmy nomination. I went on to produce numerous television specials including the first five years of the Grammy Awards.

I had been developing a concept for an all-new comedy TV series, which was made up of new talent performing in brief bursts of cartoon-like humor coupled with news and current events. The working title was "Wacky World of ##low.”

Ed Friendly was a vice president at NBC in charge of TV specials. Ed had tried to buy the rights to "Hellszapoppin," which was a Broadway show in the `20s. I—##Ie had hired me to produce a one-hour pilot entitled "The NBC Follies".starring Steve Lawrence." We worked well together. He later left NBC to form a joint venture with me to produce various specials, pilots and series. While all of that was going on, a brilliant young Englishman, by the name of Digby Wolfe, arrived in Los Angeles. I met Digby at a party and we laughed for three weeks straight. He had been one of the original writers on "That Was The Week That Was." He had worked as the opening act for The Beatles and hosted his own television show in England and Australia. He was very funny and wildly creative. Digby brought the irreverent insight of a lovable revolutionary with an intellectual understanding of the world as seen through the eyes of a brilliantly humorous anarchist. When we started, the show had a working title of "The Wacky World of Now." After the show was in production, Digby lobbied NBC and Timex and me to change the title to "Laugh-ln," for which to this day Digby still gets a royalty. There was no question that Digby did lean slightly to the left, which in the sixties was certainly reflective of the loyal opposite on the political battlefield. Balancing that, we also had a writer by the name of Paul Keyes. He had written for Jack Paar and was responsible for a lot of the sexiest jokes in "The Dean Martin Show." Paul leaned so far to starboard that he almost fell over. He not only wrote speeches for Nixon, but at one point actually had an office in the White House.

Tons of copy has been written about the creation of "Laugh-|n" and who was responsible for what. While the original contract clearly states that "Laugh-In" was "a concept created by George Schlatter," there is no doubt that the show enjoyed the combined efforts and input of the largest, most creative group of writers, editors, composers, directors, scenic and costume designers, along with perhaps one of the most talented casts ever assembled. About that, there has never been any dispute. From the first day, Digby and Paul Keyes were less than compatible. Paul's unique humor was very basic, blue-collar, and sexist and made up largely of word plays and double-entendre. Digby's forte was much more intellectual with political and social satire based more on the British style of humor with much influence shown of "That Was The Week That Was" and "The Goon Show." If Keyes was the Marx Brothers and Mae West and Henny Youngman, Digby was Noel Coward and George F. Kaufman and Peter Sellers.

Fortunately, Digby prevailed. The writing staff was equally balanced between young liberals, older conservatives, traditional joke writers, cartoonists, graphic artists and truly outrageous sketch writers for whom there had never been an outlet. We had the direction of Marc Warren, Gordon Wiles and Billy Foster, all of whom aged noticeably during their tours of duty. We had special material by Billy Barnes, who could rhyme more jokes into lyrics than anyone since Larry Hart. When the rest of the world was still "Hep" we were already `Hip" with great original musical themes by Ian Bernard, costumes by Michael Travis, sets by Jay Krause, Bob Keene and Ken Johnson and choreography by Hugh Lambert. Art Trugman painted all of those graphics all over Goldie and Judy.

We had a warehouse full of props by Gary Necessary and a list of great crew members too long to mention and too good not to mention. MTV was still years away so the fast cuts, multiple images and kaleidoscopic visual effects actually were a big part of our contribution to the APT of Television. "Laugh-ln" was the inspiration for many future shows. In my opinion, "Hee Haw" was an embarrassing rip off of "Laugh-ln" and, since Lorne Michaels was one of our writers, `Saturday Night Live" was obviously a child of "Laugh-ln." Joan Ganz Cooney of PBS said many times that "Laugh-ln" was the inspiration for "Sesame Street." On the other hand, I have always maintained that we drew heavily on an endless list of elements, which we combined into this new TV concept. Our relationship with Ernie Kovacs certainly affected the format, as did much of the humor that had gone before us.

