Laugh Tracks Legends of Comedy with Randy and Steve

Every great comedy troupe has a cast member who provides "glue" as well as laughs and for the brilliant cast of SCTV, that "glue" was provided by Joe Flaherty. A bit older than the rest of the cast, Joe was part of the Second City Chicago troupe who went north in the early 1970s to establish one in Toronto. Good move -- that cast attracted young comics such as Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner (who wou...

Time to get your rock and roll shoes on with Tenacious D -- the musical comedy creation of Jack Black and Kyle Gass -- who turned a fun novelty act into an ever more fun worldwide recording and touring machine. When Black and Gass first met in an LA theater troupe they couldn't have known how much their futures would be intertwined. While an early HBO show didn't catch fire, their debut album was...

Sometimes comics start down unusual career paths (at least for a comic). How about accountancy? Bob Newhart famously plied that trade early in life. And today's Legend -- Ray Romano -- figured out his comedy path after studying accountancy in college. We suspect that Ray can hire out for an accountant these days after a career that includes a wildly successful sitcom, juicy voice acting roles, fre...

While today he is best remembered for an iconic television character, today's Legend also has deep roots as a stand-up comic -- one with a particularly biting and intelligent approach. We're talking about Richard Belzer, who surmounted a difficult childhood through comedy. After moving to New York as a young man Belzer immersed himself in a burgeoning satirical scene, cutting tracks for the Nation...

Sometimes wrangling comedians can seem like herding cats -- but in 1986 everyone and everything came together for Comic Relief US -- a charity originally focused on helping America's homeless population which mounted a series of comedy spectaculars right up until the early 2000s. The organization continues to do good work today -- even staging a live LA Fire benefit -- but it's those early televis...

Think of late 1960's television comedy shows and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In is sure to come to mine, and you can't think of Laugh-In without thinking of today's legend -- Goldie Hawn! On Laugh-In she played a sweet but ditzy blonde who would frequently steal the show. But there was so much more to Goldie than that as she has shown over an Oscar-winning film career. Goldie radiated star-power and...

Get you best "woof woof woof" on for today's Legend, standup comic, television host, and television and movie star Arsenio Hall. From humble beginnings Arsenio graduated from Kent State University then headed west to follow his comedy dreams. After some early success, Arsenio vaulted to national prominence when he played Eddie Murphy's friend in the comedy hit Coming to America. Hall played severa...

Ruth Buzzi has been on our episode schedule for a few weeks now, so we were both shocked and saddened to see the news of her passing -- but pleased that the response from the public was filled with so much admiration and affection. Best known for her stint on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In -- she was the only cast member to appear in every episode, Ruth's credits are much more extensive and diverse i...

From shock jock to The Man Show -- to elder statesman of late night tv? That's the path Jimmy Kimmel has taken on his way to a legendary career. Along the way, Jimmy has also become a reliable and popular host for the Oscars and the Emmy -- as well as helping bring to the screen the Crank Yankers prank phone call show. A pretty diverse resume! As Kimmel has matured he has also developed a politica...

OK, with golf season fully underway, it's time to salute Caddyshack, one of the classic 1980s comedy that featured the directorial debut of Harold Ramis, the big screen breakthrough for Rodney Dangerfield, some arrogant Ted Knight, some crazed Bill Murray and a lineage that drew heavily from both Saturday Night Live and the National Lampoon. Don't worry too much about the plot -- it's merely a lau...

Meet Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie -- known to comedy fans as Fry and Laurie -- one of the funniest and best loved British comedy duos to emerge in the 1980s. Introduced to each other by Emma Thompson when they were students at Cambridge, Stephen and Hugh got their biggest boost when BBC hosted A Bit of Fry and Laurie from 1989 to 1995. Their sketch interplay was stellar, as was their bit of breakin...

Be honest, how many of you majored in bong hits at college? If so, you are in good company with today's legend -- Jon Stewart -- who claims he did just that back in the day. It doesn't seem to have lowered his productivity -- after three decades in the public eye Jon is as busy as ever with his second stint on the Daily Show. Since his early days, Jon has shown his ability to mix serious factual n...

