Laugh-In (TV Series) Guest Starring Kate Smith, Vincent Price and Rich Little (1968) User Reviews

This was the final "Laugh-In" ep for their first year of 1968

[tavm · 8/10 · 4 August 2019]

Kate Smith participated in most of the sketches with the "Laugh-In" cast, Vincent Price mainly did a running skit of him as Dr. Frankenstein talking with Igor and The Monster, and Rich Little did some of his impersonations. Nanette Fabray was among the celebs doing the cut-ins along with George Jessel, Lena Horne, and Bob Newhart with some of them as his telephone schtick. For once, the male cast members do the "News" theme song. They also impersonate many of the past presidential candidates of '68 while using their face signs over their own (though the one doing George Wallace shows his black one after speaking). During the news segment, footage of the Emmys is shown in which Don Rickles and Sally Field-who guested on this show the previous season-present the writing award to this staff of "Laugh-In". In summary, this was another funny ep of this show hosted by Dan Rowan & Dick Martin and the last one for their first full year in broadcast, 1968.

Good end of 1968 episode

[jivers01 · 6/10 · 30 December 2016]

This last show of the year (shown Dec. 30, 1968) is memorable for several reasons. A not-so-fond look back at the November presidential election mocks various politicians in an unusually long sketch. The show's news segment had one big surprise feature introduced as "the worst event of 1968". This cut to network broadcast footage of the Emmy Awards (the show won three awards that year). Host Don Rickles kids Sally Field as she stumbles through her announcement of Laugh-In's Best Writing award. The entire writing staff then goes up on stage to accept. Later there was also some stock footage of President-elect Nixon saying "Sock it to me" at a press conference.

The other stand out is Vincent Price who appears in ten "quickie" one-joke sketches as Dr. Frankenstein in his lab with the monster and Ygor. (The revival of Gothic horror was at a peak in 1968 with Price starring in a series of Poe-inspired AIP films.)

A Mod Mod Look at the battle of the sexes includes a charming song with Goldie Hawn and others. Big-voiced Kate Smith does a series of unfunny musical sketches. The usual roster of uncredited comics and celebrities do a series of one-liner jokes and "If (blank) married (blank)" word-play gags. These are done by Bob Newhart, Rich Little, Bill Dana, Dave Madden, Nanette Fabray, singer Lena Horne, and George Jessel.