Remembering The Smothers Brothers, Who Changed TV

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

We remember Tom Smothers, of the comic folk duo the Smothers Brothers, who died last week at the age of 86. Their popular TV variety show in the late 1960s captured the spirit of the counterculture, and was often censored by network execs. We feature our interview with Tom and Dick Smothers and have an appreciation by TV critic David Bianculli.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Fresh Air. I'm TV Critic David B.
0:02.6	Kooli, professor of television studies at Rowan University.
0:05.6	Today, we're devoting our show to Tom Smothers, who died last week at age 86
0:11.2	after a battle with cancer.
0:12.4	Along with his younger brother Dick... week at age 86 after a battle with cancer.
0:13.5	Along with his younger brother Dick, Tom was a member of the Smothers Brothers, whose 50-year
0:18.6	career made them one of the longest running comedy acts in show business. Dick played the upright
0:24.6	base and was the straight man. Tom played guitar and acted like an easily
0:29.8	excited adolescent. Their voices blended beautifully, their comedy timing was
0:35.4	impeccable, and their 1960s variety series, The Smothers Brothers
0:39.8	Comedy Hour, was one of the most significant and groundbreaking TV programs of its time.
0:46.2	Today we'll salute Tom Smothers and the legacy he and Dick created with her important CBS program.
0:53.0	We'll listen back to an interview Terry Gross conducted with Tom and Dick back in 1985,
0:58.0	an interview I conducted with Tom in 1997,
1:01.0	and finally, a piece of the interview Terry conducted with me in 2009 when my book
1:07.0	about the Smothers Brothers had just been published.
1:10.0	But first, let's begin with an appreciation that puts Thomas Mothers and his comedy hour in its proper perspective.
1:17.0	It's the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
1:26.0	Tom and Dick Smothers didn't set out to be TV pioneers,
1:29.1	but that's precisely what they were.
1:31.9	Before the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ran on CBS from
1:35.2	1967 to 1969, almost all TV entertainment shows set out to escape from reality, not to reflect it.
	...

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