May 25, 2008

Dick Martin, 1922 - 2008.

Time: Laugh-In
Dick Martin, a veteran nightclub comic who with his partner, Dan Rowan, turned a midseason replacement slot at NBC in 1968 into a hit that redefined what could be done on television, died Saturday night... He was 86.

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the hyperactive, joke-packed show that Mr Martin and Mr Rowan rode to fame, made conventional television variety programs seem instantly passé and the sitcom brand of humor seem too meek for the times.

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times.

Updated through 5/26.

Update: "[F]or millions of middle-class Americans, outside the urban and cultural centers, Laugh-In was the means by which they came to assimilate and accept the mindset of the 1960s," blogs Mick LaSalle. "Watching the DVDs today, it's almost inconceivable, but in 1968 and 1969, there was nothing funnier on earth."

Update, 5/26: "If I viewed a rerun today, I quite possibly would find it more antiquated than edgy, and not nearly as audacious as a contemporary show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967 - 69)," concedes Joe Leydon. "On the other hand: For a variety of reasons, I can't imagine any broadcast TV network daring to air anything like Laugh-In in prime time right now. Yes, not even in an election year. Especially not in an election year."



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Posted by dwhudson at May 25, 2008 6:50 AM

Comments

Perhaps I'm missing something; perhaps, hopefully, I'm missing a lot. Is this ALL there is on Dick Martin's passing? One of two men who changed television? If this is all there is, someone, a lot of journalistic someone's need to be horridly ashamed of themselves.

Posted by: blonde cooks at May 25, 2008 12:17 PM

Blonde Cooks: Unfortunately, the dearth of coverage may be due to bad timing: It's Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., and many media folks are on holiday. So let that be a lesson to other luminaries -- don't die on a holiday weekend.

Posted by: Joe Leydon at May 26, 2008 11:45 AM

Absolutely, Joe. And I'd add: If you can avoid dying during a holiday weekend while a major film festival is in crescendo-to-awards mode, all the better.

Posted by: David Hudson at May 26, 2008 12:19 PM

Also, here's the other thing -- "out of sight, out of mind."

Laugh-In has not been rerun much on American TV for decades and I'm not sure it stands up all that well now -- topical comedy always dates badly (either NBC or the BBC once tried to make a show out of rerunning Johnny Carson opening monologs, and they just didn't work years later; you literally have to be there).

So Dick Martin hasn't been much in the public eye for decades. To people younger than, say 35, he is simply an unseen figure of no obvious or apparent-today relevance. I'm 41 and know him mostly by reputation and appearances on "Match Game" et al. He mostly worked as a TV director for the last 30 years.

Posted by: Victor Morton at May 26, 2008 3:44 PM