The Best of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (1 Viewer)

This is just too cool for words! Even though this show pre-dates me by a year or two, it's still one of the funniest TV shows made!

Has anyone purchased this? (It was released on June 24th.) How good is it?

LOL! John, actually it was Rowan and Martin's Laugh In. It launched many a movie career for alot of comedians, but I can't really say if it got Rowan or Martin many movie roles. The show ran for a number of years and then I lost interest in it or something else was better to watch.

I'd love to know what's on this myself. If it is the same as the CBS special that aired about 6 years ago, then it would definitely be worth picking up. Plus I could chuck my EP recorded VHS of it.

It says Lowan in the title of the thread.

Does anyone know if there is any hope of any more episodes from this classic series being released on DVD? Thanks.

"Sock it to me. Sock it to me. Sock it to me!" Yeah, you bet your sweet bippy I watched this show. For its time, it was very, very fast-moving. It was actually a lot of fun. I remember the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and other interesting musical acts appearing on it. Those were the days....

I really enjoyed seeing it again. The cast is very talented, though I found some of the humor to be rather dated. Alot of what was controversial in 1968 isn't shocking at all now...all in all, though, it's worth a look just for the cast, including a young Goldie Hawn.

I'll never forget one of their segments having to do with News of the Future, twenty years from now. They had one episode in which Dan Rowan said, "President Ronald Reagan..." -- and you can hear the audience laugh at the absurdity of the suggestion at the time (ca. 1968). They weren't all that far off the mark.

Considering the high price these sets cost, I'm not surprised that we haven't seem more of this show coming out. Rhino might have let their license lapse. Maybe some other company, like Shout Factory will pick it up for more releases. I'm not sure how well full season sets would sell, but I'm sure the first couple of seasons would be good sellers.

I have to agree that some of the humor is a bit dated.

What disappointed me about these two sets were the small amount of Lily Tomlin's Ernestine and Edith Ann characters. I remember loving those two characters in the early 70s. I'd love to see more of the vintage Laugh In stuff from Lily.

Besides Rhino, Guthy-Renker had a series of Laugh-In's they were offering by mail, similar to the way you can order the Best of Dean Martin dvd's now, although the Laugh-In's were complete episodes. You got one dvd (2 episodes) to begin with, and then you received two dvd's every other month for a total of 19 dvd's or 38 episodes. The packaging is nothing special, as opposed to Rhino's really fine sets, and they were rather pricey--each shipment of two dvd's (4 episodes) with the tax and shipping cost $47.25, but this is one show I was willing to pay for the episodes. Unfortunately, I did not start getting them when they were first available. I was 2/3 of the way through the selections when I got a notice they were no longer selling them. No explanation was given. If they had let me buy them all at once I would've gotten the remaining ones. As it stands, there are 6 dvd's (12 episodes) that I did not receive. I have been looking for them anywhere (used or new etc.) but have never come across them.

I don't know if anyone is interested, but since I have the info I will post it here.

The Rhino episodes that are available are:

Season 1: Episodes #3, 9

Season 2: Episodes #15, 16, 32

Season 3: Episodes #52, 54, 60, 61, 64, 65

Season 4: Episode #87

The Guthy-Renker Episodes that were released are:

Season 1: Episodes #8, 10, 13

Season 2: Episodes #18, 19, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 33, 34, 36, 38, 39

Season 3: Episodes #42, 43, 48, 50, 51, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63

Season 4: Episodes #67, 69, 71, 73, 77, 79, 81, 82

Season 5: Episodes #93, 101

I guess I should point out that the episodes, both Rhino and Guthy-Renker, were not in any particular order. Each Guthy-Renker dvd had a title such as "Look That Up in Your Funk and Wagnall's" and two episodes included--in this case episodes #10, 13.

If anyone knows the titles of the remaining six dvd's that I don't have, I would like to know as it would help in searching for them somewhere. I know the episodes that were on each one, but I don't know the titles.

Those dvd's had the following episodes on each disc:

*#20, #27

*#33, #67

*#38, #53

*#48, #79

*#93, #28

*#71, #101

All in all, if one is a fan of Laugh-In, there are, or were, 50 episodes of the series available on dvd, a little above 1/3 of the episodes, which is pretty good for a variety series on dvd. I hope to find those other 12 episodes someday!

Say Goodnight, Dick

MartinP-
It's been a long time since you originally posted the episodes you're looking for but I do know that episodes #71 & #101 are on the Guthy -Renker volume titled "Can We Just Do It Til We Need Glasses?"
Episode #93 is on the "La Dee Flipping Dah" volume.
You can find these on ebay or amazon, although sometimes the sellers want a lot of money for them.
If I find out any more info I will post here to let you know.

Seeing this thread revived piqued my curiosity. Does anyone happen to know what's on the Guthy-Renker "25th Anniversary Special"?

Why hasn't their been more releases after Vol. 1 & 2? Did Rhino lose distribution rights? Who owns them now?

Mike*HTF said:

Seeing this thread revived piqued my curiosity. Does anyone happen to know what's on the Guthy-Renker "25th Anniversary Special"?

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It's the anniversary show that was aired on NBC in Feb. 1993 (minus commercials, of course) with various clips from Laugh In.

darkrock17 said:

Why hasn't their been more releases after Vol. 1 & 2? Did Rhino lose distribution rights? Who owns them now?

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I don't know why Rhino stopped. I wrote to them once to ask if they'd be releasing more L I and they said they had no plans to. It's a shame because they did such a good job with restoring the picture quality......but they did need to put more than 6 episodes in one set, for what they were charging.
Maybe someone else will get the rights one day, or as somebody else mentioned mabye L I will be on MOD one day.

No Laugh-In on MOD, somebody get Shout Factory to take over distribution.

darkrock17 said:

No Laugh-In on MOD, somebody get Shout Factory to take over distribution.

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I'd LOVE if Shout would take it over like they've done with other tv shows. Is anybody from Shout listening on these boards?

nobajoba said:

MartinP-
It's been a long time since you originally posted the episodes you're looking for but I do know that episodes #71 & #101 are on the Guthy -Renker volume titled "Can We Just Do It Til We Need Glasses?"
Episode #93 is on the "La Dee Flipping Dah" volume.
You can find these on ebay or amazon, although sometimes the sellers want a lot of money for them.
If I find out any more info I will post here to let you know.

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Hey, Todd, thanks for reviving this thread a little bit!
I echo the wish that SHOUT would try a Laugh-In release!
If anyone is interested--this past July someone posted an
entire episode of the LAUGH-IN game show spin-off
"Letters to Laugh-In" on youtube. It was only on for three
months--it couldn't complete against Dark Shadows at
the height of its popularity. Hmmm--wondering--has any
other television series had a spin-off that was a game show?
Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls.

MartinP-
Look at this! This is the whole collection of Laugh In dvds put out by Guthy Renker.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Laugh-In-Sock-It-To-Me-Collection-Set-of-20-DVDs-/370658080671?pt=US_Wholesale_DVDs_Blu_ray_Movies&hash=item564cf1779f