This is a very sad one for me. Not only did I love the old TV show, I am the world’s biggest fan of “Get to Know Your Rabbit.”
I’m blogging this from the air. A first time experience for me.
“Television is old and tired,” Mr. Smothers told McCall’s magazine in 1968. “Television is a lie. The people who censor our shows are all conditioned to a very scared way of thinking, which is reflected in the kind of programs the networks put on. Television should be as free as the movies, as the newspapers, as music to reflect what’s happening.”
CBS began insisting that an advance tape of each week’s show be sent to the network and its affiliates for their review. In April 1969, when the tape of a show that included a satirical sermon delivered by the comedian David Steinberg, failed to arrive on schedule for the second time, CBS informed the brothers that they had broken their contract and that the show, whose option had been renewed two weeks earlier, would be canceled.
The move was not a complete surprise….
For the rest of his life, Mr. Smothers remained convinced that President Richard M. Nixon, who had assumed office just three months earlier after defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, had pressured CBS to cancel the show.
“When Nixon said, ‘I want those guys off,’ they were off,” he told “Speaking Freely,” a television program produced by the First Amendment Center, in 2001. “If Humphrey had been elected, we would have been on.”
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RIP, Tommy. Thank you.
I checked in him and his brother when I was working front desk at a Holiday Inn in San Jose in the early '80s.
They were already famous, but were very nice and humble.
They signed an 8 x 10 that I still have somewhere.
They would hang out in the bar and just talk to folks.
They went to San Jose State but don't think they graduated.
Nice guys. Great comic timing.
"Mom always liked you best."
I was a fan as well. Sorry to see Tommy pass--but then if you were a fan of the Smothers Brothers show in the late 1960s, your are probably getting a little bit aged yourself.
I've tried to work with internet in the air, but usually cannot. I would rather doze.
Some Emmy show, years after the brothers lost their show. Paraphrasing. Dickie doing the smooth thing, so great to be here, some of you may remember our show ....
Tommy: You know Mason Williams?
Dickie: Not now, Tommy, you can see I'm busy, we both have a job to do here. Folks, we can all take pride ....
Tommy: You know Mason Williams?
Dickie: Of course I know Mason, he was our music director ....
Tommy: You know what Mason has said about TV?
Dickie: [More of the polite stuff] ....
Tommy: Mason says TV is a pimp for big business.
Nicely done.
I loved Tommy, and that show.
I was a big fan of the Smothers Brothers, though at the time I was too young to understand their political positions. My dad didn't like them, but my older brother did. My brother also had all their comedy and music albums, and he used to let me come into his room and play them on his stereo. I also remember watching their CBS show with my brother, despite our dad's disapproval. Their brother act was a bright spot in my own brotherly history, and I will always be grateful for that.
Or, to slightly alter Joe Smith's contribution above: "No wonder mom always liked you best!"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SePsUt816PU
so, an air blogging question..
Do you fly to Milwaukee? or Minneapolis? Or does Madison have air travel?
And the sketch and character actors they introduced to America - Pat Paulsen and his quixotic runs for Prez. Rowan and Martin and the Smothers Brothers. That TV decade ended well.
"If Humphrey had been elected we would've been on"
So, Smothers wanted TV to be free, not to express crazy unpopular opinions, but to push the liberal/left party line. Back then TV was broadcast over public airwaves. There was no reason for "the public" that voted Republican to approve of a show that attacked them, and didn't attack the Democrats.
Now TV is "Free" to "reflect life", and what do we get? Leftwing censorship and non-stop propaganda. Which was the goal all along.
I didn't see much of their show. Was it in reruns? But I remember seeing Tommy guesting on Talk shows and other comedies. Later, i saw some of their stuff on youtube. A funny guy, best with his brother. I thought he was much younger than 86. Guess I'm getting old too!
I'll have to find a copy of "Get to know your rabbitt".
A really cool guy and a wizard with the Yo-Yo!
Gilbar, you can fly directly into Madison, to one of the best airports in the country. They'll sell you both Spotted Cow and Cheese Curds before you board. Easy in, easy out, modern and nice. Or you fly into Chicago and trek another hour and a half or two hours, weather permitting.
I saw “Get to Know Your Rabbit” as a member of a test audience and don’t think what I saw was the final cut. It was, however, the funniest movie I’d ever seen. It still is.
I wonder if what I saw is available anywhere. I can’t vouch for the version that’s out there.
I shall yo-yo a bit today...
My mother saw them at Dartmouth and brought home the program. As a young child I recall looking through it them seeing them on TV not long after. They were funny for along time...
Isn’t it interesting how many people who play buffoons on stage or on the screen turn out to have very sharp minds when it comes to business. Not just Lucille Ball and Tommy Smothers, but people like Goldie Hawn, and, in his day, Bob Hope.
Also dying today, Gaston Glock. Yes, the gun designer was aged 94.
"I Never Will Marry"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MozEYNUrIp8
A true Classic.
Get to Know Your Rabbit theatrical release via Althouse Amazon Portal.
