Recently Dead

The Fickle Finger of Fate finally caught up with Dick Martin (at right, above), who with comedy partner Dan Martin hosted the groundbreaking early-'70s TV show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Martin died today of respiratory complications at a Santa Monica hospital. He was 86. Laugh-In, which ran from 1968 to 1973, was a colorful and extremely fast-paced hour of very silly sketch comedy with a Mod-styled, up-to-the-minute pop-and-countercultural, psychedelic bent that was the must-see TV of its time and made stars of such then-unknown regulars as Lily Tomlin, Barbara Sharma, and Goldie Hawn. On the negative side, it was responsible for the expressions "Sock it to me" and "You bet your sweet bippy" taking hold of the country. (AP)

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