Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In went off the air in 1973. Production of the last season or two was marred a lot by backstage fighting between its producer, George Schlatter, and its stars, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. In 1977, Schlatter managed to sell NBC on a new version of the series, this one sans Rowan and Martin…or any person or persons as host. Dan and Dick later went to court and reportedly collected a few million apiece.
The new show did not succeed though Schlatter put together a large crew of "stars of tomorrow," a few of whom actually had careers after this. He also prevailed on Frank Sinatra to come on as a guest — and what you'll see below are a few minutes of that episode. The breakout star was, of course, Robin Williams but there were some other talented folks in the cast including Ed Bluestone, Lenny Schultz and a famous Mexican cartoonist who did some wonderful pantomime skits for the series, none of which are seen in this excerpt. But you'll see him in the opening cast list…and trust me, the spots he did were funny — even funnier than the Exxon commercials in here…
