Dick Martin, one half of the comedy team of Rowan and Martin, who hosted the seminal
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In in the 1960s, died Saturday of respiratory complications
in Santa Monica, CA at age 86. His comedic partner, Dan Rowan, died in 1987. L
augh-In's appeal was its irreverence. It famously persuaded Richard Nixon, then
making a presidential bid, to deliver its signature line, "Sock it to me." In its
obituary, the New York Times quoted Martin as once saying that the audience
wants "to see sacred cows kicked over" and that the show contrived sketches involving
celebrities just to be "irreverent and silly." He noted that other variety shows
might pay the arch singer Robert Goulet $10,000 to sing three songs. "We hire Robert
Goulet, pay him $210 and drop him through a trap door."
26/05/2008
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