Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In for "Laugh-In" was Ian Bernard. He wrote the opening theme music, "Inquisitive Tango", plus the infamous "What's the news across the nation" number. He wrote all the musical "play-ons" that introduced comedy sketches like Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann, the little girl who sat in a giant rocking chair, and Arte Johnson's old man character, Tyrone, who always got hit with a purse. He also appeared in many of the cocktail scenes where he directed the band as they stopped and started between jokes. Composer-lyricist Billy Barnes wrote all of the original musical production numbers in the show, and often
Rowan Software Empire Interactive in December 2000. Rowan Software Rowan Software was a British software company focused on the development of computer games. The company was founded by Rod Hyde in 1987 and based in Runcorn, Cheshire. Rowan was best known as a publisher of flight simulators for the PC. The company was involved with a number of publishers including Mirrorsoft, Mindscape, Spectrum Holobyte, Virgin, and Empire Interactive. Rowan's involvement with Mirrorsoft included development of the strategy/role-playing title Duster which collapsed when Mirrorsoft was declared bankrupt. In 1989, Martin Kenwright left with several members of Rowan's staff to form Digital Image Design.