I learned to yo-yo watching Tommy Smothers.
I got to meet the Smothers Brothers in 1999 while working a live audience NPR "Car Talk" show in Boston with zany brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi, also known as "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers.
The official video from the producers of Car Talk. Tom and Ray join other famous brothers, including the Smothers Brothers, The Flying Karamazov Brothers and Dr. Joyce Brothers in an 85 minute entertainment special that celebrates Car Talk's 10th Anniversary.
Faces Made For Radio: The Car Talk Video
Definitely worth a skim through, including Tom Smothers' display of yo-yo prowess.
RIP
Tommy, sputtering after being defeated rhetorically: "Mom always liked you best !"
Dicky, angrily: "Lower your voice !"
Tommy, using a deeper voice: "Mom always liked you best !"
RIP Tommy.
I’m blogging this from the air. A first time experience for me.
Well you must have really wanted to see Austin then.
“When Nixon said, ‘I want those guys off,’ they were off,” Tommy said
Sort of a paranoid Dude, wasn't he?
Prof joins the Mile-High Bloggers Club!
We watched their show, but were barely aware of the politics; I wasn't aware until this post that there was a movie.
RIP.
RIP. Funny & talented guy. I always thought Pat Paulsen was the funniest part of the whole show. Also, through it all, he worked with some really spectacular musicians - up and down the chart. And, he faded from all that with a vineyard in Sonoma County. Hard to beat that.
They were funny and fearless. I was too young to understand the political dynamics of their act at the time. I learned about all that later on. All these years later, the politics don’t matter as much as their craft and respect for their audience.
rcocean said...
I'll have to find a copy of "Get to know your rabbitt".
********
YouTube
Always thought Tom was the younger brother.
Jack Benny once appeared on the Smothers Brothers show. At one point he and Tommy were doing some dialogue, and Benny did his trademark silent take. Tommy looked at him with foolish intensity, waiting for him to say something. Benny wisely chose to continue his silence. By this time the audience was screaming. Eventually Tommy broke the silence.
It's amazing how things change.
The Smothers Brothers were anti-war lefties (as was I at the time). CBS was embarrassed by their antics and cancelled the show.
What political positions would they hold today?
RIP Tommy. You were someone special.
"Get to Know your Rabbit" is very underrated. I don't think it's as funny as the original of "The Producers" but close.
This is one of those ones that hits harder. Damn. Brings back a lot of memories of a different era.
It's very believable that Nixon had them taken off the air. Small potatoes compared to later Presidents jailing journalists and trying to put their opposition in jail.
These passings are hitting closer and closer. What's up with that?
Get to know your Rabbit.
Never missed a show.
Best skit ever on TV: Tommy, Dick, and Pat Paulsen behind a desk--collectively, "They," telling us what "They say."
I'm going to guess that that was conceived of by Steve Martin.
Althouse joins the mile high (blogging) club.
I watched nearly all of the run of the show. It was funnier at first, then politics crowded out the humor. Like lots of other humor shows that degrade due to reflexive leftism.
We would play their comedy records over and over until our own comic timing was perfect. We laughed at the records and ourselves until we pee. I still sing the Slither-Dee-Dee and Hiawatha, he went hunting, went to hunt a bunny rabbit. Good bye, Tommy.
My favorite Tommy Smothers opus.
Was Smothers as fed up and disgusted with what California hath wrought as this rancid non-wedding scene suggests...
or was he just acting?
Brother Dick performed a memorable Harry Reid stand-in in Casino with plenty of palpable slime, though I suspect he was delighted with the authentic Reid's performance as the Senate Majority Leader. Actors, what can't they corrupt and befoul?
I first saw the Smothers Brothers while on a date with a member of Job's Daughters at their annual bash in St. Louis where the pair performed, doing some of their routines that would later become classics. The next night they made their first television appearance on the Jack Paar show (Jan '61). Good times.
The Smothers were the comedic descendants of Lenny Bruce, taking his edgy, ‘oh my God, what is he going to say next?’ type of comedy mainstream. And Tom was a genius. I’m already old, but this news makes me feel older.
How about that? I have Apple TV, I can watch it. Thanks.
It's got Orson Wells. Anything with Orson, for me it's a win.
I'm just a few years younger than the boomers for whom the Smothers Brothers were a cultural institution. I personally didn't find them that funny, but I don't begrudge them their success. They were obviously very important to a certain group of people at an important time in those people's lives. My "problem" with the SB is that, after their show was cancelled, and after "the 60s" ended, their contribution to American comedy and culture basically ended.
The show was cancelled in 1969, 54 years ago. After that, it seems like they instantly became a nostalgia act. I just don't understand that. It seems like they should have been able to leverage their fame and talent better.
