Remember the Smothers Brothers? So does public TV, this month

[thatcrazycajun]

Was up late last night watching a great American Public Television documentary special, Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. For those of you too young to remember, Tom and Dick Smothers were (and still are) a pair of sibling subversives (yes, Smothers really is their family name and they really are brothers) who managed to get themselves a weekly hour-long variety series on CBS back in 1967. They were given what was then widely regarded as "the death slot"—Sunday evenings opposite NBC's long-running family-hour ratings juggernaut of a Western, Bonanza.

For three years, these two clean-cut-looking Army-brat folksingers/comedians sneaked into living rooms all across the land with some of the most blatantly topical, Vietnam War-protesting, politician-puncturing, sacred-cow-skewering humor on the broadcast airwaves at the time...and caught six kinds of unholy hell from the network suits, the sponsors and certain more conservative-minded segments of the audience for doing it. SF grandmaster novelist and pugnacious commentator Harlan Ellison championed their cause in his weekly alt-newspaper TV-review column, "The Glass Teat" (later collected in two books), and they got everyone from George Burns and Jack Benny to Harry Belafonte and Pat Paulsen to appear with them on the show...but in the end, the Eye Network pulled the plug.

In the long run, however, the Smothers boys had the last laugh, almost literally. In addition to winning a lawsuit against CBS for breach of contract following their show's cancellation, they paved the way for even more dangerous humor in prime time, on shows like All in the Family and M*A*S*H on the very same network and Flip Wilson's eponymous NBC variety hour (the first such show to be headlined by an African-American). They also helped make the world a little bit safer for edgy comedians like Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and George Carlin—not to mention folkies like Tom Paxton, Joan Baez and Pete Seeger (the last two of whom also showed up on the Smothers' show...and got nipped by the censors' scissors for their trouble). And Tom and Dick are still with us, thank Ghu under all Her many names, and appear in this special along with many others involved at the time, from writers on the show to former CBS brass. Plenty of clips from the show are also included, and it's ironic how tame some of the material that back in the day made the S&P guys at Black Rock blow several gaskets seems now, four decades and change later.

If your local public station is airing this as part of its semi-annual pledge period, catch it. If not, Amazon has the DVD here. It's worth seeing whether you were a fan or not...because this is one TV-industry story that shouldn't be forgotten.

Comments

[poltr1]

FWIW, there's a filker who goes by the moniker of "Harry Smothers". Haven't seen him in years, though.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Harry goes by Moss Bliss these days. We've been friends since about 1981 or 1982. His website is http://mosshippohaven.info/ and although we've remained in touch I haven't hung out with him since OVFF in 1993. Looking forward to a long overdue reunion at the Raleigh NASFiC in August. Oh, and on LJ he's zaivala.

[filkferengi]

He gave a nice 1/2 hour set at ConCarolinas last year.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I loved the Smother's Brothers before they were on tv, and after!

Shockwave Radio Theater supported Pat Paulsen for president in 1996, the first time we endorsed anyone who was actually running. Got an e-mail from him! Made my decade.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

They also introduced to me what I think of as the ultimate piece of guitar work - Mason Williams' "Classical Gas."

I remember their show back in the 1960's, believe me.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this and bringing it to our attention. Amazon will now be getting more of my money. I will instruct them to give you a kickback, but doubt they will listen.