"Sock it to me!" "Here come de Judge!" "You bet your sweet bippy!" "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls!" For a few years, these and other Laugh-In catch phrases circulated promiscuously in the everyday speech of North Americans. In the late 1960s, NBC's Monday night comedy series was more than just another television program, it was a cultural event. Holding top spot in the Nielsen ratings for two seasons, from 1968/1969 to 1969/1970, the show revolutionized the comedy-variety genre and, more than any other prime-time program of the period, signaled the massive social, moral, and generational changes the nation was undergoing. Laugh-In was the quintessential television show of the swinging 1960s.

Dan Rowan (left) and Dick Martin on Laugh In.

Considering the show's emphasis on youth, left-liberal politics, the sexual liberation, and "New Wave" video techniques, the guiding lights behind Laugh-In formed an unlikely team. Dan Rowan (1922-...