I have a similar "problem" with some 1950s performers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Once the heyday of early rock had clearly passed, there was no evolution, so they became nostalgia acts. For whatever reason, the Beatles, Stones, and Who were able to evolve. If Buddy Holly had lived, I have no doubt he would have been successful for decades. I think even Elvis would have reestablished himself as a major star in the 80s had he lived, because he had the talent and wasn't locked into just performing the same material that made him famous in the 50s. Why not the SB? IMO, it's because they lacked the talent and imagination to change with the times.
The Smothers Brothers show was the Popular Front of the late 20th Century. Pete Seeger was the earlier version. I liked it as much as anyone but anyone with a brain knew they were subversive.
In about 1962, my parents bought our first record player that could play LP albums. I had a paper route, and so I had some money. My very first purchase was the two Smothers Brothers albums -- The Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion and The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers. Those two albums were played countless times in our home during the following years.
Of course, I bought several more of their albums, and I watched the television show every week. I also saw them live in concert, twice.
I grew up listening to the folk music of that era -- The Smother Brothers, The Kingston Trio, The Limeliters, etc. I did not listen to anything outside of that genre until 1966, when I heard The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel.
I mentioned the death to my wife, and we thought about the other one--and couldn't recall his name! But we were both pretty sure he had died a few years ago . . .
As you already know, Dick is still alive.
But Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
I grew up listening to the folk music of that era -- The Smother Brothers, The Kingston Trio, The Limeliters, etc. I did not listen to anything outside of that genre until 1966, when I heard The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel.
Pretty much my experience, too. The Kingston Trio song about the guy stuck on the MTA was a favorite. In 1965, I was living on West Cedar Street right by Scollay Square, featured in the song.
Another member of Lennon and Ono's Montreal Bed-in For Peace has died: Tommy Smothers
"Tommy" Smothers sang along with Lennon and Ono to "Give Peace A Chance," recorded by Quebec music producer Andre Perry on June 1, 1969.
"Everybody's talking about John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary, Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Hare Krishna, Hare, Hare Krishna," sings Lennon.
Smothers is one of the dwindling number of musicians, journalists, artists, and activists who were part of the iconic bed-in.
Other invitees included poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), activist and comedian Dick Gregory (1932-2017), and LSD advocate Timothy Leary (1920-1996).
Video
A very funny man! I loved that comedy hour and remember seeing some good bands on it. I think they may’ve spawned the Glen Campbell Hour, there was some linkage.
“If Humphrey had been elected, we would have been on.”
because they were owned and operated by the DNC
"Mom liked you better!"
I’ve already contributed to Mr. Glock’s memorial fund.
Perhaps, more than once……..
The brothers had a one-season sitcom in the mid-60s, Tommy playing a dead man who came back as an angel and roomed with surviving brother Dickie.
Read all the nice comments and hesitated being the turd in the punch bowl but, anyway …
I never found the Smothers Brothers funny. I was too young (about 15) when I first became aware of them and I was a comedy hound. I wanted to like them because I wanted every comic act to make me laugh. But they never did. I was too politically immature to know that I would one day be opposite them on the spectrum so it couldn’t have been that.
I think what turned me off was that I never liked folk singer wit and wisdom. And that’s what they struck me as. I truly hate when folk singers between songs start their homespun great wisdom bits. Hate it. Well, the Smothers Brothers didn’t quite do that but it was all in the same ballpark to me.
On second thought, they weren’t all bad. They gave us Steve Martin.
The Smothers Brothers did a show in out theater in 1990.
I was running the lightboard.
It was a great show.
Tommy Smothers once appeared on the Tonight Show and did a pretty good impersonation of Johnny. Easy to find on Youtube.
My older sister sent me this (she went to college in W-S and lives 20 miles away):
In the wake of Tommy Smothers’ death, a friend posted about a local connection. His father, Thomas B. Smothers, grew up in Winston-Salem, where he graduated from Reynolds High School before heading to West Point (class of 1929). In 1940 he was stationed in the Philippines. His family was with him until 1941. As the situation became more dangerous, his pregnant wife returned to the States with their two boys. Major Smothers was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and died as a POW.
A decade later, the Army named an armory in Winston-Salem after him. The family was living in California at the time, but money was raised to fly the children out to Winston-Salem for the naming ceremony. They stayed with their grandparents who were living not far from Bowman-Gray stadium. Looks like the house is still a residence. The link below contains a clipping from one of the W-S newspapers that goes into detail about the event.
Link
Down in the fine print of the link above, a 1952 news clip says the 3 children had been living the last 3 years with their mother's parents in SoCal. She had remarried. Did they not like the step-father or vice versa? Kinda adds a bite to the Mother love "joke."
He had the fastest one-wheeled wagon you'll ever see.
I believe it was 1960. The ‘Brothers were on a bill with Judy Collins in Denver. I think there was a $1 cover and pitchers of Coors priced about the same. Those were, indeed, the days, my friend…
Tommy and Dick had lots of talent and some great material. Unfortunately, their formula for delivery became an insufferable distraction for me. About 80 percent Tommy and Dick schtick and 20 percent on-point comedy.
Believe I would have enjoyed knowing both of them, but Mom had a reason for picking a favorite.
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