Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hugh Hefner, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, Richard Nixon, Sonny Tufts, John Wayne, John B. Whitney
TV Flash files “Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hugh Hefner, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, Richard Nixon, Sonny Tufts, John Wayne, John B. Whitney” as a desk essential hour — Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968–1973) on NBC, season 2, episode 1, aired 1968-09-16, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E01: listed hour 16 of 141 in the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In guide, first listed hour of season 2. It aired 1968-09-16 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Milton Berle, Shelley Berman, Joey Bishop, John Byner, Jill St. John, Tiny Tim, John Wayne, Flip Wilson, Sivi Aberg, Pamela Austin” (S01E14). Next is “Herb Alpert, Eve Arden, Arlene Dahl, Zsa Zsa Gabor, George Kirby, Jack Lemmon, John Wayne, Patrick Wayne” (S02E02).
Essential hour: “Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hugh Hefner, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, Richard Nixon, Sonny Tufts, John Wayne, John B. Whitney”. Nixon on the call sheet, September 1968. Campaign-year access as a three-word joke the country would not drop.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hugh Hefner, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, Richard Nixon, Sonny Tufts, John Wayne, John B. Whitney sit in the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In guide?
S02E01 is listed hour 16 of 141 — first listed hour of season 2, season 2 episode 1.
When did Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In S02E01 air?
Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hugh Hefner, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, Richard Nixon, Sonny Tufts, John Wayne, John B. Whitney aired 1968-09-16 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I watch Laugh-In in order, or hop?
Hop. It is a sketch variety hour, not a serial. Guest lists are the chapter titles. Start with the 1967 pilot special or a season-2 guest stack if you want the velocity at full boil.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch the after-party that got a timeslot: catchphrases as national sport, guest-star politics in a bikini-joke machine, and the hour a presidential candidate walked into a punchline. Sketch velocity with velvet-rope heat — still the template for treating celebrity as a blackout gag.
The hand was on the joke wall for exactly one blackout, then gone — sock it to me, beautiful downtown Burbank, a bikini with graffiti that the censors negotiated like a treaty. Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In did not wait for an after-party. It was the after-party, 1968 on NBC, a Monday-night crime scene of catchphrases, guest-star cameos, and a pace that treated the remote like a cocktail shaker. If you only watched the hosts' tuxedos, you missed the show. The heat was in the cutaways, the Tramp, the telephone…
Filed against
- Dan Rowan as Host
Dan Rowan co-hosted Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, the rapid-fire sketch explosion that made catchphrases a national sport. Straight-man cool opposite Dick Martin’s chaos helped sell counterculture on network prime time. On TV Flash he’s…
- Dick Martin as Host
Dick Martin co-hosted Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In as the chaos half of the velvet rope — rapid-fire sketch, catchphrases as national sport, guest-star politics in a bikini-joke factory. Straight man Dan Rowan sold the timeslot; Martin shook…
- Goldie Hawn as Regular
Goldie Hawn was a Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In regular — bikini-joke factory, catchphrases as national sport, a red carpet with a laugh track. TV Flash files her as 1960s variety voltage: the giggle the blackout needed, guest-star politics…
- Lily Tomlin as Regular
Lily Tomlin’s Laugh-In arrival was a second heat check — characters that outlive the timeslot in Rowan and Martin’s catchphrase factory. Telephone-operator cutaways, bikini-joke velocity, a Monday-night afterparty that sold rebellion…
- Arte Johnson as Regular
Arte Johnson was a Laugh-In regular whose catchphrases and character bits helped make rapid-fire sketch chaos a national sport. “Very interesting…” still echoes in variety-history rewatches. TV Flash files him as 1960s counterculture…
Also in season 2
- S02E02 Herb Alpert, Eve Arden, Arlene Dahl, Zsa Zsa Gabor, George Kirby, Jack Lemmon, John Wayne, Patrick Wayne
- S02E03 Zsa Zsa Gabor, Greer Garson, Bob Hope, Abbe Lane, Greg Morris, Otto Preminger
- S02E04 Robert Culp, Arlene Dahl, Kirk Douglas, Lena Horne, Liberace, France Nuyen, Otto Preminger, Sonny Tufts, Flip Wilson, Catherine Reid
- S02E05 Bobby Darin, Holy Modal Rounders, Rosemary Clooney, Kirk Douglas, Mitzi Gaynor, Harland Sanders, Sonny Tufts
- S02E06 Greer Garson, Van Johnson, Werner Klemperer, Liberace, Flip Wilson
- S02E07 Bill Dana, Jimmy Dean, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lena Horne, Marcel Marceau, Sonny Tufts