The Morning After

Dfrise · Post by **Dfrise** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:47 am

I just finished watching The Morning After, a Steed/Tara King episode. The tag scene at the end shows Steed watching TV at home. You can hear the faint sound of one person clapping their hands. Steed says, "Sock it to me?"

Steed had been watching Laugh-In. The faint hand clapping sound was how that show ended. The phrase he utters was one of the fast segments in the show. It usually involved British comedienne Judy Carnes saying, "And now, folks, it's sock it to me time."

The tag scene is a reference to the TV show that The Avengers were put up against in America during their Steed/King year. As has been mentioned in the Forum before, Laugh-In was wildly popular. It destroyed whatever competion was placed against it. A young person couldn't possibly be hip without watching Laugh-In. And those who were not hip had to watch it to be able to talk about it the next day. In that way they wouldn't be so easily identified as unhip.

Sadly, the ABC network cancelled their excellent Honey West detective show because they had bought the rights to The Avengers from Bristish television. They didn't want two shows featuring female leads involved in danger and intrigue. Then they threw The Avengers up against Laugh-In. The falling viewer ratings for The Avengers prompted them to then cancel The Avengers. What genius!

Frankymole · Post by **Frankymole** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:56 am

Schedulers kill shows. It's their standard MO.

What did Judy Carnes mean when she said "sock it to me time"?

And what was so "hip" about Laugh-In? Was it a sarcastic title, it sounds very forced humour-wise. Was it off-the-wall like Monty Python? What kind of humour did it have?

brynmill · Post by **brynmill** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:20 am

Sock it to me had Carne being socked with either a giant boxing glove or water.

It was a very topical sketch show, with a good cast and fantastic list of guest stars (and guest star cameos). BBC2 used to screen it and our family used to like watching it. Watching it now the only stuff that is unfunny is the political satire.

darren · Post by **darren** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 12:21 pm

Joanna Lumley's former husband and two times Avengers guest actor, Jeremy Lloyd was one of the writers on this show.

Frankymole · Post by **Frankymole** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 1:35 pm

I vaguely remember something about a shark paying house calls, or was that Saturday Night Live?

oneknightsteed · Post by **oneknightsteed** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:48 pm

SNL had the Land Shark using various lines to gain entry to women's apartments. "Candy-gram" being the one I remember used in each sketch.

Speed Six · Post by **Speed Six** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:24 pm

Laugh-In was a very sharp quick fire gag show which featured a host of regular characters with their own catchphrases - actually not unlike some British radio comedy shows. The presenters Rowan (can't remember his first name !) and Dick Martin held the show together and usually contributed to sketches. One of the regular characters was a comedy nazi (er.. I think) who used to find everything 'Verrry interesting... But schtupid!'. There were a number of rather kooky female performers who rather rivalled Tara in the 'dolly bird' department, and the show usually ended with a wall of windows which would open to reveal characters who would joke with each other - when they could keep a straight face. This is all from memory as I haven't seen the show for many years and haven't resorted to Google!

Ian Wegg · Post by **Ian Wegg** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:54 am

Dan Rowan. Goldie Hawn was a regular and it used a few British performers and writers, Jeremy Lloyd and Barry Took I think were involved.

Laugh In was a very slick and unmissable show at the time. Fast moving and "zany". Very much of its time though, I watched a clip recently on YouTube and found that, unlike The Avengers, it doesn't really hold up well to modern eyes.

You just had to be there.

Frankymole · Post by **Frankymole** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:49 am

Speed Six wrote:Laugh-In was a very sharp quick fire gag show which featured a host of regular characters with their own catchphrases - actually not unlike some British radio comedy shows. The presenters Rowan (can't remember his first name !) and Dick Martin held the show together and usually contributed to sketches. One of the regular characters was a comedy nazi (er.. I think) who used to find everything 'Verrry interesting... But schtupid!'. There were a number of rather kooky female performers who rather rivalled Tara in the 'dolly bird' department, and the show usually ended with a wall of windows which would open to reveal characters who would joke with each other - when they could keep a straight face. This is all from memory as I haven't seen the show for many years and haven't resorted to Google!

I think the joke wall was ripped off by a UK show in the eighties, called "Paul Squire Esquire" (although the windows were more like portholes there if I recall correctly.) The fellow vanished without trace though - not as fondly remembered as "Laugh-In". I only remember one of the regular assistant-comics was Michael KEating because I recognised him from cult SF shows "Dr Who" and "Blakes 7".

brynmill · Post by **brynmill** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 2:55 pm

LAUGH IN was also scheduled against HERE'S LUCY. One episode of Laugh In ended (must have been the first season) with Arte Johnson's German ending his speech with "Goodnight Lucy, Goodnight Avengers"