Part of the secret of "Laugh-in" was maintaining a balanced political viewpoint.  It's very difficult to do pro-establishment humor and all jokes need a victim, but we did try to present everyone's opinions in a funny way. Example: In the case of the abortion controversy (yes, it was going on 25 years ago]. We did say "It is wrong to kill the fetus and let the father live," but we also said "Everybody who is for abortion has already been born." The next week we said, "Not only should abortion be legal, in some cases it should be retroactive."

Comments on both sides always stirred a bit of controversy. We did some sketches about police brutality during the Chicago Democratic Convention and later we said for everyone who is angry with the police, "The next time you are being mugged, call a hippie." Yes, we came out strong in support of equal rights and women's liberation. On the other hand, when Dan asked Dick if he was for women's liberation, Dick remarked yes, he had liberated a few ladies just last week. The trick was to occasionally be sexist, always be sexy, but to intelligently and amusingly present both sides. The best example of how we maintained the political balance was our tireless pursuit of arch conservative, William F. Buckley. When we first asked him he replied, "Not only do I refuse to appear, I resent having been asked." I continued to pursue "Wild Bill" for many, many months. He finally agreed to be on the show when I offered to fly him to Beautiful Downtown Burbank in a plane with two right wings. He appeared on the show and he was great. He also expressed his own political views and, according to Bill, he reached a larger audience by appearing on "Laugh-In" than he could have reached in any other way.

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin not only brought their well-honed comedy style to the program, but also became the "catalyst" that tied the wondrous disparate group of creative talent together. Then we had Digby Wolfe, who helped create the content and attitude of the show, Carolyn Raskin and Art Schneider, whose editing skills and dedication contributed so much to the look, pace, style and energy of the show, and my Ex·partner, Ed Friendly, persuaded NBC to air the show and then sold it to Jim Ellers at Timex. Then there was Paul Keyes, who was intensely conservative and helped keep the political balance of the show. Most of all was the brilliant staff of writers who worked 6 - 7 days a week, sometimes I2 and I4 hours a day, to supply the endless barrage of topical, visual and satirical comedy that was required and a brilliant cast of performers who brought their own energy, characters and attitudes and their improvisation skills to scripts that ran up to 700 pages with taping sessions that often lasted well into the middle of the night.

That cast performed, improvised and created some of the most memorable characters ever on the air while they were dropping through trap doors, getting hit with water, doing pratfalls and avoiding the watchful eye of the network brass and the continual harassment by censors. It was a blast.

Some of the favorite regular cast members were Goldie Hawn, who, as herself, was pure magic, Lily Tomlin who brought us many characters such as Little Edith Ann and Ma Bell's own Ernestine, Arte Johnson as Tyrone E. Horneigh and The Russian Rosemenko plus the lovable German Wolfgang. Ruth Buzzi scored regularly in a whole list of memorable characters such as Gladys Ormphby and Busy Buzzi plus many more and appeared with Dick Martin as the two slightly inebriated Swizzlers. Every one loved the always-hysterical JoAnne Worley, with her feather boa and high notes and the equally hysterical "Uncle Al! The Kiddies Pal" Alan Sues. Henry Gibson brought us his thoughtful poetry and Gary Owens always scored as our trusty `pun-meister' announcer.

People still love our "stunt runt- sock it to me" girl, Judy Carne who spent the first three seasons getting hit with buckets of water. David Madden was always there throwing confetti as both Teresa Graves and Chelsea Brown sizzled in bikinis, covered with body graphics. And Dan Rowan appeared frequently as the ultra right wing General Bull Right.

