Classic Rant #243 (April 27, 2010): You Bet Your Bippy I Didn’t Forget

Last week, when I listed all the April birthdays coming up--and said that the upcoming birthdays were among the most eclectic list of birthdays you can find on the calendar--there was one birthday that I decided to bypass because the person is now pretty much a footnote on the wonderful, wacky 1960s.

So I decided to give her her own birthday shout out on the actual day of her birthday, April 27.

Before Goldie Hawn became the female shining light on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, Judy Carne was the "it' girl.

She had the look, the temperament, the style, and she fit the part.

Long and lanky, with a perfect 1960s haircut, Carne was, early on, the female centerpiece of the cast.

She looked great in a bikini, and had the type of skin you could write on and see what had been written clearly (this was something of a prerequisite for that show).

And she was the "Sock It To Me Girl" as well.

She would stand there in a bikini, or sometimes in regular, 1960s mod clothes, and take a bucket of water all around her. She was so skinny that the water probably added 10 pounds to her weight.

She seemed annoyed, and maybe she was, to be constantly hit by water.

But the audience loved her. Maybe she didn't love it as much.

She left the series after about two seasons to look for greener pastures that she never found. She divorced Burt Reynolds, got into drugs and a whole lot of other things, had a serious injury (I believe she broke her neck), and kind of faded into obscurity, never reaching the pinnacle of success that show-mates Hawn and Lily Tomlin reached.

Carne is 71 today. It's hard to believe, because I have that young, pretty, skinny image of her in my mind, where it will reside forever.

Happy birthday, Judy. You made my Monday nights more than 40-plus years ago.

And I promise, no "Sock It To Me" jokes.