ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN: COMPLETE SERIES

While made years before I was born, I've always had a penchant in TV shows made before "my time". They are time capsules of sorts and it's fun to see what previous generations did to entertain themselves."Laugh-In" hit the cultural zeitgeist and made some predictions that were true but at the time were based on ideas that seemed the most ludicrous given the culture of the time -- which is the single most important thing to remember. No matter how timeless some scenes might be, which can be a good or bad thing, any show is always of its time first and foremost.Video and sound quality:To summarize: Some sympathy isn't amiss, given the time in which the episodes were made. The show won't look any better than on these discs. The source material is on a medium that has limited video and sound capability. It's unfortunate, as many shows of the day were filmed and look phenomenal on Blu-Ray.And the masters have suffered a lot while in storage. No prior release had as much work done to make them look and sound their best, given known source material limitations. On a 48" 1080P TV, you can tell there's upscaling artifacting but depending on make and model of set and how they handle upscaling, it'll just look slightly softer then usual.To bore you with lurid details: The beginning of each disc tells of how some quality loss is inevitable due to the age of the source material. Restoration can only go so far given time and other factors. I'm just grateful the shows weren't buried in some desert or burned in a fire.Restored from the original 2" videotape masters, the earlier seasons have a grainier look and a few more lines/dropouts due both to age (magnetic material slowly loses cohesion) and the editing process often used at the time - splicing of different tape strips together. Indeed, read up on what a "jump cut" is and how that helped ensure these episodes didn't get recorded over, due to the expense of videotape back in those days where tapes would be re-used. But jumping back to jump cuts, these often led to tape disintegration at the edges, requiring massive manual restoration (source: Wikipedia, YMMV).And being 720x480i in effective resolution, Blu-Ray wouldn't be the ideal format, compared to old TV shows made on film with its higher color gamut and resolution. I'd already mentioned a rough outline of how the show will likely look on a 1080P 48" monitor. YMMV, but if nothing else, sitting back from a HD set a couple more inches, or just remove eyeglasses, will allay any concerns over watching 50 year old TV made on a medium that was meant for higher definition source material. You'll wish the show was filmed, given the lush use of color in its earlier years.Videotape of the time had a much lower sound range, with much hiss. For remastering, hiss removal techniques are clearly employed and the results have an audio 'halo' surrounding dialogue - but every line is clearly and very discernible. This isn't a dig at either remastering or how technology was at the time; videotape was comparatively new and a lot easier to manipulate. And to reuse, since TV was seen as being ephemeral, "of its time and nobody in the future will care", back then. Many shows taped in the 1960s were simply recorded over, if not telecined onto film for foreign distribution.Keeping in mind these were the late-1960s, expect very colorful sets. They're actually well-designed.Joke content:Quickie summary: Some jokes won't hold up, others hadn't at the time the episodes originally aired, and others remain as fresh and funny today. And others were meant to make your skin crawl since the joke was lampooning social roles/norms of the time, or were simply racist. Or a combination of those. Fortunately, a rabid pacing of jokes and gags will quickly get you to another funny bit of the joke you'd just sat through fails to pay off.Cheaper version of no-doze:Modern day viewers will find as much to revel in, especially the slyly subversive, as much as they will find a lot of silly shtick. Being 50 years old, the show will have scenes that just aren't going to hold up, but having said that I was laughing a lot more than I'd expected. Still funnier than SNL, IMHO. Personally, seasons 2 and 3 are my favorites but don't discount the later seasons.In the time this show was made, civil rights struggles were going on, blacks and whites were not allowed to kiss on screen, and other odd decisions. The way this show subverts the trope is hysterical. Ditto for other statements, which cover almost everyone and everything. Including word play to get around censorship. It is sometimes left-wing leaning but it doesn't give any other wing a free pardon, the show's no turkey.Yeah, censorship. The writers and artists knew they were toying with censorship and working to duck under it by using homonyms and homophones, sometimes coupled with speech impediments. The subjective nature is so much more refreshing than today's shows that think just saying the word is somehow supposed to be funny, and subjective humor always requires more effort than the direct approach.But you WILL find some self-derogatory humor. Keeping in the context that it's a show for fun, enjoy and laugh it up.You WILL also find some racial and national humor (e.g. Polish jokes) on occasion that plays into stereotypes rather than fighting them. There's not enough to knock off a point, though. Playing on physical appearance just isn't funny, amazing it ever was.DVD packaging:I'll just bore you with the summary:The box is precisely designed to house flush all of the DVD cases and documentation/booklets. DVD case quality is phenomenally excellent; discs are easy to take out and put back in and from what I can tell, none arrived loose - don't you hate it when that happens since scratched discs can be such a hassle? Granted, I've only opened up two season casings to confirm so far but going through and gently rolling all of them there's no sound of any discs sliding, and the alcove for each disc is designed so they stay in place, even if the middle spindle stops holding them. At least from what I've seen so far, there's no problem here. Care was put into the new case designs, wish it were always that way......So why am I bleating about this? Because, roughly a decade ago in what was called "The Sock it to Me Collection", each month a person would get a couple of random episodes in one disc for $20 and in extremely flimsy, cheap packaging where the discs would almost always have popped out upon arrival in the mailbox, complete with several scratches rendering the discs unplayable over a scratched area. Given the cost of each disc, the lack of QC was appalling.Overall:The price of this complete set amounts to roughly $50 per season, if you consider the bonus materials as being freebies. Based on selling pricers for seasons 1 and 2 independently ($15/$40 respectively), the bonus material costs a bit more but fans of the show will want those and wouldn't want the wait.So, yeah, this complete series set is long overdue and well worth it.

