Best of Laugh-In on PBS

Gary Mack · Mar 15, 2011

I watched a few minutes last night and will see the entire show later. But I noticed several of the clips used sub-standard video source tapes and was surprised. They looked like they came from 3/4" and VHS tapes rather than standard broadcast quality dubs from the original 2" masters. How can this be? The shows weren't aired live, they were recorded and tightly edited for broadcast, so where are the masters and why weren't they used throughout this program?

GM

anotherguyTN · Mar 16, 2011

I thought most of it looked like was made up of the same clips that were used in the anniversary and reunion specials from the 90's. It was good, but not much I hadn't seen before.

onairb · Mar 16, 2011

It was a large chunk of the same show that aired on NBC in '93; the George Schlatter comments were 'new', though not original!
PBS didn't even show the whole thing, saving that for the DVD 'if you make a pledge of SEVEN million dollars...'(Too bad public TV barely registered in the minds of commercial TV folks back then; 'Laugh-In' could have had a field day with sketches spoofing pledge breaks!)

azumanga · Mar 16, 2011

onairb said:
It was a large chunk of the same show that aired on NBC in '93; the George Schlatter comments were 'new', though not original!
PBS didn't even show the whole thing, saving that for the DVD 'if you make a pledge of SEVEN million dollars...'

And you have to live in an area where your local PBS station has shown the special -- here in Tampa Bay so far, I haven't noticed either WEDU or WUSF having shown the special, at least during prime-time.

anotherguyTN · Mar 16, 2011

I saw the special on WKNO in Memphis and WLJT in Lexington, TN also carried it. I don't know if the sound was off track, but it looked that way at times, espesially during Schlatter's comments. But that could have been a problem with either WKNO or Charter Cable._________________________________________________

therealjm12 · Mar 16, 2011

TRIO was running Laugh In every night a few years back. The shows were complete and unedited including the the following program is brought to you in living color on NBC at the start of the show. I think the quality was pretty good. At least as good as as a 40 year old quad tape could look. It was funny but some stuff were very dated. I don't think anyone under 40 would be interested in watching it on a regular basis. Just a novelty.
About 10 years ago another cable channel (might again been TRIO)was running The Smother's Brothers. They ran at 10 in the morning so I rarely saw it. I would have like to have seen more of it to make a judgment. What I saw, I liked

landtuna · Mar 16, 2011

Most of Laugh-In's humor was anti-establishment which is really timeless. Then we had the Vietnam War as a catalyst and now we have Iraq and Afghanistan. Some things never change.

The Smothers Brothers was my all time favorite show. They were furiously against the war and wore their emotions, and humor, on their sleeves and that is, of course, what got them canned by C(BS). It was intelligent humor though not often seen today.

azumanga · Mar 16, 2011

therealjm12 said:
About 10 years ago another cable channel (might again been TRIO)was running The Smother's Brothers. They ran at 10 in the morning so I rarely saw it.

E! carried repeats of Smothers Brothers in the late-1990s.

firepoint525 · Mar 17, 2011

anotherguy said:
I saw the special on WKNO in Memphis and WLJT in Lexington, TN also carried it. I don't know if the sound was off track, but it looked that way at times, espesially during Schlatter's comments. But that could have been a problem with either WKNO or Charter Cable._________________________________________________

Remember when WLJT used to simulcast WKNO? This was during the '70s. WLJT really didn't initiate their own programming until they moved their studios to the UT-Martin campus in the early '80s.

anotherguyTN · Mar 17, 2011

firepoint525 said:
anotherguy said:

I saw the special on WKNO in Memphis and WLJT in Lexington, TN also carried it. I don't know if the sound was off track, but it looked that way at times, espesially during Schlatter's comments. But that could have been a problem with either WKNO or Charter Cable._________________________________________________

Click to expand...

Remember when WLJT used to simulcast WKNO? This was during the '70s. WLJT really didn't initiate their own programming until they moved their studios to the UT-Martin campus in the early '80s.

I remember that too. Sometimes they still carry the same program at the same time, although that didn't happen with the Laugh-in special.

drt · Mar 19, 2011

azumanga said:
onairb said:

It was a large chunk of the same show that aired on NBC in '93; the George Schlatter comments were 'new', though not original!
PBS didn't even show the whole thing, saving that for the DVD 'if you make a pledge of SEVEN million dollars...'

Click to expand...

And you have to live in an area where your local PBS station has shown the special -- here in Tampa Bay so far, I haven't noticed either WEDU or WUSF having shown the special, at least during prime-time.

Wish I could tell you when it was aired here; but I watched it last week either Tuesday (the 8th) or Thursday evening (the 9th) at 10 pm; but I can't remember if it was WEDU or WUSF; I'm inclinded to think it was WUSF.

From what I just tried to reconstruct, it aired on WEDU not WUSF; believe I viewed it on 3.1 as opposed to 3.3; the PBS website indicates it is airing nationwide between the 5th of March and the end of the month; so maybe channel 3 will replay it.

drt
st. pete