Here's the first 'Laugh-In'

I didn't get all the jokes. Had to look some of them up in my Funk & Wagnells.

I remember my mom and her friends having a few drinks and laughing so much when they watched this. No, I didn't get the jokes, but I remember Goldie always made me smile because of her voice and her " dumb blonde" act.

MELONS!!!!

Proof that topical comedy never ages well.

[quote]Funk & Wagnells

No.

Joanne and Ruth were my faves!

R1 - Want a Walnetto?

Fun to see the stop/start party sketch was a mainstay from the beginning, and with Barbara Feldon ('Get Smart').

no chicken jokes.

Shocked to find out JoAnne Worley was married to actor Roger Perry. I thought she was a lesbian.

The women of Laugh-In: Chelsea Brown, Goldie Hawn. Judy Carne, Joanne Worley and Ruth Buzzi.

Chelsea Brown and Judy Carne are deceased. Both of them died from pneumonia.

Didn't a bunch of them turn into deplorables?

Wasn't Judy Carne married to Burt?

Here da judge, here come da judge...

I didn't get most of the references -- Walnetto, Funk & Wagnalls, 'here come da judge' -- but my parents did. I just thought Goldie was adorable.

It was a huge hit. I watched it every week. Even the references I did not fully understand were funny. The delivery was always spot on and the pacing was always fast.

I still know all the words to the song that introduced the weekly news.

Sock it to ME?

[quote]Wasn't Judy Carne married to Burt?

Yes, Judy was married to Burt Reynolds. Judy's real name was Joyce Botterill.

"Carne was married to actor Burt Reynolds from 1963 to 1965 and to producer Robert Bergmann from 3 May 1970 to 1971; both marriages were brief and childless, and ended in divorce.

In 1978, after being found not guilty of possessing heroin, she was involved in a car accident along with her second husband; she recovered from a broken neck. Her drug problem continued and she was later arrested again for heroin possession. In 1986, she was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport and convicted of drug possession, serving two of a three-months prison sentence in HM Prison Cookham Wood."

"Her autobiography, Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside: The Bittersweet Saga of the Sock-It-To-Me Girl (1985), detailed her bisexuality, marriage to Burt Reynolds (who unsuccessfully tried to prevent publication), and her experiences with drugs. Carne moved back to Northamptonshire, England, in the 1980s, living quietly in the village of Pitsford. She died from pneumonia on 3 September 2015 at a hospital in Northampton."

Judy also co-starred with Pete Duel in Love on a Rooftop (1966).

"In the early hours of December 31, 1971, Duel died at his Hollywood Hills home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Duel's girlfriend, Dianne Ray, was at his home at the time of his death and discovered his body. Ray later told police the two had watched Duel's series Alias Smith and Jones the previous evening. She later went to sleep in another room while Duel stayed up. Sometime after midnight, Duel entered the bedroom, retrieved his revolver and told Ray "I'll see you later." Ray then said she heard a gunshot from another room and discovered Duel's body."

"According to police, Duel's friends and family said he was depressed about his drinking problem. He had been arrested and pleaded guilty to a driving under the influence accident that injured two people the previous June. Duel's death was later ruled a suicide." Pete was 31.

Who said being a celebrity is always glamorous?

Promo photo from "Love On a Rooftop".

My favorite was Lily Tomlin's character Ernestine, the telephone operator.

I had such a crush on Pete Duel when I was entering adolesence.

Was it his cute face? His non-threatening sexuality? His fist?

I had a crush on Dan Rowan, my first "older man".

Verrrry interesting

I always confuse Pete Duel with the actor who was married to the soap actress Brenda Benet. Brenda also shot herself.

Brenda was married to Bill Bixby. I have no idea why I confuse Bill with Pete Duel, as they looked nothing alike.

Brenda's first husband was Paul Peterson, from The Donna Reed Show. Like Judy Carne, Brenda was also bisexual.

Speaking of getting jokes, I'm not American and had no clue what a Walnetto was. Nor a Spiro Agnew, for that matter. (I was a kid, remember.)

However the war jokes were universal, and the standard of comedy was not such that you needed to be a genius. It was very psychedelic, not only in its use of colour and lighting, but the intense speed of it - at least for the time - and its quick pivots-without-segue from one thing to another. It was a stark contrast to the too-cool-for-school sketch comedy coming out of the UK (The Frost Report, Not Only But Also, etc.)

BIPPY!!!

"You thought I probably didn't remember you....but actually, I never for...GOTCHA!!"

I loved it. Especially Lily Tomlin.

It was very subversive for American TV of that time.

[quote] Speaking of getting jokes, I'm not American and had no clue what a Walnetto was.

None of us kids knew what a Walnetto was, which is what made it so funny. My parents thought it was hysterical. It was a candy that had long since gone out of favor, if it was even still being manufactured at all. The fact that this dirty old man had a pocket full of what must've been 30-year old candy was what made it so funny.

Due to the popularity of the show, they actually began selling Walnettos in stores again. My mother bought some and plopped them in front my dad's after dinner one night. He was thrilled. I guess it brought back childhood memories of going to the movies and buying candy. I tried a few, they weren't bad.

^Until this moment, I never imagined that Walnetto was anything other than imaginary. And dirty.

Ruth Buzzi is on Twitter and still capable of a well-told, funny joke.

‘Say good night Dick’.

Good night, Dick!

Lilly Tomlin would make my mother laugh 'til she cried.

She had little in life to laugh about, so I appreciated that.

[quote]Ruth Buzzi is on Twitter and still capable of a well-told, funny joke.

And reveals quite often that she and her husband are deplorables...

Life certainly wasn't a bowl of cherries for Judy Carne.

Judy Meat. What a weird name.

a poe-em, bah Henry Gibson

If Kay Ballard married Wally Schirra, divorced him and married his brother Bob, she'd be....

Ruth Buzzi is a creepy old conservative. Very disappointing.

"How tasteful."

I used to love those jokes, R38.

I remember on the News of the Future segment Dan Rowan said “Dateline 1988, President Ronald Reagan....” to peals of laugher, as though there could not be anything more absurd. Well, the joke was on us.