I was courting my now (and always) wife when this show came on in 1970. We used to sit in her folks non-air conditioned apartment and roll in laughter.
The "Brit" who snidely berated this program is further proof of why they should stick to trying to master the apparently lost art of dental care.American humor (or "humour", as they bloatedly spell it) is different from the brown-toothed British variety.
'Comedy Tonight' was a 1970 summer-replacement comedy/variety series that tried to be a hip version of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In". The only problem with this idea was that "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" was doing quite nicely itself in 1970, and already *was* hip.
Robert Klein and Jerry Lacy, among others, hosted and participated in skits satirizing movies and television shows. It is a fore-runner to "Mad TV".
In the late 60s, Rowen & Martin's Laugh-In revived skit comedy television with a fast paced psychedelic vibe that was the talk of television. Despite the comedic brilliance of Arte Johnson, Ruth Buzzi, and Lilly Tomlin, and the giddy charm of Goldie Hawn, when the new decade arrived, the silly psychedelic appeal of Laugh-In began to fade.
Shelley Berman was one of the producers of this summer replacement show. It had a laugh track and no live audience.
