Laugh Trax

If you liked "Kids in the Hall" you'd probably like this. It had irreverent humor while refraining from vulgarity. It reminded me of Ernie Kovaks mixed with National Lampoon. Used to came on late at night in my area, 12:30 or so. I wish I could remember half the skits from that show, but alas it was too long ago for my feeble memory! One I do remember was the now-PC-unfriendly "My Boyfriend's Black" segment based on the old sixties "My Boyfriend's Back" song, while Jim Stahl & co did what was essentially a 1950s video for it. And Howie Mandel was just a scream in those days. It made a half-hour seem like fifteen minutes. Shame it's gone really. Wish someone would put it on DVD.

And to the reviewer before me, thanks, I was starting to think maybe I had dreamed it all...

Fun show, wish it had run longer. Syndicated, and so ran in various time slots around the country (early evenings on one of the San Francisco Bay area stations when I saw it). Mostly sketch comedy, a bit like SNL or SCTV. Voice wizard/impressionist Frank Welker was my favorite of the regular cast. Howie Mandel was also in "St. Elsewhere" at the same time, so I remember a couple jokes in the dialog about that. Current pop stars/groups would appear as guests; Haircut 100, Toni Basil, and Laura Brannigan, to name a few. Also the occasional independent short film (?) - although all I can recall was one called "Cold Cows".

I loved this show! It was the first time I ever saw Howie Mandel, too. My friend and I couldn't wait to see it every week. We laughed so hard, tears filled our eyes. Howie Mandel was hilarious playing the not so intelligent, "this is my first time" guy. And also, the giant rooster with the rubber glove on his head. And I don't know who the blond guy was, but I'll never forget when he was doing a skit where he was documenting a parade, and at the end he said "This is (whoever), on the lookout for horse doo" and when he was a country boy and he always said in a Southern drawl, "Howdy to your face". (I still say that to my sister when I call her.) I was hoping I could find it on DVD, but my hopes are failing. Maybe someday I'll find something on it...Just like Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. It would be so fun to see reruns of these fantastic 80's shows.

This was one of the first shows I worked on in Hollywood. I was a production assistant and moved up to location scout, then production coordinator. Carolyn Raskin, who was a producer on the classic- "Laugh-In"series, was the Executive Producer.

Jim Fisher and Jim Staahl, writing and performing partners headed up a pretty strong wiring staff. It was Howie Mandel's first show --he "killed" on it and kept us laughing on-and off the set. Gail Mathius, from Saturday Night Live, was also on the show--she was awesome and another talent was Frank Welker, who could do amazing voices and did voice work on big movies as well (including Star Wars, I think).

I also booked the short films on the show and Cold Cows, by Frank Miller which is mentioned below was one of my favorites. It can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW6XbgtNDHU

I remember this TV show from 1982 and it was hysterical. I can't remember exactly what night it was on, either Friday or Saturday night but I made sure that I didn't go anywhere until I watched the show. The first time I ever saw Howie Mandel was on this show playing chicken man with his rubber glove on his head. I was in tears with the humor behind that. I also remember Jim Staahl playing refrigerator man, that was one of the funniest skits that I can remember on the show. What happened ? One minute it was on the air and the next minute it was gone. I couldn't believe that it was that short lived. Hey Jim Staahl, this was your TV show and you need to know that your fans would love this show on DVD, the entire season in one package. I have friends who never saw this show but I have mentioned it a thousand times especially when I see Howie Mandel on TV. Please make all your fans extremely happy by putting this show on DVD. I would buy quite a few for my friends and family. If I loved this show that much, I know they will too. We need to bring back the good old shows that brings out the best in us and that would be Laugh Trax.