Laugh-in was the show I was not always allowed to watch when it first aired, but while some episodes are better than others, there's something for every one in each episode. You know they did something right when Nixon asked NBC to censor any skits picking on the administration.The packaging for this set exceeds the other five or so series sets I've bought lately. The disks are packaged well, and instead of just printing the titles behind the disks (where you can't read them without removing the disks), each season has an individual booklet with info about each episode.In addition to great packaging, each episode has English subtitles, so those of us needing closed captioning have an option if using HDMI (captioning doesn't work with HDMI cables).All in all, a great show with great presentation. I wish other sets were designed this way - well worth the extra money to have episode information and captioning/subtitles.

What a tonic this set has been since the passing of my wife in June. I just started season 6 (out of 6) and I'm digging it so much. Thousands of laughs. This is a show I watched as a kid and it's so much fun to revisit it.

Laugh-In episodes from first to last with a bonus DVD to boot. The set is nicely boxed and the DVD menus are easy to use. The episodes are reasonably well restored - very few glitches to be seen. The DVDs all worked fine, though a few made my DVD player hang for a bit - cleaning them helped. As for Laugh-In itself, well, it's really a product of its time. You have to watch these with a critical eye. You won't find any blackface but there will be black jokes. Trans people and nationalities are mercilessly joked about. Drug culture isn't held up to the critical eye; smoking is everywhere on the set. All that said, if you can put your mind back in the late 1960s thought patterns, these are howlingly funny. But if you're gung-ho politically correct, you're going to a bit disappointed that people then were so cruel. Glad I got it just for the nostalgia and the ability to look back to a different time.

Wow did this bring back memories of a classic era! Excellent picture and sound. Similar to S Korea's "Gag Concert" of recent times. Watchable over and over, and sometimes necessary to repeat to catch all the action. The stars of that era are very numerous and funny in these skits especially considering they were all not comedians in their regular career. I will be bedridden soon due to terminal illness and these videos will bring a lot of joy.

This series’s is a treasure to me! I still remember characters and some of the jokes. This series is full of laughs and characters that were precious to many people. I am reliving the memories of this not forgotten favorite show of the time.

This was an excellent purchase. I bought them for my dad & he spent months watching & laughing at every episode. This show is a classic & I am glad I made the purchase.

Got this for a friend. He just loved it.

A little expensive, but I had to have it. A staple of the late sixties, early seventies tv. All the stars of that era paid a visit and the show moved so fast you could not get bored. Hilarious.

One problem. it is region 1 so make sure that your player is region free

A major comedy feast for those over 65.

I bought these for a friend and she loves them. She used to watch this program when she was younger and really gets a kick out of them now.

This takes me right back to the 60's and a simpler time. Love it.