The show started with a batch of sketches leading into Gary Owens' introduction segment, in which the cast and announced guest star(s) would appear behind open doors of the show's iconic, psychedelically painted "Joke Wall". These were used as transitions into and out of commercials, among other places. A trademark of the series was its (even shorter) blackout sketches, often involving rapid-fire cuts between two or more scenes or camera angles, set to a six-note musical sting (or at times, an elongated 16-note version). In addition to the announced guest star or stars of the evening, some recurring guest stars would appear unannounced multiple times through a season (which was easy to accomplish given the show's non-linear taping sessions). In others, castmembers and guest stars would simply appear as themselves, delivering jokes or reacting to a previous sketch. Some of these would reappear multiple times throughout an episode with variations on a theme, while others involved reoccurring characters created by the cast. Laugh-In was designed to be very lightly structured and consisted mainly of short comedic sketches. Main article: List of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In episodes Caricatures of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin by Sam Berman The show featured Gary Owens as the on-screen announcer, and an ensemble cast Ruth Buzzi was part of the ensemble throughout the show's six year run, while others who appeared in at least three seasons included Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen and Richard Dawson. The co-hosts continued the exasperated straight man (Rowan) and "dumb guy" (Martin) act which they had established as nightclub comics. The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which were politically charged or contained sexual innuendo. Laugh-In had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedies (such as the free-form Broadway revue Hellzapoppin'), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs, and the topical satire of That Was the Week That Was. For the next hour, we would just like you to sit back and laugh and forget about the other ins." The good-natured, lighthearted and informal disposition of the show was thereby established. This is a laugh-in and a laugh-in is a frame of mind. There have been be-ins, love-ins, and sleep-ins. Now for the past few years, we have all been hearing an awful lot about the various 'ins'. In the pilot episode, Dan Rowan explained the show's approach: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to television's first Laugh-In. In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked number 42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. The title of the show was a play on the 1960s hippie culture " love-ins" or the counterculture " be-ins", terms derived from the " sit-ins" common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (often simply referred to as Laugh-In) was an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin.
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