The return of the Smothers Brothers

love what's the Nightingale sings in the tree tree [Music] it's Sunday morning on CBS and here again  is Jane Pauley to begin they were folk singers and   comedians brothers whose humor often sprang from  sibling squabbles but times changed and they did   too Lee Cowan's conversation with Tom and Dick's  mothers one of our Sunday best this is take two   with Smothers Brothers quite understand God I  always wanted to say that Tom and Dick Smothers   never expected to be back on camera again at this  point in their lives I have to get them really   irritated to have him do a good interview Smothers  Brothers comedy are production 120 take one they   especially didn't think they'd be appearing here  on CBS CBS presents this program in color after   all ours is the network that famously canceled  their top rated show back in 1969. [Music] the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour  turned Primetime TV upside down [Music] collar and he wears a Sailors  hat Tommy was on guitar dick was the   straight man on the bass my old man's  a cotton picking finger licking chicken   plucker what do you think about that  I think you better not make a mistake looking back at it we look so naive and so  pure and so clean where's cotton picking   finger licking chicken [ __ ] shoes what  about socks did you think of yourselves   as stand-up comedians early on then  we thought ourselves folk singers say stupid song but I'll sing it I don't want you  angry I just want you to know that it's a stupid   dumb song they were almost an instant hit just  two weeks after the show premiered the Smothers   Brothers beat Bonanza in the radius which at that  time was practically Unthinkable it was just the   biggest thrill it was unbelievable they were truly  Charming especially their famous bouts of sibling   rivalry just be quiet one minute Mom liked you  best you lower your voice *Mom liked you best* the truth was though they say they're on stage  arguments weren't really all that different than   the ones they were having backstage in fact we're  getting along so poorly he set up a thing where   we had couple counseling because we're a couple  I said this is in this room yeah and it helped us   so much prolonged our career their youth is what  appealed to CBS which was struggling to Garner a   younger audience everybody's probably surprised  here we are back for the fourth show in a row   surprise ourselves when the Smothers Brothers  Comedy Hour hit the air in February of 1967 dick   was only 29 and Tom was 30. [Music] there but why  does it have to be me which meant they were also   young enough to get caught up in the political and  social upheavals of the 1960s Tommy especially our   government is asking us as Citizens and citizens  to refrain from traveling to foreign lands okay all you guys in Vietnam come on home who  wrote The Heavy satirical piece it's going to   get all the letters Tommy didn't necessarily see  himself as political he says but he was socially   conscious and along with the show's other  writers including Steve Martin and Rob Reiner   nothing was off limits for the start of his  term we are going to give our President Nixon   our full support and lay off the jokes  entirely that's right it's going to be   in office for at least four years and I'm sure  we'll be able to get around to him a little bit   in the show's musical guests were stars of the  counterculture performers like Pete Seeger we   were knee-deep in the Big Muddy the big fools  had to push on there was never pre-meditation   or anything we ever did we never did it to  get attention no we just did it and if it   got attention I said come on I'll do it again  maybe we'll get some more attention humor got   sharper the CBS censors started sharpening their  scissors the censor's handbook right here will   change my way that's for sure I I just I must  finish reading because they wrote it themselves   and why is it taking you so long to read such a  skinny little book well it was written in crayon   cutting out controversial content sometimes  entire skits putting Tommy on the defense I   was offended what do you mean I can't say that  all of a sudden it became something more so as   they started sort of cutting more and more  cutting more kind of poking the bear more   and more though too right it became slowly I was  poking the Bear yes would like to give us notice you don't like the things we say but we're still  here how did you feel about it because you sort   of had hoped that maybe Tommy could dial it  down a little bit well he said to me one time   he said you sure you know what you're doing I  wasn't sure that was the right thing to do I   said well let's pull back and just do what we  were doing and then maybe the show would have   one more season I didn't think they were going to  fire us but they did CBS announced today that the   Smothers Brothers comedy hour will not return  to the CBS television network next season they   sued CBS for breach of contract and they won but  it was of little Comfort the brothers had been   banished you never really blamed Tommy for the  show ending right crying out loud no he created   everything I was confident in our talent and  our show and what we did together I was just   pretty angry near the end where I wasn't funny  and if I I was doing material it was kind of   mean comedy I needed to be fired if we were  gone another year it had been strident they   didn't give up performing in fact they did a  few more TV and Stage shows CBS even invited   them back for a time night every night just  lean forward nose over toes and then last   year even though they were both in their mid  80s they started working up a new stage show thank you walking on stage I feel that kind  of love coming back a lot of attention to it   it's kind of sweet yeah and what better place to  test both their new and their old material than   right here in Norfolk Nebraska Johnny Carson's  hometown there's a lot of mature people in the   audience tonight they were hit all over again  and after a little polishing the brothers were   set to take their show on the road when I die I  want to die like my grandfather did in his sleep   not in Stark Terror like the rest of the people  in the car he was driving so this is kind of a   Victory lap or something just to go buy these  people one more time and to take a look at   these brothers that they liked a lot to see how  they oh they don't look that bad but what no one   knew at the time was that Tommy was growing ill  being a comedy team is like a marriage it's like   a long 50-year marriage yeah like an old marriage  a lot of fighting and no sex that's not the point   since our last visit he learned he had stage  two lung cancer he's undergoing treatment and   thankfully the prognosis is good in the  meantime though dick has been reworking   their show and this fall plans to do something  he's rarely done peer before an audience without   brother and his son my buddy  my brother continuing to see to sing short of sacred people laughing is Holy  and if you can be part of that and control it   and create it it's the best thing that ever  and when someone said what's the happiest   time is in your life is standing on that stage  with my brother a few inches away on my right   and having that feeling with that audience that  that is defines my whole life it's nothing better

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 38,176

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, Smothers Brothers, comedy, primetime, Tom Smothers, Dick Smothers

Id: LJfwMkO9h1o

Length: 8min 49sec (529 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 09 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/TheRatPatrol1]

Wasn’t this a rerun story?