Matthew Heath

Com. 290

Popular Culture

Smothers Brothers

The Smothers Brothers hosted a variety show that aired on television in the late 1960’s. The program was appropriately titled The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, after the two brothers, Tom and Dick. The prime time show aired on the CBS network on Sunday evenings at 8:00 p.m. The comedy hour had a three-year run from 1967 until 1969.

The two brothers, Tom and Dick, grew up in Los Angeles, California. They started out their careers playing music in nightclubs. Tom played guitar and taught his younger brother of two years, Dick, to play bass. The brothers recorded their first album in San Francisco in 1959. This was accomplished while playing a thirty-six week straight run at a club called Purple Onion. The two went on to record an additional nine albums in their careers, including two albums that went gold.

The Smothers Brothers television careers began in 1965 with a sitcom that failed, and did not complete an entire season. In 1967 the brothers again broke on the screen. This time, with a popular variety show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The show was geared for a younger audience. The average age of the writing staff was twenty-five. The only other television program at the time attracting this younger generation was Rowen Martins Laugh In, which had a similar format.

The Smothers Brothers variety-comedy show initially started out with an over all light comedic layout. Their act incorporated folk singing, parodies, and childish pranks. The most popular and reoccurring skit was "mom liked you best." In this sketch, Tom would tell his brother Dick that their mom liked him best. They would then both go on to argue about the details surrounding the situation of why mom liked the other best. Some of the show guests included Carl Reiner, Bette Davis, Jack Benny, and George Burns.

The programs comedy format quickly changed to envelop higher social situations. The brothers provided a satirical social approach to such issues as Vietnam, civil rights, ecology, religion, Watergate and the Nixon administration, as well as censorship for which their show was receiving.

The show was cancelled on April 4, 1969. There was much controversy over the reason for the show’s cancellation. It was first believed that the cancellation was due to the constant FCC censorship of the show. The CBS network claimed the program was cancelled due to poor ratings and viewer mail favoring cancellation. Tom Smothers believed the pressure for cancellation came from the government. He later discovered the pressure was coming from corporate sponsors the CBS administration over the shows anti-establishment views. Tom went public with this information and the show was cancelled indefinitely and the brothers were fired from the network.

According to Tom the next season of shows was completely sold out. The show also maintained at least a 30% share of the audience for that time block; or a minimum of thirty million viewers a week. For this reason the justification for the program’s cancellation was still a question. The result of the controversy was the brothers sued CBS for breach of contract and settled for a sum of $775,000.

In 1988 the Smothers Brothers would again grace the mass communication medium of television. They appeared on a twenty-year reunion show airing on CBS. An ironic aspect of the reunion was that CBS wanted the brothers to be controversial. In 1993 the brothers joined Entertainment Television by providing commentary on reruns of their 1960’s variety show.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour can be placed in the comedy genre. According to Cheseboro’s shceme the brother’s variety-comedy show fluctuates between mimetic and leader communication types depending on situation and topic in program.