Rowan and Martin's Laugh In - why only 2 DVD sets? (1 Viewer)

[nobajoba]

I have most of the Sock It To Me collection videos that were put out by Guthy Renker. As far as I can see there are 2 episodes with Richard Dawson that are included. He was in the 1971-72 season. Like Andy mentioned, Johnny Brown was on the show starting in the 4th season, 1970-71, and there are several episodes with him included on vhs/dvd.
Being a Lily Tomlin fan I watch and collect the episodes with her and it's a shame that most of the episodes with her are not seen or available on dvd/video. She was the main reason to watch the last 3 seasons of L.I. Her characters were AMAZING. I loved "Lula" the party lady, with her boas and glittery outfits and one-liners, followed by her explosive laugh. And that platinum wig was perfect.
As well as Ernestine, Edith Ann, The Tasteful Lady, Suzy Sorority and countless others.

 

[NY2LA]

We've learned variety shows are a problem with music rights but I don't recall this show having much singing beyond background and stuff they made up themselves. If Guthy Renker had it I wonder if it's a similar deal as Carol Burnett Show, where I imagine they had exclusive rights to the show for a set period of time, but gave up on it and the contract has to run out before someone else can have it.
A few years ago I was in a long line at a Hollywood post office, doing a slow burn as the inevitable window hog went on and on. I turned to express frustration to the person behind me in line but when I saw her face my anger evaporated at the sight of Ruth Buzzi. Looking adorable and not very old. I met JoAnn Worley at one point when she was in rehearsal covering a star in a Bway revival - she sounded VERY good. "Oh honey I'll never get to go on" she said, and sadly she was right. Lily in person was a slight surprise in personality, but not a disappointment. Barbara Sharma volunteered at a Hollywood clinic for a while and was very nice and very good at it.
I have to wonder if MOD begins to flourish will we then see the floodgates open for good but comparatively marginal titles we want.

 

[Brian Himes]

I could see Time Life releasing a pretty comprehensive set of this show. It certainly deserves it if just for its place in TV history.

 

[nobajoba]

NY2LA-
What's MOD?

 

[mrz7]

What's MOD?

Made/Manufactured on Demand. Like on the Warner Archives program.....shows, like the 1st season of "Alice", burned to DVD-R's when you order (even though for this particular show, "Alice", the first few discs sets were pressed (not on DVD-R's).

 

[nobajoba]

Oh yes, I saw that. I love it and I hope that it does flourish!

 

[Stan]

Slightly humorous in today's world, but when this show was originally broadcast, I think I was in 4th or 5th grade and all students were sent home with the dreaded letter from the principal.
I wish I still had it, but I do recall it asking parents to boycott the show and certainly not let us innocent children watch it, being so offensive and inappropriate as it was. I still remember seeing plenty of episodes so apparently my parents didn't particularly value the principal's opinion.
Things certainly change over time, the school district would probably be sued today if something like that happened now.

 

[Ian K McLachlan]

Is there any chance that the complete series of this show could be released one day? I remember watching and enjoying it when I was a teenager.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I know DECADES is airing this show on a nightly/daily basis at 5 and 8 PM CT

Any idea if they are airing any episodes beyond the first 70? When the defunct TrioTV had the reruns, they only showed the pilot and the "first half" of the 140 episodes, covering seasons 1-3 and the first four shows of season 4. They never got rerun rights to the back half of the episodes.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

Any idea if they are airing any episodes beyond the first 70? When the defunct TrioTV had the reruns, they only showed the pilot and the "first half" of the 140 episodes, covering seasons 1-3 and the first four shows of season 4. They never got rerun rights to the back half of the episodes.

Decades has been airing episodes from Seasons 4 - 6. I only watch occasionally but saw a few Season 6 episodes in March with Patti Deutsch and Sarah Kennedy as part of the cast. Before that, I saw numerous Season 4 & 5 episodes with Johnny Brown in the cast. They show a different episode in the 8:00pm (CST) slot than the one in the 5:00pm slot, so they've recently started over again with Season 1 episodes. (Note: I only ever get to see the later time slot, so I don't know if Decades shows every episode between the 2 time periods, or if they skip some episodes; but they have shown episodes from all 6 seasons.)

