'Laugh-In' Producer George Schlatter Talks TV's Golden Age in New Memoir
'Laugh-In' Producer George Schlatter Talks TV's Golden Age in New Memoir
July 16, 2023 2:05 p.m.
At 90, producer George Schlatter has a lifetime of memories to look back on. Producing the groundbreaking and iconic TV comedy Laugh-in is just one facet. There are also presidential inaugurations, countless television specials featuring big-name talent, the organization of Jerry Lewis's Labor Day telethons, and the presence of Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra among them.
All of this and more is captured in a memoir just released via Unnamed Press/Rare Bird Books, Always Laughing: A Life in Comedy.
Already a successful producer of television specials and variety shows in 1967, Schlatter introduced an idea at NBC was a sea change: a comedy special inspired by the hippie counterculture, which would take the idea of sit-ins, love-ins and be-ins and manifest this politicized, sexualized and conscientious energy in comedy sketches. The special that emerged, Laugh-in, was so successful that it became a television series regular, running from January 1968 to March 1973 and eventually becoming the #1 show. on the television.
Still Laughing chronicles the coming of age of one of big-name TV producers, from his Vegas nightclub days rubbing shoulders with iconic mob personalities like Mickey Cohen and John Stompanato, to his influential friendships with Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, the latter for whom he has was invited to deliver a eulogy at his funeral.
The book is an inside look at the crucial role a working producer plays in bringing a show, and reveals the real people (Garland, Sinatra, Cary Grant, Milton Berle, Liza Minnelli, among many others) cloistered inside their celebrity.
A three-time Emmy winner who has also been honored by the Television Critics Association Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Golden Globes, the Directors Guild Award, and Producers Guild "Man of the Year" honors, Schlatter found time to answer a few questions from Deadline:< /p>
DEADLINE: How would you have used social media in the days of Laugh-In? Do you see any parallels between what people are doing online now and what you were doing then?
Schlatter: I see huge similarities. We would take an article from the back page of a newspaper and turn it into a story. You had gossip columns and you had news and we would hook onto any of them and turn them into a humorous story.
DEADLINE: What's your opinion of how Hollywood is run today versus what what was it in your career?
Schlatter: It's much harder now. In my day, you needed an answer from one person. Today it takes ten people and a focus group to come to an agreement, and that's why we're kind of at a standstill. Laugh-In was sold because I met new people and new ideas and convinced them that I could do anything. They said, "OK, go ahead." We got the Laugh-In cast, writers, and everyone together in a matter of weeks, and we came in with this show. It was a success because we didn't need to get a lot of people to agree. All we needed was Herb Schlosser or Fred Silverman to say "Yes" and we went out and did it.
At 90, producer George Schlatter has a lifetime of memories to look back on. Producing the groundbreaking and iconic TV comedy Laugh-in is just one facet. There are also presidential inaugurations, countless television specials featuring big-name talent, the organization of Jerry Lewis's Labor Day telethons, and the presence of Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra among them.
All of this and more is captured in a memoir just released via Unnamed Press/Rare Bird Books, Always Laughing: A Life in Comedy.
Already a successful producer of television specials and variety shows in 1967, Schlatter introduced an idea at NBC was a sea change: a comedy special inspired by the hippie counterculture, which would take the idea of sit-ins, love-ins and be-ins and manifest this politicized, sexualized and conscientious energy in comedy sketches. The special that emerged, Laugh-in, was so successful that it became a television series regular, running from January 1968 to March 1973 and eventually becoming the #1 show. on the television.
Still Laughing chronicles the coming of age of one of big-name TV producers, from his Vegas nightclub days rubbing shoulders with iconic mob personalities like Mickey Cohen and John Stompanato, to his influential friendships with Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, the latter for whom he has was invited to deliver a eulogy at his funeral.
The book is an inside look at the crucial role a working producer plays in bringing a show, and reveals the real people (Garland, Sinatra, Cary Grant, Milton Berle, Liza Minnelli, among many others) cloistered inside their celebrity.
A three-time Emmy winner who has also been honored by the Television Critics Association Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Golden Globes, the Directors Guild Award, and Producers Guild "Man of the Year" honors, Schlatter found time to answer a few questions from Deadline:< /p>
DEADLINE: How would you have used social media in the days of Laugh-In? Do you see any parallels between what people are doing online now and what you were doing then?
Schlatter: I see huge similarities. We would take an article from the back page of a newspaper and turn it into a story. You had gossip columns and you had news and we would hook onto any of them and turn them into a humorous story.
DEADLINE: What's your opinion of how Hollywood is run today versus what what was it in your career?
Schlatter: It's much harder now. In my day, you needed an answer from one person. Today it takes ten people and a focus group to come to an agreement, and that's why we're kind of at a standstill. Laugh-In was sold because I met new people and new ideas and convinced them that I could do anything. They said, "OK, go ahead." We got the Laugh-In cast, writers, and everyone together in a matter of weeks, and we came in with this show. It was a success because we didn't need to get a lot of people to agree. All we needed was Herb Schlosser or Fred Silverman to say "Yes" and we went out and did it.
