George Schlatter didn’t set out to create a television legend, much less become one himself. In 1967, he just wanted to produce a free-form TV comedy show that would combine up-to-date satire with the visual blackouts of old-time burlesque and vaudeville. And so, in that candy-colored Aquarian era of sit-ins, be-ins, and love-ins, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In was born.
The show, which debuted on NBC in January 1968 and ran for 140 episodes, featured what may well be the greatest ensemble cast of comedians ever assembled in one hour. Besides its hosts, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin (who feuded bitterly off-air), the regulars included Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Henry Gibson, Gary Owens, Judy Carne, Teresa Graves, Goldie Hawn, and, eventually, a genius named Lily Tomlin. A very young Lorne Michaels was one of the writers, and the future studio executive Sherry Lansing spent a season, standing lissome atop a piano, proclaiming, “Sock it to me!”