 

[Ron1973]

I know it wasn't exactly a politically correct show, and I haven't watched much of it, but I'm surprised it didn't go longer. If Hee Haw could literally make a span of 4 different decades, a countrified version of Laugh-In, why not Laugh-In?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I know it wasn't exactly a politically correct show, and I haven't watched much of it, but I'm surprised it didn't go longer. If Hee Haw could literally make a span of 4 different decades, a countrified version of Laugh-In, why not Laugh-In?

Well, Hee Haw went to syndication.

Also, wasn't Laugh In a topical show, while Hee Haw was anything but?

 

[Ron1973]

Well, Hee Haw went to syndication.

Also, wasn't Laugh In a topical show, while Hee Haw was anything but?

I guess I was wondering out loud why it didn't attempt syndication? As for topical, I imagine there would still be plenty of fodder for topical stuff-look at Saturday Night Live!

 

[Dave Lawrence]

I guess I was wondering out loud why it didn't attempt syndication? As for topical, I imagine there would still be plenty of fodder for topical stuff-look at Saturday Night Live!

From what I've read about first-run syndication in the 70s, not every market saw the same episodes at the same time. Episodes shown in one market might not air in another market for several months and vice versa. As a result the more topical humor/references wouldn't work as well.

It was the same with game shows in syndication, and as a result, they tried to avoid references to current events and even current holidays (so no Christmas shows). What's My Line, in syndication from the late-60s to mid-70s, couldn't even do a tribute episode when longtime panelist Bennett Cerf died in 1971. When on CBS, the show did tributes when Fred Allen and Dorothy Kilgallen passed. But in syndication, shows weren't airing everywhere in production order, so episodes with Cerf would continue to air in some parts of the country for months after his death; and so it was decided that the topicality of his death couldn't be referenced. Even though Laugh-In's humor was not all topical, I can see why there might be concern that taking that aspect away might hurt the show if attempted in syndication.

George Schlatter, who was not involved with the final season, did try to bring the show back on in the late 70s, again at NBC. It didn't last long, and Rowan and Martin (as part owners of the show) successfully sued him for reviving the format without getting their permission.

 

[Ron1973]

From what I've read about first-run syndication in the 70s, not every market saw the same episodes at the same time. Episodes shown in one market might not air in another market for several months and vice versa. As a result the more topical humor/references wouldn't work as well.

It was the same with game shows in syndication, and as a result, they tried to avoid references to current events and even current holidays (so no Christmas shows). What's My Line, in syndication from the late-60s to mid-70s, couldn't even do a tribute episode when longtime panelist Bennett Cerf died in 1971. When on CBS, the show did tributes when Fred Allen and Dorothy Kilgallen passed. But in syndication, shows weren't airing everywhere in production order, so episodes with Cerf would continue to air in some parts of the country for months after his death; and so it was decided that the topicality of his death couldn't be referenced. Even though Laugh-In's humor was not all topical, I can see why there might be concern that taking that aspect away might hurt the show if attempted in syndication.

George Schlatter, who was not involved with the final season, did try to bring the show back on in the late 70s, again at NBC. It didn't last long, and Rowan and Martin (as part owners of the show) successfully sued him for reviving the format without getting their permission.

Interesting, Dave, and I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the info!

 

[B-ROLL]

Basically when syndicated shows were tape based there would be several sets of tapes that would go out in an approximately six week rotation. The major markets would get the first runs and those shows would then be forwarded to the next station/city on the list.

This was usually done by commercial bus, eg Greyhound or Trailways. Ideally, Monday's show would be shipped Thursday to arrive on Friday so that the station could grab the promos for the show (and week) that would be at the beginning of the tape.

 

[jdee28]

I believe Decades has rerun every single episode of this show, including ones never see before! They reran the entire final season.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Basically when syndicated shows were tape based there would be several sets of tapes that would go out in an approximately six week rotation. The major markets would get the first runs and those shows would then be forwarded to the next station/city on the list.

This was usually done by commercial bus, eg Greyhound or Trailways. Ideally, Monday's show would be shipped Thursday to arrive on Friday so that the station could grab the promos for the show (and week) that would be at the beginning of the tape.

