Dick Martin

Dick Martin, half of Rowan & Martin, has just died. (Rowan died 20 years ago). Though Martin made a career for himself as a TV director starting in the late 70s, it's as the sillier, wilder, dumber half of R&W that he'll be remembered.

The two formed a comedy team in the early 50s, but didn't reach national fame until the late 60s. They did star in a pretty bad comedy western in 1958, Once Upon A Horse, but no one noticed. (If you ever do see it, check out a young Mary Tyler Moore as one of the showgirls.) Not unlike The Maltese Bippy (1969), made at the height of their celebrity, the film had them playing characters and all but ignored their stage personae. (A mistake never made by their original inspiration, Martin & Lewis.) Dick also had a recurring role on The Lucy Show in the early 60s, but mostly played it straight, and was little more than window dressing.

Then, in 1968, the duo started hosting Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on NBC. (Good thing it was them or the title wouldn't have worked.) It was a national phenomenon, shooting to the top of the ratings. It's hard to describe the fast-moving, colorful, loosely-structured mix of sketches, sight gags, out-takes, go-go girls and production numbers. It captured the zeitgeist, somehow mixing the new and old, the hippies and the borscht belt. (The title was a nod to the Be-In.) It was "now" but it was palatable.

It also managed to be political without taking sides. In fact, the producer George Schlatter was a Nixon man, and many credit Nixon's humanizing appearance on the show as a decisive factor in his becoming President. (Meanwhile, the Smothers Brothers on CBS were truly political, and got canceled for their trouble.)

The show introduced a bunch of new stars, such as Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin, and a ton of new catchphrases: Sock It To Me, Here Comes The Judge, Look That Up In Your Funk And Wagnalls, You Bet Your Bippy, Very Interesting and others. Nothing like it had ever been on prime time.

It hasn't dated well. Not only is a lot of the comedy topical, but the hipness is long gone, revealing the jokes to be, generally, second-rate. What holds up best, in fact, are Rowan and Martin: Rowan, the suave, smart one--sort of a mix of Dean Martin and Bud Abbott--and Dick, a clear descendant of Gracie Allen ("Say Goodnight, Dick"), only a bit more sly. They did excellent cross-talk routines that make me wish I could have seen their nightclub act.

The show ended after six seasons and the two went their separate ways in 1977, with Rowan all but disappearing from show biz. Martin, however, in addition to taking up directing, kept working in front of the camera. In the 80s he was a regular on game shows and in the 90s did guest shots on shows such as Coach, 3rd Rock From The Sun and The Nanny. He was a genial presence, but I always felt someone was meant to be standing to his right.