Grab a bottle of Courvoisier and some "quiet storm" music because Leon Phelps, the Ladies' Man is in the house! Well, ok, it's actually Tim Meadows, the talent behind Leon who became an SNL favorite throughout the 1990s and who has built a solid career as a comic actor ever since. A product of Michigan, Tim learned improve there and at the Second City in Chicago where Lorne Michaels discovered him...

The name may not ring too many bells today, but from the 1960s through the 1990s you just had to turn on your television or (hit up your local comedy record store) and you were sure to run into the work of Sandy Baron who rose from playing the Catskills "borscht belt", to improv and satirical shows (including the US version of "That Was The Week That Was), to becoming a fixture in Vegas, in movies...

OK, we're a day late but it's still a Happy St. Patrick's Day here at Laugh Tracks. And why wouldn't it be when we are featuring Irish comedy star of the small and big screen, Chris O'Dowd. From early roles in British tv, Chris got his breakout role on the classic British sitcom The IT Crowd playing Roy Trenneman, an information tech worker who is a master at avoiding work. The show's success laun...

Have an extra cup of coffee because you are going to need to be on your toes to keep up with this week's Legend, improv comedy superstar, as well as a a fine television actor, Ryan Stiles. Born in the US, Ryan was raised in Vancouver, BC and got his start doing standup and writing for the CBC when he was tapped for the British version of Whose Line is it Anyway. He was lured back to the US as a re...

Grab your best duds, we're hopping in the Time Machine for Las Vegas in the 1950s to catch up with The Rat Pack -- or at least the comic relief -- in the form of Joey Bishop who was a presence in Vegas showrooms, in movies, and on television well into the 1980s. A product of the New York nightclub scene, where Frank Sinatra caught and liked his act, Joey was Frank's opener for years and when Sinat...

If we were playing television trivia and said "Sally Rogers" you would say "Rose Marie" -- this week's legend. But there was a whole lot more to Rose Marie than her role as a comedy writer on The Dick Van Dyke show. A child singing sensation, Rose Marie spent time on the vaudeville circuit, eventually making it to Broadway with a featured role in South Pacific. She frequently guested on early tv s...

Take a wooden puppet, a guy who can't quite keep his lips from moving, and add impeccable comic timing and you just might come up with Edgar Bergen, often considered the premiere ventriloquist of the 20th century. With his "dummies" Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, Bergen was a hit in vaudeville, then on radio -- quite a feat for someone whose act generally requires the audience to see the art...

Let's venture downunder to meet Adam Hills, a superb standup comedian and television presenter who has charmed Australians since the late 1980s with comedy that is sharp and playful -- and by the way, that often focuses on the fact that since birth he has been missing a foot. After starting as a radio host, Hills turned to standup and was a smash in Australia, the UK, and Canada. He became host of...

Talk about political comedians and people are sure to mention Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, George Carlin and the like, but don't forget Will Rogers who blended sharp political points with homespun humor to become a huge star in the 1920s and 30s. From his beginnings as a vaudeville rope trick artist, Will developed patter that made his audience both laugh and think. When the Great Depression impo...

Each generation has their favorite SNL cast member and for those who started watching in the 1990s it wouldn't be surprising if Chris Farley topped their list. Chris' ability to match physical shtick with over the top characters was uncanny, whether Chris was doing a Chippendale's strip off with Patrick Swayze, extolling the superiority of Da' Bears, or ranting as Matt Foley, the world's most unli...

One of the titans of early tv sitcoms, as well as a massively successful producer, singer, and philanthropist, Danny Thomas earned his stripes as a radio comedian (especially on The Bickersons) in the 1940s, then hosted his own radio variety show, then in the early 1950s jumped to television and began his classic show "Make Room for Daddy". After that, while Danny would continue to make tv and sta...

A chance meeting in 1950s Orange County, California led Bill Skiles and Pete Henderson to create a comedy team that lasted all the way until 2010. Henderson was a singer and pianist who played the straight man, and Skiles was a sound effects madman who could punctuate (and puncture) anything Pete was trying to say or sing. The boys got their start at Disneyland as a song and dance team, then got t...

Time for some country comedy today, courtesy of the legendary Sheb Wooley who was a fine actor and songwriter as well as comic performer. Sheb started out as a rodeo rider, as well as a guitar and fiddle man. When injuries from the rodeo kept him out of the military in WWII, Sheb pivoted to music scoring his first his with a bona-fide rock and roll novelty classic, The Purple People Eater. From th...