Neil Patrick Harris and Tiffany Haddish in “Still Laugh-in: The Stars Celebrate.” Netflix photo

Remember when Richard Nixon won his first Presidential election in 1969, and appeared on the original “Laugh In” with the show’s comedy line “Sock it to me?”

TV SPECIAL INFO

“STILL LAUGH-IN: The Stars Celebrate”
Comedy, Music
Hollywood’s finest pay tribute to “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” for an uncensored and unforgettable celebration at The Dolby Theater in this 2019 TV special.
Length: 60 minutes
Rating: TV-MA
Producer: George Schlatter
Writers: Jon Macks, Sara Schaefer
Stars: Lily Tomlin, Ruth Buzzi, Tiffany Haddish

Right now on Netflix, you can see it all again because that famous comedy show that ran from 1968-73 on NBC with its hosts Dan Rowan and Dick Martin under its original producer George Schlatter is back with three of its most famous comedy stars still intact and doing well.

If you’re of the right age, and most of you reading are, you remember “You bet your bippy” and that “Sock it to me” that every school kid from the fourth grade to seniors in college memorized.

Well, here’s the good news. Now on its 51st anniversary, and that’s longer than most of the marriages of some of its stars, a special has been put together, thanks to Netflix, with a plethora of modern day stars, like the team of Neil Patrick Harris and Tiffany Haddish hosting.

You get to see the flash and smash cocktail parties where Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Judy Carne, Jo Anne Worley and Goldie Hawn in bikinis and body paint, will share the big screen in your living room, with comedian Jon Lovitz, Jameela Jamil, Jeff Ross, Taye Diggs, Nikki Glaser, Maria Bamford, Lisa Ann Walter.

Many passed on to the comedy stages on the other side, stepped out of the clouds and dressed the show up.

Bill Maher is here, with comedy dance numbers by Rita Wilson and the indefatigable Rita Moreno.

The show brings back dozens of the original “Back Wall” windows where stars popped in and out.

Some may wince at the sex and bikini jokes of that day, and I can tell you from being there, that 50-year-old jokes don’t get the big laughs they did when I was there.

We get a lot of audience shots, where Schlatter and a younger pair of producing guys make sure the long gone stars like Arte Johnson are scored with immortal sketches and with their classic punch lines intact.

If you scan the old dance scenes, you might see a young version of me, caught in the crowd when I couldn’t get out fast enough.

“Still Laugh-In” runs now on Netflix.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.