Letters to Laugh-In

Letters to Laugh-In is a daytime game show and spin-off of NBC's popular nighttime comedy series at the time, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, that aired on the network from September 29 to December 26, 1969. The show was hosted by Gary Owens, the announcer for Laugh-In.

Format

Home viewers mailed their jokes to the program, during which they were read by a panel of four celebrities – two of them Laugh-In regulars. Each joke was rated on a scale of zero to 100.

The highest-rated joke that day won the home viewer a prize (such as a trip to Hawaii), while the lowest-rated joke won a trip to "beautiful downtown Burbank".

One particularly notable joke from the program asked the question, "What's the difference between a sigh, a car, and a jackass?" When the other person answered that he did not know, the questioner said, "A sigh is 'oh dear,' and a car is 'too dear.'" When pressed what's a jackass, the questioner responded, "You dear."

Broadcast history

Letters to Laugh-In debuted on September 29, 1969 at 4:00 PM (3:00 Central). It replaced The Match Game, which had been canceled after a seven-year run in that slot. Like Match Game, Letters to Laugh-In faced the popular Dark Shadows on ABC and reruns of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. on CBS. Letters to Laugh-In was soundly beaten in the ratings. As such, unlike the nighttime Laugh-In (which enjoyed a five-year run on NBC), Letters to Laugh-In lasted only three months before being canceled on December 26. Its replacement was Name Droppers, an equally short-lived game that was replaced on March 30, 1970 by the soap opera Somerset.

Episode status

One episode of Letters to Laugh-In was uploaded to YouTube in July 2012. The episode featured a celebrity panel of Jo Anne Worley, Dan Rowan, Angie Dickinson and Jack E. Leonard.

References

• The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television, Wesley Hyatt (Billboard Books, 1997)