The National Association of Broadcasters will induct comedy-variety show
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In into its Hall of Fame April 8 in Las
Vegas.
Laugh-In aired on NBC from 1968 through 1973 and starred comedy team Dan
Rowan, Dick Martin and a regular cast of sketch comedians including Lily Tomlin,
Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson and Henry Gibson.
The show introduced a number of phrases into the popular vocabulary of the
day, including 'Sock it to me' (famously uttered by, among others,
then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon) and 'Look that up in your Funk and
Wagnalls.'
Its sketch-comedy format was rooted in the variety shows of its day, and its
jokes were often more Fanny Brice than Lenny Bruce, but its new take on old
vaudeville had a counterculture hipness that prefigured shows like Saturday
Night Live and SCTV.
Past program Hall of Fame inductees include SNL, Star Trek,
M*A*S*H and The Honeymooners.
