SMOTHERED: THE CENSORSHIP STRUGGLES OF THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR
D: Maureen Muldaur (2002) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
For three years in the late 1960s, Tom and Dick Smothers had their own musical variety show on CBS. The competition in their Sunday night time slot was "Bonanza" on NBC and the ABC Sunday Night Movie. The odds their program would survive were minimal, but CBS was desperate to put something on the air quick (to replace Garry Moore) and the brothers had nothing to lose, so the show went on. With one foot in vaudeville and one in the counterculture, the Smothers Brothers had a unique multigenerational appeal. They were young and smart and looked like the middle-class boys next door. They idolized Jack Benny, poked fun at the folk songs they played, and didn't mind taking on topical issues, something nobody else in entertainment television was doing. The show took off, along with a fierce, ongoing battle over what material was appropriate for prime-time viewing. As satirists with a weekly TV soapbox, the brothers pushed the envelope, defied the censors and fought the suits till 1969, when the network fired them. As its title suggests, that's what this documentary is about, with key players like Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Mason Williams, David Steinberg and Leigh French all turning up as witnesses. It's a significant chapter in television history, and for anybody who remembers "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", a chance to reflect on the passage of time, the tenacity of Tom Smothers, the deadpan brilliance of Pat Paulsen's presidential campaign, and how much fun it was on Sunday nights back then to "Share a Little Tea With Goldie".
