Smothers Brothers
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The Smothers Brothers are an American music-and-comedy team, formed by real-life brothers Tom (or Tommy) (born February 2, 1937) and Dick Smothers (born November 20, 1939). They were both born on Governor's Island in New York Harbor, where their father, a West Point graduate and U.S. Army officer, was stationed. Their father died during the Second World War in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, and they were raised by their mother in the Los Angeles area.
The brothers graduated from Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California, and attended San Jose State University. After a brief time in a folk group called the Casual Quintet, the Smothers made their debut as a duo in 1959. They were a popular act in clubs and released several successful record albums, the most successful being Live at the Purple Onion, 1961.
The brothers' trademark act was performing folk songs (Tommy on acoustic guitar, Dick on string bass), which usually led to fake arguments between the two siblings. Tommy's signature line was, "Mom always liked you best". Tommy (the elder of the two) acted "slow," and Dick acted "superior". In real life Tommy was not slow at all; he handled their business affairs and later gained fame as a yo-yo expert; he starred in his own TV special, The Yo-Yo Man.
In the 1960s, the brothers appeared on numerous television shows as guest artists and hosted two series of their own, the situation comedy The Smothers Brothers Show (1965–1966), in which Tom played an angel come back to earth, and then the variety show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967–1969).
1967 - 1969
It is the latter show that the Smothers Brothers became best known for. Although it started out as only a slightly "hip" version of the typical comedy-variety show of its era, it rapidly evolved into a show that pushed the accepted boundaries of what you could do with satire on television. While the Smothers themselves were at the forefront of these efforts, a large portion of the credit also goes to a roster of writers and regular performers who would become some of the biggest names in comedy, including Steve Martin, Don Novello ("Father Guido Sarducci"), Rob Reiner ("Mike Stivic"), Presidential candidate Pat Paulsen, Bob "Super Dave Osborne" and "Officer Judy" Einstein, and resident hippie Leigh French.
The show also focused heavily on showcasing new musical artists that other comedy-variety shows were less apt to give airtime to due to the nature of their music and/or their political affiliations. Janis Ian, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Spanky and Our Gang, Donovan, Peter, Paul and Mary, and even Pete Seeger were showcased during the latter years of the show despite the advertiser-sensitive nature of their music.
Seeger's appearance, in fact, was his first appearance on network television since his being blacklisted in the 1950s, and became controversial because of his song choice: "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," an anti-war song that the network perceived was an insult to Lyndon Johnson and his Vietnam War policy.
With the focus of the show having evolved towards a more youth-oriented one, the show became both popular and controversial for those same references to youth culture and the issues that both interested and affected this particular target audience. Three specific targets of satire - racism, The President of the United States, and the Vietnam War - would wind up defining the show's content for the remainder of its run, and eventually lead to its demise.
Whereas most older audiences were tuning into shows like Bonanza, the younger generation - ages 15-25 - were watching the Smothers due to their humor having more relevancy to the current sociopolitical climate without pulling any real punches. This frankness eventually led the Brothers into regular conflicts with CBS' network censors.
At the start of the 1968-69 season, the network ordered that the Smothers deliver their shows finished and ready to air ten days before airdate so that the censors could edit the shows as necessary. In the season premiere, CBS deleted the entire segment of Belafonte singing against a backdrop of the havoc during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, along with two lines from a satire of their main competitor, "Bonanza". As the year progressed, battles over content continued, including a David Steinberg sermon about Moses and the Burning Bush.
With some local stations making their own deletions of controversial skits or comments, the continuing problems over the show reached a boiling point after CBS showed a rerun on March 9, 1969. The network explained the decision by stating that because that week's episode did not arrive in time to be previewed, it would not be shown. In that program, Baez paid tribute to her then-husband, who was entering jail after refusing military service, while comedian Jackie Mason made a joke about children "playing doctor."
Despite the conflict, the show was picked up for the 1969-70 season on March 14, seemingly ending the debate over the show's status. However, CEO and President, William Paley, the network abruptly canceled the show on April 4, 1969. The excuse given by CBS was based on the Smothers' refusal to meet the pre-air delivery dates as specified by the network in order to accommodate review by the Censors before airing.
This cancellation lead the Brothers to file a successful breach of contract suit against the network, although the suit failed to see the Brothers or their show returned to the air. Despite this cancellation, the show went on to win the Emmy Award that year for best writing. The saga of the cancellation of the show is the subject of a 2002 documentary film, Smothered.
Post-1969
The Smothers Brothers had further shows: The Smothers Brothers Show (1975), which was an unsuccessful attempt to recapture the look and feel of the original comedy-variety series without the controversy, The Tom and Dick Smothers Brothers Specials I and II in 1980 and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1988–1989), which some network executives have gone on record as stating the series was a 'reward' to the Brothers for having saved an episode of Saturday Night Live by breaking through a picket line during a 1988 Writer's Guild of America strike and hosting the show against the Union's wishes; the episode was a ratings smash the likes of which the series had not seen since the 1970s. They also lent their (uncredited) singing voices to "Tom and Tom, the Brothers Brothers" in In Living Color (1990–1992).The Smothers Brothers operate the Remick Ridge Vineyards in Sonoma County, California and, as late as 2005, continued to tour.
Discography
- Live at the Purple Onion, 1961
- The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers, 1962
- Think Ethnic!, 1963
- Curb Your Tongue, Knave, 1963
- It Must Have Been Something I Said!, 1964
- , 1965
- Aesop's Fables, 1965
- Mom Always Liked You Best!, 1966
- The Smothers Brothers Play It Straight, 1966
- Golden Hits of the Smothers Brothers, Vol. 2, 1966
- Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, 1968 (album cover pictured above)
- , 1998
External links
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