Netflix to Celebrate ‘Laugh-In’ 50th Anniversary With Original Star Lily Tomlin

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Netflix has announced it will pay tribute to the iconic sketch comedy show “Laugh-In” with a special event at the Dolby Theater on March 8.

“Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate” will serve as a 50th anniversary celebration of the NBC show which aired from 1968 to 1973 and won two Emmy’s. Lily Tomlin will take center stage and revive two of the seminal characters she played on the show: Edith Ann and Ernestine.

The original show’s director and producer George Schlatter who will also be attendance, along with lineup of comedians, actors, and musicians paying homage to the iconic show with modern takes on timeless moments.

The Netflix special will take quintessential sketches and acts from the original hit series and add a contemporary flair that will prove even 50 years later, “Laugh-In” never gets old.

In Variety‘s review of the 25th anniversary special which aired in 1993, writer Todd Everett commented that “Laugh-In” was quite possibly “the funniest series in the history of television,” and that the show was revolutionary at the time given the amount of “double-entendre or otherwise controversial material” it broadcast.

The lineup of stars joining Tomlin at the Dolby includes Billy Crystal, Tiffany Haddish, Neil Patrick Harris, Taye Diggs, Michael Douglas, Jay Leno,  Rita Moreno, Rita Wilson, JoAnne Worley, Maria Bamford, Margaret Cho, Ron Funches, Brad Garrett, Nikki Glaser, Lisa Ann Walter,  Bobby Moynihan, Cheri Oteri, Rob Riggle, Jeff Ross, J.B. Smoove, Tony Hale, Jon Lovitz, Natasha Leggero and more.

Dave Broome is Executive Producing under his 25/7 Productions banner along with Schlatter. Yong Yam is also Executive Producing.