We all were grateful to the endless and unusual personalities who made cameo appearances each week. We had everyone from President Richard Nixon, Evangelist Billy Graham and author Truman Capote to stars such as Michael Caine, Sonny and Cher, Carol Burnett, Orson Welles, Tim Conway, Marcello Mastroiani, Bob Hope, Ringo Starr, The Bee Gee's, Roger Moore, Jim Garner, Buddy Hackett, Danny Kaye and over one hundred more who came to Beautiful Downtown Burbank for some laughs. None of our success would have been possible without the support of Herb Schlosser, who at the time was head of programming at NBC. Herb withstood the constant pressure from the censors, who worked full time to tame both me and the show.  

Most of all I am grateful to my lovely wife Jolene and our daughters Maria and Andrea, who put up with not seeing me for weeks at a time. When I did make it home before they went to bed, I kept trying out jokes on them night after night. Jolene was the person who first suggested `SOCK IT TO ME" as a segment. Jolene had worked with Ernie Kovacs. She was the `girl in the tub" and Ernie did things to Jolene like custard pies and such. Jolene had been listening to an Aretha Franklin recording of `Respect" when the phrase "Sock it to me" was repeated over and over. She thought "Sock it to me" would be a great regular segment for the show. BOY WAS SHE EVER RIGHT.

We always tried to obey our own rule of `Keep it short and keep it funny." The first season of "Laugh-In," before things got uptight, Dan and Dick sent me a plaque that said, "When skating on thin ice, our safety is in our speed." When we finally fell through the ice, it was not due to our lack of speed. By maintaining the political balance of the show, we were able to avoid , showing any intent, bias, or agenda.

When Richard Nixon was elected for a second term, Paul Keyes returned to the show and, in my opinion, his fierce loyalty to his friend, the President, resulted in losing that critical balance. As Nixon began his second term in office and decided he did not want to have to put up with political discontent, an edict came down from NBC that this kind of material should no longer be part of "Laugh-In." I was under great political and network pressure, so I waved good-bye one finger at a time and, after the fifth season, I left the show. Within a year, the show went off the air. Shortly thereafter, Richard Nixon was forced to resign from office and waved his famous good-bye as he boarded his helicopter to take him away to his place in history. At least his place in my history. And suddenly we were both gone.

In a way I think perhaps we were both better off. You see, when Richard Nixon was running for President, he appeared on the show and said, "SOCK IT TO ME?" Many people felt that his appearance on a youthful and Hip show got him the extra votes he needed to win a close election. I am still sorry about that. We are, however, proud of the S Emmys, the 26 Emmy Nominations plus the Golden Globes and the many other awards we won and the place in history that "Laugh-In" still occupies. 

In all there were I44 "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" shows produced, which have now been digitally re-mastered. We are proud of them. They look great and they are great. Most of all I think we are proud that, at a time of great national tension, we were able to bring laughter and joy to a troubled nation. We enjoyed that and we are still grateful that the audience appreciated the results of our effort as well. Revisiting these shows as we restored them has brought back many wonderful memories for all of us and we hope that you will share in those memories.

What you have just read are my own observations reflecting back on events that took place 25 years ago. I was tough and demanding, but I demanded as much from myself as I expected from the cast, the crew and the other writers. In I967, with an unprecedented SO share and every star in show business wanting to appear on the show and with all of those awards for the cast and staff on the way, I must have been a lotto handle. Others may remember these events differently, but no one can quarrel with my passion for the show, my love, respect and gratitude for the people involved nor with the success we enjoyed and its impact on television.

Now that the world is once more in the same kind of turmoil it was back in I967, everyone asks about the possibility of doing a new "Laugh-In." I continue to have meetings and discussions about "Laugh-In ZOO4" and I may do it if I can get the proper assurances that we would be allowed to be as outrageous, irreverent and meaningful as we were Q5 years ago. It seems strange that with all of the new permissiveness as to language, subject matter, clothing and the lack thereof, the networks are still very nervous about disturbing the status quo the way we used to in the beginning of our "Laugh-In" adventure. Who knows? It just may be time once more to... "Sock it to you." In the meantime we continue to wish peace, love and laughter to everyone.