Time/Life Press Release: Laugh-In: The Complete Series (DVD) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

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​ ​ ​ ​ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE​ ​ ​ “Although “Saturday Night Live,” “MADtv” and other sketch shows have captured some of the flavor of “Laugh-In,” no other comedy show has matched it in terms of its hyper-speed outrageousness and offbeat sensibility.” -- The Los Angeles Times “The frenetic, chaotic comedy still earns laughs 50 years later… it’s a wonderful time capsule of the era.” -- DVD Talk “From 1968 to 1973, anarchy reigned supreme on NBC, and network television was never quite the same.” -- Winston-Salem Journal THIS FEBRUARY, TIME LIFE RELEASES TV’S GROUNDBREAKING VARIETY SHOW IN ONE ULTIMATE COLLECTION – FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME AVAILABLE AT RETAIL! ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN: THE COMPLETE SERIES Street Date: February 2, 2021 DVD SRP: $169.95 Available at Amazon.com, the Mammoth 37-Disc Set Features All 140 Remastered Episodes from the Landmark Emmy® and Golden Globe®-Winning Series – 89 Never Before Available in Stores! Hours of Bonus Programming Including the Rare Pilot Episode, the 25th Anniversary Cast Reunion, Hilarious Bloopers and Guest Stars Including Harry Belafonte, Milton Berle, Sonny Bono, Johnny Carson, Cher, Tim Conway, Sammy Davis Jr., Sally Field, Jerry Lewis and Many More!​ ​ PROGRAM SYNOPSIS The ’60s gave us “in-crowds,” “be-ins” and “love-ins,” and starting in 1968, the happening place for free-form comedy was Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, broadcast from beautiful downtown Burbank. Straight man Dan Rowan and wisecracking co-host Dick Martin led a gaggle of goofballs including Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin, Judy Carne, Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Gary Owens, Jo Anne Worley and Alan Sues through a rapid-fire assault of one-liners, skits, bits and non sequiturs that left viewers in hysterics and disbelief. Anything and anyone in the public eye was a target. Political correctness? Forget it! The off-the-wall groundbreaking, Emmy Award–winning show would go on to anchor the Monday 8 p.m. time slot on NBC until March 12, 1973, transforming both pop culture and the medium of television. This February, the TV DVD archivists at Time Life are making ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN: THE COMPLETE SERIES available at retail for the very first time for classic TV aficionados and comedy lovers alike. The ultimate completist’s set, this handsomely packaged collection is comprised of 37 DVDs featuring all 140 remastered episodes from the series award-winning, groundbreaking six-year run. Included are 89 episodes never-before-released on ANY format, along with exclusive bonuses such as the rare pilot episode (September 9, 1967), the 25th Anniversary cast reunion and more. Across 124 hours of unforgettable comedy and pop culture highlights, home audiences will be treated to such classic, long-running features as “Sock It to Me,” “Cocktail Party,” “The Fickle Finger of Fate”, “Gladys and Tyrone”, “Mod Mod World”, “Here Comes the Judge”, “The Farkle Family” and “Laugh-In Looks at the News” along with sketches featuring Lily Tomlin’s inimitable Ernestine, the snooty phone operator and the precocious, philosophizing five-year-old, Edith Ann. LAUGH-IN also featured an incredible, non-stop parade of the era’s biggest stars including Tim Conway, Bob Newhart, Debbie Reynolds, Liberace, Raquel Welch, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jonathan Winters, Carol Channing, The Monkees, Sonny and Cher, Barbara Feldon, Bobby Darin, Diana Ross, James Garner, Michael Landon, Steve Lawrence, Flip Wilson, Milton Berle and Don Rickles, all who lined up for the chance to appear on the show, along with cameo appearances featuring everyone from Tiny Tim and Otto Preminger to Richard Nixon and Ringo Starr. This February, turn on, tune in and get happy with Laugh-In. It’s a “very in-ter-ess-ting” experience! BONUS FEATURES ​ Laugh-In pilot 25th Anniversary Cast Reunion Highlights Interviews with Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, and creator and executive producer George Schlatter Laugh-In Bloopers Still Laugh-In: A Tribute to George Schlatter PROGRAM INFORMATION Format: DVD/37 Discs Running Time: 124 hours Genre: TV DVD/Comedy Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audio: Stereo About Time Life Time Life is one of the world's pre-eminent creators and direct marketers of unique music and video/DVD products, specializing in distinctive multi-media collections that evoke memories of yesterday, capture the spirit of today, and can be enjoyed for a lifetime. TIME LIFE and the TIME LIFE logo are registered trademarks of Time Warner Inc. and affiliated companies used under license by Direct Holdings Americas Inc., which is not affiliated with Time Warner Inc. or Time Inc. ​ # # #​

 

[B-ROLL]

So it this one more "complete" than this - ?

-

I'm betting my sweet bippy - it's just the same discs repackaged and minus a disc

The Old Set at Amazon
Amazon product

Then New set at Amazon

Amazon product

 

[Richard Gallagher]

The pre-order price at Amazon is now $98.99.

 

[moviebuff75]

I enjoyed the last boxed set. Great material. Great transfers.

 

[MartinP.]

