Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 27, 1993 TAG: 9301260252
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE DUFFY KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
`LAUGH-IN' REUNION BRINGS BACK MEMORIES
The fickle finger of fate recently placed dozens of TV critics in the same dizzy hotel ballroom with Tiny Tim, Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi and Lily Tomlin.And that's not all, you bet your sweet bippy. Funny folks named Henry Gibson, Alan Sues and Judy Carne were there, too.
That's right, that Judy Carne, the oft-drenched "Sock it to me" girl.
The occasion for this giggly trip into the TV time warpmobile was a festive press gathering for "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In 25th Anniversary," a two-hour retrospective special airing Feb. 7 on NBC.
"Laugh-In," hosted by the comedy team of Dick Martin and the late Dan Rowan, most prominently launched the careers of Tomlin and Hawn. But it also introduced to a mass audience bizarro bard Tiny Tim as well as Gibson, Sues, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley and others.
The popular, innovative tilt-a-whirl ran on NBC from 1968 through 1973. Filled with topical wit and clever writing, "Laugh-In" was cutting edge before there was a cutting edge.
So it was a rather giddy, surreal scene seeing the regulars back together after all these years. Supplying an additional jolt of cockeyed show-biz wonderment was the presence of such semi-regular guests as James Garner, Connie Stevens, Tim Conway, Tony Curtis and Buddy Hackett. Buddy Hackett?! Even the most jaded, seen-it-all TV critics were a bit ga-ga.
Though their fame has far outstripped that of their "Laugh-In" colleagues, Tomlin and Hawn were both effusive and touching in their recollections of a special time in their lives.
" `Laugh-In' was everything for me because I was totally unknown when I went to the show," Tomlin said. "I didn't even want to go on television because I didn't think I would be good on television. I had some romantic idea about being a stage actress and living in the East Village the rest of my life."
Then she did Ernestine the telephone operator her first night on "Laugh-In," and kaboom: instant celebrity mania. "I had no idea Ernestine would be so popular," she said.
Hawn, the blond sprite who was catapulted into the movie star stratosphere by the "Laugh-In" booster rocket, said she still treasures the simple, intense camaraderie of those days.
"I knew it then, I know it now," she said. "There's nothing better than being part of a family, of no one holding the gold star.
"Everybody did their job. We laughed more than I've ever laughed on anything I've ever done. And there was a kind of wonderful socialism that actually worked within that group."
Inevitably, that fickle finger of fate interceded. "Laugh-In" left the air in the early '70s. Hawn had already left the show and won an Oscar ("Cactus Flower"). And Tomlin, too, was on her way to international stardom. For most of the others - including Buzzi, Worley, Johnson, Sues - it was the most fame they would ever know.
But on this smile-filled reunion night in Los Angeles, no bitter was mixed with the sweet. Everyone seemed perfectly happy to just share some simple, joyful memories.