I remember the show well- Monday nights on NBC. In a big family with five people older then you and one black and white tv set, you didn't get to watch what you wanted to very often. I woke up at 6:00AM to watch The Cisco Kid and on Monday nights I got to watch Laugh-In, on Thursday nights I got to watch Flip Wilson. I watched the re-runs back in the 80's and was horrified to see that the comedy was so conventional- but perfect for a 9 year old kid.- Ian

Dick Martin, 86, comic and director best known for 'Laugh-In'

Dick Martin, a veteran nightclub comic who with his partner, Dan Rowan, turned a midseason replacement at NBC in 1968 into a hit that redefined what could be done on television, died Saturday in Santa Monica, California. He was 86 and lived in Malibu, California.

The cause was respiratory failure, a family spokesman said. Martin had lost one lung to tuberculosis as a teenager, and in recent years had used an oxygen tank for much of each day.

"Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," the hyperactive, joke-packed show that Martin and Rowan rode to fame, made conventional television variety programs seem instantly passé and sitcom humor seem too meek for the times.

"Laugh-In," a collage of one-liners, non sequiturs, sight gags and double-entendres the likes of which prime time had rarely seen, proved that viewers were eager for more than sleepily paced plots and polite song-and-dance routines. It quickly vaulted to the top of the ratings and spawned an array of catchphrases: "Sock it to me," "Here come da judge" and Martin's signature line, "You bet your sweet bippy."

"People are basically irreverent," Martin said in 1968, explaining the appeal of the show. "They want to see sacred cows kicked over. You can't have Harry Belafonte on your show and not have him sing a song, but we did; we had him climbing out of a bathtub, just because it looked irreverent and silly. If a show hires Robert Goulet, pays him $7,500 or $10,000, they're going to want three songs out of him; we hire Robert Goulet, pay him $210 and drop him through a trap door."

Though Martin had a respectable career in nightclubs before "Laugh-In" and enjoyed success as a television director after it, his five years on the show elevated him to a different level of fame.

"Laugh-In" won Emmy Awards for outstanding variety or musical series in 1968 and 1969. Special guests who dropped by to deliver one-liners included Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Cher, Zsa Zsa Gabor and, memorably with "Sock it to me?" Richard Nixon. Martin and Rowan, who died in 1987, were international stars; in 1972 they were hosts of a variety show before Queen Elizabeth II at the London Palladium.

J.R. Simplot, the billionaire founder of the agriculture business based in Boise, Idaho, that bears his name and who helped make French fries a staple of the American diet and waistline, has died at age 99, officials said, Reuters reported in Boise.

After pioneering the first commercial frozen French fry in the late 1940s, Simplot eventually became a major supplier of Idaho potatoes to McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's. His privately held company, where he was chairman emeritus, reported $3.3 billion in sales in 2006.

An official at the Ada County coroner's office said Simplot died at home on Sunday morning of natural causes.

Born John Richard Simplot in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1909, he left school at age 14 to work in the agriculture storage and distribution business. He started his first produce company in 1929, and eventually became a major supplier of dehydrated potatoes to the U.S. military during World War II.

In the late 1940s, Simplot's researchers began experimenting with frozen potato products. His company began producing frozen French fries in Idaho in 1946, and the business thrived with the spread of freezers into U.S. homes.

Simplot's most well-known business venture began with a handshake. In 1967, Simplot and the founder of McDonald's, Ray Kroc, agreed that the Simplot Company would provide frozen French fries to the expanding fast-food chain.