I'm betting my sweet bippy - it's just the same discs repackaged and minus a disc

Also sans the photo booklet. The original "bonus disc" (the 38th disc) has 99 minutes of content:

*25th Anniversary Cast Reunion
*How We Won the Emmys
*Interview with George Schlatter
*Alan Sues Interview

FYI: The BONUS FEATURES (noted below) listed in the above press release are all on the season set volumes, EXCEPT the Alan Sues Interview, which is on the Bonus Disc. The 25th Anniversary Cast Reunion on the Bonus Disc is an extended version of the "highlights" entry. The Bonus Disc has a George Schlatter interview and there is another different interview on one of the season sets. So the bonus disc material is left out except for the Alan Sues interview. (So was the Alan Sues interview an addition, or added and something else deleted, or is it a mistake in the press release?)

• Laugh-In pilot
• 25th Anniversary Cast Reunion Highlights
• Interviews with Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, and creator and executive producer George Schlatter
• Laugh-In Bloopers
• Still Laugh-In: A Tribute to George Schlatter

 

[Mark Y]

It's probably been mentioned in this thread, but Time-Life released a Robin Williams tribute collection that includes a few episodes of the late 1970s "Laugh-In" revival series. I caught a couple episodes when they repeated them circa 1979, but I don't remember anything about the show, or who else was in it.

 

[darkrock17]

It's probably been mentioned in this thread, but Time-Life released a Robin Williams tribute collection that includes a few episodes of the late 1970s "Laugh-In" revival series. I caught a couple episodes when they repeated them circa 1979, but I don't remember anything about the show, or who else was in it.

Taken from Wikipedia.

In 1977, Schlatter and NBC briefly revived the property as a series of specials – titled simply Laugh-In – with a new cast. The standout was a then-unknown Robin Williams, whose starring role on ABC's Mork & Mindy one year later prompted NBC to rerun the specials as a summer series in 1979. Also featured were Wayland and Madame (as well as his other puppet, "Jiffy"), former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, former Barney Miller actress June Gable, and Good Times actor Ben Powers. Rowan and Martin, who owned part of the Laugh-In franchise, were not involved in this project. They sued Schlatter for using the format without their permission, and won a judgment of $4.6 million in 1980.

 

[rmw650]

Based on the two sets and making a comparison between the two sets, I'm noticing the original complete series set in a different style of box is running about 106 bucks on average and has that booklet and 38th disc, while the new retail version coming out this Tuesday will omit that booklet and the bonus disc and it's going for 98.99 right now.

I'm going with the release from two years ago as for a few bucks more, you can get a little bit extra stuff with it.

 

[MartinP.]

It's probably been mentioned in this thread, but Time-Life released a Robin Williams tribute collection that includes a few episodes of the late 1970s "Laugh-In" revival series. I caught a couple episodes when they repeated them circa 1979, but I don't remember anything about the show, or who else was in it.

This is a post I made on the original Time-Life Laugh-In release page a couple years ago:

TIme Life has a new box set devoted to Robin Williams. A treasure trove for Robin Williams fans. There's HBO specials, and segments from all sorts of talk show appearances, interview shows, cable series, Saturday Night Live and episodes of Mork & Mindy and more. (For me, a little Robin Williams went an awfully long way.)

Since he was on Laugh-In '77, I thought I'd look and see if anything from that series was included, since that's one of the first TV appearances he came to be known on. Although in the Time Life descriptions of what's on this release they mention all the shows he performed on or guested on, they do not mention Laugh-In '77. However, I believe the following section on one of the dvd's is indeed from that series:

• Robin Meets Mr. Sinatra
• Original Air Date: November 2, 1977

The very brief clip I saw on the Time Life promo video indeed looked like it was from that show and that date above is when it aired on NBC. I believe that would make this the first time anything from Laugh-In '77 was made available this way.

 

[Mark Y]

This is a post I made on the original Time-Life Laugh-In release page a couple years ago:

Thanks for the info. So it was just one clip then?

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Wonder if they actually fixed the frame rate this time? I still can’t believe the other discs got past “quality control” like that.

 

[Robert Harris]

These are rumored to be harvested from original three-strip nitrate.

 

[B-ROLL]

These are rumored to be harvested from original three-strip nitrate.

For Television presentation an extra strip and another inch or so was added - hence the name 2 Inch Quads !

 

[Harold Chasen]

These are rumored to be harvested from original three-strip nitrate.

Yeah yeah yeah. No 3D, no sale!

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Wonder if they actually fixed the frame rate this time? I still can’t believe the other discs got past “quality control” like that.

I very much doubt it. I'm sure they're probably just exact clones of the previous discs, but with different labels and maybe a different menu (if the original had the T-L logo on it).

 

[Lecagr]

Here's something interesting I recently discovered, the pilot episode of Laugh-In is currently on You Tube for free viewing, and it runs about 57 1/2 minutes. However, this same pilot episode on the DVD from Time Life is shorter and runs only about 53 1/2 minutes. So what's missing? What is missing on the DVD from Time Life are most of the Timex commercials, all except one of the commercials was edited out. It's not that big of a deal but it still irritates me that someone at Time Life would go to the trouble and edit out the commercials, it was a foolish thing to do.