The show, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, 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.

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.

In the pilot episode, Dan Rowan explained the show's approach: "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to television's first Laugh-In.

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 (George Schlatter's wife, Jolene Brand appeared in Kovacs' shows), and the topical TV satire That Was the Week That Was.

The co-hosts continued the exasperated "straight man" (Rowan) and "dumb guy" (Martin) double act that they had established as nightclub comics.

This includes Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin, Dennis Allen and Richard Dawson.

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).

The cast would pop out of their doors and either tell jokes to the camera, to each other, or to Rowan and Martin, who stood in front, or just yell out, "Good night, Dick!"

The September 9, 1967, was meant to be a special, sponsored by Timex, with guest stars: Pamela Austin, Ken Berry, Judy Carne, Barbara Feldon, and featuring Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Monte Landis, Jo Anne Worley, and Paul Weston and His Orchestra[3] Season 1 ran from January to April 1968 with 14 episodes.

Gary Owens joined the cast in the first episode along with series regulars Pamela Austin, Eileen Brennan, Judy Carne, Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, and Jo Anne Worley.

He was regularly seen playing a golden grand piano to accompany solos by cast members such as Ruth Buzzi, Alan Sues, and Jo Anne Worley and guest stars such as Dinah Shore and Lena Horne.

The producer mollified him by having on-screen radio continuity announcer Gary Owens read Johnson's credit as a separate sentence: "Starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin!

Season 3 (1969–1970): New regulars included Johnny Brown, Byron Gilliam, Teresa Graves, Jeremy Lloyd, Pamela Rodgers, and Lily Tomlin.

(New members:) child actor Moosie Drier, promoted to cast member and teamed with child actor Tod Bass, character comedian Brian Bressler (up to episode 10), comedienne Patti Deutsch, German model Lisa Farringer (episodes 13–24), Sarah Kennedy, folksy singer-comedian Jud Strunk, ventriloquist act Willie Tyler and Lester, and Donna Jean Young.

Season 6 ultimately was shown for the first time since its original 1972 -1973 run when the entire series of full, uncut episodes began airing on Decades in 2017.

Composer-lyricist Billy Barnes wrote all of the original musical production numbers in the show, and often appeared on-camera, accompanying Johnson, Buzzi, Worley, or Sues, on a golden grand piano.

For the entire 141-episode series of Laugh-In, including the pilot, the show's musical coordinator was West Coast bebop jazz pianist and composer Russ Freeman.

During the September 16, 1968, episode, Richard Nixon, running for president, appeared for a few seconds with a disbelieving vocal inflection, asking "Sock it to me?"

She began the episode as an arrogant snob of an actress; however, a bucket of water thrown at her transformed her back to her giggling dumb blonde persona.

Psychedelically-themed like the show, they offered such menu items as Bippy Burgers, Is That A Chicken Joke Chicken, Fickle Finger Of Fate Fries, Beautiful Downtown Burbank Burgers, Fickle Finger Franks, Verrrry Interesting Sandwiches, I'll Drink To That beverages, Sock It To Me soups, Laugh-In Fortune Cookies and Here Come Da Fudge sundaes.

Menus, French fry bags, sandwich wraps, napkins, salt and pepper shakers and other memorabilia are still sold on EBay.

On Letters to Laugh-In, a short-lived spin-off daytime show hosted by Gary Owens, cast members read jokes sent in by viewers, which were scored by applause meter.

[22] The horror spoof film The Maltese Bippy (1969,) starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin as low-budget moviemakers, was loosely related to the series.

[23][24][25] In 1969, Sears, Roebuck and Company produced a 15-minute short, Freeze-In, which starred series regulars Judy Carne and Arte Johnson.

"Murder on High C", a 1975 episode of the TV series Get Christie Love!, which starred former cast member Teresa Graves, featured a number of other Laugh-In cast members, including the villain (Arte Johnson), Johnny Brown, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Gary Owens and Joanne Worley.

In 2003, Rhino, through direct-response marketing firm Guthy-Renker, also released a series of DVDs subtitled The Sock-It-To-Me Collection, with each DVD containing two episodes.

[27] The 38-disc set contains all 140 episodes of the series, complete and uncut, restored and remastered as well as many bonus features and a special 32-page collector's book.

[32] TV season, ranking, average viewers per episode 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 Flowers and Madame (as well as his other puppet, "Jiffy"), former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, former Barney Miller actress June Gable, Good Times actor Ben Powers, Bill Rafferty of Real People and comedian Ed Bluestone.