I don't know if this was the terminology all over, but the pro wrestling industry called it "bicycling" the tapes.

 

[BobO'Link]

I don't know if this was the terminology all over, but the pro wrestling industry called it "bicycling" the tapes.

That's the industry word for that process. I have no idea from where it originated but we always thought it had something to do with bicycle couriers used in cities and was appropriated as the term to quickly get a tape/film from one station to another. It was a pretty quick turn-around as you'd put the program that last aired in the mail the day after and hope it got to the next station in time.

Most of ours came/went via UPS. The weekend airing programs went out on Monday and you hoped the next would arrive on Thursday. Some programs used a 2 week cycle so you had several days to verify the tape was good and time to get a replacement in should it not play or have major issues.

It was always a pain to get done if the tape(s) arrived late on a Friday for weekend airing as if there were issues there wouldn't be time to get a replacement. We usually kept a few locally made dupes on hand for those rare instances and strip the national commercials, if playable, from the episode that should have aired to used in the substitute. Fortunately I wasn't involved in that process unless there were issues.

 

[MartinP.]

Decades began airing Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In last December, one episode a day. The episodes were mainly from the first season and not necessarily in order. The last week of the month they aired several episodes that had to do with looking back at the year past, in Laugh-In terms, and these included episodes from Seasons Two and Three.

In January they began airing the series twice a day, beginning with the Pilot. While doing this, they did skip all the episodes they had previously aired in December. Using Hal Erickson's Laugh-In book as a guide, Decades aired all SIX seasons! Decades numbering system for the episodes is a little different from the book. Season Five and (mainly) Six have many episodes aired on Decades that are in a different order than in Erickson's book, but they were all aired, but for one exception...the very last episode in Season Six was omitted for some reason. (?)

So, they aired the Pilot and 139 episodes.

They began all over again on March 29th and as of today are up to Season 2 Ep. 2 and Season 2 Ep. 3.

Since I have a scant few episodes taped from Trio, I decided to compare one of those episodes from the Decades airing. This was Season 1, Episode 8. (Decades numbering system.)

Whatever sense one makes of this, here's what I observed:

Trio aired the episode with only 4 commercial breaks and the episode ran 50 minutes! Decades aired the episode with six commercial breaks and it ran 46 mins.

I have to say that both episodes are edited, but not in the same way. For no particular reason some short jokes are edited out of one episode and not the other. The biggest/longest edit seems to be that in a Mod World song, Decades edited out one of the verses which was about a minute, but...in the Trio version they edited out an Arte Johnson segment where he sings one of his made up songs for about a minute.

There were some other musical interludes in this episode, one being a Bee-Gees song. I timed the song in both episodes, and while complete, the segment was about 20 seconds shorter in the Decades version, leading me to believe that the Decades episodes are, in fact, both edited and sped up. Just using the running time of the song in question as a basis, that would extrapolate another two minutes into the episode, making it 48 mins. of content. (All of the DVD available episodes that were released on Rhino and Guthy-Renker run 48 mins. give or take.)

So, there are some additions and subtractions from both episodes and, since "what is amusing" is in the eye of the beholder for the most part, the reasons don't seem to indicate any particular P.O.V. agenda on the part of the editing. There's no editing because of political content or dated material or whatever that I see.

In whatever form, I think that these shows still have a lot to offer in the form of entertainment. People like to pin the "dated" label on the show, but there's so much more in it that isn't. Plus, anything you might find dated is only there for a few seconds before you move on! Also, "dated" doesn't bother me. (And of the then current problems discussed, most of them are still problems; they've only changed, not been solved.) There's a lot more music in it, too, at least in the first and second seasons, that I remember, and there are some really good songs written by the musical maestros involved.

I had never seen most all of the 6th season, nor has anyone for 45 years, and it's true that season isn't as good, mainly because a lot of the previous regulars had moved on, but there's still a lot to offer in it and I'm glad Decades provided that chance.

Though I would love it, DVD or Blu-ray releases of this series seem unlikely. So I'm glad Decades picked it up and I am also glad they are airing a second go around because I can catch several that I was unable to see the first time around. And maybe that last episode will show up?

Say good-night, Dick...