Laugh-In 25th Anniversary Special (1993)

Laugh-In premiered on this date -- as a regular series -- in 1968.  Below is a link to the entire 25th anniversary special (1993), which includes some extra material I do not recall form the original broadcast (which I taped and watched endlessly).  Anyone know who they keep blurring out?  Was it a castmember who angered The Right-On Dan Rowan and the EVEN MORE-on Dick Martin?

Homer is eating pie on The Simpsons

This classic bit of comedy from The Simpsons is pretty great for kids.  If your child does not laugh at this, they may need to repeat a grade. #SNL4kidz

Annoying Man

It's Annoying Man!  Here's most of the sketches in which he appeared, which all seem to be #SNL4kidz-safe.

Jingleheimer Junction on SNL

This is a forgotten classic, taking an old trope (the kids' show that "goes adult") and making it hilarious.  Kudos to Tim Meadows' (and Ana Gasteyer's) excellent performances.  This particular episode with Cameron Diaz featured a very rowdy crowd, as evidenced here by their cheering.

The Tonight Show leaves New York, 1972

Here's an interesting slice of "Tonight Show" history -- a clip from the show's final week in New York City. In May, 1972 Johnny Carson moved "Tonight" to Los Angeles, where it would stay until Jimmy Fallon took the reins in 2014. For the most part, all of the show's New York City episodes (whether under Steve Allen, Jack Paar or Johnny) are lost forever, since the tapes were recycled. Starting in 1972 (although some sources say 1970), someone realized the value of "Tonight" and started archiving the tapes. This snippet features Mark Richards (aka Dick Liberatore) in the audience. I don't know much about him, but if you check out the rest of his channel, there's a number of game show-related clips of his work. Here, he manages to upstage guest host Joey Bishop, as well as Ed McMahon.

The "lost" episode of SNL, 1981

This a live 1981 TV special, "Steve Martin's Best Show Ever," which is now available on the DVD set "Steve Martin: The TV Stuff."  The beauty of this particular special is that it was done live, directed by Dave Wilson, produced by Lorne Michaels, from NBC's Studio 8H, on November 25, 1981 at 11:30 pm, with associate producer Cherie Fortis and announcer Don Pardo, and featuring writers/performers Laraine Newman, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Tom Gammill, Sarah Paley, Max Pross, Alan Zweibel and Paul Shaffer.  Even the "orchestra" is conducted by Howard Shore and looks like most of his All-Nurse Band.  All the ingredients of the classic 1975-80 original cast.  It's essentially a lost episode.  Guests include Emily Prager (briefly a castmember at the end of season 6, and Tom Davis' girlfriend), Eric Idle (frequent host with the original cast), Gregory Hines (musical guest in season 4), Lauren Hutton (who had just hosted on Nov. 7 with the "new cast") and Lynn Redgrave.

This is the clip with Gregory Hines, and here is the entire show on Hulu.

The Lawrence Welk Show Christmas, 1972

One of the greatest Christmas intros in the history of mankind... from the 1972 Lawrence Welk Show Christmas special.  I do not understand why everyone laughs when he says something about a riding/writing song?  Is this a weird in-joke?  I will get you for this, Mr. Welk.

As an alleged bonus, here's "In the Mood" (not Christmasy) from one of the final Welk episodes in 1982.  This features Gayle, Ron and Michael.  Weird to hear it with words, play acting and Ron's apparent sunburn.

Finally, a spell-binding (for babies) version of "Georgy Girl" by John Lennon's Lennon Sisters.