Letters to Laugh-In is a daytimegame show andspin-off ofNBC's nighttime comedy series,Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, that aired on the network from September 29 to December 26, 1969.^[1] The show was hosted byGary Owens, the announcer forLaugh-In.

Home viewers mailed their jokes to the program, for which they were paid $2.00. Their jokes were read aloud by a panel of four celebrities – two of themLaugh-In regulars. Each joke was rated on a scale of minus-100 to plus-100 by a randomly selected audience panel.

"Morgul, the friendly Drelb" (who Owens always referred to onLaugh-In, but who was seen only two or three times) would hand Owens the categories for each round, in the form of a hand or puppet reaching through the top of the podium, usually with added sound effects.

For the program tapings, the show's band of three musicians, which includedLaugh-In's musical coordinator,Russ Freeman, all wore the yellow rain jackets and hats which had been worn as costumes by various characters as joke links onRowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

The highest- and lowest-rated jokes each day won the viewers a prize. Trips were awarded for the highest-rated Joke-of-the-Week (such as a trip toHawaii), while the lowest-rated joke-of-the-week won a trip to "beautiful downtownBurbank". A grand prize (a 1969 convertible) was awarded for the highest-rated joke of the entire 13-week run (see below).

One particularly notable joke from the program asked the question, "What's the difference between a sigh, a car, and a jackass?" When the other person answered that he didn't know, the questioner said, "A sigh is 'oh dear,' and a car is 'too dear.'" When pressed "What's a jackass?", the questioner responded, "You, dear."

The eventual Grand Prize-winning entry was a joke read by actressJill St. John: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a jar of peanut butter? A 500-pound sandwich that sticks to the roof of your mouth!"

Letters to Laugh-In debuted on September 29, 1969 at 4:00 PM (3:00 Central). It replacedThe Match Game, which had been canceled after a seven-year run in that slot. LikeMatch Game,Letters to Laugh-In faced the popularDark Shadows onABC and reruns ofGomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. onCBS. Despite being promoted regularly on the primetimeLaugh-In,Letters to Laugh-In was soundly beaten in the ratings. Unlike the Monday-nightLaugh-In (which enjoyed a five-year run on NBC),Letters to Laugh-In lasted only three months before being canceled on December 26. Its replacement wasLohman &Barkley's Name Droppers, an equally short-lived game that was replaced on March 30, 1970, by the soap operaSomerset.

One episode ofLetters to Laugh-In was uploaded toYouTube in July 2012. The episode, taped on September 6, 1969, featured a celebrity panel ofJo Anne Worley,Dan Rowan,Angie Dickinson, andJack E. Leonard.^[2]

• Letters to Laugh-In atIMDb

• 1969 American television series debuts
• 1969 American television series endings
• 1960s American comedy game shows
• American panel games
• American English-language television shows
• NBC game shows
• American television spinoffs

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